Barely half an hour had passed before HR sent over a list of candidates.
I opened the email and began scrolling through file after file.
The candidates were excellent. More than excellent, every résumé looked polished to perfection. At first glance, I could have hired nearly any one of them without hesitation.
That, unfortunately, was precisely the problem.
None of them differed from one another in any meaningful way. And none of them differed from my current secretary either.
Why the hell would I replace one identical person with another?
The longer I stared at those immaculate résumés, the more certain I became that by the following morning, every single one of those candidates would already be reporting back to my father behind my back.
There was nothing in those files that made them appear capable of becoming my secretary.
With growing irritation, I called the head of Human Resources.
"Yes, Mister Moncler, we sent the list. Is something wrong with it?"
"Tell me," I said calmly, "is this truly everything you have?"
A slight pause followed.
"We conducted a very careful selection process. We sent you our strongest candidates. Is there some issue?"
I leaned back in my chair.
"I'll repeat the question. Is this everything you have?"
"Well... no. There are additional applicants we filtered out earlier, though I do not believe they would suit your requirements."
I exhaled slowly.
"The rejected candidates. Send me all of them."
"Sir?"
"All of them. Every single person who applied for the secretary position."
"Oh, Mister Moncler, that is quite a substantial number of résumés."
"Send me everything," I said, and ended the call before she could continue objecting.
Christ.
This was clearly going to be difficult.
And the problem was that I needed a new secretary immediately, considering I had just dismissed my current one.
Less than fifteen minutes later, another email appeared in my inbox. This one was significantly heavier.
Once again, I began sorting through them one by one, gradually understanding why HR had rejected most of these people in the first place. One lacked experience. Another lacked proper education. A third had somehow managed to compress his entire résumé into three pitiful lines.
Then suddenly, I stopped.
James
No surname? Just… James?
That alone was strange enough to catch my attention, so I opened the résumé.
A man looked back at me from the photo. Twenty-five perhaps. Twenty-seven at most. He wore a modest, slightly uncertain smile and a suit jacket that was very clearly too large for him.
However, it wasn't that which caught my eye.
It was his ears.
Small, rounded ears perched atop his head, absurdly similar to a mouse's. Thin whiskers extended from his face that looked unmistakably animal.
A hybrid.
I stared at the photograph in complete disbelief. I had never once seen a hybrid candidate's résumé before. Which probably meant they had all been discarded before reaching this stage.
I continued reading through his résumé.
There was nothing particularly remarkable inside it. No prestigious companies. No brilliant academic background. An ordinary college, several temporary jobs, and a few mentions of volunteer work.
It was an entirely average résumé that probably would not have survived even the automatic filtering system.
But I still found it interesting.
Before I could reconsider the decision, I picked up the phone and dialled the number listed in the file. I knew that if I left this matter to HR, the interview would mysteriously never happen.
After several rings, a thin, slightly high male voice answered.
"Hello?"
"Is this Mister James?"
"Y-yes, yes. Who is this?" he asked uncertainly.
"This is Edward Moncler."
Silence settled on the other end of the line.
Then came a sudden rustling noise, followed by what sounded very much like somebody tripping over something, swearing under his breath.
"Oh. Oh, sorry, I... Mister Moncler, I, I, I..." He stumbled helplessly over nearly every second word. "I'm terribly sorry, I just..."
Another awkward pause followed.
"Wow. I honestly don't even know what to say." He let out a nervous laugh. "Are you sure this isn't some prank call?" He hesitated briefly before adding in a smaller voice, "Because that's not a nice way to make fun of people."
I laughed quietly. Despite sounding incredibly nervous, he still made rather brazen assumptions.
"You're surprisingly straightforward with your potential employer," I remarked.
"Ah, I... sorry..."
"Why exactly would I joke about such a thing?" I asked calmly. "Do you think our HR department enjoys making fun of people that much? Or do you regularly receive prank calls made in my name?"
"Well... people on your level don't usually call people like me, so I suppose my concerns are fairly justified."
"Hm… I truly have never called a potential employee personally before." I admitted. "Well, I've read your résumé, and I believe we ought to meet. Tomorrow morning at nine o'clock. Will you be available?"
"What? Tomorrow? At nine?"
"Yes."
"Yes. Yes, of course. Of course, I'll be available. I'll definitely come."
"You do know where our head office is?"
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I know where it is."
"Excellent. Then I'll see you tomorrow. Have a good day, James."
"You too."
I ended the call and slowly turned in my chair towards the panoramic window.
The view outside no longer seemed quite so bleak.