Finley stood in front of the mirror in his bedroom, frowning to himself as he attempted to look in at his own reflection. His figure blurred in the reflection, and the closer he got, the worse he appeared. And since he needed to be as close as possible to put in some eye color-changing contacts, the inevitable blur was making the process much harder than it should've been.
The blur was something Finley would never be able to avoid, but at least he could alter how his eyes appeared. That way, he wouldn't immediately come across as looking like a vampire. It was an effective line of defense, and it did well enough as long as his reflection wasn't obviously showing anywhere.
However, when he couldn't see himself to actually put the contacts on his eyes, the vampire got rightfully frustrated.
He hated contacts.
He hated putting them on.
And he hated how they felt.
Just as Finley had finally finished up setting the contacts that gave his eyes a dark brown appearance on, he took a step backward and let out an overexaggerated sigh.
"Finally. That took way too long to do," Finley groaned out his words to himself, immediately turning to check the clock on the wall.
5:34 pm. It should be dark by now. My interview is in an hour, so I should get ahead and leave. Just in case I hit traffic.
The vampire looked one more time in the mirror to make sure he was presentable enough to leave as he had planned. Brown contacts in. Black button-down shirt hanging loosely over a plain black t-shirt. A pair of his nicer black pants fitted perfectly over his black and red Timberland boots.
Of course, he couldn't exactly see himself, but he knew he looked good enough for his interview at Buggies & Baskets.
The drive across the city to get to the new store was somewhat stressful, but the vampire did his best to remain level-headed and go over what he remembered interviews to be.
I've been hanging tags for-- Finley paused in the middle of his thought as he mentally went over his resume. Three years. The other two were just in the grocery department, stocking overnight and helping the scanning coordinator at the time.
The vampire nodded to himself as he turned around the last corner to get into the parking lot of the place he was going to try to get employed at. As soon as he did, though, his eyes went wide.
Gray was not exaggerating when they said this place was massive!
The parking lot itself was enough to intimidate anyone. The two-acre lot had the capacity to hold almost up to five hundred cars at once. There were lamp posts stationed at the ends of each aisle of available spaces, illuminating the entire lot in the darkness of night.
Naturally, Finley parked near the back left of the parking lot. He was used to having to walk a short distance to get inside, believing the front spots belonged to the customers that regularly shopped at their store. As he began walking towards his destination, he couldn't help but look up at the monolith of a grocery store.
The front of the store itself was also lit up brightly, giving off an inviting atmosphere as music played over a couple of speakers hanging over the entrance and exit automatic doors. The entire front of the store was decorated in festive November decorations from pumpkins to displays of apple cider and fake decorative floral pieces. Glass was used to cover the storefront, adding to that inviting homely atmosphere with being able to see into the store and how bright it was in there as well.
Finley excitedly made his way inside, actually getting a bit of a smile as he looked around at the lobby and entrance to the store. This was, arguably, one of the nicest grocery stores he had ever seen. From what he could see from where he stood, there was plenty of shopping carts, or 'buggies' as the locals liked to call them, available for use. Everything appeared to be spotlessly cleaned as if they had been expecting a health department audit. The produce department, as well as the first couple aisles he could see from where he stood, were all stocked and neatly faced up to make it look like they were primed and ready for business.
The store was immaculate.
As Finley was taking it all in, almost looking like a kid in a candy store, a familiar voice called to him from afar.
"Fin! Yo, Finley!" Gray exclaimed as they caught sight of their friend, "Over here, buddy!"
The vampire instinctively turned in the direction his name was being called from, lifting a hand to wave at Gray as he simultaneously began walking to them.
"Why didn't you tell me how amazing this place looks?" Finley immediately blurted the question out as soon as he was in reach of his friend.
"I tried to! Multiple times! It's not my fault your big dense head wouldn't listen to me!" Gray jokingly accused him as they reached out to pat his arm, "But, anyway, you look really good."
"Thanks," Finley responded with his smile still present on his sharp features.
As Gray looked up into the vampire's eyes, the slightest smirk tugged at the corner of their lips. "The brown suits you. It matches your hair color," they pointed out as they motioned for the vampire to follow them.
"If that's the case, I'm glad those are the ones I chose. It was either the brown ones or the blue ones. But if you think these ones do look good, I'm glad they'll be what I'll have to wear for the remainder of my days!" Finley exaggerated as he instantly followed them.
"Right, sure, until the end of all days!" Gray added on as they shook their head, "Alright, you ready to see the hiring manager, Rhonda? That's who you're interviewing with, right?"
"Yeah, I'm supposed to see her."
"Are you nervous?" Gray asked in a sarcastic tone, leading them down the stretch of the fourteen registers to get to the manager's office.
"Nervous? No. Absolutely not! Why would I be nervous?" Finley defended himself with his own question, knowing his friend was just playing around to get him loosened up for the interview.
As they reached the end of the registers, Gray took an immediate turn to walk down the last one and knock on the closed door along the wall where the customer service desk was located.
"Come in!" A sweet voice called from behind the closed door.
"Hey, Rhonda!" Gray smiled at the manager as they opened the door to the office, "Finley's here for his interview. I was coming up here to check on sales when I happened to see him come in. I didn't even realize how late it was getting!"
"Oh, I know it! It's getting dark so early now that daylight savings time is over," Rhonda agreed with them as she got up from behind the desk she was sitting at, immediately stepping out of the office to meet the interviewee. "You must be Finley? I'm Rhonda, it's nice to meet you."
"Yes, that is me. It's nice to meet you too," the vampire extended his hand towards the manager for a handshake, offering a polite greeting to get a first impression set in stone.
"Alright, well," Gray quickly intervened to dismiss themself, "I'm gonna go check on those sales now. Good luck, Fin, come find me when you're done!" Without hesitation, they practically darted off in the opposite direction to let the two do what they had to do.
"So, shall we get started?" Rhonda asked with a smile, motioning for the interviewee to follow her into the office.
Instinctively, Finley nodded and stepped into the office. He pulled the swivel chair out just a bit to give him some space to sit down, watching as she quietly shut the door and sat down behind the desk. As soon as she had rolled up to her spot, she pulled a piece of paper out from a stack hiding within a mini organizational cabinet sitting on top of the desk.
"Okay, so, Finley," the manager began, looking over the application she had printed off in preparation for the interview, "You're here for the scanning coordinator position, not the stocker one. Right? That's what I've got written down on here, at least."
"Yes, that is correct," Finley answered quickly and honestly.
"Alright, excellent," she smiled at him briefly before continuing to look through the application and resume, "I believe my first question for you would pertain as to why you left More For Less?"
"Well, it's actually quite simple," the vampire began, his leg starting to bounce from a rise of anxiousness in the situation. "They got rid of third shift. Company-wide."
"That's literally all that it took to make you quit?"
"Honestly speaking, yes. I've been working third shift for my entire work life so far. There comes a point where working nights just becomes your lifestyle," he explained as matter-of-factly as he could, "I had been going back and forth with the store manager about not wanting to switch to second shift or splitting the work up to get it all done during odd hours, and it eventually became evident that continuing my career with that company simply wasn't an option."
"Well, I can see your point there," Rhonda admitted, "The employees we have here who work third shift are also extremely adamant about not working at any other time."
"It's amazing how your sleep schedule can affect your entire outlook on life. That's one of the hardest things for people to change," Finley added on, knowing how true it was for humans to have to adjust to working at all hours of the day and night.
"You are absolutely right on that one! I've tried working overnight before. It doesn't work for me. But, I am glad there are people like you who seek it out!"
"What can I say, I just prefer it!" Finley attempted to laugh it off, awkwardly dodging why he truly needed to work nights.
"So, here at Buggies & Baskets, we hold a fairly high standard for our entire grocery department. Especially our receiving and scanning department, though."
Finley nodded as he listened to her speak, intertwining his fingers as he held his hands down in his lap.
"As I'm sure you could already see, our stores are easily twice the size of any More For Less stores," Rhonda couldn't help but point out the obvious difference in the companies, "On average, there's usually between 9,000 and 10,000 tags to hand every week."
"Wow," Finley blurted out in surprise, "The average at my last store was around 6,000."
"Exactly! So, you can already see where I'm going with this."
"I do, and I am confident that I could handle that many," Finley easily admitted.
"Well, I'm really glad to hear that. Now, I did see where you put in your resume where you dealt with some of the technical aspects of the grocery department - keeping up with the computer program that keeps track of each item, where it goes, and when it needs to be ordered."
"Yes, that was part of my duties at that store."
"I mention that since you wouldn't have to be dealing with that here," Rhonda explained to him.
"Oh, is that so? What all would I be in charge of then?"
"All we expect of our scanning coordinator position is literally with just hanging the tags and switching the sale signs out in all the displays around the store!"
"Wait, that's it?" Finley questioned her, tilting his head slightly as if he had misheard what she had said, "It's just tags and signs? I wouldn't be doing computer work or ordering or stocking?"
"Well, of course not. That's what the grocery department is for!" Rhonda reassured him with a smile before continuing, "That's also one of the perks of working in a big store like this. Everyone has their own job to do. And nobody is expected to do anyone else's."
Finley thought about it for a moment as he slowly nodded, letting all the information process in his head.
"That honestly sounds great," the vampire mentioned in a genuinely intrigued tone.
"When would you be able to start?" Rhonda asked with hope laced through her voice.
"I'm free to start as soon as you need me to."
"How about we get some paperwork started then?" Rhonda asked with a smile, reaching over the desk for another handshake from him, "I think you'd make a great addition to our team."
"Absolutely, let's get this going!" Finley grinned as he immediately grasped her hand in his, eagerly agreeing to the decision to work for the store.
Once the interview was officially over and they had started getting the 'new hire' paperwork going, Finley immediately went to find Gray like they had requested before he had even begun. Knowing they were probably down one of the aisles and stocking the shelves, the vampire hastily walked the store to find them. Finally, as he rounded the corner to the aisle with the pet food, he noticed his friend hoisting a giant pile of puppy kibble up onto the shelf.
"Gray!" Finley immediately called out, grinning as he approached them.
"Oh hey, Fin! How'd it go?" They asked with genuine curiosity, leaning up against the full float of product they were stocking from.
"I'm in!" The vampire stuck both thumbs up in the air to emphasize his point.
"That's awesome! Welcome aboard!" Gray threw their hands up in the air dramatically to match his energy, "When shall we celebrate then?"
"You know when I'm free," Finley retorted, shoving his hands back down his pockets, "Well, to be more specific, I'm technically free for another week or so. Rhonda said the drug test and background check would take about a week to process and then I can get in here and get started."
Gray listened to him and nodded along, eventually agreeing with the vampire to figure out when they would celebrate the newly hired employee. And with the peace of mind of finally finding another job that he knew he would enjoy, Finley was able to head back home and truly enjoy his last week or so of fun and freedom.