To Mutia

Owner of Barata Mobilindo

Keyla took Mutia down the corridor with a glass wall, until they stopped in front of a pitch-black door. A second later Astari grabbed the doorknob, pushed it up, before pushing the door inside. Smiling, Astari invites Mutia to enter, and asks her to sit in the front seat of the work desk which looks shiny with items arranged so neatly.

Seeing the scene made Mutia instantly know how the personality of the owner of the room where she is at this time. Someone who always wants everything perfect, detailed, careful and of course a lover of cleanliness. Look at the glass wall of this room that looks translucent, because there is not a bit of dust attached. If only Mutia had not seen the sills and curtains that were also there, Mutia would have thought that this room was not walled.

Mutia will not be surprised if later found the figure of Astari's boss is a stiff person.

"Mutia." along with that Astari touched the shoulder of a pregnant woman who was now watching the situation around her boss' room, making Mutia's attention instantly distracted by her.

"Sir boss will be back soon. You have no problem waiting here alone? My break is over, so I have to go back to work and let my other colleagues have lunch."

Smiling, Mutia replied. "It's okay, Astari. Thank you and sorry for bothering you."

"No.. no. no.." while shaking his index finger, Astari clucked slowly. "Citing Shahrukh Khan's words in the film Om Shanti Om, if it's not wrong, he says. There is no word of thanks and forgiveness in friendship." then one eye Astari winked, with a warm smile adorning her beautiful face. "Btw, call me Keyla. Everyone here knows me as Keyla, because Astari sounds old-fashioned."

"Alright," Mutia's black bead highlighted the joke, while her lips covered an amused smile. "From now on I'll call you Keyla."

"Sound good." brandishing her thumb, Keyla let out a crisp laugh. "Okay, I have to go now. If you need anything, I'm on the second floor."

After getting a nod from Mutia, Keyla walked out of the room. Leaving behind Mutia who was unmoved with eyes gazing wildly around where she was at this moment.

Keyla's boss' room was very spacious. Probably equivalent to the living room in Lamia's house. Remembering Lamia, Mutia suddenly missed the twenty-seven-year-old woman who had been accommodating her for several months, but had not yet one day left Lamia's house. Although he had received bad treatment from Lamia, it did not necessarily make Mutia hold anger let alone revenge on the woman. As the saying goes, don't lose a speck, break down the milk.

I don't know how long Mutia observed the room dominated by the brown and white color, so she felt not too long waiting, so she did not wait, because you know now Mutia has heard the sound of the door opening and followed by slow galloping footsteps —but firmly— approached him.

Mutia immediately moved from sitting, then directed attention to the figure who had just entered the room. Mutia believes that the tall, well-built man wrapped in a maroon-red shirt is Keyla's boss, because the man entered without knocking on the door. Then when the man stopped at a distance of half a meter from her and looked at her with a warm friendly smile, Mutia involuntarily gasped while widening her eyes.

This guy's...

"Hi, you're the one Keyla brought in?"

As if losing the ability to speak, Mutia eventually just nodded her head.

Without removing the smile, the man extended his hand to Mutia. Sweat away. "I am Barata Yudha. Owner of Barata Mobilindo."

"I'm sorry for keeping you waiting." taking off the hand post, Yudha pointed to the seat behind Mutia politely. "Please sit down."

Was he really the guy who helped me in the toilet hallway back then? But why does he seem to not recognize me? at the same time Mutia sat on her body, followed by Yudha who sat opposite her a few seconds later.

"Before, I wanted to make sure first." putting both hands on the table, Yudha fused her fingers, as her obsidian stared straight at Mutia's soot bead. "You sure you want to work as a salesman with your condition that is pregnant? Because even if I'm pregnant, I can't make an exception for you. If I do that, it will certainly bring out the jealousy of other prospective employees."

"I really need this job, Mas, uh... Gus, boss sir." Mutia's voice whirled at the end of the sentence and was accompanied by a soft ringing sound.

Yudha gave a small chuckle as she shook her hands, indifferent. "It's up to you to call me anything, because I'm not a native Balinese either."

"In that case, for the time being I will call Mas. After official work, I'll replace it with 'sister boss'."

Seeing the innocent look of Mutia, making Yudha could not help but laugh again. "I'm not a respectful lunatic. All BM employees call me at their convenience. I don't even care when they say my name right away." his shoulders poked with a smile. "So, Mutia. Can we start the interview session?"

"Wa-interview? Didn't see my cover letter, my diploma, my curriculum vitae, and so on?"

Yudha's crisp laughter echoed in the vast glass-walled room, before she responded to Mutia's question. "Rather than reading, I prefer to speak Mutia. When you were in front of me, why would I bother reading your job application paper and your life history. I can ask you directly, right? Or do you mind?"

"Ah.no. Of course not, Mommy." Mutia smiled clumsyly.

"I need an employee who meets my expectations. And to get that, I had to interact directly with prospective employees, so I could judge from the way he spoke and behaved. Because a piece of paper can't guarantee anything."

"There was once a candidate for graduate employees of Columbia University applying for jobs in BM. The numbers in his value script are very satisfying. He even got a cum laude. But honey, his attitude is zero. He was so pleased with the numbers on his value paper that he didn't care about anything else. Like attitude, perspective, way of communicating and so on. So after that incident, I was more selective in choosing employees. Because the formalities as commonly done by many companies, it is not effective to get employees who really meet expectations."

This time Yudha looked at Mutia sharply and deeply, making Mutia feel as if Yudha could see to the bottom of her heart and she could not lie to the man. Unknowingly Mutia gulped violently. Only this time did Mutia find a superior like Yudha.

"We're starting?"

Mutia nodded slowly.