“Well, what was that then?” Spencer asked, taking the seat Marilyn had just vacated.

“What do you mean?”

“You took a picture with her.  I guess I just didn’t expect you to be so….nice about it.” 

Ashley looked up from her laptop, “You know, a lesser person might be offended at what you just said.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Spencer quickly explained.  “But that girl completely wasted our time.  She didn’t even want the job.  I thought you’d at least be upset or something. Even I wanted to wring her neck at the end.”

“Ah-ha!” Ashley said.  “I knew that shy act was just a cover-up for your short temper.”

Spencer smiled, “And I thought I had everyone fooled.  I probably shouldn’t have missed my anger management class yesterday.”

“Now, poor Marilyn will always remember how you gave her the cold shoulder.”

“Good,” Spencer chuckled.  “The girl was a groupie, Ashley.  How did you even end up picking her? I swear I caught at least three spelling errors on her resume.”

 “Well, a bad seed always slips through,” Ashley said, checking the time on her cell phone. “You should go see if the other candidate is here.”

But it wasn’t just one bad seed.  By lunchtime, they’d interviewed at least half a dozen people and all of them were just as bad, if not worse, than Marilyn. There had to be at least one candidate scheduled who was remotely capable of doing the job, Spencer thought.  They couldn’t all be this terrible.  She asked Ashley for the list for the rest of the week, which her boss handed over with noticeable reluctance.  As she went over the names, checking them against resumes, Spencer’s heart dropped.  Most of them barely had any work experience and those that did had only a few months of it, primarily at some fast food joint or book store.  How could so many unqualified candidates have been scheduled for interviews? Then, suddenly it dawned on her.  Had Ashley done this intentionally?  Her boss had been absolutely against her getting out of her contract early.  Ashley had even given her an ultimatum: find a replacement or be stuck here another two years.