8 You've Totally Got This

"He bought you candy? And specifically said it was for Valentine's Day?" Aubrey screeched as she met up for lunch with Eden on Tuesday.

She nodded as she swirled her straw around in her soda. "Yeah and I liked all of them. He paid attention to details from a previous conversation. Guys don't do that. At least not the ones that are interested in me."

Her best friend was impressed. "It does take a special guy to remember things like that. Do you still think he isn't hitting on you?"

Eden wasn't sure what to think. The fact that Troy specifically said it was for Valentine's Day seemed like he was interested but the words he said to her couldn't exactly be counted as a confession.

After he told her he thought she was really cool and that she made the job more bearable, the casualness of the conversation resumed as if nothing had happened. And he never said he liked her.

He did apologize for potentially overstepping his bounds in case she did have a boyfriend but that didn't necessarily mean he wanted to date her. He might simply be aware of the problem of an unattached male giving an attached female a present.

Ugh, this was so frustrating! This was the first major thing Troy had done that could potentially be constituted as flirting. They were just talking the rest of the time, though there was that weird compliment the other day…

"I don't know," Eden admitted. "I don't know what to think about any of this anymore. He's really nice and I have a lot of fun talking to him but I don't even know what he looks like. It's kind of hard to believe anyone would hit on me while wearing a dog costume."

Aubrey laughed. "Fair enough. Maybe he has acne or mascot head hair or something and doesn't want you to see him."

"I wouldn't care about that!"

"I never said you would. Only that it might explain why he's never taken the costume off while hanging out with you."

Eden frowned. Was it really because he was self-conscious about something? All this time, she had thought it was because he didn't want to bother with taking the stupid thing on and off. It might be a difficult thing to do. She wouldn't know; she had never worn any sort of mascot costume.

"Guys are weird. Let's leave it at that," she said with a sigh. "In other news, I have a second job interview after this."

Aubrey grinned at her and reached out to grasp her hands on top of the table. "That's great! I wondered why you dressed up so fancy to meet me. What's it for?"

"It's for a pharmaceutical company. It isn't salaried but it does involve working in a lab rather than fieldwork, which is what I wanted to do. It pays double per hour what Freddie's does so I would gladly take it. It seems like a decent first job in the field."

Getting a dream job straight out of college was unrealistic to hope for. Truthfully, getting this sort of job would be much more than decent but Eden didn't want Aubrey to know how desperately she wanted it in case it didn't pan out. The girl went overboard with the sympathy sometimes.

Truth be told, she should probably take anything that wasn't food service or retail at this point but her pride wouldn't allow her to admit that. She stubbornly insisted on only applying for chemistry-related jobs. She had studied to be a chemist so a chemist was what she would be.

"You've totally got this," Aubrey encouraged. "Your main problem is confidence! So let me spend the rest of our lunch psyching you up so you feel like the Amazon warrior queen that you are to go out and nail this thing.

"You're incredibly intelligent, efficient, have a great memory for detail, and have never missed a deadline once during college even if you were sick or drunk because I dragged you out partying with me. You're also beautiful, talented, funny, have a great body—"

"Stop," Eden said with a laugh. Her best friend was ridiculous. "Are you psyching me up for a job interview or a date?"

"Well, we were talking about your work guy earlier," Aubrey shrugged. "But seriously, E, you're going to nail this. You are absolutely qualified for this job so all you have to do is show them that. Okay?"

A fond smile bloomed on her face. Aubrey really was the best friend she could ask for, even if she did go a bit overboard sometimes. "Yeah. Thanks, Aubs."

They parted ways with a hug at the end of their lunch date and Eden did feel more confident about her interview. She made it there fifteen minutes early and sat in her car touching up her makeup so she didn't look like an idiot for coming in too soon.

She struck a power pose and said aloud how awesome she was to the sun visor mirror. Aubrey read something a while back about this tricking you into being more confident before an interview or important presentation.

It must be effective at least some of the time because she managed to get a junior editor job on the first try after she graduated. Hopefully it would be effective for this interview too.

Eden strode into the office confidently in her favorite pair of high heels and the only pencil skirt she owned. Skirts weren't really her thing and they weren't lab appropriate anyway but she had bought it specifically for interviews. Her mom said pencil skirts gave off a better impression than slacks for whatever reason.

"Hello, my name is Eden McBride and I'm here for an interview at one," she said calmly despite her pounding heart as she approached the receptionist.

"Go ahead and sign the visitor's log and I'll call back for you. Take a seat when you're done," the receptionist replied after gesturing to the chained pen on the counter.

Eden's nerves multiplied exponentially as she waited but she maintained a cool and calm posture in her chair. She couldn't look nervous when the interviewer approached. She really needed to land this one and they had already interviewed her once! She was closer than she had been with any of the others.