Myria POV
Today I go back to work after this weird weekend and I have no idea how to look at my boss. I can't get the images I remember from that night out of my head. Alba laughing under the fountain, Alba dancing, Alba in her underwear... I can feel my cheeks burning. Alba in her underwear.
'I liked what I saw.'
It was a normal night with Isabel, I think she put something in our drinks to make fun of us, or maybe we drank too much, I don't know, both options are viable.
When I got to the office, Alba was already there, as usual. With perfect hair, perfect make-up and her Chanel dress. Luckily, she hadn't worn the perfume from the first few days, I couldn't stand it. Before she asked me for it, I brought her coffee. Last week I decided to bring it to her first in the morning to save myself a trip to the coffee shop as soon as she saw me. I knocked on her door and she beckons me to come in.
MYRIA: Good morning, Alba. -I looked at her innocently and smiled.
After seeing us in our underwear, I thought I might force a little, but the look she gave me made it clear I'd just screwed up.
ALBA: Alba? Did I give you permission to call me Alba? Put the coffee down.
MYRIA: I'm sorry... I thought that...
ALBA: You don't have to think anything. Just because we have friends in common doesn't mean you can call me by my first name. And now go to your desk, I've emailed you some reports I want you to fill in.
I left annoyed. For a moment I thought she was a normal person. I saw her laughing, drinking, having fun, joking... But with me she's still the same old asshole boss. A spiteful bitch. I sat down at my desk and got ready to work when I got a message from Elena.
ELENA: Have you seen Rosa?
MYRIA: No. I've just arrived.
ELENA: Do you think it's too soon to text her?
MYRIA: How should I know.
'Elena, I'm not in the mood for dramas now.'
I'd been working for a while when I saw Sandra approaching me. It's a bit awkward, every day she comes to my desk with some excuse and I think she's trying to flirt but I don't know how to cut her off without being too rude and I try to be nice.
SANDRA: Hi Myrie.
She smiles mischievously at me.
'At what point do we have the confidence to call me Myrie?'
MYRIA: Morning.
SANDRA: Have you seen the email I sent you?
MYRIA: No, I was just finishing up some reports Miss Hevia sent me.
Sandra leans next to me on the table and brushes my arm.
SANDRA: I sent you some designs for the drinks and I wanted to know what you thought.
MYRIA: Oh...
SANDRA: Shall we look at them together then?
MYRIA: Sure.
She pulled up a chair and sat down next to me. I noticed how Alba was looking at us from her office, I couldn't decipher her expression, but it didn't look good. After a while (which took forever) looking at the designs, laughing at her jokes, putting up with her subtle (not subtle) hand on my leg and pretending I didn't understand her hints, Sandra got up to leave.
SANDRA: Well, let me know what Alba thinks.
MYRIA: Of course. -I smiled. -I'm sure she loves it.
SANDRA: Let's go out for a drink after work one day, there's a brewery next door that we design guys always hang out at, you could come by one day.
MYRIA: Yeah, one day when I'm not too late we can check it out.
SANDRA: I'd love to.
MYRIA: Fine.
I grimaced-attempted-to-smile out of politeness. She smiled at me and left. I finished the reports Alba had given me and printed out the designs I had selected with Sandra. I knocked on Alba's office door, and she waved me in.
MYRIA: Hello, Miss Hevia. I've finished the reports.
ALBA: Myria, sit down. -She pointed to the chair in front of her.
MYRIA: Yes.
ALBA: I remind you, in case you've forgotten, that you're not at the bar, you're at work.
'What?'
With her left hand she touched her hair and pushed it back with a shake of her head. After two weeks of watching her on a daily basis I already know that this is a typical Alba Hevia gesture to pretend indifference when she's upset about something. Sometimes she accompanies it with an eye roll, another of her classics.
ALBA: You come to the office to work, not to fool around with the girls from Design. Not Design or any other department, of course.
MYRIA: Fooling around? I wasn't fooling around.
I expected her to cut me off like she always did when I wanted to explain myself. She never let me speak, always interrupting me with 'I'm not interested in your excuses', or 'I don't want to hear anything', or her classic 'Don't you dare answer'. But this time she didn't interrupt me, she was watching me waiting for me to explain.
MYRIA: Sandra came to show me the designs she has prepared for the project and we were selecting the best ones to present to you. I bring them here.
I held up the folder with the designs I had just printed out.
ALBA: I know what I saw. And I've already told you I'm not interested. Don't do it again. This office is not your harem, it's your workplace. If you want, when you finish your day, you can take them to a sleazy bar, or wherever you take the girls - she said this with a look of disgust on her face, she didn't try to hide it - but we're professionals here.
I can feel myself getting angry. I hate the way he talks to me and the contempt with which he looks at me.
MYRIA: I think I'm quite professional and I've never shown any signs of being otherwise. And I don't take girls to sleazy bars, I take them for ice cream. -I couldn't keep quiet and spat out the last words with a smile.
'She's going to kill me.'
I saw her eyes burning, and if looks could kill I'd be dead right now.
ALBA: Very much on your level. -She smiled mockingly. -I don't have time for nonsense now, leave the designs here and go back to your desk.
'Breathe and smile.'
Alba POV
Today I needed to have a drink with Rosa after work. The day had been exhausting and I needed to disconnect, clear my head and have a laugh with my friend. Besides, we needed to talk about Saturday night, which had been weird. Weird and great, but weird most of all. We went to the brewery next to the office, we used to go there often.
ALBA: Do you get the feeling you're still hungover? What happened on Saturday?
ROSA: I don't know... I don't remember anything since we left the disco.
ALBA: I think we bathed in a fountain, but from then on everything is black. -I laugh.
ROSA: I don't remember that. Don't you have the feeling that we had a great time and it was one of the best nights of our lives?
ALBA: I really do.
ROSA: I felt so connected to you guys. I loved you guys so much...
The truth is that the feeling wasn't unpleasant at all. I felt that connection too.
ALBA: Did you sleep with Elena?
Rosa turns red.
ROSA: No...
ALBA: You don't know...
ROSA: I know I don't, I wouldn't dare so soon.
Indeed, Rosa wouldn't sleep with anyone on the first night (or the second). She likes to go slowly, she's shy and has little (zero) experience in that area.
ALBA: Have you spoken to her?
ROSA: Yes, we've been texting all day, on Wednesday we're meeting to start the image tests for the drinks.
ALBA: You two looked good together, she seems to like you.
Rosa gave a silly grin.
ROSA: You think so? But I just met her, I don't want to get my hopes up. We haven't even kissed.
ALBA: That you remember...
ROSA: Well, if I don't remember it, it didn't happen.
We both laughed.
ALBA: Oh, by the way, do you know Myria's last one?
Rosa looks at me curiously.
ALBA: She spent half the morning fooling around with Sandra, the girl from Design. Seriously, it looked like they were going to make out on the table. Very embarrassing.
ROSA: Sandra?
ALBA: Yeah, a short girl, I don't know if you know. She's flirting with her and she's got the nerve to call me a dwarf?
ROSA: Oh, I know who she is. I think she recently broke up with her boyfriend. She was talking about it the other day in the photocopy room.
ALBA: Well, she doesn't waste any time, and Myria's delighted. We're up to our ears in the project and she's using the office as a harem.
Rosa bursts out laughing and chokes on her beer.
ALBA: What are you laughing at?
ROSA: You sound jealous.
I can feel my cheeks burning.
'Me jealous? Of Myria?'
ALBA: You can't be serious.
ROSA: I don't know, it's what it looks like. Myria's an idiot, she laughed at you and behaved terribly. Why do you care who she's flirting with? She's probably a jerk to her too.
ALBA: I don't care who she's flirting with, what bothers me is that she does it in the office.
ROSA: It doesn't bother you who she's fooling around with, but it bothers you that she rejected you because you were short?
Rosa looked at me waiting for my answer. We've known each other since we were kids, sometimes it feels like she knows me better than I know myself and there's no point pretending in front of her. This Myria thing has affected me more than I like to admit in public or even to admit to myself. But Rosa has always been able to see these things. I sighed.
ALBA: I'm not jealous. I just don't understand why she rejected me. It's never happened to me before. Whenever I've liked someone I've always been reciprocated. And when I meet girls on Tinder I see that I really impress them, I take their breath away. I know it sounds awful and I sound vain, but I take care of myself, I groom myself, I've always felt comfortable with my appearance and Myria's reaction, who treated me like I was a freak, totally took me out of that comfort zone.
Rosa looked towards the door, which was behind me.
ROSA: Don't look. Sandra just came in with the Design group.
I stiffened.
ALBA: I don't care about Sandra, that's not the point.
ROSA: I know. But I can assure you that if a thousand people had to choose between the two of you, 999 would choose you.
ALBA: So that one is Myria?
ROSA: Maybe, but because she's got very bad taste.
I laughed.
ALBA: You're just saying that because you're my friend and you're trying to lighten my mood.
ROSA: No, I'm telling you because Myria is an idiot if she doesn't see what we all see.
ALBA: Aw, Rosie...
I went to her and hugged her very tightly while we were giggling.
--
When I got home I felt much better. I needed a night with Rosa and a chance to be honest, saying things out loud lifted a weight off my shoulders and by being able to talk to someone else I was able to take some of the importance out of it. Since Myria's day I had uninstalled Tinder, I was tired of how disastrous all my dates had been and that had been the straw that broke the camel's back, undermining my self-esteem. But today I felt pretty, I felt happy, I'd had a couple of beers, why not check it out and see what I could find.
Install.
'Let's see.'
Left. Left. Left. Left. Left.
'Here we go...'
Left. Left. Left.
'Wow. What about this girl? Adriana. 23 years old.'
She immediately got my attention. I guess everyone's. Among the hundreds of profiles I'd seen so far, she was definitely the prettiest girl, well, apart from Myria.
And we matched.