Job Interview

MOTE Prompt Response

Lina deliberately stomped down hard on her inner dialogue. It was less than useful at this point. Day one of the job interview had gone perfectly, but that somehow made it worse. She slowly made her way through Fimbria Station to the bar she’d noticed on her way into the interview from the hotel. A growing number of people crowded the corridor, so she figured she was headed in the right direction to get to the commercial area. Stepping into the main commercial section of the station she paused to get her bearings. There were a few signs pointing toward the docking bays and security, but that was about it. The general air was that of a large village market where one was expected to simply know where they were going.

“This doesn’t really work. If I were in charge, I’d be putting up something like street signs. How do they expect people to figure out where they’re going?” She muttered to herself, staring around the wider-than-normal corridor. It looked almost like a traffic circle one would find in a planetside city.

After another long look around, Lina finally spotted the incongruous sign for the Wandering Fox. She headed in that direction and stopped in front of the pub. It stood out like a sore thumb, but in a good way. The front of the commercial space had been made over to look like something from the vid reels about old Earth in its very early civilization phase. She dug around in her memories of ancient history… medieval Europe! That was it. Patting herself on the back for remembering something from her schooling, Lina strode to the door and entered the pub.

The interior was true to the promise of the façade. A long bar dominated the back wall, shelves of bottles in blue, brown, green, and clear glass – were those actual glass? – rising to the ceiling behind it. A few booths were set along the side and front walls, while smaller tables, surrounded by what looked to be wooded chairs and padded stools, were dotted around the rest of the space. Hanging lamps gave off a warm, golden glow, and the faux wood beams across the ceiling almost made you forget you were in a space station light years from where a pub like this might have originated.

Lina’s shoulders slowly lowered as the residual stress from travel and a day of interviews left her system. She gazed around the pub. A few of the tables were occupied with small groups talking quietly among themselves. At the bar, a tall man in dark clothing, his blond hair tied back in a ponytail, glanced up and lifted his chin in greeting. Lina made her way over to the bar, taking a seat on the end, against the wall with only one empty barstool next to her.

The bartender put the glasses he’d been cleaning away and strolled over.

“Hi. Welcome to the Wandering Fox. What can I get for you?” His voice was warm and low. Lina thought he was exactly what one would expect a pub bartender to be. Not that she had much experience with pubs. But he fit the picture she had in her head.

“Hi. Thanks. What do you recommend for recovering from a day-long job interview?”

The bartender cocked his head to one side. “You auditioning to be Zeke’s assistant stationmaster?”

Lina blinked. “Uh, yeah. That was what my interview was about. How did you know?”

“I know Zeke’s looking to hire, and nobody else that I’m aware of has day-long, multi-day interviews. I’m Rafi. And I would recommend a beer. No fancy drinks, just something refreshing and tasty.”

“I’m Lina, and that sounds great, Rafi. Thanks.”

“You got it. You have a preference on type of beer?”

Lina leaned around to find the beer taps. “Well, I’m not a big fan of hoppy beers, and I’m not familiar with what you have on tap, so I guess I’ll trust your choice.”

Rafi gave her a crooked smile. “I’ll bring you a taster of a couple and you can decide from there.” He strolled off to the taps, picking up four sampling glasses on the way.

A minute or so later, Rafi returned to Lina carrying the four small glasses each now filled. “Here you go. Give these a try and let me know which, if any, of them you like.” He left to take care of another customer who’d just walked in.

Lina spotted a menu holder on the wall next to her and pulled out a food menu. Her eyebrows went up as she read over the offerings. If the food was as good as the descriptions, there was a damn good cook in the kitchen. It was not a huge menu, but according to the descriptions, all the food was fresh rather than rehydrated or reconstituted. A space station with enough fresh food that a pub could get it? That spoke of a good stationmaster. A stationmaster she would love to work for and learn from. Now she really wanted this job.

Rafi returned, a concerned expression on his face. “Everything all right? Did you want some food?”

“Um, yeah, I’m fine. I’m sorry, did I do something?” Lina started cataloging all the things she might have said out loud in the last few minutes.

“No, no. You were frowning hard at the food menu, so I was a little worried. Like it says there, all our food is fresh, grown right here on the station. And I can recommend everything on this menu, I’ve had all the dishes.” Rafi smiled at her and pulled a tablet off a lower shelf, gazing expectantly at her.

“Um, yeah, okay. Uh, let me get the uh, fish and chips, please. That seems appropriate for a pub that looks like this one.”

Now Rafi laughed. “It is. It really is. And the fish and chips is very popular. The fish are also raised on station, so it’s all truly fresh.” He tapped on the tablet a few times before returning it to its lower shelf. “All right. That should be ready in a few minutes, since it’s slow right now. Did you pick a beer by any chance?”

Lina blinked down at the four empty tasting glasses in front of her. “Um, yeah. I like this one,” she said, pointing to the glass on her left. “It’s a lager, right?”

“Yep. Aeryn Lager. We get it from a small brewery on the planet,” Rafi said, meaning the planet closest to the station. Lina had overnighted there on her way from her home planet Hera, in the Core, to Fimbria Station. Rafi left to get her beer.

“Thank you.” Lina rested her elbows on the bar and stared at nothing until Rafi returned with the beer. He put the beer down and gave her another knowing look.

“You sure you’re okay? You look like things didn’t go well today.”

“Well, you’ve got the bartender as therapist role down. And, actually just the opposite. The interview went really well and that has me worried. Like things are going too well, so there has to be a catch.” She sighed and picked up her beer.

Rafi laughed. “Okay, I’m gonna leave you to your beer, your food, and your worries, but I will tell you this. Zeke is a good guy, and if the interview went well, that means he thinks you’re a good candidate. If he hadn’t liked you or thought you weren’t qualified, the interview would have been short and sweet. He ask you to come back tomorrow?”

Lina blinked. “Yeah, he did. Why?”

“Trust me, not everybody did, even though you all came up here yesterday. At least a couple people will be going back home starting tonight.” Rafi stepped to one side as a food runner brought out Lina’s fish and chips.

Lina felt her mouth fall open. “So, you’re saying I just made it to the final round?”

“Yep, you did. Enjoy your evening!” Rafi smiled and moved back down to the other end of the bar leaving Lina to wrestle with her inner doubts as she carefully parsed everything Rafi had just told her. Maybe things were working in her favor after all. She raised her beer in a silent cheers to herself and dug into her fish and chips.

******

Parrish Baker and I traded prompts this week over at More Odds Than Ends. She hit me with: The job interview went perfectly, which somehow made it worse. If you make your way over there, you can give yourself a short break in the day’s stresses and quickly dive into new worlds. Enjoy!