Endearing Stranger (Sample)

"She's the one"

Three months later, in the beginning of the afternoon, in the cold March weather, Catherine found herself in front of a tall building. 

Oh my gosh, she thought, how many floors are there?!

She was in front of DA group's headquarters. The day had finally come. Even though she didn't believe she could make it, she still worked very hard on her application and the long written project that was required, because she didn't like doing things halfheartedly. If she was going to do it, then she was going to do it well. She was surprised to realize she didn't know much about the unique group. She knew as much as any random consumer, she used some of their products, especially cosmetics. But as to how the whole DA system worked, she didn't really know. It had become so big, it seemed impossible to know who did what. Plus, she wasn't really interested.

The offer for the position officially came out one month after she'd talked to Taylor about it. Thankfully the written project did not rely on her knowledge of DA group, but was a test of her ability to organize information, a lot of it. What's important? What's useless? What's put in there to simply confuse you? It was a hassle but she did her best. She was even more motivated to work hard since Tim Bentley's advances had become more and more bothersome, more and more insistent. 

Her parents, like always, encouraged her, and told her DA group would be lucky to have her around. Even though her parents' words were essentially what had kept her motivated in everything she did, this time she did not allow herself to be swayed. However, two months later, to her surprise, she got a call basically saying that she was admitted to the last round of the selection. At that moment, hope started taking root inside her. 

Maybe, I can actually make it, she thought. But immediately after she'd think: Seriously, get your head out of the clouds, who do you think you are? 

She went back and forth from putting herself down, to encouraging herself. So on the appointed day, as she stood still in front of the automatic doors, she psyched herself: 

This is it, here we go, you can do this.  

The CEO, Henry Davis, sole owner of all of DA group, had built his empire from nothing fifty five years ago. He was now a grouchy old rich billionaire. And from what Taylor told her, a pervy old man, that only hired women based on their looks. Catherine didn't want any of that. Taylor had informed her about this the day before, so Catherine decided to change the outfit she planned to wear. Instead of her pleated black and red dress, she tried out her plain grey  knee length skirt, but then decided, since she has beautiful legs, not to show them at all. So for safety she changed to trousers. She wore her high heels, then, once again, changed her mind and wore flats. 

She wore almost no makeup, and tied her freshly washed wavy hair into a neat bun. She persuaded herself that she dressed neatly, not plainly. She saw her reflection in the glass of the automatic doors as she stood outside. 

I look so serious, she chuckled, well  I'm here for business and nothing else. 

Even if her chances of being hired by the old man were less than 1%, if it ever occurred she wanted to be a 100% sure it was solely due to her mind, and that alone. After motivating herself one last time she finally entered the intimidating building. 

Waouh..., she marveled. 

Her eyes widened, and she felt her heart beat quicken a bit. There were so many people, a lot of them rushing, going back and forth, and yet everything and everyone seemed so well organized. Each person looked like they had a particular goal. All dressed corporately, all wanting to give their highest performance. She stood at the entrance still amazed, the inside was as impressive as outside.