Chapter 4: Interest

[KRISTEN]

“Sure, Lynn. See you later.” I dropped my phone as soon as our conversation ended.

I'm here sitting on a bench somewhere near the gallery, gathering my thoughts before leaving this place.

Thinking how big the world is makes me sigh. All I wanted was to say thank you for the help I got and don't feel indebted by anything and from anyone, most especially with someone like him.

But why in the world will he deny it? Is it something that he wasn't proud of? I mean, people like him often brag about what they did right and how big their help impacted people, but why did he say it wasn't him?

Maybe he's not that person who saved me before. Maybe I was just mistaken. The fact is, nothing that happened that night was too clear for me. I'm not really sure why I brought that up during the interview.

Minutes of thinking along with gathering my thoughts ended like that. I stood up and was about to head straight to my scooter when I heard a familiar voice call me, "Kristen!"

I turned around to check, and then I saw Mira slowly running towards me. "Hey, are you going home now?" She asked.

I nodded my head and said, "Yeah. I'm done with the interview so, I guess I'll go home now."

"But thanks for showing up; I've completely forgotten to say goodbye to you. I mean, my mind is kinda flying somewhere," I added, and then I chuckled.

She started creasing her forehead and asked, "Why? Did something go wrong during the interview?"

"Uhm, no, it's just that..."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be getting that position." She smiled widely.

Mira sounded really sure about what she just said, which nearly made me think I was already hired for some reason.

"Why do you sound like you're certain about it?" I wondered.

I saw a sudden awkwardness in her which made me wonder even more.

Maybe she noticed that, so she started smiling once again. "That's because he wasn't supposed to be your interviewer but insisted on doing so."

I admit, I was a bit surprised about what I have learned from Mira.

"He insisted?" I asked.

Mira nodded before responding, "We do have an HR to perform that interview and could still wait for her a few more minutes or hours maybe until she shows up and interviews you."

"Yeah, I already saw her name on the desk."

"So yeah, she normally goes to work early, but from what I've heard she got into a car incident. Additionally, Rihanna's personality is even more far from worse, and she hates people like you," she uttered.

"People like me?" I repeated.

"Yeah, female applicants which are physically capable of attracting male employees, especially Sir Marcus." She responded.

This is too much information for me to handle. I'm not even hired yet, but I could already sense the difficulty and the complicated situations in this company.

Also, what I would like to know is why in the world does he insist on doing the interview?

Our conversation ends up not longer than a minute. I drove back home after stopping by to a grocery store. I put everything inside the refrigerator in an organized way, I guess? And went straight to my bedroom to lie down.

My back really aches.

While staring at the creamy white ceiling of the room, I couldn't help but think about the last words Mira uttered, or should I say, revelation?

"Our CEO never does things like that. Covering some other person's work and doing almost everything that needs to be done. But I never heard from him as soon as I forwarded all the applicants' emails to him, since Rihanna wasn't there."

CEO? So he's that Marcus on the internet. I never realized that, not until I heard from Mira. Since he never introduced himself at any point during the interview.

"I thought he would end up rejecting all of them. No one shows up in the morning, noon, before you finally came and show up."

That's why she somehow looked surprised when I said I was an applicant.

"Come to think of it, that was the only free time he has for today."

Those were the last words before we cut our conversation, since she had to go back and finish her shift. She literally spent her coffee break sharing that with me. Funny yet something I wish I never heard.

Like, I never wanted to overthink, but I easily get drawn into that scenario because of things like this. I know, I should never let myself be shaken by anything, almost made me consider not pursuing this position anymore.

I feel scared to even think about what is going to happen if I grab onto this opportunity without thinking carefully about the risk.

The risk that might replay the tragic past I had before.

I slept all throughout the rest of the afternoon and woke up 8 o'clock in the evening. It wasn't the sound of my alarm that woke me up, but the sound of my phone ringing endlessly.

Still sleepy, I picked up the phone and asked, "Hello? Who's this?"

I heard a bit of sound, some kind of clearing throat and it's a man.

"I want you." He uttered. I was speechless for a second, thinking that maybe it was just a wrong call.

"Sorry, I think you're calling the wrong person,"

But then he dropped the call right after that.

I checked my phone to see if the number was from my contacts, but it was unknown, so I saved it under the name of '8PM Guy,' so I would know it if he ever calls me again.

"I want you."

What the heck does that mean? Not literally, but if it's meant for me, isn't that sound creepy? I felt goosebumps all over my body as those words kept playing in my mind.

Not even a second has passed, a sudden knock on my door almost made me jump out of my bed. I haven't even moved on from that call yet, and now, someone is knocking at my door at night?

I stood up and headed straight to my door to check who it was.

I'm quite nervous, I must admit. But I don't want to jump to conclusions because of this fear.