Chapter Two

Natália explained to me what I should do that day. Christopher Von Uckermann was the name of my boss, director and owner of most of Helix, a powerful Marketing company and known throughout North America and some countries in Latin America and Europe.

— That's basically it. You have lunch between noon and one o'clock in the afternoon, which is the time he also has lunch.

— Fine.

— And he will want to meet you after the meeting, so posture and have a good vocabulary. It matters to him.

I automatically straightened up and looked at the door. What if he didn't like me? What if I get fired on the first day of work? I was a hard woman, however, I needed to improve, and a lot, the way I spoke. I had a very strong accent of someone who lived all my life in the countryside, and even though I lived in the capital for a few years, I still hadn't managed to get that accent out of me.

I waited for Natália to leave and started working. At first, I had access to my boss's agenda, and I was scared by the number of meetings and appointments that he had only during that week. How could anyone be on a video conference at nine in the morning and be at eleven in the morning at a meeting in Costa Rica? And he had to be at the company at eleven o'clock at night the previous day and had to pick up something at the company at six thirty in the morning. Was he ubiquitous or what?

The phone rang and I jumped a little from the chair, startling me by its unobtrusive noise. I answered and a hoarse voice spoke from the other side:

— Miss Saviñon, can you please come to my office?

OK! It was now! I would meet my boss, or as I understand it, my executioner. I took my calendar and a pen, then checked that nothing was out of place, by the way, the first impression was what was left, right? So off I went, towards the living room, the shakier legs would be impossible.

I gave a light knock on the door and after hearing an "enter" I sneaked it open. With his back to me, watching the landscape was a man, not very tall, but bigger than me, in a gray suit set that marked his small ass well which I couldn't help but notice, taking into account my fetish for buttocks, and too much combed hair.

— Excuse me. — I said, pressing the pen between his fingers.

He turned around and to my surprise, the same man I had seen earlier. The same who tried to get my car out of place, the same who had treated me with total contempt. At that moment I didn't know who was more surprised and red. I saw him put his hands in his pants pocket and swallow some saliva.

— You! — Our voices came out in unison and then he migrated.

— Small world, isn't it? — He completed.

— The company is much smaller than I thought. — I grunted and he frowned, not understanding what I meant. — Should I say, "nice to meet you"?

I made a face and he half smiled, walking over to his chair and sitting down. — Something tells me that we will be great workmates, miss.

I wanted to run away from there, but I needed my job and somewhere to live, and by the way, who, in good conscience, after seeing the salary, would quit right there on the first day of employment?

He looked at me as if he were analyzing every single detail of mine, which made me a little ashamed. Or was there something wrong with my clothes? Was my lipstick smudged?

— Have you ever worked in this position before?

— Yes. — I limited myself.

— Then you must know that respect is fundamental, right?

— From both parties, sir. — I provoked. Heavens! I was going to be out of a job, that was for sure! Dulce Maria, hold your tongue!

— A fact, honey. Now, if I may, could you sit down? There are some things that I need to review with you and as you may have noticed, I am not a man with much time.

— A man with powers to be in two places at the same time, I would say.

— Wow! You are impressed with my schedule, right? They always do.

— Answer me one thing. — I sat down in the chair across from him and looked him straight in the brown eyes. — How are you going to get to Costa Rica from here in less than two hours?

He chuckled at the face I made and then stopped all at once, getting serious again. — That's what satellite connections are for, and good thing you asked, I need you to reschedule the meeting an hour earlier, so I need you to reschedule my flight as soon as possible.

I nodded and started making notes in the diary while he kept his arms on the table looking at me. Why look at me so much? He was embarrassing me.

— Something more?

— Try to find a space for a meeting between four and six in the afternoon. Something in some cafe for today.

— Anything else?

— Yes. — He took a huge and very full folder and handed it to me. — Can you organize this for me? I dropped it and everything is out of order now.

I forced a smile and wanted to curse him for something, but my education did not allow. I took the folder, and it was very heavy, it had something like three hundred sheets in it.

— What is the criterion?

— By date, please.

— Right.

— That's it for now. — Only? I would spend hours organizing it there.

If it could get worse? I hadn't realized that my heel was breaking, and when I got up, I fell flat on the floor, making leaves spread all over the place.

— Holy shit!

I screamed, unable to contain myself. Soon he was close to me, extending his hand. I looked at his face and he was serious, although he looked like he was about to laugh. Even I would want to laugh, if the person suffering the misfortune was not myself.

— Did you hurt yourself?

— No. — I let him help me up and fixed my skirt.

— You need to improve your balance, girl. You have no problem with your eyesight, do you?

— You need to have the asphalt fixed up front, boy! — I emphasized the word boy, in order to provoke him back, after all, I was already more than an adult woman for him to call me a girl. —

I bought this shoe just for today and look at his situation. — I whimpered in despair and frustration. That was really good! No shoes and no car to come back home.

— What is your shoe number?

— What?

— What is the number of your shoes?

— Thirty—five.

— I'll try to solve your problem, now if you allow me, I'm leaving. I'll be back before the day is over.

He left, leaving me to collect and organize that tangle of leaves, so I took off my shoe, or what's left of it, and started collecting them.

I spent the whole morning there, because besides being too much, they still had some with the same dates. They were documents for an entire year that I wanted by fire. Did anyone know computers? It was all so much simpler. After organizing everything, I scanned each one and saved it in a folder, sending it to his email.