Knock knock knock... knock knock knock!! The door rattled nosily against the worn out hinges as my landlady banged on it.

"Ms. Wilson! Ms. Wilson!! I know you're in there!!!" a sharp voice screeched from the other side of the door. "You owe me 4 months of rent! I cannot tolerate this long for any longer! You better have the money deposited by tomorrow or I'll be calling the police!" Mrs. Barnes yelled.

I held in my breath and didn't make a single sound. For the past month, Mrs. Barnes came over twice a day- once in the morning and another in the evening for her overdue rent. If I had the money, I wouldn't be avoiding her like this but that was the problem. I didn't have money and I didn't have any other place to go.

In the beginning, Mrs. Barnes stayed for an hour outside, hoping to catch me if I had to go out. Those times were difficult because I couldn't go anywhere unless I wanted to be caught by her. As the days went on, an hour became half an hour. Half an hour turned to 15 minutes. Now, nearly the end of the month, she waits outside just for a couple minutes before leaving.

She threw a few more angry pounds on the door before leaving. The sound of her footsteps slowly faded away and only then, could I let out an exasperated sigh.

Time was running out. The last day of the extended deadline Richard gave me was tomorrow and I still haven't found a job yet. I went to so many job interviews and believe it or not, I failed every one of them. I guess that word spread about what Richard and his minions did and they didn't want me as an employee, scared that something like that would happen to their store.

But I had to keep trying. Giving up was not an option for me. The money I owed Richard was not going to come on it's own. I knew that Richard was not going to give me any more time. Going into hiding from him was not a solution. Finding money to pay him back and paying back Mrs. Barnes were.

I took out my MyTouch from the back pocket of my faded blue jeans and opened the Bank of America app to see how much money I had saved so far. Since it was laggy, it took several seconds for it to open. I typed in my username and password and waited for it to log in.

$609. That's how much I managed to save up for the past 6 months. The amount was far from close to paying both the overdue rent and my father's stupid debt that I still had to pay. Would I be able to pay them both back in time?

I laid back onto my mattress and let out another sigh.

After 20 minutes of pouting and sulking, I decided that it was time to go looking for available job positions again.

Even if there wasn't the incident at the cafe, the jobs that I managed to get never lasted longer than a month or two. And that was all because of my dad's stupid debt. He wanted to start a business. Borrowed $200,000 dollars from a shady place and couldn't pay it back. The business failed and he died soon after. While this all happened, the debt grew. It grew into 1 million dollars. Not one thousand, but one million. And I was given the responsibility of paying back that debt.

I grabbed my old laptop and searched for "available job positions" in the Google search engine. It took a while for it to load. The WiFi in my room wasn't good. Using the word good would be an understatement. The WiFi was terrible.

When it finally loaded, I began scrolling down the page and scanned through the available jobs. I kept repeating this process until my eyes started to hurt. Ugh, this is going to take forever I thought as I massaged my eyes.

When I opened my eyes again, I spotted the perfect job opening.

My eyes grew wide as I read the part about the salary. Your choice of salary? Free apartment?? Was this a dream? I pinched my thigh to check if I was. The sting of pain I felt when my fingers squeezed my thigh told me that I wasn't. This was definitely not a dream. It was actually happening! I hurried and applied. Hopefully, I'll get this job. Then I'll be able to shake off this humongous debt and the rent all at once. And, I'll get a new place to stay too. Now that would be killing 3 birds with 1 stone, haha.

✿ ✿ ✿

For the rest of the day, I kept staring at my phone, anxiously waiting for a call from them, but no one called. By morning, the shimmer of hope that I would be able to rid off my debt and overdue rent was practically nonexistent. Don't be so naive Cali, did you really think you'd actually get a chance to work at such a big company? I scolded myself. What a joke.

I moped around in the apartment until the afternoon when my phone rang.

"Hello?" I answered the phone breathlessly. The shimmer of hope was revived, shining brighter than ever. "Who is it?"

"May I speak to Ms. Wilson?"

"You're speaking to her."

"Hello, this is Wright Corporations calling, we are happy to inform you that you've gotten the position as personal secretary of the CEO Mr. Wright. Please tell us what you would like your salary to be."

"Oh my god, I can't believe this!" I exclaimed in happiness. "Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity! Uhm, I'd like to get seven hundred and five thousand dollars as my pay..and I'd like to get it ahead of time, like.. right away?" The last few words came out inherently because I was so embarrassed by my ridiculous request. The $5,000 was for the rent while the $700,000 was the remainder of the million dollar debt I still had.

"Excuse me? What did you say?" the woman asked for confirmation. "I'm afraid I must've heard you wrong."

"No, you heard it correctly. I would like my salary to be a seven hundred and five thousand dollars."

"Are you serious right now?" I could hear the annoyance in her voice.

"If you could give me that much, I promise I'll slowly work it off."

"Well... we do need the spot filled urgently but how about you come in for an interview first?" the lady suggested. "I have to speak with the higher ups. We'll see then at the interview, if you're qualified and if we can grant your request."

I was getting ahead of myself. I should've known that it was too good to be true. Should I give the interview a try though? But what if they heard about the cafe incident?

"Hello? Hello? Ms. Wilson?" the voice brought me out of my thoughts. "Are you still there?"

"Oh! Yes I'm still here. When will the interview be?" I asked, deciding to give it a go.

There was the sound of papers rustling before she replied. "Tomorrow at 8:30 in the morning. Would that be alright with you?"

"Yes, of course," I replied.

"Okay that's great!" she said cheerfully. "When you arrive, ask for Mrs. Libbs at the front desk."

"I will, thank you."

"Have good day Ms. Wilson." There was a click from the other line.