The Nova Series
Chapter 1: The Interview
Thank you for reading. I dedicate this series to my good friend, TheNovalist. He has some fantastic reads on his profile, and I recommend giving a read. He inspired me to write some of my own.
Also, Content Warning: Drunk Sexual Interactions. I find informed consent to be very sexy and believe a person is unable to give informed consent when inebriated, but for the sake of fiction, it is part of this story. Keep that in mind as you read this story and protect your mindspace if that is something that triggers you at all.
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The alarm rang loud in the room. Groggily, she woke up and grabbed her phone, the screen lighting up at her touch, showing 8:35 A.M.
Shit, Shit, Shit,
Rebecca internally screamed,
I hit the snooze button way too many times. Why did I stay up so late reading? Seriously, I need to work on my impulse control when it comes to reading TheNovalist's chapters when they come out. And today of all days.
She got up, ran to the bathroom to get ready, and then looked in her closet to find something decent to wear. Today was the big day, after all.
Simple black dress? No... too casual. Dress pants, white blouse, and a blazer? No... trying too hard. God, life would be so much easier as a man. Just throw on some khakis and a button-up shirt and you're golden.
Her manager was the one interviewing her, so she wanted to look nice, but not too desperate. She's always dressed well for work but today really counted. Dress for the job you want, not the job you have, right?
Come on... come on... something nice... That's it! Or... does it have bad luck attached? Fuck it, I don't have time to think about luck right now thanks to Mister Nova and my silly little addiction to his words.
She was filing through her clothes when she found a dress she bought for a blind date her sister set her up last week that ended up being a no-show. It was a short-sleeved black dress cut just a few inches above the knees. Her dress perfectly accentuated her small chest and curvy ass. It had a pretty, yet elegant wine-colored flower pattern on it with a belt that cinched her waist and fell beautifully around her curvy ass.
She put her makeup on, gave a gentle curl to her red hair, and ran out the door, nude heels in hand. And, of course, it was snowing. She quickly threw on some snow boots and haphazardly cleared her car before getting in and forcing herself to drive slowly and carefully. She spent her time in the car anxiously going through various interview questions that Tom had practiced with her, keeping his reassuring words in her head as a mantra in a desperate attempt to slow her thundering heartbeat.
You are smart. You are capable. You are worthy.
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"Rebecca? Charlotte is ready for you." She looked up and took a deep breath to compose herself. She pushed her shoulders back and walked confidently - or at least she looked confident - into Charlotte's office.
"Good morning, Rebecca. Take a seat." Charlotte gestured to one of the plush gray chairs in front of her desk.
Oh, to have an office like this. I bet it feels so... powerful. I wonder if I will someday have the same amount of confidence that Tom seems to so naturally exude... Wait, what? What is she saying? The weather?
"Horrible weather we are having, huh?" Charlotte looked out the window at what looked like another several inches of snow falling onto the parking lot along with some of the maintenance people running about waving nonsensically at each other. "The plows can hardly keep up."
"Oh... yeah... horrible," Rebecca stammored.
Get it together, Becky. Come on, you've got this.
"So, Rebecca, you are interviewing to fill Tom's role as he moves on to fill the senior leadership position. I trust you're familiar with his responsibilities?"
Rebecca composed herself and smiled. This was a question that she was prepared to answer. "Yes. I have spent some time with him the past few weeks learning about the roles and responsibilities. I have taken the lead on many different projects over the past 3 years I have held my current role, and I believe that I am prepared to take on the additional responsibility overseeing the 8 teams under the UWV contract."
"Oh, you have been working with him? That's great. While I am your manager and I do know the answer to some of these questions, I do need them on record and to ask you questions just as I would anyone else, okay?"
Rebecca smiled and responded warmly, "Of course. I wouldn't want to receive any special treatment."
No, that's a lie. I would love special treatment. Come on, you're my manager. Why even bother with this interview? We both know I am capable of doing this job. Just get it over with so I don't have to be shaking in my chair trying to come up with the best responses that are going to be recorded for... whoever is going to read this years down the line to make fun of me.
Charlotte asked various questions, all of which Rebecca was prepared to answer based on her preparation from Tom.
I am going to need to buy him a drink - or several - after this.
"Okay, great. We will now move on to the technical questions." Charlotte pivoted one of her computer monitors to face Rebecca and continued, "I am going to show you lines of code and you're going to tell me what you would tell a junior-level engineer if they came to you with this code, okay? Let's start with this one."
Charlotte moved a window showing a PowerShell script to the monitor facing Rebecca. Rebecca skimmed through the PowerShell script, but didn't immediately find anything that would cause the script to fail if it tried to run, so she got increasingly nervous, her eyes shifting from the screen to Charlotte.
"Um," Rebecca nervously stammored, "I don't see anything wrong with it? All of the variables are defined and the logic seems to compile just fine."
Charlotte smiled and replied, "Remember, in this scenario, I am a junior engineer that has come to you about something, and I am showing you this code. There aren't wrong answers. I am just looking for how you would react given a few different scenarios."
Oh, okay so there doesn't have to be something wrong with it. I am guessing this is supposed to be me approving some code for a new build or something. Tom did say he did that from time to time. Alright.
Rebecca smiled and looked up at Charlotte, "All of the variables are well-defined with unique definitions and the logic looks to me like it would compile successfully. Well Done! How can I help you finish this task?"
Charlotte smiled. "Fantastic. You offered positive affirmations with specific details so that they know you didn't just skim it but you actually did take a good look at it which can mean a lot to someone who is looking for guidance from management. In addition, you offered help and left it open-ended to give them a chance to ask you for more if they need it. That's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you, Rebecca."
The interview continued and at the conclusion, Rebecca shook Charlotte's hand and walked out of the office, feeling pretty good about the interview. It went really well, but she was hoping that Charlotte would overlook her initial nervous answer for the first technical question.
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Tom's office was all the way on the other side of the building, but he told Rebecca to come visit him immediately after the interview was over to tell him how it went. Rebecca walked up to Tom's office door and took a big deep breath, fantasizing about the day that maybe this would be her own office. The door was slightly ajar, so she knocked and walked in, but Tom wasn't there yet. He was probably in some sort of meeting. Tom complained about all these meetings and how boring they were, but Rebecca couldn't wait for her day to be filled with all sorts of important meetings with people to see and things to do. She pulled her laptop out of her bag and walked to sit at his desk when she noticed that his laptop was there, plugged in, the screen illuminated. He usually brings his laptop to meetings, though, so that was weird. Then she noticed what was on the screen.
"New You: Chapter 7" Oh. My. God. OH. MY. GOD. Tom... is... Is this what I think it is? "You will flash your breasts at the next man you see." Oh my. Yep. This is... wow. Holy fuck. Tom.. is... the writer of the series that keeps me up at night.
There was a knock on the door and Rebecca yelped, standing immediately from her seat.
"Oh, hello Ms. Rebecca, have I startled you? I know you are
so
busy in this big huge office of yours, but I need to ask you a question," Tom walked in, chuckling. Tom was quietly attractive. He had dark brown hair and brown eyes. He was average height and weight. But, there was just something about him. The way that he talked, it just had a way of drawing a person in and making them feel special. He had a contagious smile.
"I... er... sorry... I just figured I'd work for a bit while I waited for you to return from your meeting. I hope you don't mind." Rebecca was so embarrassed. She quickly moved to one of the chairs on the other side of the desk.
"Oh no, of course I don't mind. I just ran out to refill my water bottle. Super short meeting with the water cooler." He held up his water bottle and winked. "I see you've made yourself at home in your future office." Tom walked around the desk and sat down in his chair. He looked at the screen and a brief look of startled panic flashed across his face. Rebecca looked down to pretend like she didn't see.
Well, that's what you get for writing your smut during the day at work, Nova, or... Tom? Wow.
She crossed her legs as she started to feel a deep heat growing between her legs."I've got to say, it's a nice office. I do hope you're right and that it is my future office."
I... don't think I could get much work done in this office now knowing what might have been written here that has made me cum over and over again in my bed at night.
"How did the interview go? Wait, no, don't answer that. I am sure it went well. Just give me a couple days to move my books before you take over, alright?" Tom smiled and pointed at the book case behind him. "I know you millennials don't like physical books with all of your technology and all that crap but hey, you look smarter if you have books back there. So, fill it up."
Yeah, I'll look super smart. What if I put copies of your chapters on my shelves, hm? Would I still look smart? My god, I can't believe you are Nova. THE NOVA.
He winked and continued, "So what are you doing tonight?"
A whole lot of reading your erotica and re-thinking my whole life knowing that my boss is the one who wrote the shit I get myself off to every night. Yeah, just casual. No big deal.
Rebecca cleared her throat. "Tonight? Erm, I don't think I have any plans."
"Fantastic. Because we are going out for drinks after work to celebrate your new job."
"I will gladly buy you a drink for helping me feel confident in the interview, but Tom, I haven't gotten it yet." Rebecca rolled her eyes.
"Oh come on. Yes you have. There's nobody else I'd want filling this position than you. You've got it."