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CHAPTER 27

“So, Sophie, thanks for making the time at the last minute. I really appreciate it. We want to get this role filled as soon as possible. Sorry for the scramble, too. Things are a little busy around here.”

“No problem. I was happy to hear back so quickly,” she replied with her interview smile.

“Great. I was hoping we could start by–” Her former and now potentially future colleague stopped when he heard something coming from Sophie’s side of the camera.

That something was Bryce, who had just unlocked the door and was walking into Sophie’s apartment carrying three bags of groceries.

“Hey, I got–” Bryce stopped when she noticed Sophie was sitting at her desk, still dressed for her interview. “Oh, sorry,” she whispered.

“Um…” Sophie turned back to the camera. “My girlfriend just got home. Sorry about that.”

“Oh, no problem,” he said.

“You were supposed to be done already,” Bryce whispered as she headed into Sophie’s kitchen.

“Sorry, she was at the store,” Sophie told him.

“Do you want to reschedule?”

“No, I’m okay. She might just need to put groceries away in the background, if you’re okay with that.”

“Not a problem for me,” he replied. “So, let’s start with what has you wanting to return to Arnette?”

“That’s an easy one. I loved it there,” she said, trying to drown out the sound of Bryce putting things away in the fridge. “I didn’t really want to leave the first time, but I had an offer that would allow me to work closer to home.”

“New Orleans?” he asked.

“Yes. My family is near here. I went to school in New York, and I’d planned to come back here when I finished, but I got the job at Arnette, so I stayed. When I was ready to move back home to be closer to my family, Arnette wasn’t hiring remotely.”

“We’ve been a stickler for having people work in the office; that’s true,” he said. “I think we’re finally turning the corner on that, though, which is great. I think you can get so much more done at home.”

At that exact moment, almost as if on cue to prove the guy wrong, Bryce decided to pull what sounded like several crinkly bags of something out of the reusable grocery bags Sophie had given her to go shopping with.

“Yes, you can,” she said, plastering a smile on her face and trying to ignore the distraction. “Ididlove working in the office there, though. I met a lot of great people.”

“Would you be willing to fly up here once a quarter if needed?”

“Of course,” she replied. “Travel isn’t a problem. My parents are just older now, and my grandmother has moved into an assisted living facility, so I want to live here, but I don’t mind going to the office when it’s needed.”

“What about this role excites you?”

“Shit,” Bryce whispered when she dropped something onto the floor with a loud thud.

“Uh…” Sophie turned to her and then quickly back to the camera. “I liked solving the problems we had at the time, working with people to put together the plans of attack, and seeing the impact our work made.”

“And are you not getting that where you are now?”

“No,” she said. “Truthfully, I left Arnette for this company because they offered me a larger role and bigger team and impact than I actually ended up with. They pulled a bit of a bait and switch on me. I stayed for a while because I was hoping things would change, but it hasn’t, and I saw that the job at Arnette was open remotely now, which made me really happy.”

“And you don’t mind having to start over a bit? It’s a rung beneath where you left us at, technically.”

“No, not at all,” she replied. “I liked all the jobs I had there, and I realize that by leaving, I gave up a few years there where I could have moved up, so I don’t mind starting over.”

She tried to focus on the man asking her questions right now, but Bryce was still making noise in the kitchen. Sophie could tell she wasn’t doing it on purpose, but it was still distracting. The original time for her interview had been for an hour earlier. She’d kissed Bryce goodbye after getting ready and had gotten a message from the recruiter that they’d need to push it an hour. She had texted Bryce to let her know, but she must not have checked her messages while at the store.

Bryce finished unpacking and doing whatever else she was doing in her kitchen about ten minutes into the interview. Sophie saw her pick up her bag out of the corner of her eye and head to the bedroom, which meant that the noise and distractions should be done now.