Ms. Victoria Gale,

We would like to thank you for taking the time to interview with us. Our team has had a chance to discuss your qualifications, and unfortunately, we have decided to pursue other candidates who have greater skill and experience.

Thank you again for your interest in employment at Sunview Web Development LLC.

Tiffany Sonders,

Sr. Human Resources Generalist

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I crammed the letter into my backpack, along with the rest of the mail from the box.

Yet another failed interview. This was my sixth one since graduation, and I had fallen out the other side of disheartened into just plain tired. When I entered college almost five years ago the graphic design industry was booming. Now, though, not so much. It turns out that the position doesn’t have a particularly high turnover, and I was stuck here, getting screwed over by the job market.

A lot of companies were willing to hire me if I was fine with relocating to their cities, but the idea of leaving Austin just felt… wrong. There would be other opportunities. I hoped.

I worked at a privately-owned coffee shop in the very south of downtown Austin, near the river. It was a clean city that was constantly growing with a lot of nice people, and I had lived here all my life. I grew up just outside of town with my mom, being driven to school every day. My mom was an electrical engineer and a pretty good one if her paycheck was anything to go by.

My dad, on the other hand, was a deadbeat. He had lost his job right after Mom gave birth to me and turned to drinking and hitting his wife to feel better about himself. She was a compassionate person, but after the first time it happened, she had had enough. The writing was on the wall.

She ran away from him that night, got the divorce papers herself, and got full custody rights over me. We moved to an old ranch house, and that was where I spent my childhood. Mom was my best friend, and we did everything together.

One morning during the start of my junior year of high school, Mom woke up with a splitting headache. I had my license at that point, so I drove her to the hospital to get it looked at. I remember tearing up as we headed through the hill country into the city. I was so scared something was wrong with her, and she just kept reassuring me that it would all be okay.

It wasn’t though.

The tumor they found was the size of a grape, but it was getting bigger far too quickly. I was a wreck, but Mom was stoic and proud as always, weathering the storm. A captain going down with her ship. She signed over everything she had and left it to me, and instead of taking the next year easy, she worked her ass off instead.

She wanted to make sure I had enough money to put me through college and enough of a nest egg to not worry about things for a while if something went wrong. She was an incredible woman, and every day I strive to be like her just a little bit more.

Looking up at the building ahead of me, I read a sign proudly declaring, “The Good Bean: Locally Roasted Coffee”. Shaking myself from the dreary memories, I stepped through the door into a wall of heavenly scent.

I forgot it was Monday. Mondays were the day we roasted coffee, and we always left the top of the machine open to spread the smell around. On roasting days, the caffeine junkies would float through the doors following the scintillating aroma like cartoon characters, and they always tipped well. I loved working Mondays.

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Walking behind the counter, I put on my apron and got busy. This morning there were only two of us manning the store, me, and Donny, who was a long-time friend. I met him through classes, and he had actually hooked me up with this job two years back. It was just supposed to be something to help me get by, but I ended up working here up to the present, and the money was good enough to afford cheap rent and enough food to get by, so I wasn’t complaining.

I was shaken from my stupor when a hand landed on my shoulder.

“Vic, the next shift just arrived,” Donny said, tiredly. “It’s time to clock out.”

“Right, sorry. I just got into the zone; you know?”

He shook his head in exasperation and moved to collect his things from under the counter.

“*sigh* yeah, I know.”

Dropping my apron off, I grabbed my stuff and left the building. I had rolled into work around 6 am, and it was right around 2 pm, now. It was sometimes crazy how the time just seemed to fly by, but I’ve always had that problem. When I get started on a task, I just get into a groove and lose myself to the calming repetition of it all. It had happened for as long as I could remember, like my own little superpower.

Well.

If you could call forgetting that everyone else in the world exists a superpower.

We headed out the door together and walked placidly down the street. We both lived within walking distance from the shop, and both of our houses were in roughly the same direction. We had walked home together every day since we started working with each other, but today, I couldn’t help but feel awkward.

Last week, Donny asked me out. He asked me if I wanted to catch a movie and grab some dinner later, and naturally, I said yes. Donny and I were friends, and though he hadn’t ever taken the initiative to plan anything, I didn’t think it was anything strange.

It was only when we finished dinner and he moved to place a quick kiss on my lips that I realized he wanted this to be a date, not just a movie with a friend. After that, we quickly parted ways. Both of us had had a great night out.

Inwardly, I was glad he hadn’t asked me out for a second date yet. I didn’t know what I wanted. I liked spending time with Donny but had never seen him in a romantic sense. Now, it felt like the dynamic that I had come to rely on in my day to day had totally changed, and I was still reeling.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like Donny. It was more that I didn’t feel like I was in a place in my life where I could let someone else in. It felt like I was living in some kind of limbo, and until I figured that out, that I figured myself out, I couldn’t go anywhere.

Mom would know what to do.

Instantly, I pushed the thought away. Nothing good came from dwelling on that.

Our walk down the street ended, and we parted without many words. I couldn’t help but notice that he lingered just a little bit longer than he typically would when we separated. And he was attractive.

He was taller than me by around an inch, putting him around 5’10”. His skin was a lovely chocolate brown, and he kept his head shaved and rocked it. He wasn’t in super good shape, but then again, neither was I.

What’s more, our interests aligned pretty well. We were both nerds, both played games together, and both spent many of our college years playing D&D.

I wanted to say something.

“I had a really nice time last week”, or “We should meet up again later”, or maybe “I liked our date last Wednesday, but I need time to figure out my feelings, dammit”.

But by the time I’d even started trying to respond, he was already gone. Regardless, I would see him tomorrow for work and would talk to him then, once I’d had a bit more time to think about it. Thoughts still reeling, I went back to my apartment, my mind continually turning over what I could have said.

Maybe should have said.

Before long, my feet took me back home. I lived in a nice three-bedroom apartment over a corner store that had somehow managed to be privately owned since the 50s.

It had always been run by the Garcia family. The store, which stocked basic groceries, various sundry goods, and Austin-themed touristy items, took up the ground floor. The Garcia family took over the two apartments on the second. Finally, my two roommates Cindy and Taylor, took up the large open apartment on the third.

As I stepped into the store, I gave Mr. Garcia a slight nod, which he returned. Heading back behind the counter, I found the staircase, winding my way all the way up the narrow steps to the top of the building. As I ascended the final flight, I heard a scattering of drops across the large glass skylight overhead the hallway.

The sky was grey and getting darker, and scattered showers were already starting.