It had been an excruciatingly tedious experience. The countless hours spent in front of the computer sending emails, getting rejection letters, and answering phone calls just to find out that the position had just been taken. All of this effort just to get one measly, insignificant job. Dave ruffled his black hair as he glazed over yet another rejection letter, his mind slowly submitting to defeat. He’d been at college for nearly two years now and he still couldn’t get a job, even after all this effort. No one wanted someone who had no experience yet he couldn’t get any because no one would hire him so that he could gain experience. It was a classic catch 22 that drove him to insanity. The only driving force that Dave had left was the small amount of money that he had to scrap by, week to week. His pantry contained 6 packets of instant noodles and an old tin of tomato soup. All that Dave wanted was a job so that he could afford something real to eat, something substantial, something filling.
Dave stood up and stretched. His shirt lifted up revealing his flat, pale stomach and boney ribs. He walked over to the couch and slumped down in defeat. He switched on his roommates ps3, watching the screen as the title card loaded. Dave left his laptop open beside me so that he could answer any job alerts that popped up, occasionally he would flick through Facebook to see if there was anything interesting going on.
He had always been an incredibly skinny guy, barely making it past 120lbs. Although he was exceptionally thin, he was quite attractive. His pale skin, with his dark black messy hair combined with his sharp features made him quite alluring to many people. However, Dave was too shy to talk to other people. He really only talked to Cam, and that was because he was his housemate.
PING!
He looked wearily over to his laptop. He grabbed it and had a look at it. Someone had messaged him on Facebook, although his or her name wasn’t where it should’ve been. Dave didn’t think much of this casting it off as being a bot or some sort of glitch with the site. He scanned the message.
I hear you’re looking for a job? I can offer you something.
Uh, yeah. Who is this? Dave replied
A friend of your mom’s. She said you’re getting pretty desperate. Anyway, I have an offer for you. I work for a testing company. Basically we would send you boxes of cookies to try, as many or as little as you want for each day of the week. Then you send us a message saying if you liked them or not. You don’t need to go into detail, just good or bad. You will get paid of course, one dollar for every cookie eaten.
So, uh, whats the catch then? It seems a bit too easy if you ask me.
Haha, no, no there isn’t a catch. It is really as simple as it sounds. If you’d like we can even get started today? But if you don’t want to become apart of the taste testing team then I completely understand.
Dave’s fingers hovered over his keyboard before responding. Ok I’m in. What do I need to do?
Well, all you need to do is say how many cookies you’d like today, and then we will deposit the money straight into your account.
Oh okay then. Well, I guess one hundred would be good for today. Dave did think he was going over board but he also thought it might be good to have a little extra food around the house. Plus, it was unlikely that this guy was being serious at all.
Great. The package will arrive shortly. With that the person went offline, leaving Dave sitting in his chair, a confused expression sprawled across his face. He scrolled through the messages trying to figure out if this was just some stupid joke that someone was playing on him. His housemate probably set it up to mess with him. A knocking at the door brought Dave out of his computer. He stood up and wandered over. He opened it up to reveal a box sitting on the doorstep. He poked his head out into the hallway to see if the person who delivered it was still there, but the hallway was empty. He picked up the box and brought it over to the couch, placing it down on the coffee table. He opened the box revealing the one hundred neatly packaged cookies. Dave’s jaw dropped. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The box was filled with all sorts of cookies, from double choc chip, all the way to raspberry cheesecake cookies. Each one looked freshly baked, with a perfectly crisp outside and gooey middle. The smell infiltrated his nostrils, whilst his stomach grumbled at the site of them. He cautiously picked one up and bit into it. The flavors exploded in his mouth and he quickly devoured the first one, then another, and another. Before long the box was practically empty, only a couple of cookies remained in the box. Dave sat back, absolutely stuffed to the brim. His usually flat stomach was incredibly bloated and had formed a small bump, although it was barely noticeable. Dave slowly nibbled on the last biscuits before his computer lit up again.
How were they?
They were amazing. I thought you were kidding about sending me the cookies…. Although I’ve eaten them all already. How much do I owe you?
That’s good to hear. As I said before, you don’t owe the company anything. Your money will be in your account later today. Same order for tomorrow?
Ah, yeah, I guess that’d be good. And with that the mysterious person disappeared yet again, leaving Dave to finish off the last remaining cookies. Although it was barely past four in the afternoon, the copious amount of cookies that Dave had just eaten made him incredibly exhausted and he slowly slipped off into a deep slumber.
