Tragic and Wonder: An Un-Fairytale [On Hold]

Chapter 7- Catch a Break

Graduation came and went along with my best friend and roommate. Amanda, now graduated and engaged, moved back home to live with her parents until it was time for her to move to Davis, California. She was so nervous about moving to a completely different state. She would be there by herself for the first semester, and then Casper would join her in Davis. He already lined up an internship that could turn into a full-time position with some sort of tech company in Davis not too far away from UC Davis. He had amazing grades and exceedingly high recommendations from all of his Adler professors, that when he applied for the internship, the company was more than willing to wait for him to graduate in December to get him there to work. They even sent him a contract in August to make sure he would be their employee.

Meanwhile, I was still at my apartment, still working at the coffee shop, and still helping Mrs. Gable in the bookstore. While I was still heartbroken, I was slowly becoming more accepting of my best friends' engagement to each other. I wished them the best in their relationship. I wished them forever and always, but I also wished that I could find that somewhere along my life journey. So, I threw myself into my work and it helped me to overcome the feelings of anger and heartbreak.

At work, we hired a few new people at the coffee shop to replace the graduating seniors who had moved away. Mr. Sullivan had asked if I was interested in a managerial position at all and I was thankful when he asked me, that I could hardly speak but was able to squeak out a "Yes, sir." That led to me becoming a new manager at the coffee shop. We hired another manager, named James Miller, and a barista named Amy Stark.

James and I as managers, rarely worked together, except for the initial training days. He was a transfer student beginning his third year of college. Amy was beginning her fourth year at Adler. She had been a regular and when we were not busy, she always asked questions about making the drinks, so I was not at all surprised when I saw her turn in an application. I worked with Amy three times as much as I worked with James, so we became good acquaintances. She came from California and would tell me stories of her life out there before college. I listened to every word she said about it and the large city that she lived in. It sounded wonderful. I had never really traveled but was beginning to get the "travel bug" from all her stories. It amazed me at how different her life was compared to mine and yet, we both ended up at the same college.

The next year of classes began and the thoughts of everything that happened last semester were beginning to drift away. I was slowly beginning to feel like myself again. The hustle and bustle of the new year was helping. I was getting along with everyone at work. I was still taking classes and excelling in the business program, especially with Dr. Loren's help. Dr. Loren even asked if I would become a teacher's assistant for him with the entry level classes for the year. I was so excited I was almost unable to give him a response. I agreed to it on the condition that Mr. Sullivan would be willing to work around the schedule when Dr. Loren needed me.

Mr. Sullivan was reluctant at first but once he saw how well James and Amy were adjusting to their positions at the coffee shop, he agreed. He did say that I would need to find another part-time employee to help fill the void. I was amazed that Mr. Sullivan was willing to put the responsibility of hiring a new employee by myself, so I asked him about it. He told me that he would be the final say in the new hire, but he was going to use it to determine my judge of character and ability to be a manager. To say I was nervous, was an understatement; however, I understood that as a manager or a future leader in a company, it would be my responsibility to take care of my employees and determine if they are the right fit.

I went to work going through applications that we had on file and found three that seemed to fit the bill. I then contacted the references and narrowed it down to two. The first one that I set up and interview with was very, well, interesting. For some reason, the recommendations that I received just did not match up with the person sitting in front of me, which was rather disappointing. I was looking forward to the next interview, hoping that it would go better than the first.