Mistaken

7. Sabotage

"Ah Hello," Mr. Richardson responds, "I was beginning to think there was no one on the line"

"Oh, yes sorry about that I was experiencing some difficulties." Yea difficulties using your brain. I shake my head in a makeshift attempt to clear my thoughts.

" And May I ask who I am speaking with" he responds bringing me back to reality.

"Oh, yes, right, this is Maria Jackson, the woman you met in line the other day and offered a job too. I was calling to see if that offer was still available."

"Maria, right I wasn't sure you would call, but yes of course the offer still stands, does this call mean that you are accepting?" I take a deep breath.

"I've given it a lot of thought and I feel that this job could be right for me." I say, trying to be as careful with my words as possible because I don't want him to think that he's doing me any favors or that I'm super desperate for work... even though I am.

He makes a noise that almost sounds like a sigh of relief but I can't make it out over the phone, "Well, I'm glad to hear it, Maria, I was beginning to think that I would have to start up the grueling process of interviewing again." He chuckles. 

"Yea, interviews are the worse and  I can promise you that they're equally bad for the interviewee." I laugh as a thought comes to mind, 

" Wait, maybe you should interview me. You don't even know if I'm qualified for the job. I could be a complete snob who has never had to clean or picked up a broom a day in my life." As soon as the words leave my mouth I regret them. Are you seriously trying to sabotage the only gateway  you have right now to a halfway decent life.  Even my own conscious was baffled by my stupidity. At this point , Julie had come into my room and was listening in on the phone call and when the self sabotaging statement came out of my mouth she literally jumped from the bed and began frantically mouthing words and gesturing basically trying to convey the stupidity of my previous statement. 

"Well have you ever cleaned in your life? He responds bringing my attention back from Julie's hilarious silent messages.

"Of course, but that isn't what I --"

"Then I stand by my decision you're perfect for the job and you're hired."

"But what if--" I start. At this point Julie was having a literal fit in front of me.

"What are you doing?!" She all but yelled and she reached for the phone and snatched it out of my hand before I could even process her movements.

"Haha, Maria was just joking, what she meant to say was when would you like her to start." 

"mmhmm," she says squinting her eyes at me in disappointment. "Okay that sounds perfect I'll let her know... alright, thank you for your patience... sure, she'll see you then... okay you have a good day... alright bye." she hangs up the phone and turns to me, disbelief in her eyes.

"Just what did you think you were doing right then, cause it surely was not landing a job. Maria I cannot honestly believe that you were really trying to talk him OUT of hiring you. like who does that?" Honestly, I don't know what possessed me to do that, like seriously I'm glad Julie was here because who knows how badly that could have gone.

"I don't even know what just happened." I respond, my head lowered in shame, "I honestly don't know what came over me." All disappointment fading, Julie comes and sits next to me on the bed.

"Well, it's behind you now and at least you got the job, but for real sis we need to work on that cause girl, that was a real mess." Out of nowhere she just starts laughing really loudly and when I give her a questioning look she just responds,

"That was just so bad Maria, you were really trying to make him UN-hire you, I have never seen anything like that" she barely gets out her sentence because she's laughing so hard and soon I find myself laughing with her because thinking back on it it was pretty funny, tragic, but funny.

After sobering up Julie gives me the details that Mr. Richardson gave her over the phone and apparently he wants to meet in two days so that we can discuss my schedule and availability. I don't know how I feel about this but I've had enough stress for the day so I push it out of my mind and continue my day. It isn't until I get into bed that night that the meeting comes back into mind. What if he decides he doesn't want you to work for him anymore.  Why would he even say that? Because he just witnessed how weird and confusing you are and he doesn't want to deal with that!  But I recovered and why would he want to meet if he was just going to fire me. So he could see you do something weird and crazy in person. That is my last thought before I drift off to sleep and I hope with everything in me that he isn't having this meeting just so he can fire me in person.