The Interview (English) *completed*

Chapter 3

"Hey Alex!"
I turned around when I heard a familiar voice call my name.
Camilla's blonde hair was flying in the strong wind as she caught up to me. With my cigarette in one hand and my coffee in the other, I slowed down.
"Hi Camilla."
She looked at me, then at the cigarette. "You know, those really aren't healthy."
I shrugged and continued walking.
"Are you alright? I haven't heard from you in two weeks."
After the call with my mum, I hid myself from everything. I went to work, did what I had to do, but not more. I fell back into my black hole and refused to socialise with anyone. My mother was right, my idea to have an amazing new life in London had failed. After five years I had no friends, no book published and still the same awful job. I was a failure and maybe it was time to accept it.
"I'm sorry, I'm really busy at the moment."
Camilla raised a perfectly plugged eyebrow at me. "And that's your apology for not answering a text in two weeks? I thought we had talked about making plans again."
I stopped walking.
"Oh, so you were serious about that? You don't just feel bad for me for not having anyone else to spend my time with?"
"What? You are kidding, right?"
"Oh, come on. We've been working at the same place for over five years now and you suddenly decide that you want to hang out with me? Drop the sympathy act, I'm not interested."
I walked away from her.
She annoyed me, with her nice smile and her perfect looks. Camilla had everything. The perfect curvy, female body; the perfect job as a respected journalist; a perfect family with a cute baby and the man she loves still around.
I walked to the tube station away from Camilla, as I felt a hand on my shoulder. Why could she not just fuck off?
"I don't know what your problem is, but I'm trying to be honest with you. I thought we had a nice evening and that we could repeat that some other time. I don't care, how you got the idea of my being sympathetic, because for your information, you are not very approachable. You always have this angry face and the short answers, being the boss's secretary with a passion, as if you think you are too good for anyone in the office. It was just a coincidence that I met you in your café and realised you are nicer than you seemed. And when we watched that film, I felt like I really could like you. Once you drop the weird Ms Schneider attitude."
I starred at her for a moment and let her words sink in. She had been intimidated by me? Camilla Westwood was just being nice to me and wanted to hang out?
I started laughing hysterically, not being able to control myself. "I'm so sorry, I had no idea. It wasn't my intention to seem like a total bitch. Even though, I seem to have been quite bitchy recently," my face heated up and I took a sip of coffee.
Camilla smiled softly but didn't say anything.
"Can I make up for my little outbreak by buying you a drink some time?"
"Yes, I think that would be nice. Andrew is driving Milo to his parents for the weekend, so I'm all free until he comes back in a few hours. And then we can finally have some time for the two of us," she smiled and wiggled her eyebrows at me.
Chuckling I said: "Well, if that's the case, then let's go and get some drinks in you."

Camilla took me to a pub not far from the tube station. It was nice, more sophisticated than you would expect from a pub and as full as you'd expect on a Friday night.
God, when was the last time that I had been out on a Friday night?
Camilla seemed to know her way around, in only a few moments she was right at the bar, talking to the bar tender.
"Hey Chloé. This is Alex, a friend of mine. She really needs to loosen up, she had a shitty week."
I opened my mouth at Camilla to tell her off, but given my outbreak earlier, she probably was right about my need for a drink.
"Alex, quel plaisir. I'm Chloé. An old friend of Camilla. I'll have your drinks ready in a minute."
She gave my hand a quick squeeze over the counter.
Chloé was gorgeous. Her heavy French accent seemed elegant and the way she moved around in that flowy black blouse and tight burgundy trousers didn't quite fit behind the bar of a pub and more onto the streets of Paris. She had wild brown locks that spread all around her young face and gorgeous green eyes that stood out like emeralds against her deep complexion.
Despite her looking too elegant, she knew exactly what she was doing when she mixed the drinks Camilla had ordered.
"I hope you like Gin Tonic? I didn't think you were the Cosmopolitan kind of woman." Camilla gave me a careful look.
"Yes, I do, actually, thank you."
Smiling I took the glass and leaned against the bar stool.
Chloé was busy serving other customers, so Camilla and I let her work without bothering her. We talked a lot. First about work stuff, some issues with an interview last month, a messed-up headline and then about some more private stuff.
"Okay Alex, have a look around. Which one of these men will you take home tonight?"
I choked on my drink, coughing until my eyes watered.
"Oh, come on. You didn't really think I would accept the fact that you are single?"
Still unable to speak I tried to catch my breath. My throat burned from the alcohol going down the wrong pipe.
"Camilla, ma cherié, you seriously need to stop making people incomfortable. This is really awkward."
Camilla seemed to ignore Chloé's judging eyes and continued to look at the men in the pub.
"What about that blond one over there?"
Facing her I was glad to see that she just nodded her head in a subtle way rather than pointing her finger at the guy she was talking about.
I shook my head slowly. There was probably no easy way out of this.
"Not my type. And really, I said I wanted to make up for the way I talked to you earlier, not make out for it."
"Oh yes, I forgot, you only like your guys like Greek demi gods.
I rolled my eyes at her and turned around to Chloé who seemed like she was done working for tonight.
"I actually don't know this woman. She works in my office and just followed me here."
Chloé started to laugh. "I know that feeling. When I first met her, I only hung out with her because she was blackmailing me."
I took another sip of my drink and chuckled. "What was she blackmailing you with?"
"I found out that Chloé was short for Clothilde and she was very embarrassed of that at that time."
Chloé laughed. "Mais oui! I was very embarrassed of that. Camilla actually kept her promise for quite a while, but that only meant I had to hang out with her for longer than expected."
I smiled at their little story and took another sip of my drink.
"How come that you are already done working?" Camilla looked behind the counter and back at Chloé.
"Oh, I had the early shift today, so I just had to finish off."
We talked for a little while until the sudden ringing of someone's phone interrupted us.
"Oh merde! I was supposed to have Chinese with Julie tonight. It's our two-year anniversary and she wanted to do something special. I could convince her that we can make the night special without having to leave the apartment. So, we agreed on having dinner together and then... well, a lady never kisses and tells, but you know what they say about the French. Adieu."
Just like that she gave both Camilla and me a kiss on each cheek and then left.
I was a bit confused for a second, I think I had more social interaction in the last two hours than in the last two years.
Camilla was just laughing.
"Oh, I love that woman. Poor Julie though, having a girlfriend like that is definitely not easy. She might as well have a boyfriend then." She took a sip of her drink, it was our second round of Gin Tonics, "Those are Julie's words by the way, not mine. But enough about them, what do you think about that guy over there?"
"Again, I am very sorry for the way I acted; I had a very nice time tonight."
I stood awkwardly at the entrance to my tube station.
"That's alright. I had a nice time too, and I am not saying that to make you feel good," she chuckled, and I was happy that she was already joking about it.
"Thank you. I am glad that I got to know you a bit better. And not just the things I thought I knew about you."
Camilla looked at me with her eyebrows pulled up. "What things did you think about me?"
I just had a wide smile on my lips. "I'll tell you next time," with that I turned around to the stairs.
"Okay, text me."
I gave my co-worker a small wave. "I will. Have fun with Andrew."
I could hear Camilla's laugh behind me, fading away as I went down to the platforms.
Monday morning hit me like a train.
When I came into the office, my boss was already glaring at me, even though I was three minutes early.
"Ms. Schneider, my office please."
Sighing I put my stuff down at my desk and followed him. "Yes?"
He gave me an enormous list of chores and I swallowed a moan at the thought of running through the corridors in my heels.
"And also, Ms. Schneider, I would appreciate it if you would hand in your holiday request a bit earlier next time. You were lucky that those weeks were not planned out."
I hadn't had a single holiday in the last three years, so shut up you bastard.
"Yes of course Mr. Pearson. I will keep that in mind."
My entire morning was me running up and down the hallways, taking the lift up and down the building and talking to so many people that I wouldn't have remembered who I had talked to if I hadn't checked them of my to do list.
Camilla and I met up for lunch again and that was the highlight of my day. Three weeks ago, I was looking forward to being alone, now I really enjoyed sitting in that small coffee shop, eating a bagel and talking to Camilla.
She told me about her nice weekend with Andrew and I noticed, how she couldn't stop smiling for the entire hour that we were sitting together.
"And you? How was your weekend?"
"Not as great as yours but really nice. I got some writing done, talked to my parents again about visiting them for my birthday and just relaxing, I guess. I haven't had a weekend that nice in a while," I smiled at her.
But her jaw dropped. "Wait, what? Your birthday? When?"
"April 20th. Why?"
Camilla ignored me, pulled a planner out of her purse and opened it. "When are you flying to Germany?"
I rolled my eyes at her, as she was scribbling in her little book.
"April 19th."
Camilla let out a heavy sigh. "Oh good, there is a weekend right before that and it seems like I just have to move this dinner to another day..."
She trailed off, when I interrupted her.
"What exactly are you doing? I won't do anything for my birthday, so don't worry about your appointments."
"Are you kidding? Darling, it's your birthday, we need to celebrate."
I rolled my eyes. "I'm turning 29, it's not even a big birthday, so no need to get all excited."
Camilla ignored me once again.
"We could actually do a birthday weekend. You can stay overnight at my place, Andrew said he was going to be out of town for the weekend. We can watch the last film of our Rising marathon, go to a club afterwards, maybe Chloé and Julie are free as well and then we can go out for brunch on Sunday. What do you think?"
I was overwhelmed.
Camilla seemed like she had everything planned out already and was looking at me more excited than children on Christmas day.
"I don't know, as I said, I didn't even want to do anything for my birthday, so I am a bit lost now."
"Oh please, it's not like we are organising a party. We wanted to watch the film any way, so why not connect it with a nice birthday dinner and dancing with Chloé and Julie?" she paused for a moment. "I'll just tell them then that you don't want to spend your birthday with them and rather sit in your flat all on your own."
Camilla was playing the blackmailing card on me and I rolled my eyes.
"Stop that, you are right, it would be nice if we could do something for my birthday, thank you."
I wasn't sure if this was a good idea, but on the other hand did it not seem like I had much of a choice.
Camilla shut her planner, slid it back into her purse and got up.
"Let's go, dear. We only have a few minutes left and Mr. Pearson will kill us if we are late."

AN: I hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know in the comments or by leaving a vote :)
Xo Lena