Veronica re-read the message on her phone for the 3rd time. Right door, she confirmed.
She looked at the silver plate attached to the blue-painted door. 20A. it says there and Veronica deliberated if she'll just call her friend or knock on her door. She shifted her weight to her other leg, fixed the bag hanging on her shoulder, and grip the plastic bag on her other hand a bit tighter.
She decided to knock in the end. Once...twice...and then she heard a muffled voice on the other side of the panel.
"Get yourself together, Tess. He's already done this to you twice! Leave that piece of shit and get on with your life. Did you not want to focus on your career?"
Veronica recognized the voice as April. She's talking to someone. Must be on the phone since only her voice can be heard from here, she pondered to herself.
Should she knock again or should she wait for her to finish the call? Veronica thought about what to do next.
She knocked again.
"Get back to work tomorrow. This is your last chance or I'll have no choice but to let you go. I'm giving you this one chance because you're good at what you do but that's it. I'm hanging up." April's voice became louder indicating that she's walked closer to the door.
After a few seconds, the sound of keys jiggling and locks unfastening echoed on the poorly lit hallway. When the door opened, a grinning April welcomed her with open arms.
"Roni!" she cried. "I've been waiting for you. Come on in." she took the plastic bag from her hand and opened the door a bit more to let her enter. "How's the traffic?"
Veronica laughed, "Still awful as ever."
April turned to face her. "I know right?" she beamed again and walked to engulf her in a hug after dropping the plastic on the coffee table in her living room. "Don't ever disappear like that ever again. Okay?"
Veronica was enveloped by April's familiar scent of vanilla and flowers and she melted into her warm comfort. "Okay. I'm just at home though."
"You know that's not what I mean." April let go of her friend and made her way to the kitchen. The smell of something savory hit Veronica's nose and she felt her stomach grumble.
April turned to look at her and chuckled. "I bet you're hungry from the long drive," she said before picking up the ladle on the counter and resumed stirring the pot in front of her.
A few minutes later, the two were finally seated at the table. She scooped out food on her plate and on April's while the latter pour juice on their cups.
"This is good," Veronica praised while chewing on a mouthful of beef and broccoli. "When did you learn how to cook?"
April smiled and took a sip on the cup in her hand. "Glad you like it. I've been practicing for the past year." Veronica nodded her head a few times in an I-see-way and continued munching on the food on her plate.
Stabbing a piece of beef on her fork, April began with a grin on her face, "I can't be thankful enough that you accepted my offer. I needed someone who could do professional make-up. You even agreed to become our temporary receptionist while mine's on maternity leave. "
Veronica swallowed the food in her mouth, "I should be the one thanking you. I haven't been in practice for a few years so I might be a bit rusty now since no one really needed make-up in the countryside."
April waved a tattooed arm to dismiss her. "Nonsense. I bet you still practiced every night."
That's true. Veronica loved painting in general. Putting make-up wasn't any different for her. When they were younger, she'd practice on April's face and arms whenever they had sleepovers and they would laugh at how it would turn out. Veronica can't help but wonder if that's one of the reasons why April's covered in tattoos now.
She must have liked what we did; she thought remembering how April won't remove the paint on her arms and waited for it to come off on its own or be wiped off by her mother.
"Anyway, speaking of work, I was supposed to give you tomorrow to rest but I urgently need help with the organizing of some work files so...would it be okay if you start tomorrow?"
April runs a small headhunter company that specializes in hiring people willing to do the oddest jobs. They look for people who can do simple things like walking other people's dogs or take out other people's trash to complicated ones like odor judges who smell people's armpits, feet, or breath to test out the effectiveness of hygiene products, human-dog food tasters or professional mermaids. Veronica's job is to be their on-call make-up artist slash personal assistant to employees who might need her services like that mermaids-for-hire.
Veronica nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm okay with that but I guess we can't stay up tonight then."
April let out a short chuckle, "Oh, Ron. You're living with your boss, honey. You can be late for a few minutes. I'll drive us to work."
Veronica shook her head in amusement before going back to the food on her plate.
***
It was way past her wake-up time when the alarm on her phone went off. April was sprawled on the floor while she was on the sofa. There are empty beer cans on top of the coffee table and bits of popcorn all over the floor and on April's hair. The whole place's a mess as if a bomb went off last night. She kicked off the blanket on her feet and carefully sat up when a nasty throbbing on her head started.
Veronica ran a hand through her messy hair and glanced at the clock on the wall. "Fuck." It was already noon and a Monday at that. In a hurry, she called out April who looked like she was run over by a truck before rushing to the bathroom for a quick shower because who wants to smell like rotten pineapples on their first day of work?
After a miraculous 30-minute preparation, they both headed out and were fortunately greeted by light traffic. In a few minutes, April was already parking her car on the only empty spot on the lot that was marked with the word 'boss'.
A petite woman was waiting by the driver's side of the car when she got out of the passenger seat. Their eyes met for a second before the woman proceeded to force a smile on her mouth. April looked like she was about to roll her eyes when she saw the person waiting for her while she double-checks the locks on her car. The woman pulled a coffee out of nowhere and handed it to April who took it casually before straight off walking to the entrance of the building.
"Have I finally knocked some sense into you?" April started as they get inside the elevator. The woman pressed the floor number '5' before looking at April with the same forced smile she had when they were at the parking lot.
"I thought about what you said last night and you're right. I should focus on my career instead of someone who cheated on me twice."
April sighed and finally rolled her eyes. The elevator dinged signaling that they have reached their floor. When the doors opened, another woman was waiting on the other side. She looked relieved when she saw April and immediately mouthed something to her. April got off first and they followed after. The two looked like they were talking about something important as they silently speak in hushed tones. Once they reached their office, April stopped walking midway and pivoted her feet to face Veronica and the woman who turned out to be the one she was talking to on the phone last night.
"I have to make a quick call, Ron-"she said looking at her friend before moving her gaze to the woman beside her. "-show her around while I make calls, Tess." She quickly instructed before walking away with the other woman.
When April was finally out of sight the woman called Tess turned to the side to look at Veronica. "Shall we?"
_to be continued_