Anna guessed that I would propose to her – after all, we had been together for three years already. So in part she was ready for a wedding, and she wanted a small, modest, purely for relatives and a couple of friends.
I had extremely positive feelings about her parents. Her father really liked me, the future mother-in-law respected me for the fact that I was still young, but already the head of the department. She told the other relatives about it, and because of that Anna’s brother came to see me a couple of days ago. He asked me for tea, looked at the apartment that his sister and I were planning to live in after the wedding, and then he started talking:
– I’ve been out of work for over half a year now. It’s crazy to be at home with my mom. You can get me a job somewhere in your department, can’t you? You can make some kind of arrangement there.
I can’t hire and decide anything by bringing people in myself. And we are engaged in the development of technology, and for this you need the appropriate education or at least knowledge. I know from Anna that her brother doesn’t know anything about this stuff.
– I’m sorry, I can’t hire you without interviewing you at the head office. You could try through the job ads on the website and our HR people.
The guy took offense at my rejection and went home. I thought the subject was over and forgotten. In the evening I took Anna out to dinner at a cafe near my house.
– My brother stopped by today, didn’t he? – She was the first one to start at dinner. – Did he ask you something about the wedding?
Anna was a terrible liar, and I could see from her face that she knew perfectly well, and was making a comedy of it.
– He came by to see if I could get him in.
– And you?
– Sent him to interview if he wants to get anywhere. I’m not in the placement business, you know that.
Anna’s face changed, she was offended. She looked even more like her family. She put her fork down on her plate with a clatter.
– Relatives often work together, and then even open their own firms. It’s a family business. And you turned him down!
We argued for a long time in the cafe. I was quiet, and Anna shouted to let everyone know how I didn’t want to take her brother to work for me. She didn’t think work and personal were incompatible and shouldn’t even touch. If I even hired her brother and then got him fired and got me fined for dishonestly bringing someone in, it wouldn’t do anyone any good.
– There won’t be any wedding! – Anna was angry. – You’re hurting the people closest to me, so you can hurt me, too!
A day later she texted me that she and her mom called the salons and the restaurant to cancel all of our appointments and the ceremony as a whole. Now everyone in her family knows that I didn’t hire her brother and everyone is judging me for it. So… maybe it’s for the best that I won’t have to listen to any outrage about it for the next fifty years.
