Chapter - 10

Alex, when called, walked inside the room. Inside the room, behind the desk as the main interviewer, was the PR head, who has been missing since the beginning of the written test. In front of her was an empty chair. Sitting on the sides were three ladies from earlier.

Alex walked in and greeted the PR head with a nod followed by a nod towards the three other ladies.

"Mr Rutherford?" The PR head asked to confirm.

"Yes, mam," Alex replied.

"Please take a seat," the PR head gestured towards the empty chair for Alex to sit.

"Thank you," Alex went ahead and sat in front of her.

As soon as he sat, his attention shifted to the camera setup beside the PR head. It was probably recording the proceedings of the interview.

When the PR head noticed Alex staring beside her at the camera, she said, "Don't mind the camera. We are recording this interview to go over them once to make a final judgement."

Alex just nodded and mentally prepared himself to be bombarded with questions.

"Now, before we begin, I want to ask you, is there a reason for you to attempt all the six language tests? I am sure I mentioned in the beginning that three were sufficient to pass the first round," the PR head inquired the first thing she was curious about.

"To be honest, there is no fancy reason behind me doing it. I was done with the first three out of six and had plenty of time to spare, so I just went on with it and finished the rest of them as well. I thought it might be in my favour during the interview, and I might be able to overshadow the emptiness of my resume." Alex replied truthfully.

"I see... Very well, then what are these stars beside some of the questions in your sheet?" the PR head asked, pointing out the markings beside some questions.

"These! These are the mistakes I came across when going through the paper. I guess you all were busy with your work and put together the questions in a bit of a rush. Well, there is nothing major, just some minor mistakes," Alex told her.

The PR head was surprised hearing him. She looked at the three other ladies only to get a blank stare from them. They were also equally confused.

'Were there really mistakes in the paper? But no one else pointed it out, not a single one,' the PR head thought.

Sensing the inquest gaze from the PR head, Alex suddenly stood from his chair and walked towards her. He went behind the desk and stood beside the PR head. He bent over her shoulder to look at his sheet, and without even realising, his face was inches away from hers.

The other ladies in the room stood up from their chairs, horrified. They are very much aware of the bad temper their superior had. They knew Alex was a goner and silently prayed that this boss of theirs does not hit his handsome face. They waited for the beating to take place, but contrary to their expectations, nothing of that sort happened.

To be honest, even the PR head was taken back by Alex's sudden arrival beside her and was about to lash out at him, but when she saw him earnestly looking at the sheet of paper on the table, she held herself back. He didn't even look at her, much less do something inappropriate.

Alex grabbed the sheet from the table and said, "I found a total of six mistakes in the questions..."

"... It's nothing much but some spelling errors, but they do change the meaning of the whole sentence. For example, you see here it is written back lace, which well should be a dress with a shoelace like pattern on the back, but the word backless would have been the appropriate word to be used. Because we are talking about a dress which shows your back. Ahh... doesn't that look just so sensual. I mean, imagine hugging your girlfriend when she is wearing a backless dress, and you just trace your fingers over her back, that smooth skin, that..." Alex almost got lost in his imagination.

"Uhmm... hmm..." The PR head cleared her throat, bringing him out of his imagination, "Mr Rutherford, if you may please concentrate," she said sternly. The other ladies in the room giggled when they heard Alex. 'He is funny,' was the only thought they had in their mind.

"Ohh... I am sorry, I tend to get lost in my imagination. So what was I saying? Alex apologised.

"You..." the PR head wanted to remind him but was cut short.

"Oh, yeah! The mistakes," Alex exclaimed, "The others are also just some minor mistakes," and Alex began to explain what were the mistakes to her.

While Alex was busy explaining her the mistakes, the PR head gestured towards the others, and the other ladies began to look them up on the internet. After every mistake Alex would point out, the PR head would look towards her subordinates only to find them agreeing with Alex.

After Alex was done pointing out all the errors, he placed the sheet back on her table and went back to sit in front of her. Silence prevailed in the room for the next couple of minutes. The PR head was thinking of ways not to admit the mistakes on her or her department's part.

After pondering over the issue for some time, the PR head finally opened her mouth.

"Well done, Mr Rutherford, well done... You have found the essence of the test," The PR head said, applauding Alex.

Alex was confused, so were the other ladies in the room.

"What do you mean?" Alex looked confused.

"The purpose of this test was not just to write the right answers, but it was also to find the mistakes which we have intentionally left there, for the applicants to find," The PR head told him. She can't possibly acknowledge that there was a mistake on their part, right?

The others in the room looked at each other and then towards their boss in shock. Was there really something like this?

When the PR head saw her subordinates looking at her, all confused, she glared at them and mouthed them to shut up. Well, she was not too optimistic that anyone would buy this excuse, but it was worth a try.

"So it was like this. Now, this makes sense," Alex nodded in understanding, "I mean, how can such a big company make such silly mistakes," Alex found it rather plausible for them to include such a thing in their job selection process. But what he said next made the others in the room speechless, "I even thought which fool was that who made the paper, so it was intentional on your part".

Listening to Alex, the ladies simultaneously looked towards their boss. She was the one in charge of the job process, and everything was done unassisted by her.

The PR head, on the other hand, was doing all she could to hold herself back. She was gripping her pen so hard that it had veins bulging out.

"Well, Mr Alex, let's leave this topic behind. Why don't we move on and talk about your academics?" The PR head said as her face twitched with annoyance.

"Sure, even I feel ashamed for taking such a brilliant paper setter as a fool". Alex agreed, but he still had to make the last remark.

"SNAP!"

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