by Anita Claire
I bite my tongue for once, finally saying, “If you’re willing to keep your options open, they’re hiring at my company. I’m working on some cool things and it’s a good place to work. If you’d like, I can get you an interview.”
Another pause before she answers, “I’m not sure where I am with Stephan and London. I’m not moving unless he really wants me there, though I’d like to keep my options open. Would it cause problems for you if I interviewed and turned the job down?”
Jumping at any thread I can to keep her here, I respond, “No, it will be cool.”
Chapter 23 - Princesses
Savi’s calls have turned into glowing stories of time spent with Arav. I’m not sure if she is convincing herself that she is falling in love with him, or if they are actually falling in love. At some level this makes me mad since I’ve gone out of my way to avoid the whole mom fixing me up ordeal, but I’m not finding anyone I’m interested in dating on my own. How can it be that Savi’s mom found her a great guy?
Kristi starts dating Tim, one of the guys we’ve been playing Warhammer with at Game Kastle. I wind up hanging with his friend, Brian. Brian’s a nice guy, but neither of us are interested in dating each other. The only big change with them dating is instead of meeting up at Game Kastle on Saturday nights, the guys have started coming over to our place, bringing a pizza with them. After eating, we play games on our dining room table.
***
Meeting up with the princesses for happy hour, Jennifer shows up with another metrosexual looking guy. This one’s only an attorney. He’s a lot older than the rest of us, maybe thirty. He tells us right away he’s on the fast track to making partner.
Olivia looks him over and says to me, “Does she only shop for boyfriends at the local Young Republican meetings?”
Juliette tells us with a pouty face, “Stephan is graduating early.”
Olivia rolls her eyes telling me on the side, “Not early enough for me.”
“I’m not the only one who finds Stephan annoying?” I quietly say back to her.
“Yeah, I know what she sees in him, but he’s around way too much. I guess I’m too used to hanging with Meredith and Sam. Sam and I have always been good friends. I’ve never warmed to Stephan.”
Juliette fills us in on Kelly, another college princess. “I skyped with Kelly this past week.”
Kelly’s the wild child princess. She spent last summer competing in XC cycling. When she finished, she went hiking in Nepal, and then she met up with us princesses for Christmas at Jennifer’s in Hawaii.
“She told me the trainers she hired are working out well. She said on the weekend she’s having fun bartending.”
“Yeah, with Kelly life is one big party.”
“Why is she bartending? Did she run through her trust fund already?”
“She said her friends are all working nights and bartending is a big party. Anyway, she said she’d try to make it to California in the spring.”
Olivia dryly remarks, “Her grandparents made a big mistake when they gave a twenty-one-year-old access to that big trust fund. Kelly was already wild. That money gives her way to many ways to play.”
Meredith, who comes from a working class rural family, sarcastically comments, “Yeah that would have been the worst thing that ever happened to me. So much money I can do anything I want.”
We all laugh, as I wonder what my life would be like if I had a large trust fund. Would I be making the same choices?
***
The weekend before Juliette’s interview, I prep her on what I think the guys will ask and the type of problems they’ll want her to solve. Roger decides who’ll give the solo interviews and who’ll be on the group interviews. I arrange with him to take her to lunch. I figure after being my study partner for five years, it’s not like I’m going to find out anything new when I interview her. But I am curious what the guys will say about her.
After three hours of interviews, Juliette and I head down to eat lunch with Kami and Caroline. Since they know that Juliette will be here, they bring Sherri along. We spend the hour not talking office gossip, weddings, or guys. Mostly it’s a debriefing of her previous interviews and a discussion of this company’s strengths and weaknesses.
At the end of the discussion, Sherri tells Juliette, “If Roger doesn’t offer you a job you can interview in my group, also there are three other applications groups, and the Hadoop and Server group need people.”
From three to four she has a meeting with Jim, Tom, and Ian. They have her work through a programming assignment. I pull her out of that session at four so she can watch me play ping pong. On our way over she asks, “What’s with that guy?”
“Let me guess, Ian?”
“Why doesn’t he cover some of it up?”
“Yeah, that’s one of the big questions the women all have. Don’t let his harry exterior confuse you. His personality is even weirder.”
“And no one says anything to him, why?”
“Really? Who’s going to say something? Now if he worked for Sherri, he’d be wearing a short sleeve shirt within a week. She has everyone jumping in line.”
“She seems nice.”
“Kami and Caroline can’t say enough good things about her. But they also say she doesn’t put up with any bullshit. They call her mom on steroids. One of the guys in their group always licked his hands like a cat after eating. It grossed everyone out. The first time he did it in front of Sherri, she told him, ‘that’s not only unhygienic it’s disgusting—get in the bathroom and wash your hands with soap and water.’ She bought him a container of baby wipes and told him to use them.”
“That’s ballsy,” Juliette says with admiration.
“That’s Sherri, no one complains to HR about her since she’s fair. I’ve been told she has the highest manager rating at the company.”
By now we’re at the ping pong table. There are four of us in a mini war for superiority, not including the two Chinese guys. We have an endless round robin going. Juliette gets to watch Colin and I play. Frustratingly, he wins two out of three. My only saving grace is that my win is by five points, while each of his wins are by one point. If Juliette wasn’t here, I probably could get him to play three out of five.
As I walk Juliette to the door she exclaims, “Colin’s cute…and sweet.”
“Of course, he also has a pretty blond girlfriend.”
“You two were moving so fast. I had no idea you played that well.”
Juliette’s athletic. I’m glad this display of my agility blew her mind as I smile at her compliment.
The group meeting where we discuss Juliette is interesting. The complaints are mostly ridiculous. Mark and Roger keep saying, “She’s still in school, there’s no way she’d know the answers to those questions. You can’t judge a grad school student the same way you judge a veteran.”
After we finish Roger says, “Think about it. On Thursday, we’ll vote. If we like her and she says yes we can pass on the other résumés.”
After the meeting I ask Mark, “We only interview one person and vote?”
He replies, “At our last company our boss made us interview lots of people for each job. Roger and I spent more time interviewing than working. By the time we interviewed everyone, the good people were already taken. Roger and I agree, never hire someone who you feel isn’t the best fit, but if you find someone who the team likes get the offer out fast. Good people aren’t on the market for very long, and why waste the team’s time interviewing more people when you find someone you like.”
Chapter 24 – Isabelle’s back in town
Savi calls, regaling me with the wonders of Arav and all the plans for her wedding. So far the auspicious wedding date is holding. It looks like I’ll be headed back to Chicago in September.
Whereas my life feels like the old saying, “Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink,” though in my case I can say, “Men, men everywhere but no one to date.” Feeling frustrated with my lack of lo
ve life, I decide to log onto the new dating service “Coffee Meets Muffin.” After the rather simple form to fill out, I come back the next day to see if anyone is interested in dating me.
I don’t know if it’s a joke or not, the first guy has a full beard and is wearing a wedding dress. No joke, a full, flouncy white wedding dress where his dark hairy chest peeps out of the sweetheart neckline. Moving on to the next guy, it’s a mime in full white makeup, suspenders and little hat. I wonder if I have the guts to even look at guy three. When I pull up a guy in cowboy hat, chaps, and what I can only imagine is a speedo covering his private parts, I shut my computer down and figure it’s time to go for a walk. Obviously they still have a lot of work to do on their algorithms. Or maybe the Gods are giving me a sign. A nice Indian girl shouldn’t be trying to date online, or is it that I should be re-evaluating the men I already know? Whatever, I send Juliette a text and ask her if she can pull herself away from the books for a bit since I need to hang with a friend.
Meeting up with her on campus, it feels kind of strange to be a graduate as she tells me about classes and interviews. Stephan is now back in London. On a daily basis he Skypes, telling her how much he misses her and how much he’d love to have her with him. She tells me there are a number of paid summer internships at finance institutions in London for people with our background.
With a serious look, she says, “This gives Stephan and me the summer together. If everything works out, I can get the British equivalent of an H1-B.”
“You’re really serious about this guy?” I question.
With a surprised look she continues, “Yes, of course.”
“Are you planning on marrying him?”
She blinks a few times and gnaws on her lower lip before finally spitting out, “Let’s see how well I like living in London with Stephan. But yes, if things work out I expect we’ll get married. If we don’t work out,” she tips her head and shrugs before continuing, “I guess I’ll come back.”
After looking at my shocked expression she gives me a hug. “I’m not planning on getting married in the next year, and anyway, we’ll always be friends. It might just be more of a Skype relationship than a hanging out relationship.”
My gut feels empty thinking that Juliette might be living six thousand miles away. The other princesses are either here or are heading back here, but if Juliette goes to London to be with Stephan, we’ll be lucky to see her even on vacation.
***
Isabelle comes back into town with great stories of living in China and her travels around Asia and Australia. She moves back home as she figures out what to do next, telling us, “My parents laid down the law. I either need to get a job or go back to school.”
We all meet for happy hour, Juliette calls Kelly, she’s in Boston at her parents. We pass the phone around and all tell her she’s missed. If you include the voice of Kelly, it’s the first time in two years the seven of us have been together.
Kelly makes it back the weekend after Meredith and Juliette graduate, and a few days before Juliette leaves for London. Figuring we need a weekend together, we all head up to Isabelle’s parents’ house in Tahoe. I drive with Olivia and Jennifer, who tells us about coming up to Tahoe a few weeks ago with Isabelle and Juliette. According to Jennifer, they took her on some kind of crazy death march to the top of High Camp.
“I had to walk up that damn hill only to find out when we got to the top they have a pool, hot tub, restaurant and a tram that could have taken me up” Jennifer complains.
Olivia is sitting in the back seat laughing at the story. Jennifer turns around and tells her, “You think it’s so funny? Those two are crazy, I got all caught up in their Pioneer Women thing. Every time I complained I had to hear that they hiked these mountains in long dresses and crappy shoes.”
Olivia responds, “Hey, that pioneer women crap inspired me when I first got to the camp in Jordan. Though, if I was alive in the 1860s, I wonder if I would have ever left New York.”
I fill in, “If you were alive back then, you’d be living in the Middle East, wearing a burka, and being subservient to some guy.”
Olivia shoots back, “Only Muslims wear burkas. I’m not Muslim. Anyway, don’t act like it would have been so much better in India.”
“You’re right on that,” I respond, thinking how little has changed for women in either of our ethnic homelands.
Jennifer adds, “It could be worse. I’d be in China padding around on my big toe.”
Which only makes me add, “I am so glad to be living now, here, and with all of you as my friends.”
Chapter 25 – Blow up
Sitting at my desk one morning, I hear a big commotion. It’s a couple of men’s voices yelling from down the hall. Like an idiot, I run over to see what’s going on. When I get there I see a couple of guys holding back Chris, the Marketing Director, as Sid stands red faced with his arms crossed. As Chris is led away, he breaks from his escorts and says, “Don’t bother, I quit.”
Sid puts his hands up and says, “The show is over, folks, everyone back to work.” I can still feel the anger rolling off of him as he heads into his office. I have no idea why Chris and Sid were arguing. As the day progresses, the rumors run rampant.
Meeting up with Caroline and Kami for lunch, Kami leans in and tells us, “The most logical rumor is that Terri dumped Chris and is now seeing Sid.”
Caroline adds, “She’s an overlapper. I think she’s one of those women whose boyfriend finds out she’s broken up with him when she’s dating someone else.”
“Why would you think that?” Kami asks.
“Carol over in finance told me that’s what she did with the last guy,” Caroline confides.
“Doesn’t dating Sid put her back in the chain of command again?” I ask.
“Only if this rumor is true,” Kami responds.
“How many guys are going to quit before someone gets rid of her?” Caroline questions.
Kami follows up with, “If Sid is getting some, do you really think he’s going to fire her?”
“I thought Sid was smarter than that,” I reflect.
Caroline shakes her head, “She has this thing about her. The guys all stop thinking with their big head when she’s around.”
“Damn, I wish she would share some of her mojo with me. Why do some people have so much sex appeal and some of us get none?” Kami laments.
Chapter 26 - Juliette
Coming back to the office in September after spending the weekend in Chicago at Savi’s wedding, my head still swims with Indian songs, colors, and smells. Rajive, who is normally very quiet and never speaks to me sees my hands all decorated in henna and politely asks, “Hita, have you been to a Mehendi?”
I hold up my hands with the intricate henna designs that are starting to fade. “Yes, my childhood friend was married this weekend. I was part of her Mehendi.”
With a surprised look he asks, “Was this a traditional marriage?”
With a chuckle I respond, “yes, very traditional.”
I pull out my phone and show him pictures from the Mehendi. All the female family and friends are singing and dancing as the artist decorates Savi’s hands and feet with henna to prepare her for the wedding. Then I show him pictures of the wedding ceremony, pointing out my mom and dad all dressed in traditional clothes.
Shaking his head he says, “I didn’t realize you were a traditional Indian.”
I’m sure my American nature has confused him. Though it does give me reason to pause, I still don’t want an arranged marriage. But after spending the weekend all sucked up into the tradition and ritual of my culture, I wonder what my marriage will eventually be like.
Surprises continue, I get an e-mail from Juliette asking me if they filled the position she applied for three months ago. When her contract at the bank ends at the end of the month she’s planning on moving back. Remembering our conversation in the spring, I wonder if Juliette has finally woken up to Stephan’s irritating qualities
. I remembered her telling me she was either headed for marriage or if things didn’t work out, she’d be returning home. I never thought it would happen so fast.
When interviewing here she got a unanimous thumbs up from this group, though she eventually turned down the offer.
Afterwards, Roger asked me, “Who’d she choose instead of us?”
I told him, “Her grad school boyfriend who’s living in London.”
He chuckled then replied, “There wasn’t really a better job offer then.”
After Juliette declined the job we continued to haphazardly interview. Over the summer we gave out a few offer letters, but in this competitive job market the offers were rejected. We got two interns this summer, which helped to fill some of the holes. I know Roger has said a couple times we need to get focused on hiring more people, but then he gets pulled away to work on other tasks and doesn’t bring anyone in.
After going back and forth a few times with Juliette, she doesn’t fill me in on any details on what happened with Stephan. She does confirm that if we update her offer letter she’ll accept it.
Heading into Roger’s office I tell him, “I was contacted by Juliette. I guess she’s had her fair share of London and is headed back here. She asked me if her job is still available.”
Roger leans back in his chair, he gets a small smirk on his face, finally proclaiming, “I guess grad school boyfriend didn’t work out.”
Nodding my head, I’m surprised by that comment. Roger never says anything personal.
“Yeah, let me see what I can do.” He then turns back to his computer, his sign that the conversation is over.
I e-mail Juliette, “Roger’s working on it. I’ll keep you posted.”
Texting the rest of the princesses: Juliette’s heading home. Has anyone heard what went down in London?
I get a number of surprised texts. Only Isabelle has more information: She e-mailed me about signing up for soccer.