Chapter 4: I can get a job

Dannie

“Why are you telling me this?” Tanya asked, her face as neutral as always.

She was definitely tired of me, but I knew she did not care if I showed up at her work from time to time. I did that a lot. She liked it, even when her face didn't show it.

The office was a place I never liked. All full of boxes and desks and poor light. No wonder why people there were so unhappy and seemed like they wanted to disappear from the world.

Tanya has that face as well, but only when she’s at work… or when I say something she finds as a stupidity… like almost everything I say.

“Don’t you find it funny?” I replied, trying to lighten the mood.

“Not really.”

“Ben’s getting married and that’s all the emotion you put in?” I sighed.

She rolled her eyes and kept looking at some diagrams at her computer while, at the same time, wrote some numbers in an Excel sheet.

I bet she’d be happier if she could use her laptop… ‘cause it has my face as a sticker glued to the back.

“It’s understandable,” she said. “He has been dating that girl for three years now.”

“I mean… true, but—”

“There is no buts.”

Tanya doesn’t like to criticized people the way I do. She’s always saying people’s lives belong to them to critic, not to her. What a serious woman. So mature she gives me the creeps.

But she is also responsible. She works even at the break time.

She was writing with one hand and holding a cheese sandwich with the other.

I took a bite from her sandwich.

“Buy your own sandwich,” she said.

Her eyes were still fixed on the laptop.

She’s used to me arriving at her job almost every day of the week. It’s a little space, only five workers, so no one cares if I get in and talk to her at the breaks. They all love me, except for her boss, he hates me… maybe he’s jealous of my perfect hair.

“I don’t have money,” I told her.

“Find a job then.”

“Hey… chillax, I’m working on it.”

She arched and eyebrow.

“Last time you worked on something… wait, there is no last time, because you have never worked on anything.”

So true she was.

She was so direct and honest.

Finding a job with my qualifications was not as simple. I worked at PimPom, but Stevie fired me in the first week.

What a Mexican he was made of... always called me lazy, but hey, my Granny used to know someone from Mexico-- practically family, right?

I also worked as a delivery guy, but I lost my license and couldn't drive anymore.

Life's not easy.

“Don’t be like that, I can find a job,” I told her.

If she thinks she’s got me all figured out, she still has plenty to see.

“I dare you,” she replied, moving her eyes from the computer.

“I accept the bet then… You’ll see,” I pointed her with my finger. “Everybody will see!”

I walked out of the office. Two days had passed since Ben’s big news, and being a Monday, I knew I needed to check my horoscope. Maybe there was something good for Leo. Last week had been awful.

I don’t believe in horoscope, but man, if something says I’m gonna be rich, I better believe so.

“You’ll see Tanya. You’ll see.”

“Stevie! Please…” I hugged him even. “Let me work for you!”

Stevie — whose real name was… Estefan? Esteben? Ronaldo? Nobody knows—, rolled his eyes while serving one table and pulling me all over the floor.

It was a surprise to everybody —or maybe just me— that Stevie could have such a strength even when he was all little and funny.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Stevie—he's like my friend Paige, just sassier.

“I have to get a job! Otherwise I’m gonna lose the bet.”

He stopped me placing a hand on my shoulder.

“You want to work for me because of a bet?” he asked.

“Of course!”

“Not even think of it.”

He headed towards the kitchen and I followed him. All the cheese fat in the air was getting into my pores. I would have to put another mask on my face. Well… it was a win win.

“Why?!” I faked a cry.

“Because you’re lazy, Dannie. And don’t even get me start on your childish behavior.”

“I don’t have a childish behavior.”

“You are using a candy ring in your finger.”

I looked at my hand, I had forgot about that green candy. I sucked it before facing Stevie again, who was preparing a pizza mass while the other waiters —I think they are his family ‘cause all of them are Mexican— looked at us and murmured in Spanish about it.

“I can change!” I promise him.

“That’s like asking an apple tree to give me oranges.” he said.

“I promise! Please… Tanya thinks I can not even get a proper job. Please…”

He sighed.

“But you can’t ever again criticize a child,” he said.

“If they weren’t that ugly I wouldn’t—”

“Ever!”

“Okay,” I replied. “I promise.”

“You’ll start tomorrow.”

And that’s how you get a job Tanya—by losing all your dignity and promising things you’ll never going to do… Honestly, I might as well become a politician.

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Hellooooo

I have to say, English is not my main language, but I decided to write this story to practice it cause I was getting a little bit rusty.

I'm making sure it is in an intermediate level, not so difficult to read, for those whose main language is not English, like me. Don't get rusty, my dear.

Don't forget to give me a like and give this story an opportunity... And, of course, to love Dannie.

Manhattan.

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