Flirting with the HR Girl

Chapter 42

Jennifer took a deep breath and quickly navigated through the corporate site to the internal job opening. The application turned out to be much harder and more in-depth than Jennifer expected. When she'd originally applied at Peterson's, she'd applied for a sales position on the floor. She'd been quickly promoted to administrative assistant but hadn't even filled out an application. The sales application was pretty much a history of where she had been and if she liked to sell things. Jennifer had stretched the truth on the resume, saying that she enjoyed selling but knew that any retail job would expect that of her. This application wanted to know what her career goals were, how she handled certain conflicts, and where she saw herself in ten years. Married to Austin with two kids. Her brain involuntarily added that part, letting her know it would be easy to fill out. She quickly closed the application and opened a word document. She knew she would have to get her answers in order before she submitted them. She was so happy that Cynthia had given her the freedom to work on it while at work. She squeezed it in between new hires and other issues in the store, along with fielding a couple of different things for Austin.

When she was done, she thought she had answered all the questions adequately. She was sad for a moment that she couldn't write about her fairy tale ending with Austin in her ten-year plan. The practical part of her knew they obviously wanted her career plan. But the impractical part of her wanted to plan what she thought of as her real life. Her life with her new college degree and her wonderful husband and, hopefully someday, beautiful children. She clicked submit on the application before the end of the day but wasn't nearly as excited as she thought she would be.

"What's wrong?" Selena asked when she popped into the HR office unannounced.

"Nothing, I actually just submitted my application for HR manager," Jennifer said looking up at her friend.

"Squeee!" Selena jumped up and down. "That's so exciting!"

"Yeah, it is," Jennifer said starting to smile.

"Why aren't you more excited?" Selena asked settling down.

"I guess I don't want to get my hopes up," Jennifer said trying not to think of the reason she might really be upset. "I have to find managers that say I will be good at it. I'm probably going to use my old boss."

"They would be crazy not to promote you," Selena said plopping down into the chair across from her. "I'm saying this, not just as your friend, but because you're incredibly professional and hard-working, and they would be crazy not to promote you."

"Well, thank you for saying that," Jennifer said still unable to shake the uneasy feeling. "I just hope it works out."

"Don't hope, make it work out," Selena said and happened to glance down at the desk. The applications for Austin were spread out and had Jennifer's handwriting on them. "Speaking of professionalism, have you been helping Austin more than you should be? Have you been calling these applicants?"

"I've only called a couple," Jennifer said immediately embarrassed. "He's so overwhelmed with his new position. I thought I could help him out just a little bit."

"No, you felt bad for dumping him and you're doing his job," Selena said.

"That's not what this is," Jennifer said quickly gathering up the applications and stuffing them into a file folder.

"It's exactly what it is because it's exactly what I tried to get you to do when you first started," Selena said crossing her arms over her chest. "Here I am going on about how professional you are and you're helping old boy on the side."

"I'm just doing a little bit more than I should, nothing that would jeopardize my new position," Jennifer said getting defensive and putting the file back in her cabinet

"Yeah, because you wouldn't want to jeopardize your new position," Selena said giving her a skeptical look. "I'm starting to wonder if that's the only thing that's important to you."

"You're right; I'll stop helping him," Jennifer said surprised at how upset Selena was. Here she had thought lying to her face about a boy was bad but offering to help someone else with work was the line too far to cross. "I just feel terrible about how I left things with him, and I guess it gives me a little excuse to talk to him."

"You can still be friends with him, Jenny," Selena said with a softer look and tone in her voice. "I just don't want you not seeing him because of this job and then turning around and self-sabotaging yourself anyway."

"Once again, you're the smart one," Jennifer said as a joke, but it fell flat. She knew she should be happy to have Selena there to call her out on her crap, but it still didn't feel good. Plus, the idea of never talking to Austin other than polite chitchat, seemed so depressing. Maybe that is why the new job application didn't get her as excited as it should have. She still had way too many doubts about getting the job and getting the guy.

"If you would just realize that I'm always right, things would be a lot better around here," Selena said and this time they both laughed. "Now let's go out next weekend and celebrate your new application and soon-to-be new position."

"Yes, that would be fun," Jennifer said smiling to herself. She at least deserved to have a little fun.