Aidan/Emlia: "Dress for the job you want..."

We were sitting down to stream a movie Friday night when Monica's phone rang and Rusty, surprisingly, picked it up, looked at the number, and answered.  After a couple of quick things that barely seemed like a conversation - "Okay...  Really?  That's great!  Er, for me...  Comfortable shoes...  Ten AM sharp..."  He hung it up and then lifted it in the air like a trophy.  "Listen up, freeloaders, I've got a job!  Starting tomorrow, I am a brand ambassador for Dragon Adrenaline!"

Kutter raised an eyebrow.  "And that is...?"

"Like, the fifth-most popular energy drink in China.  Doesn't sound like much, but #5 in a country of a billion is a lot of people, and this little company in Queens got the American bottling rights.  Ground floor bay-bee!"

I nodded warily.  "Sounds pretty last minute."

"Yeah, I guess the girl they hired first found out she'd landed a similar job with a drug company - a lot of the girls there were sort of treating this as backup for if one of them didn't work out, but they were also talking about that as a great way to meet doctors.  Anyway, I haven't even taken chemistry yet, so this is a better fit for me.  Or Monica.  Or me pretending to be Monica, really.  But the important part is - first!"

We laughed, watched the movie, and then turned in; the next morning Rusty was off, excited for his first job.   I tried not to fret too much, forcing myself to go to a movie with Kutter so I wouldn't be checking my phone every minute.  Around five or so, I got a text saying it was going well because they wanted him to stay on for the night shift and not to wait up.

Fat chance, but it was about 2am when the apartment door opened and Rusty came in, wearing short-shorts and a branded crop-top, giving me a nod and something about how they sure take that "city that never sleeps" thing seriously before walking into Monica's room, flopping down on the bed, and falling asleep without even turning the light off.  I did and closed the door.

The next morning, he must have freaked out looking at the alarm he didn't set, because I was taking a shower when I heard pounding on the bathroom door.  "Hey, could you let me in there?  I've got to go to work and I'm still sweaty from yesterday!"  I sighed and quickly grabbed a robe so he could rush in.

He came out dressed in an identical outfit to the one he'd come home in the night before, and Kutter, just getting out of bed himself, gave a little smirk.  "Oh, so 'brand ambassador' means 'booth babe'."

"It does not!  I mean, that's not the whole job.  Anyway, today's street fair is supposed to finish up at six, so I won't be so late.  Bye!"  And he ran out the door, taking a swig of his employer's product.

Kutter looked at me after he left.  "We're going to go check this out, right?"

I wasn't looking to see Rusty looking silly the way Kutter maybe was, but...  "Oh yeah."

We didn't go straight away, instead waiting until the afternoon, figuring out where streets were closed off and walking around.  Eventually we found the Dragon Adrenaline booth - just a little canopy with a folding table with a bunch of miniature Solo cups that Rusty and a red-haired girl about the same age we appear to be handing them out and filling them from a soda machine when they were running low.  At one point during this Rusty had to bend down to reconnect a hose so that his butt was sticking up, and one of the guys behind him reached out and slapped it.  A look of surprise and anger flashed across Rusty's face, and I was about to step forward, but the other girl got in between them.  "Hey, looks like you've got enough energy that you don't need any of this."  It looked like it was going to get ugly for a second, but apparently the vibe shifted just enough that the group this guy was in walked off, though they knocked some of the cups on the table over on the way out.  By then, Rusty was standing up straight again and chatting with folks at the other end of the table.

I turned and walked away, and Kutter chased me.  "Hey, Da--Emilia, what's the rush?"

"Nothing, just...  Rusty's working, and being Monica besides, so probably wouldn't appreciate us interrupting?"  It felt better to say that than bring up how I had been pushing them to get jobs, which of course was going to lead to them being in spaces where men felt them up.  And for all that I wanted to intervene as a father, I knew that I probably wouldn't have done so as well as that girl did.

Rusty didn't seem much worse for the wear as a result; he texted that he would be bringing pizza on the way home, and showed up having gone to a fancier place than we usually ordered from, and happily belched his way through dinner saying he was had been sampling the product all day and his whole belly was full of carbonation.

The next morning, he came out of Monica's room in a red skirt, matching blazer and purse, white shoes with a chunky two-inch heel, and a top that showed about an inch of cleavage, posing in front of Kutter.  "Well, what do you think?  If you owned a convenience store, would you buy super-caffeinated soda that tastes like sesame oil from this girl?"

Kutter gave a thumbs-up.  "Sure, why not?  Though I think they're called 'bodegas' here."

"Cool!"  The phone in his purse rang, and he took it out.  "Hello, this is Monica...  Really?  Wow!...  Okay, I'll be in as fast as the subway will take me!"  He hung up and looked at his brother.  "I made a sale yesterday, and they want me to deliver the first order to help cement the relationship!"

They gave each other a high five, but I felt a little confused.  "You made a sale?"

"What, you didn't think my entire job was standing around looking pretty, did you?"  I have to admit, I had been thinking that from what I saw the day before.  "That's part of it, sure, but they also want me to visit all of the individually owned convenience stores - uh, bodegas - and pitch them on the product.  One of the folks at the fair yesterday owns one and called an order in after hours, so I've already got my first commission!"  He ran over and hugged me.  "I'm so glad I can help out like this - like, I was scared that I'd just be dead weight, but I really think I can help!"  Suddenly embarrassed, he stepped back and smoothed out his outfit.  "Anyway, I'll see you all later - good luck on your interviews today!"

And with that, my 15-year-old son was off on his first real day as a a sales girl.

Kutter and I both had interviews today, of course.  My last scheduled one was at 2 PM, at a mid-sized publisher - not Penguin Random House, but not some tiny vanity press, either, and it went pretty well - for all that I'd felt kind of lost trying to get a job with Emilia's degree, seeing Rusty find something made me a bit more confident, and all of the day's interviews seemed like they went pretty well.

As I was leaving the last one, though, the person who had interviewed me accompanied me back to the lobby, saying they'd be in touch, then turned to a girl sitting where I'd been half an hour before. "Hi!  Are you Katey?"

I turned around to scope out the competition, only to see it was Kutter - and he was wearing a black pencil skirt, four-inch heels, and a white blouse, with his hair up in a tight bun.  He uncrossed his legs and stood to shake our interviewer's hand, eyes widening a bit when he saw me but recovering quickly, letting her usher him to the back.

When he left the building forty-five minutes later, I was still sitting on the steps, sipping a coffee, and grinned sheepishly.  "Hey, uh, Emilia, isn't this a coincidence!"

"I guess so, Katey.  I guess Monica really inspired you this morning, huh, going with the secretary cospay?"

Kutter looked confused.  "You mean cosplay?  But, no, I..."  There were lots of people around, so he pointed at an open space across the street.  "Why don't we talk about it over there?"  I nodded and we crossed, finding a bench where he crossed his legs knee-over-knee.  "Okay, I know this must seem strange, but well, you know how the interviews have gone, right?  Like, a lot of shops and restaurants saying that they're kind of worried someone with a degree in English Literature will leave as soon as they find a better opportunity than waiting tables, or them looking at you like they knew you were a fake?"  I nodded.  "Well, so, I figured I'd try and make sure the vibe wasn't off.  I sort of started scoping out what folks working in places like this who looked like they'd just graduated were wearing, then checked to see if Katey had left me any clothes like that, and went looking for YouTube videos on how to do the bun and practicing walking in these heels."

"So, dress for the job you want?"

His face lit up like he'd never heard that saying; maybe he hadn't.  "Right!  Exactly!  I started going on interviews in this sort of outfit last week, and it feels like people are looking at me a little less weird.  I feel kind of tense, but maybe they figure everyone in for an interview feels tense."  He looked away from me.  "I, uh, kind of made sure to change back into something less girly before you and Rusty get back to the apartment, or if I think you're there, I'll have a spare outfit and change in the laundry room downstairs."  He opened his bag and showed me the slacks and sneakers inside.  "Although I guess if he's okay with us seeing him in a skirt, maybe I should be too."  His phone buzzed and he checked it.  "Well, one more interview today.  See you at home."

I nodded and wished him goodbye, then got on the subway to get out of Manhattan.  I'm not sure what Kutter got up to or how long that interview took, because Rusty actually made it back to the apartment first, though only by ten minutes or so, and he was surprised when Kutter came through the door.  "Whoa, nice legs, bro!"  We both gave him a look, and he looked hurt that we might consider him insincere.  "What, Kutter got some nice legs from Katey!  And the bun is something else, because I am unreasonably scared of hairpins."

Katey laughed.  "Yeah, I'm not sure I'll want to do this every morning if I get hired somewhere, but thanks for noticing."

They started talking about their day - that this often doesn't really include me is probably a topic for another post, and I went into Emilia's room, looked in the closet, and in the mirror, and tried to figure out what I should do for tomorrow's interviews.  Kutter may not have known "dress for the job you want", but both he and Rusty seemed to figure it out in their own ways, much quicker than I did.  If they ask me later, I'll probably tell them that I was just giving them space to adapt at their own pace, but sometimes it feels like they're the ones affording that to me.

-Aidan/Emilia