Hannah tried not to glare at the woman across from her, but it wasn’t easy. It was the second time she’d been in the woman’s office in as many weeks. The way the second interview seemed to be going led her to believe it was nothing more than a dog and pony show. And that pissed her off.

As much as Hannah wanted and needed a job, she knew she wasn’t getting it. She’d been on four interviews since quitting. Hannah hadn’t been on any interviews before that in her whole life, since she went right to working at Nina’s company. She had the feeling most interviews didn’t include a person staring at your resume for at least half of the time and the other half looking up at you like you were some kind of animal at the zoo.

Hannah liked Curtis’ tiger tattoo and all, but feeling like one herself wasn’t comfortable. She’d probably be more like a giraffe or something at an actual zoo. That was beside the point.

Thankfully, the woman was currently in the paper-staring part of the interview and had been for a while. If she’d been paying attention, she wouldn’t much care for Hannah’s glare. Hannah had practiced the look in the mirror for the interview. After the first one, she knew she’d need it.

Hannah looked around the office she’d already memorized. With all the modern pieces of furniture, it reminded her a little of Curtis’ living room. The woman’s desk took up about half the room. It had a glass top with black metal legs holding it up. She kept the top of the desk neat, with no piles of paper on it and just her computer, phone and a pen organizer to clutter it.

There were a few paintings hanging on the walls of the room, but Hannah didn’t figure they were the same quality that Curtis’ were, not that she was any kind of expert in that department. Curtis had tried to explain to her who painted the works he had and what the few abstract ones could be, but it all went over her head.

The only other items in the office were a pair of black leather chairs for Theresa’s victims to sit in. She’d insisted Hannah call her Theresa, like they were going to be friends or something. It was pretty clear they weren’t even going to be coworkers, so Hannah didn’t know what to make of it.

“Why am I here?” Hannah finally asked.

When there wasn’t more than some thumping of a pen and humming, Hannah could only take so much. She hadn’t gotten a good feeling during the first interview, but she’d hoped Theresa was having an off day.

The job was at a small accounting firm, which seemed kind of perfect as far as needing a change. There wasn’t the noise of six other departments and a boss who liked to make sure everyone knew she existed and signed their checks. Hannah even sort of knew one of the other people working there, having had a few classes in college with them. The connection wasn’t doing her any favors.

The brunette who looked up from the resume was the only wrinkle in Hannah’s plan for change. Her smart-looking gray suit reminded Hannah of Nina, if Nina visited a discount store. Maybe that was Hannah’s problem. She saw all the interviewers in comparison to Nina and they didn’t measure up.

That should’ve been a good thing. Hannah wanted nothing to do with Nina, but her ex-friend had provided stability that she wasn’t confident the people she’d met with so far were capable of. They weren’t jumping to give her a chance to find that out, either.

“With your years of experience, you’re exactly what we’re looking for, but sadly, I can’t hire you.”

The first part of the statement had led to confusion instead of the elation it should have. The woman had spent enough time looking at her resume to know she was qualified, but she asked no questions to confirm it. Hannah wasn’t hip on how interviews were supposed to go, other than there were supposed to be questions and answers. Since she was the only one asking questions, it felt like she should’ve been the one hiring.

“Then I’m going to have to repeat myself and ask why in the world am I here?”

Hannah had plenty of things she’d rather be doing, and one thing she needed to do that day. It’d been two weeks, so it was time to pee on a stick and see what it had to say. She hadn’t started her period, but with how irregular they were that didn’t mean anything.

She kept going over pregnancy symptoms and trying to figure out if she was experiencing any of them. The more she read, the easier it was to make herself believe the signs pointed to it being true.

“Do you know you’re blacklisted?”

The woman leaned closer and folded her hands on the desk. Her face seemed more compassionate and less like she was studying Hannah as a science project. Plus, she got bonus points for actually asking a question.

“Since I’m not sure I know what you mean, I think it’s safe to say no.”

Even though it wasn’t a term she was familiar with, Hannah had an inkling she knew where things were going. She’d been to her apartment only when she knew Nina would be at work and only long enough to grab some clothes. Nina hadn’t bothered trying to call, which was probably good on her part, because Hannah had a feeling she was going to be ripping the woman a new one after she got done with the interview.

“I don’t know what happened at your last job, but word has been spread around that you’re not hirable. I really want to bring you on here, though, so I thought maybe you could talk to your former employer. If you can get cleared, I’ll hire you immediately. I’d even be willing to talk about making the position senior level to make sure you pick us.”

“I take it this blacklist you mentioned is something all accounting firms in the city pay attention to.”

It made the reactions she’d been getting make a lot more sense. Hannah was pissed about it, but at least it made sense. She had to wonder how it all worked. Did Nina just send up a signal with Hannah’s name and people knew to stay away or did she have to provide a reason.

Who was Hannah kidding? It was Nina. All she had to do was bat her eyes and people did whatever she asked. Instead of messing with people’s lives, she should have used that ability to work on the little issue of world peace.

“I think it’s worse than that. I’d be surprised if you can get a job at a gas station. I’ve never seen this kind of thing, and I’ve been hiring people for fifteen years. You need to make it right with Nina Hughes or you won’t find work anywhere in the city.”

“Great. That’s just great.” Hannah stood and nodded to Theresa. There wasn’t anything left for her to do in the office, so she walked over to the door. “I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for me to get un-blacklisted.”

Since the woman had been nice enough to let her in on the secret behind her horrible interviews, Hannah deemed it necessary to inform her she should pick another candidate. Even when Hannah felt like being a bitch, she couldn’t. She wanted to yell and tell Theresa how spineless she was, but she understood. Nina wasn’t someone a person wanted as an enemy.

Hannah had always known that. Being the one on the enemy list made it even more obvious.

Pulling her bag up on her shoulder, Hannah left the building with her head high. She wanted to call Nina, if for nothing else, to verify it was true. She didn’t need to. All she’d accomplish would be yelling at Nina, which would feel good, but also give Nina the satisfaction of getting to her. If Nina had a message she wanted to get to Hannah, she could woman-up and tell it to her without putting interviewers between them.

When she got out to her car, Hannah threw her bag into the passenger’s seat and got behind the wheel. As the days went by, things seemed to get worse. Curtis was great about everything, but he was also confusing.

Hannah had initially only planned on hiding out for a few days. She could’ve gone to her parents’, but she didn’t want her drama following her there. They already had mixed emotions when it came to Nina, and she didn’t want to muddy the waters even more. There was a chance Nina would wake up and make everything right, even if that chance was slim. Since Curtis was already part of the drama, he seemed like the logical person to lean on for support, which he gave readily.

The problem was that he’d decided to take a backseat. They slept in the same bed, because she liked being in his arms. They ate together; watched television at night together, at least the nights he didn’t have to work; they talked about who they were and got to know each other better.

The one thing they didn’t do together was have sex. Ironic probably wasn’t the right word, but it was what Hannah thought about when her lively sex life dried up. She understood if Curtis was a little gun shy while they were waiting to hear if she was pregnant. If that was the case, his penis sure had a funny way of showing it, the thing seemed to always be hard.

Nevertheless, any time their cuddling and kissing turned more intimate, Curtis put on the brakes. Contrary to her actions, Hannah was too modest to grab ahold of him and pump him until he gave in. That left her wondering where his thoughts were. She was afraid that if they found out she wasn’t pregnant, he’d kick her to the curb. It probably wouldn’t be an immediate push out the door, but she felt it coming, no matter how attentive he seemed other than the sex thing.

He wasn’t getting sex from her, so Hannah had let herself wander down the path of thinking he was seeing someone else. He’d had two road games since she moved in. Her job search had kept her from following behind him like a lost puppy dog, but the time away had intensified her insecurities. Hannah shook her head, trying to clear the thoughts. The only way she’d know for sure where she stood was to ask Curtis, and as soon as she grew the balls to do it, she would.

Since her interview was over, she was on the way to find out how quickly she needed to figure out her living arrangements. She still had three months on her current lease. Without a job, she couldn’t float two payments, so she’d have to risk running into Nina until she could get into a cheaper place across town.

Well, maybe not even across town. It sounded like she was going to have to move out of the state to find a position that matched her skills. She hadn’t ever considered moving to Alaska, but since it wasn’t in the continuous states and was a frozen tundra, Nina might not have pulled her weight there.

Hannah laughed at her silliness as she started the car and maneuvered out of the parking lot. She was about twenty minutes away from Curtis’, given the slow midday traffic, so she still had plenty of time to think about what in the world she could do. Living with Curtis stretched her money, but not enough that the two weeks would add an extra month to her savings. She needed that, plus money to put a deposit on a new place. With zero job prospects, moving to Alaska didn’t seem like a crazy idea.

Rather than think about igloos and whether she could find one with a fireplace, she hit the button on the steering wheel to give Curtis a call. He’d had practice before her meeting, so they hadn’t seen much of each other. He had to wake up so early to get ready for practice that he usually made her breakfast and set it out for her with a note. That morning wasn’t any different.

The note had said that he was looking forward to finding out whether he could start setting up a nursery. He seemed really excited about the possibility of a baby, even if his feelings towards the mother were flighty.

“Hey, beautiful. Any good news?”

Hannah knew the good news in question was on the job front, not the baby front. They’d agreed to take the test together. They were going to try the regular pee-on-a-stick variety to see what it said. If it was negative, they were still deciding whether they’d wait a few days and try again or try the blood test.

The latter option would cost quite a bit more money and there was debate about who got to cover the costs. Hannah thought that since Curtis was paying for their food and giving her a place to stay, she should obviously pay for a medical test involving her. He didn’t have to be providing for her to come to that conclusion, but she threw those things out there to try to persuade him.

Every time the subject came up, he made it clear that he’d pay for it all. He’d come home one day with seven pregnancy tests to prove that point. The tests were just sitting there waiting for her to get home.

“It depends on your definition of the word good. I found out I have to move to Alaska if I ever want to work again.”

The other side of the phone erupted in laughter. Hannah was glad someone found it funny. She was to the point she wanted to laugh, because otherwise she’d cry, but the tears weren’t coming.

“She blacklisted you. I had a feeling that was what was going on, but thought it was too low even for her.”

“I fully understand now that nothing is too low for her. Anyway, I’ve had about a gallon of water today to make sure I don’t get shy when it comes time for my performance. I’m about ten minutes out and hopefully won’t burst the second I get in the door.”

Hannah would figure out her options job-wise after she had an idea whether she was pregnant. If she wasn’t, moving to find work would be a lot easier. She didn’t see Curtis letting her take his kid to another state without a fight. At least for the time being she didn’t have to think about going to another painful interview. Knowing that no one would hire her gave her that freedom.