Glassheart |bruno mars.

43.

"And why can't you go shopping with me today? It's Thursday,  you don't work on Thursdays." Raye voice rang out to me over my  headphones. I was half listening, half regretting having such an  attentive friend who knew my work schedule.

What had the rest of my attention was what was in front of me.

An old school American Diner that had clearly seen better days.

I  looked back down to my phone's map, it said I was in the right  location. I rechecked the email I had recieved from Mode NYC and double  checked the address I had put into my phone.

One and the same. This was  where I would be having the most important interview of my life.

It wasn't what I was expecting for an interview location but weirder things have happened.

"Tina, you still there?"

"Y-yeah."  I answered, turning my back on the diner. "I just have a lot of  material I need to go through, but it shouldn't take more than a couple  hours. Then we can go through locations–"

"–shopping for floral arrangements." She corrected me. "Teen, are you okay? You sound...off."

Damn  right, I sounded off. I had the urge to just take off in the opposite  direction and forget everything about Mode NYC.

Maybe I just wasn't good  enough. Maybe Analiese lied to me about them being interested in me and  called in a favor to appease me.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Really. Just work shit. I should get to it, I'll call you in a bit, Raye."

I doubted I had convinced her but that was the least of my concerns when I hung up on her.

I turned back to the diner.

It's now or never Danielson.

Walking  through the door the first thing that hit me was the smell. Bacon,  eggs, the works. The appearance outside didn't do justice to the  interior. Red, white and Blue everywhere with flags drapped in various  places.

Definitely not what I expected from an interview for Mode.

"Well,  don't you look fancy, hon." A middle aged woman strode up to me in  matching colors, she obviously worked here. "How can I help you?"

I  opened my mouth to answer, then closed it. I didn't know where to go  here. This wasn't an office building with a secretary who can lead me to  wherever my interviewer was. By the looks of it, this place was near  empty and the people who I could see didn't seem to be the type to work  for a leading magazine in New York.

"How 'bout I give you the best  seat in the house and you can think on it? It has more than enough  space for all those papers you're carrying." She smiled warmly at me, it  helped my nerves a bit.

"Thank you." I smiled back and followed her to a booth overlooking the whole of the diner.

Once I sat down I saw her turn her gaze to someone behind me and give a wink. "Good luck, hon."

"What–" I began to ask and she walked away from me. "...the hell..."

Before  I could turn to see where she was looking someone had taken the seat  across from me. He took one of my articles I had brought in his hands  and skimmed it.

"This is that blog post from last year. It  started pretty wobbly but by the third paragraph you get into your  stride. That's a recurring theme in many of your works but once you hit  that rhythm, it can soar." He said, his green eyes still on my work. He  looked to be in his early to mid-thirties.