The young woman was unsure of what the day was going to bring her. Nelle was scheduled for an interview but nervous regarding whether or not she would get the job. Her experience was event coordinating. The application she filled out was for banquet set up. Although they weren’t the same in any means, Nelle was struggling to find a well-paying coordinating job in the Wisconsin Dells. Nothing in nearby resorts paid more than ten an hour, and that wasn’t feasible for Nelle given she had rent to pay and an English Bulldog who needed eye surgery in the next two months. She needed money. Online, this position said there was a three hundred dollar sign-on bonus for new employees.
Maybe Nelle could start in banquets and move her away up. When she did some research on the hotel, there were at least ten event coordinators that worked for the resort. All Nelle would need to do was wait until just one was gone before she could apply for the position. When she walked into the building, she was surprised how busy it was for a Monday. The parking lot was packed with cars, the building stuffed with people there for a conference. The line to guest services had three people ahead of her. Two women. One dressed in a sharp blazer and equally attractive pants. The other, jeans and a nice blouse. The man was dressed in a plaid long-sleeved shirt and khaki pants, his hair was all salt and pepper, almost as if the gray was taking over his head. Nelle waited patiently in line, biding her time until it was her turn. A taxidermy grizzly bear was nearby a large water fountain, its snarl forever frozen in place. Nelle watched the stuffed animals. She was a vegetarian who despised the pointless deaths of animals. Seeing this beautiful grizzly along with a red fox and beaver brought her stomach to clench uncomfortably. Nelle came out of her daze, not being able to help overhearing the man ahead of her.
“Have you had a Janelle Jenson come up here, Katarina?” the man asked the woman at the guest service desk.
Before the woman could answer, Nelle found her voice. “Oh, that’s me!”
The man turned around to assess her. He raised an eyebrow. “You’re twelve minutes late.”
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize how bad traffic would be. This is in no way a representation of my character,” defended Nelle as the man seemed to be in no mood to hear from her now.
The man seemed uncaring as he scribbled in his large notebook inside of his black binder. Nelle nearly cringed as she saw her application was inside the binder beside the notebook. She could just about guarantee her tardiness just lost her the job. Still, the man seemed content on going through an interview process although his mind seemed to be made up.
“Uh huh,” said the man, sounding uncaring as he scribbled.
He used a finger to motion her to follow him. Nelle did obediently as the man led her down a long corridor. Every inch of the place had sky-blue walls and horrid red carpet. “My name is Perry,” said the man as he did a swift walk. “It says you don’t have experience in banquet set up, Janelle?”
“Nelle,” corrected Nelle automatically. It was impulse, but judging by Perry’s expression she should have simply kept quiet. “Or Janelle,” said Nelle apologetically.
Perry ignored her to continue toward a bold set of log doors. Forest Room A was in gold lettering on a sign beside the doors. “Even though I don’t have experience in this field, I’m a very fast learner and always eager to learn new things.”
“Fascinating,” said Perry without any real enthusiasm. He was flipping through her application and no doubt looking at her strong background in event coordinating. “Here’s the thing. You actually may be overqualified for this position.”
“Is that a thing?”
Perry gave a small nod of his head. “I’ll pass along your resume to our event staff in a neighboring building, but I don’t feel we really need a member of banquet set up with your qualifications.”
“You could just give me a chance and see if I last,” said Nelle. She had never once been turned down for being “overqualified” before.
“I feel my decision is made.”
“How about we decide on my fabulous work ethic and outstanding resume and not the fact that I was accidentally a few minutes late?” pushed Nelle. “Don’t let just that talk you out of hiring me. Please,” she added in, for her words surprised the man.
Perry sighed as he opened one of the log doors and allowed himself inside. He held the door open for Nelle. She eagerly followed him inside, determined to plead her case. She really wanted the sign-on bonus for this department. The pay and the scheduling weren’t bad either.
As Nelle entered the room, she found there was already quite a few people inside. All were dressed in navy blue long-sleeved polos and khaki pants. All of them were relatively young, the ages gravitating between their early to late twenties. The young men stopped talking as soon as they saw Perry and Nelle. One boy was Hispanic; he caught Nelle’s eye due to the long facial scar on his otherwise handsome face. There was a redheaded young man whom Nelle instantly found attractive, and a black young man with sharp cheekbones and pretty hazel eyes that Nelle found attractive as well. As she looked at all the young men in the room, there wasn’t any of them that wasn’t good looking. There was one tall young man with golden blond hair and piercing blue eyes who spoke. “What’s up?”
“Potential new hire.”
The blond man raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
It was strange the way he said really. The guy made it sound as though the word had more syllables than it did.
“Darren’s out for the summer, it’ll be up to us to decide.”
The blond man watched Nelle for a few seconds before giving a shrug. “Let her start.”
The redhead’s eyes flew open. “Seriously? She’s not going to last a month. Why bother?” Nelle felt instantly offended. She looked to the redhead to find he looked only slightly apologetic.
“I think Darren will like her,” said the blond one.
“Think or hope, Matt?” guffawed the Hispanic boy.
“Probably hope,” said a boy with a buzz cut and wide-frame glasses.
“Nobody asked you, Erik,” said the redhead in annoyance.
The one named Matt glowered at the others until the voice of someone new broke the laughter. “Let her join. I could use another female around here,” said a soft, feminine voice. Nelle watched as a young woman came into view. Her hair was dark brown and shoulder length, her eyes a lovely celery green color. Her face was pale and flawless; to Nelle she looked beautiful, just as attractive as all the men in the room. “My name’s Everly,” said the girl, extending a hand for Nelle to shake, her smile glittering.
Nelle returned the handshake and the smile. “Nelle.”
Perry watched Everly’s face. It wasn’t until she gave a nod of her head that he spoke.
“I guess it’s settled,” said Perry, returning to his random scribbling in his binder. “Welcome to the team. I’ll have these two show you around.”
Nelle found herself elated although surprised. It didn’t seem like Perry was going to hire her prior to the okay of Matt and Everly. Still, Nelle had no complaints. She followed behind Matt as he explained she would have to do orientation at HR and sign quite a large bit of paperwork before she would be allowed to join. Nelle said nothing as she followed along. She couldn’t help noticing that Matt and Everly seemed to try to catch each other’s gazes from time to time. It made her wonder if the coworkers were dating or if there was a backstory to them. The man named Matt eventually said he had to get back to setting a room but said Nelle wasn’t to come in on Monday without having all her paperwork dated and signed. Matt spared Everly one last lingering gaze before walking away. By the time he was gone, Nelle found her voice. “Is it intimidating to work with only guys here?”
Everly gave a gentle roll of her slender shoulders. “A little at first, but they eventually grow on you.”
“Are you going to say you’re all like family?” joked Nelle with a smile.
“Not at all,” said Everly with her own grin. “We’re more like a pack.�
��
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
“Once upon a time” is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past events. So, it feels accurate when I begin by saying once upon a time, I had the world’s worst coworkers. I’m not dramatizing things. These coworkers were awful from the very first moment I met them. Every one of them was loud, rude, crude, obnoxious, and overly sarcastic…including my managers. These coworkers and managers took a special interest in teasing me mercilessly given I was the sole female in their all-male department. No one went out of their way to train me in the job, and I’m to this day quite certain my boss’s catchphrase was “stay with the group.”
I stayed working at the hotel because it was the perfect place to work on my writing during my free time. It was amazing how lost I could become in my own imagination while there. During that time there, I finished a few of my manuscripts that are now published books. But during my many months of working at the resort, I sometimes felt suffocated by my coworkers’ strange, pack-like mentality. They didn’t get along with anyone else but each other, and no other department really cared for them too much, either. Even after a few months of working with them, their dumb jokes and sarcastic commentary never eased up.
One day after the boys were really getting on my nerves with their teasing, I went home and started writing to vent my frustrations. Before I knew it, I had an entire manuscript written out. It was a story paralleling my predicament of being at my odd job inside of a very small Wisconsin tourist town. Except instead of working with a bunch of moronic goofballs, this character was surrounded by a pack of blood-thirsty werewolves. This book was never meant to see the light of day.
But sometimes life surprises you. My publishers enjoyed the story enough to offer me a contract. So here we are. Almost eighteen months I worked with a strange group of guys who I felt were either my worst enemies or the evil big brothers I never had. It took my leaving the resort to finally realize that although these boys played both roles, I have no regrets meeting them. They all taught me a few life lessons that I now carry with me. They taught me how to laugh, even at the hardships that life throws at me. They taught me how to stand up for myself. They taught me that it’ll never matter what anyone else ever thinks of me, because it’s only my opinion of myself that matters. But best of all from these guys, they taught me that I’m never too old to have an imagination and to dream big.
This book is dedicated to my “boy band” that inspired it. You were all the best (and worst) group of coworkers and managers I’ll ever have.
A thank you to Limitless Publishing, who continue to make working with them so much fun. A thank you to my editor, Toni Rakestraw, for having patience with me through the editing process.
And a very special thank you to anyone who reads my stories. I appreciate you more than words can say.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alex Gedgaudas is a Wisconsin native and is mostly known for her ability to consume an unnatural amount of coffee. She started her writing career on popular social storytelling websites, eventually gaining the interest of Limitless Publishing. In her free time, Alex can often be found wandering around rural Wisconsin writing Fantasy and Horror stories with the companionship of her loyal English Bulldog, 'Big Mike'. He only occasionally has negative commentary about her work.
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