It was the sound of footsteps echoing down the hall that shook her from her reverie. Abigail sighed deeply and opened her eyes, feeling relaxed and ready to get back to work... only to see that the clock had mysteriously jumped ahead by thirty-five minutes!
Shit!...
Had she fallen asleep? What about her test?
Shit, SHIT!
She scrambled to her feet. Her panties lay on the ground. She thought about putting them back on, but the sound of footsteps was getting closer. She grabbed them and stuffed them into her purse, then jumped on the chair.
Eight questions, and ten seconds left to answer them. She looked at the screen and tried to read the next one, but her panicked mind did not manage to comprehend any of the written words. The footsteps reached the door. In desperation, Abigail closed the file as if she had finished, and spun around to greet Roy just as he entered the room.
"Hi Abigail," he smiled politely. "Sorry I'm a few minutes late, but I'm ready to look over your answers now. Do me a favour and send the file you were working on to my email, ok?"
"Um... sure," Abigail replied through an insincere smile. She rotated her chair back around and with the cursor dragged the practically empty questionnaire to the attachment box. She waited a few moments, as if pretending to look everything over, but when she could not stall any longer without seeming suspicious, she took a deep breath and pressed the send button.
"Good. Let's go back to my office." Roy stepped back to allow Abigail to cross the threshold and return to the hall. The two of them walked without speaking, but not in silence: muffles ringing telephones and loud voices of the different working teams gave a sense of the busybody nature of this environment. Abigail's sense of dread was weighing her down with each step, and each muffled sound filled her with envy for a business she would never be able to return to.
I fucked up
.
As they arrived at Roy's sunny office, he motioned for her to sit across from his desk, while he fidgeted with the mouse to open her file. Abigail sat up straight and placed her hands over her knee... an old trick she learned from reading Jane Austen novels:
when in doubt, mind your manners
.
The sunlight shone directly onto her chair, shining through her beautiful natural red curly hair like a halo. Her hair colour was unusual for a dark-skinned woman such as she, as were the freckles that decorated her nose and cheeks, and it made her very memorable. She might have appeared even more beautiful, if not for her miserable mood right now.
"Okay, let's see..." he said as he killed time while the file loaded. "How did you find it? Not too hard, I hope?"
Abigail could only smile wordlessly. Her intertwined her fingers to keep her hands from shaking. She looked at Roy's expression as his eyes darted across the screen... then felt ashamed as she saw him furrowing his brow when he reached the section of the document that remained blank.
"It took you a full hour to write four questions..." His voice was less of a declarative statement and more genuine flabbergast.
Abigail opened her mouth to reply, but no sound escaped her lips. Should she tell him the truth about Priya and Mark? Even with that distraction, it was her own fault for allowing herself to be swept up in the sexual energy of the other couple. Besides, she invaded their privacy, it's not as if they had invited her to join or watch - she could have continued working on her own.
Should she bluff and say that the file was corrupted, or didn't save properly? That lie could easily be discovered by doing an auto-recover, which would destroy her credibility forever.
Roy looked to her, expecting an answer, but none came. "Look, Abigail..." he began, trailing off for a few painfully long seconds. "I'm... I'm not sure if this is going to work out. If you can't work in a timely manner, we can't use you in this company."
"But I can do the work," she protested feebly.
He tilted his head incredulously. "I just gave you the chance to prove it, and you returned less than half of the work I needed, even though I gave you five minutes more than I originally intended."
Abigail sank back into her chair. This was it. She had to admit defeat and go home, before she made any more of a fool of herself.
She had not even had her first day here, and she already knew she was going to miss this place. She already regretted never again being able to see Emilia and her bubbly charm, or learn from Priya with her ironclad confidence. She regretted that she denied herself the chance to meet Mark, and slide her tongue across the tattoos over his chest and arms.
And most of all, she regretted leaving a company that actually used (with actual success, as ridiculous as it seemed) the infamous Paitho model of employee motivation... a fringe theory of management that said that sexual favours could motivate productivity...
No
, she thought, as she unconsciously curled her lip.
Emilia, Priya and Mark have shown me how this company really works. I can use sex to my advantage.
She stood up straight again, turned her gaze to Roy's eyes, thrust out her chest and smiled.
It's time to negotiate
.
"Roy, I admit that I got very distracted during the course of the quiz. But I can assure you that it was a momentary weakness that won't be repeated. Give me a second chance, and I can prove my worth to the company."
"A second chance? Why should I do that, when I could interview someone else?"
Good, he could have shut me down, but instead he's giving me an in.
"Because not everyone is going to be a good fit for this company. Not like me."
Roy gave a quizzical look.
Abigail took a deep breath and ran the pitch scenario in her head
The sales process could be summarized through the acronym AIDA... starting with "A" for Attention.
"You need me, because I'm smart, and committed, and I'm a great marketing strategist and a terrific sales woman..."
