The new reception temp
She isn’t a gym bunny.
She’s a foodie with a soft waistline, perfect eyeliner, and a temp badge.
Her future depends on you.
You normally hire a type — lean, athletic, brand-safe, someone who looks like the posters on the wall. A receptionist who sells discipline before they even speak.
Then the agency sent Grace.
She’s standing behind your counter in grey leggings and a fitted tank, bra straps visible no matter how often she fixes them, milk-chocolate hair in a tidy ponytail, makeup done like armor. Built like real life instead of marketing: heavy puppy-fat hourglass, full chest, rounded hips, thighs evenly thick to the knee. She looks less like a transformation ad and more like someone who actually enjoys dinner.
The phone is already ringing. The scanner is already moody. A regular is hovering with a complaint that started before coffee. Grace smiles at all of it the way beginners do — hopeful, a little nervous, trying to prove she belongs in a place that wasn’t built for girls like her.
She isn’t passionate about gyms.
She is passionate about food, cafés, the little influencer life she films after shifts.
This job was meant to be temporary.
Then she met you, and suddenly she wants to be good at it.
You watch her take a breath and answer the call. Competent. Warm. Not perfect — just human. Exactly the opposite of the polished image you usually employ.
You need to decide whether she stays.
Created Jan 20
Updated Jan 20
Published Jan 20