A Chance
1860 Words
The elevator was out again. Chloe noticed it the moment she stepped into the building lobby, the flickering notice taped awkwardly beside the staircase: OUT OF SERVICE — AGAIN.
She let out a quiet breath that wasn’t quite a laugh and wasn’t quite a sigh, then adjusted the strap of her worn handbag and started climbing. By the time she reached the third floor, her legs burned.
Not from the stairs — from everything else. The latest interview played on loop in her head, sharp and humiliating.
“You’re very qualified,” the man had said with that polite, empty smile.
Then came that short, awkward pause.
“We’ll keep your CV on file.”
Chloe had learned what those smiles meant in New York. They meant no dressing up as a courtesy.
She pushed open the apartment door. The smell of hot oil, spices, and something stubbornly comforting hit her immediately.
“Thank God you’re back,” Maya called out from the kitchen. “If the power cuts out again before these noodles are done, I swear I’m going to lose it.”
Maya Brooks — her best friend since college — was the only reason Chloe still had a roof over her head in Queens.
Chloe dropped her bag onto the sofa with a dull thud and let her body follow a second later, sinking into the worn cushions like her bones had finally agreed to stop holding her up.
Normally, she would’ve laughed at something like this. But today she just lay there, staring up at the ceiling for a long moment, too tired to even pretend anymore.
“Then start preparing yourself,” she murmured.
Maya poked her head out of the narrow kitchen, wooden spoon still in her hand, her curls twisted up in a messy bun that looked like it had been through hell and back.
One look at Chloe’s face and her teasing vanished.
“No luck again?” she asked gently.
Chloe shook her head. It felt easier than speaking.
The silence that followed wasn’t heavy with pity. It was never with Maya.
That was the only reason Chloe could still breathe in a place like this.
Maya turned back to the stove, stirring slowly.
“What did they say this time?” she asked carefully.
Chloe exhaled through her nose, eyes still fixed on the ceiling.
“That I’m overqualified,” she said flatly. “Which apparently means I should be grateful they wasted my time.”
Maya scoffed.
“Overqualified is just code for ‘we don’t want to pay you properly.’” She glanced over her shoulder. “How long did they keep you waiting this time?”
“Seventeen minutes.”
Maya made a sound of disgust from the kitchen.
“Seventeen minutes,” she repeated. “That’s disrespectful as hell.”
That almost pulled a real smile out of Chloe, but it didn’t quite land.
Maya turned off the stove and walked over, leaning against the edge of the sofa.
“Eat something,” she said.
“I’m not hungry.”
“That wasn’t a suggestion.”
Chloe glanced at her. A tired kind of familiarity passed between them — no pressure, no pity, just the quiet understanding that came from years of knowing each other.
“Bossy,” Chloe muttered.
“Very,” Maya replied, not missing a beat.
She studied Chloe’s face for a second longer than usual, then sat down beside her on the sofa. “You want to talk about it?”
Chloe let out a long breath. “He looked at me like I was temporary,” she said quietly. “Like he already knew I didn’t belong there before I even opened my mouth.”
Maya’s jaw tightened. “Men like that always think they can see your ending before you even start.”
“It wasn’t just him,” Chloe continued, her voice low. “It’s like they decided what I was worth before I said a single word.”
Maya stayed quiet, just listening. Chloe rubbed her fingers against her palm, trying to shake the memory off.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said after a moment, mostly to herself. “I’ll find something.”
“You will,” Maya said firmly, not breaking eye contact. “Because you don’t have a choice. And because you’re not the kind of person who just… stops.”
That landed deeper than either of them acknowledged.
Outside, somewhere down the block, a car alarm went off and then died again. The apartment lights flickered once, then steadied.
Maya groaned. “If the power goes out again before these noodles are done, I swear I’m done with this building.”
Chloe let out a quiet laugh — small, tired, but real this time. “You’d last two days tops.”
“I’d last at least three,” Maya shot back, grinning.
The tension in Chloe’s shoulders loosened just a little. She leaned back into the sofa, staring up at the ceiling as if it might finally have some answers if she looked long enough.
Maya stood up.
“Go freshen up,” she said. “I’ll plate your food before it gets cold.”
Chloe didn’t move right away. She sat there for a few more seconds, then finally nodded and pushed herself off the sofa.
She walked toward the back of the apartment where the thin curtain hung, separating what passed for her little space.
Behind it was the mattress on the floor, neatly made but already worn at the edges. It wasn’t much, but it had become hers. She dropped her bag beside it and sat down slowly, stretching her aching legs out in front of her.
Her feet throbbed in that dull, familiar way from walking around all day in those interview heels, which now sat beside the mattress, fraying at the edges. She stared at them for a moment, then at her phone.
Still no new messages. Just silence.
Chloe leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. She wasn’t trying to sleep. She was just thinking.
One month. That was all it had taken for her life to shrink down to this — endless applications, polite rejections, and numbers she didn’t even want to look at anymore.
And somewhere beneath all of it, one thought kept circling back: her father hadn’t left things unfinished.
He never did. There were papers somewhere. And someone had made sure she wouldn’t see them. Her phone buzzed in her hand.
She glanced at the screen, expecting another rejection or a spam message. Instead, her breath caught.
BLACKWOOD HOLDINGS – Interview Invitation. For a moment she just stared at the screen, her heart suddenly hammering in her throat.
She read it once. Then again, slower this time, like the words might disappear if she blinked.
“No way,” she whispered. A sharp, disbelieving laugh escaped her lips. She shot up from the sofa so fast she nearly dropped the phone.
“MAYA!” Something crashed in the kitchen.
A second later, Maya appeared in the doorway, wooden spoon still in her hand, eyes wide with alarm.
“What happened? Why are you shouting like the building’s on fire—” She stopped when she saw Chloe’s face.
Chloe turned the phone toward her, a shaky, disbelieving smile breaking through the exhaustion.
“I got an interview.”
Maya blinked. “Wait… for real?”
“Blackwood Holdings.”
The playful energy drained from Maya’s expression instantly.
She walked over slowly and took the phone, reading the email twice before letting out a low whistle.
“Damn. I didn’t even know you applied there.”
“I applied everywhere,” Chloe said with a weak laugh. “I don’t even remember this one.”
Maya sat on the edge of the worn mattress, still staring at the email on Chloe’s phone.
For a few seconds she said nothing, her thumb hovering over the screen.
Then she looked up, eyes wide with a mix of disbelief and concern.
“Do you have any idea how many people would kill for this?”
Chloe shrugged, though she couldn’t quite stop the smile tugging at her lips. “It’s an interview.”
Maya raised an eyebrow. “It’s Blackwood.”
“You keep saying that like it’s another country.” “Sometimes I think it is.”
That earned a genuine laugh from Chloe.
The sound surprised even her. It had been weeks since anything felt worth laughing about.
Maya handed the phone back and shook her head slowly.
“I know people who’ve applied there three times and never even got a response.”
“Well, maybe they finally got desperate,”
Chloe said. “Or maybe they actually read your résumé.”
Chloe rolled her eyes, but the comment settled somewhere warm inside her anyway.
For the first time in weeks, she wasn’t thinking about rejection emails or overdue bills or the fact that her entire life now fit behind a curtain in Maya’s apartment.
For the first time in weeks, something felt possible. Maya must have noticed the shift because her expression softened for a moment before turning thoughtful again.
“I’ve heard they work people to death over there.”
Chloe looked down at the email once more, a small, stubborn smile playing on her lips.
“If they offer me a job, they can be as brutal as they want.” she said.
Maya let out a short laugh and shook her head.
“That’s exactly the kind of attitude that gets people into trouble.”
“Good thing I don’t work there yet.”
A reluctant smile tugged at Maya’s mouth.
“You say that now.”
“Listen,” Chloe said, “if they hand me a paycheck, I’ll happily let them ruin my work-life balance.”
Maya shook her head.
“That isn’t how normal people think.”
“Normal people aren’t sleeping behind a curtain in their best friend’s apartment,” Chloe replied, half-laughing.
Maya laughed despite herself. “Fair point.”
Chloe grinned and leaned back against the wall, some of the tension easing from her shoulders for the first time in days.
Then Maya’s expression shifted. She narrowed her eyes slightly.
“Actually… do me a favor tomorrow.”
Chloe groaned immediately, already knowing where this was going.
“Whenever you start a sentence like that, I end up regretting it.”
Maya rolled her eyes. “I’m serious.”
“Which somehow makes it more worrying,” Chloe muttered.
Maya ignored her and pressed on. “If you somehow end up in front of Sebastian Blackwood tomorrow—”
Chloe laughed before she could stop herself.
“Which I won’t.”
“Just listen for a second.”
“Fine. I’m listening.”
Maya held her gaze, her voice dropping lower.
“Don’t argue with him.”
Chloe stared at her, another laugh slipping out. “Why would I argue with a man I’ve never even met?”
Maya didn’t smile back this time. Her expression stayed serious.
“Because nobody wins.”
- Writer
