Office worker

Of course, things refused to go smoothly for Alicia that morning. Her razor broke while she was shaving her legs, she suddenly discovered that she was out of clean underwear and of course, the dress that had been her first choice for the interview fit too snugly for her to zip up. Plus her son woke up too late to take the bus so she had to drive him to school -- and yet she had to be at her interview by nine o'clock.

Of course, all the lights were against her and Alicia had to wait on a funeral procession as well. By the time she got there, Alicia was certain that she would be late but by some miracle, she got there just in the nick of time. So quickly that Alicia did not even have time to regret not having worn underwear that morning.

Alicia stepped into the ladies' room for a quick touch-up, only to run into a pushy woman who was taking her time at the mirror as if she had all the time in the world. Probably a fellow job applicant, she thought.

Alicia hurriedly voided her bladder and wiped herself, only to find that the mirror was still occupied by the lady in question. So she just washed her hands and hoped for the best.

Of course, when Alicia got to the room where the interview was taking place, they made her fill out a ton of paperwork, half of which she did not bother to read apart from a quick skim to see where she should sign. Not that Alicia cared much about paperwork -- she had been filling out so many job applications as of late that she could fill them out with her eyes closed. And anyway, they already knew half this stuff from her original application, didn't they?

To her surprise, the interviewer turned out to be the pushy woman Alicia had seen earlier. She instantly thanked God that she had not gone with her first or second impulse back in the ladies' room and told herself that from then on, everything would work out. And for a while, everything did.

Then the woman asked Alicia if she was ready to start work that day.

Of course Alicia was, but she didn't want to sound too eager.

Then she asked Alicia to undress.

"Excuse me," Alicia said.

"I said, undress, Ms. Fuller," said the woman. "Immediately."