Carmen sighed, still getting used to her formal attire. It was a new experience having to dress like a real professional, in a buttoned-up shirt and a long pencil skirt. The 21 year old even bought new pantyhose, not a run or tear to be seen... god she was a mess. The waiting room smelled sweet, overly so, it had obviously been sprayed with an excessive amount of air freshener. She could deal with the thick air, but the waiting was wearing her thin. It had been almost an hour between her entering the building and letting out that traitorous sigh. Fortunately, only the office receptionist had noticed her. Unfortunately, she saw the woman engaged in petty gossip with the office staff only minutes ago. The reception area was deathly silent, save for the low hum of a vending machine on the other side of the room and a quietly ticking clock.

"Miss Green?" The voice was accompanied by the sound of clacking heels against the acrylic impregnated flooring, a cacophony of clatter in the midst of a deafening silence. Before Carmen could even lift her sullen head to greet the voice's owner, her nostrils were met with a gentle wafting of the woman's odour. It was hard to place, not gaudy and unpleasant like the air freshener it had drowned out, but not sweet and fragrant like the usual puissant woman's perfume. The scent grew closer as another resonant heel click snapped the interviewee from her distant reverie. "Carmen Green?" 

"Oh, that's uh, that's me! It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, ma'am." Carmen lifted her head quickly, feeling smothered by the woman's elusive aroma. 

"Hmm? Aha, no need to be so old-fashioned honey, you can relax a little bit can't you?" The woman looked amused, pleased. She was wearing a sleeveless white jersey shirt and a thin grey cardigan hanging loosely from her athletic arms, a black denim mini skirt shaped her hips and showed off her long bare legs. Carmen found her eyes dropping down to the source of those sonorous clacks, a pair of glossy black heels which housed her sizeable feet. "Rose Grew, you'll be my little helper if you get chosen. Come now let's have a chat in my office, you're my last interview of the day." The woman's lips curled into a charmless smile, but Carmen was still busy picking up her eyes.

Before she knew it, Carmen found herself shuffling into the corner of a pristine elevator along with her interviewer, Mrs. Grew. Despite the space between them, the air in the small metal box quickly became stuffy and oppressive. It was all Carmen could think about as her nostrils slowly inhaled, her eyes glued to the floor number. Back in the reception area, the woman's peculiar aroma was the most overpowering out of a wide array of scents, but in the elevator ride... it was like being smothered! By the time the doors slid open and the conditioned hallway air wafted inside, Carmen was starting to feel lightheaded.

To call Rose's office spacious would be an understatement, the woman had a personal gym in the leftmost corner and a couch along the backwall. The decor was classy, if a little generic, but Carmen's eyes almost bulged at the shelf of liquor on full display. Just who was Mrs. Grew, the CEO? 

"I can see you're in love with my office already, Miss Green. That's very good, you'll be spending a lot of time in here if we give you the internship. May I ask why you enrolled for our intern program? You have credentials to apply for a permanent position, maybe a little light on the experience part." The woman sauntered around her desk and sat back into the rich leather, leaning casually while gesturing her guest to the armchair opposite. 

Carmen was a little grateful that Mrs. Grew had retreated behind her desk, the scent weakening with their new distance. The office, however, carried the same smell... it only made sense, given the pungent woman spent most of her time in here day in and day out. She still wasn't sure if she found it to be a distasteful or agreeable odour, it just felt unique. Trying to place it had already distracted her enough, though the nerves were probably more to blame. 

"Well I uh, ahem, sorry. I had thought of applying for the vacant position at the reception desk, but to be perfectly candid... I think I work better with people I can get to know, rather than service roles with new faces every day. I can do either, of course, it's just a preference. I figured I would also have a better chance to actually be considered for this opportunity too, because like you mentioned I have less than a year of professional experience." She took a deep breath, noticing that the smell of the room had slowly faded into the background. She was adjusting to the room, but secretly looked forward to the breath of fresh air she would have upon leaving.

Rose nodded, kicking her legs up onto her desk during Carmen's response. She had one ankle resting over the other, dangling the elevated heel from her toes idly. "A very reasonable decision, I like that sort of forward thinking. Would you mind pushing your seat a bit closer, dear?" 

The interviewee was surprised at her interviewer's casual attitude, especially with such a luxurious office. She watched the dangling high heel with curiosity brewing within, her own posture could not be more different: Sitting straight up in the chair, legs uniform together and feet flat on the ground, hands folded neatly in her lap when she wasn't using them to gesture. "O-of course, just a second." She brought herself closer to the front of Rose's desk, her face a few feet away from the woman's resting feet. Her nose wrinkled; this was starting to get a little uncomfortable. 

"Ahh, let's see. You mentioned that you worked best with familiar work relationships, do you understand the nature of this position? You'll be at my beck and call, making me coffee and filing my paperwork. I'll try to keep most cleaning to the janitorial staff, but you may have to pick things up for me and tidy my empty cups too, stuff like that. Sound good?" Rose wasn't even looking at Carmen, her eyes closed as she leaned back into the headrest. 

Carmen knew the duties that would be expected of her, it was all in the posting. It was not a glamorous job by any means, but she needed the experience, more than that she needed the money. "Yes, I'd be happy to start as soon as you need me too, and I'm open to overtime if it's ever asked of me." She traced up and down Mrs. Grew's legs with her eyes, seeing the dark shadow of Rose's underwear from the angle of that taut denim skirt. 

"Well don't you just sound perfect?" Rose hummed lightly, she had at least a decade on Carmen but acted half her age. "You're the least uptight person I've interviewed all day, save the best for last or something right?" 

"Oh, really?" Carmen was not actually surprised at all, most people would have raised an objection by now, even if it was a very politely worded one. 

"Mhmm, I think you might be a good match for me, you never even mentioned my natural pheromones."

"Your... uh." Now she really wanted to ask about them, how unfair. She bit her lip to stop her mouth from moving, trying to slow her breathing out of a sudden paranoia. Was she serious? What did that even mean?

Rose began to cackle harshly, her entire body shaking from her laughter. "I'm only joking, dear, you should see your face! I've been told I have a very distinctive smell, but you'll soon get used to it. Be glad your boss doesn't have terrible BO and leave it at that, hm?" 

Does that mean she already considered herself Carmen's boss? The young woman was too awash with relief that she stopped focusing on the strangeness of the conversation, or the fact she was closer to her boss's feet than her face.

"Right, well, that was quick. Anything else you want t-oh!" Rose had clumsily let slip her heeled shoe, the glossy black footwear dropping onto the deep crimson rug between them. "Silly me, be a dear and pick that up for me would you? I'll consider it your acceptance into the internship program." Her eyes narrowed, Mrs. Grew wiggling her bare foot from the edge of the desk, the wrinkled skin warm and damp from walking back and forth all morning. 

If she were not choosing to focus on the informal job offer she was just given, Carmen would be cringing hard. Instead, she resigned herself to just quickly doing as she was told so that she could clear her head with some fresh outdoor air. Rising from the chair briskly, the newly hired intern bent down and curled her fingers around the discarded heel. When she rose, she must have gotten up too quickly... a sudden headrush almost knocked her off balance, taking a long breath of the heady air at the end of Rose's desk. The intern was too driven and distracted to realise she was indirectly sniffing her new boss's feet, inhaling the air around those arched soles. It was just for a brief moment, but Carmen's head felt foggy, so she placed Mrs. Grews shoe beside her hovering foot and excused herself politely. Rose was happy to give the young woman all the time she needed, in fact she seemed a little distracted with something. While Carmen was excusing herself, she almost thought that she heard a faint metallic clank from the bottom of Mrs. Grew's desk.

When she returned from the bathroom, Carmen was once again hit with the thick air of Rose's office. Different to the reception's artificial air, this was more natural and potent. A prevailing odour, which the woman's colleagues must be exposed to, subjected to, each and every day. 

"We just need to sign some paper and you can be on your way, you'll be starting tomorrow, that won't be an issue will it?" It was spoken like a rhetorical question, likely harkening back to Carmen's earlier claims of flexibility. It was fine, she was happy to start the next day.

The last stretch of the interview almost felt like a dull dream, Carmen distant and watching from afar as two office ladies conducted their inane duties. When she finally felt the wind on her face, the young intern took a deep inhale and slowly breathed out. That was what air should smell like, she reminded herself bleakly. Half-way through her commute home, sitting in an empty subway car, Carmen felt a string of intrusive thoughts creep into her open mind. 

1. It really wasn't such a bad scent, after all. 
2. The fresh air she had looked forward to return to... was oddly disappointing. 
3. She was tentatively excited to return to the office for her first day of work.