Page 82 of The Token Yank

Chapter 24

Eamonn – Two WeeksLater

“What would you say is your greatestweakness?”

“What kind of bollocks question is that?” Eamonn gave Rafe a raised eyebrow and took a sip of his beer. Rafe stood behind the bar at Apothecary wiping down thecounter.

“That’s good.” Rafe pointed at him drinking. “If you need a moment to think of an answer or if you’re nervous, take a sip of water to pace yourself. Always accept when they offer you a beverage, but don’t drink the whole thing. That makes you seem either too nervous or toocomfortable.”

“What if they offer abeer?”

“Ask for water instead. Your propensity for saying the c-word skyrockets the second alcohol touches your lips. Now…” Rafe gestured for him to answer thequestion.

Rafe’s boss let him bartend during another quiet Thursday afternoon. Since the place was dead, Rafe had Eamonn come in for a quirky form of torture. The mockinterview.

“Do you have all of these questions rolling around in your head?” Eamonn asked. Rafe had no notecards, but he had been on interviews for internships andwhatnot.

“Stop stalling. The interview for the management trainee program is tomorrow. Nepotism won’t do you any good if you completely bomb yourinterview.”

It was going to be a massive interview. Eamonn would sit on one side of a long conference table opposite five executives and be subjected to rapid-fire questioning. His uncle hadn’t sugarcoated it forhim.

“All right.” Eamonn straightened his spine on the barstool and cleared his throat. “My greatest weakness is probably that I can be a bit lazy in completingthings.”

Rafe made a buzzer sound. “Tryagain.”

“I am working on being a more punctualperson.”

Buzzersound.

“What? I leave the toilet seat up? I giveup!”

“The key is to give a weakness that isn’t really a weakness. For example, ‘I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew, especially when it comes to an area I’m very passionate about. I’m hoping in this position, I can get better at delegatingtasks.’”

Eamonn took out his phone and did his best to type that out from memory. “You’re good. Although I don’t think I can use the passionate part withoutlaughing.”

“Whynot?”

“I’m not passionate about boxes, not even when used as a euphemism forfanny.”

“I would hope not,” Rafe said. He put down his rag. “Don’t you get it, Eamonn? It’s not about boxes. I doubt your uncle dreamed of working for a box company when he was a boy. This program is about management, marketing, learning the mechanics of business. That’s what you have to emphasize you’re passionate about. You want to bring a product to the masses and grow marketshare.”

Eamonn got an uneasy feeling in his stomach, the same as when he tried eating paper as a boy. He knew it was a bad idea as soon as he swallowed, and he paid theconsequences.

“Are you passionate about those things?” Rafeasked.

“I mean, yeah.” Eamonn swirled his glassaround.

“That didn’t sound veryconvincing.”

“What about you? How did you get so intorocks?”

“I used to go into the woods behind our house and try to break apart rocks. I’d learned that rocks had been around for millions of years. These same stones I was messing with could’ve been from prehistoric times. I managed to break open a rock by smashing it against a bigger rock, and inside was this beautiful green-and-purple crystalformation.”

“Little Rafe, breaking rocks and putting them in his knapsack.” Eamonn laced his fingers through Rafe’s. Inside though, he felt jealousy for not having focus like Rafe did. He wasn’t able to indulge his passion as a kid. He was busy helping his mum andsisters.

“I want to work for the National Parks Service or the EPA, making sure other kids can discover rocks in the future. I interviewed the head of the EPA when I was in high school for a class project. I called and emailed until I got through, even got to go to his office in D.C. and meet withhim.”

“They’d be idiots not to hire you.” He rubbed Rafe’s palm with his callousedthumb.