Say Yes, Senator

I checked my email to see if I had gotten a reply to any of my job applications and found more spam. There was

an offer for a low-cost plastic surgery. Then a few emails about Viagra. And another one, which was the winner.

“Hurry and buy a high-quality vibrator while it’s on sale! Save 25%! Only today!” I read the subject of the email before I deleted the email forever. This definitely wasn’t my day.

“I need a job! Not a vibrator! Although…” I grinned, thinking about the vibrator that was tucked away in my nightstand drawer. I had left it there a long time ago, too stressed out to masturbate these days. I was too stressed for anything, period.

Giving up on job-hunting for now, I decided to watch some news, but right when I switched to CNN, my phone rang. It was my best friend, Sierra.

“Hey, girl,” I greeted her, muting CNN. “What’s up?”

“I could ask you the same. You’ve been locked in your apartment for days! Are you alive?”

I laughed, laying down on my back. Sierra had always been the cheerful and lively one. I clicked with her from the moment I spotted her crying in a club because her boyfriend had just broken up with her. It was a few years ago, but I felt like we’d known each other our whole lives.

“Nope. You’re currently talking to a ghost.”

“Ha ha. So funny. You better stop being a hermit if you don’t want me to kill you myself.”

“A hermit? You’re even funnier than I remember.”

“Oh, I can be funny if I want. Seriously, you’ve been MIA for days and I’m beginning to worry. What’s going on?”

“Nothing new. I’m still looking for a job and applying for countless interviews, but I’m not lucky like you. I feel like I’m running around in circles. I’m starting to think I should change my career or something.”

“I always told you that you could be a model. You have the looks.”

I moved my fingers through my hair, glancing at the mirror that stood in the corner of my bedroom. Right now, I couldn’t look any less like a model with the dark circles under my eyes and greasy hair.

“But I don’t have any interest in it.” I sighed. “Just now I was talking to my mom, and I can’t even tell her I’m jobless. How can I tell her that it turns out it isn’t easy to be successful in my field? I don’t want to get her down.”

“Don’t beat yourself up, Cami. It’s hard and we have to work a lot, but hard work brings success.”

“It’s easy for you to say. You have a great job!” Sierra was a PR manager in one of the most prestigious law firms in Washington.

“But do you remember how hard it was for me to get it? I had to start from zero and work my ass off to get to where I am today.”

“That’s true.”

“So, don’t lose hope. I’m sure you will find a job pretty soon. If nothing else, you could go to Carter for help.”

Why was everyone on this kick of me going to my big brother? We had nearly six years between us, we barely spoke. I had only seen him once since I moved here nearly a year ago. He definitely was not going to help me out. And I was fine standing on my own.

“Thanks but no thanks. I have to do this on my own. But I appreciate the pep talk.”

“Don’t mention it. Now, I bet you haven’t gotten out of that apartment for a long time.”

“Four days actually.”

“Four days? Geez! Come on. It’s time for you to get out of your place and live a life for a change. You need to spice up your days a little.”

“I would if I wasn’t so high and dry.”

“Don’t worry about that! We’re going to go to a bar and we’re going to have a blast. Deal?”

She was right. I needed to get out of my house and relax. If I continued like this, I would turn into a hermit for real in no time.

“Deal.”