Short stories by Mace Styx

I was once again wrong. As soon as I closed the door, he turned around and greeted me with a big smile on his face.

''God eftermiddag," he said.

It took me a moment, but I responded ''Very good, thank you, and you?''

He laughed and continued in once again very weird sounding English accent:'' I said good afternoon.''.

''Oh,'' I said awkwardly, ''good afternoon to you, too.''

''There is a long ride in front of us, you better make yourself comfortable," he said and continued to talk to the mean lady in Swedish.

Well, this beginning of my new life did not start as I thought it was going to. I was here for less than two hours, and I already managed to have a panic attack. What should I expect next. I was in a foreign country, in a car with two people I do not know, going to a clinic where I should have a meeting that could determine my whole future. I had no idea how to do it, but apparently, I had four and a half hours to bring my A-game and impress my future boss.

The beginning of our trip, as you already know, was awkward to say the least. And, I was not really expecting it to take a turn for the better, to be honest. And I was mostly right. With the exception of the driver turning around a few times to ask me if I need anything and if anything is okay, I spent that drive in silence, cursing myself for putting my headphones in my suitcase and not my handbag.

At least the landscape was really nice. To calm myself down a bit, I kept imagining waking up to seeing all of this from my new apartment. Usually, those kinds of fantasizing helped me with my anxiety.

After maybe two hours of driving, we made a quick bathroom stop at a fancy looking gas station. I didn't even realize how bad I needed it until I stepped out of the car. Maybe drinking all that coffee was not a good idea after all. The man who was driving approached me and told me that we will make a short five-minute-long break, so we can be there in time.
He seemed like he wanted to make some small talk, but my bladder was already alerting me, so I excused myself and went inside.

I don't know why but there was just something off with that woman. I did not like her at all. She seemed to me like she is not happy at all with the job that she was given, to welcome me and be my company until we get to the clinic. But I tried not to think about that too much. I had other things on my plate at the moment. I was worried about that job interview, and my worries became bigger and bigger as we got closer to it. I mean, what if it does not go that well, or well at all? Then, this whole trip would be for nothing, right? All kinds of thoughts went through my head. What if the person I was going to have an interview with speaks English as bad as those two does? I did tell them that I don't know Swedish, and they said that English is going to be okay for the beginning - but they also said that I should take a train just to change their mind at the last minute.