Myria POV
From Tuesday, I would spend every afternoon of the week at home with Elena and the energy drink promotion. Rosa and Alba were coming too, I spent all night cleaning and trying to make the house look decent, although Elena told me that it doesn't matter, Rosa already knows the house well enough.
'Isn't she ashamed of this house?'
I can't believe she showed Rosa her room. The area the webcam was pointing towards looked spotless and perfect, but on either side of it were stacked cans of drink, piles of clothes, books... chaos. I spent more time cleaning and tidying Elena's room than the rest of the house.
MYRIA: We're a mess, Elena. Now that we have money we can pay someone to clean up.
ELENA: No need, we already have you.
I threw her a shirt I'd just picked up from her mountain of clothes.
MYRIA: I hate you.
Elena was looking at me with her face like a jerk and made the mic drop gesture with her mobile phone on the bed.
After cleaning Elena's mess, I lay down on my bed with my baby cats Pepe Lee and Leo, who fell asleep on top of me almost immediately. I started to look at my phone. I didn't know that Alba liked photography and I must admit that she is good at it. Her photos have a lot of sensitivity, she has a great aesthetic sense, they are stylish... she really knows what she's doing. In the end, I also passed her my photo Instagram. Almost none of my friends knew about it, I'm a bit embarrassed. It's normal too, what am I going to show Noelia or Arancha? They'd laugh and ask me to do a nude photo shoot or whatever. Isabel would ignore me, I think she wouldn't even look at the pictures, she's bored with that kind of thing. At most, she'd ask me to do a photo shoot and then send it to a modelling agency to see if they'd hire her. But that's not the kind of photos I like to take.
Elena does know it and likes it a lot, she tells me I'm very good... but she doesn't understand photography and sometimes I miss having someone to talk to about it. I'm not denying that I was thrilled when Alba told me that she liked my photos, we spent the whole night talking about it. It was nice to talk without having to see her face. When I see her I just want to argue and I get angry, but when I chat with her on Tinder she's nice, she's interesting.
Alba POV
We've just arrived at Elena's house and I've just found out that it's also Myria's house. They both open the door for us.
ALBA: Hello, girls.
We all greet each other and go inside. Rosa and Elena explain how they have organized the space and the advertising image and show us the designs they have loaded on Elena's computer.
ALBA: Wow, Elena, what a computer.
It was really impressive, full of lights. I don't know about these things but it looked cool.
ELENA: It's only the best that goes in here.
She said cockily and looked sideways at Rosa, as if that sentence included her too. My friend turned as red as a tomato and smiled. They're adorable.
Myria was off to the side plugging in her laptop and getting everything ready.
MYRIA: Would you like some coffee?
A/R: No need, thanks.
MYRIA: Now you speak in sync as Noelia, Arancha and Alicia? -We laugh. -Come on, don't be shy. How do you like your coffee, Rosa? I know Miss Hevia's.
While my friend was explaining, I was thinking for a while, remembering my conversation with Rosa. I have to try not to be so hard on Myria, I'm not that angry with her anymore.
ALBA: If you want you can call me Alba.
Myria looks at me surprised.
MYRIA: Okay...
ALBA: Here and in the office.
Myria is a bit shocked, she raised an eyebrow and looked like she was going to say something but finally she shut up and went to prepare the coffee. When she was already at the door she answered me. She does that all the time, she looks like she wants to talk and then shuts up, it makes me quite nervous.
MYRIA: OK.
I sat off to the side with the laptop and turned on all the software we needed. We were going to start launching surveys and a mini-game where people who entered into the Elena stream could try and win prizes. A can of the drink, a pack, a t-shirt... depending on their points, they could unlock some prizes or others.
When Myria came back with the coffees four cats sneaked in behind her.
ALBA: Four cats, girls?
Elena and Myria giggled.
ELENA: Don't look at me, they're hers. -She points to Myria.
I love cats. I've always had a great feeling with them (and with dogs too, I'm good with animals in general), two of them come up to me and give me headbutts asking me to scratch them. I cuddle them for a while while I prepare the laptop.
ALBA: They're so cute, what are their names?
MYRIA: The white one with black fringes is Pepe Lee, the grey one is Leo. And the two you see there, the fat grey one is Lily and the long-haired white one is Ming.
I stroked Leo who had climbed into my lap and was settling down for a nap.
ALBA: Hi Leo, are you going to sleep in there?
ELENA: If I don't see it I don't believe it.
ALBA: What?
ELENA: That they like you so much. Normally when new people come they hide.
ROSA: It's true, it's the first time they've spent more than 5 seconds in the same room as me.
ELENA: Alba, the cat charmer.
I giggled and petted Pepe Lee too, who seemed jealous that Leo had settled on my lap and was giving me a paw. Myria looked at us without saying anything.
ELENA: Well, is everything ready?
A/R/L: Yes.
ROSA: Are you nervous?
She looked at Elena with a sweetness that made me want to scream with excitement, but I didn't because I didn't want to make a fool of my friend.
ELENA: I've never done this in public.
MYRIA: It's true, she forbids me to come in when she streams.
ELENA: It's a little embarrassing, but I'm a brave and fearless person. -She laughed.
ALBA: You do this every day in front of thousands of people and you're embarrassed to have three friends here?
ELENA: I'm a contradictory and complicated woman, Alba.
We all laugh.
MYRIA: Okay, complicated girl: It's time to get started.
Rosa and Myria sat next to me and Elena started the stream. She played League of Legends for a few hours, she got very angry when she lost, but she was quite cute. Rosa's idiot face was something to take a picture of, I have to say that too. She has no idea what's going on in the game and knows about it as much as I do, but she looks at her carefully and gets nervous every time Elena fights with someone or does anything.
Myria and I were focused on the laptop graphics and the mini-game, but she was too close to me and I didn't feel comfortable. Leo was still on my lap and from time to time Myria caressed him and unintentionally brushed against me. It made me very nervous when she did that. Apart from the day I had tripped over her at the disco, I had never had her so close to me, let alone for so long in a row. She smells good.
'Alba Hevia, focus. It's Myria. She's an idiot. She smells like an idiot.'
Actually, she seems less of an idiot today than she did yesterday, I see her differently since my conversation with Rosa. But just because she's less of an idiot doesn't mean she's not an idiot. Even if the things she said to me weren't true, I can't get around the fact that she said them. Just because there's a why doesn't cancel out the what.
Still, looking at Elena I can understand why she wants to protect her, she seems like a very pure, very transparent... good person. If someone had made Rosa feel bad I would have reacted like Myria too.
'No. I would have reacted worse.'
The point is I can't hate Myria, but I can't like her. I'm not going to get past that barrier. Even though when she called me a dwarf she didn't really mean it, then she told me I smelled like her grandma and that I looked like the Joker.
'God, I just can't stand her.'
When the stream ended they wanted to invite us to dinner and Rosa and I said no, but they insisted so much that we stayed with them. I checked my phone to see if I had any messages from Alejandra but she hadn't written to me. This afternoon she told me that she had to work a lot in the evening and couldn't write, but the truth is that I was a bit hopeful to have a message from her. I wasn't really excited, I'm not 15 years old, but I would have liked to hear from her. We had spent most of the night talking and commenting on the photos. It had been a long time since I had talked to anyone like that, for hours that seemed like minutes. She's cool. She's a stranger who I think is cool.
When we had finished dinner we gathered up all the things and put them away. The next few days we would keep coming back so we tried to keep them close at hand without getting in the way of Myria and Elena's life either. At one point, we went into Myria's room to put the laptop away.
'I didn't expect it like this.'
It is spacious and a bit of a mess but within its clutter there is organization, if that makes any sense. It smells different from the rest of the house and when I realized this I blushed a little because I like the way it smells. There' s a huge bed and next to it two pillows that I guess were for the cats, but they must not use them much because they look new.
She has a camera.
MYRIA: Do you take pictures, Myria?
Myria tensed up.
MYRIA: No.
ALBA: Well, that camera is pretty good. It's expensive.
Myria stares at it for a while, thinking.
MYRIA: I didn't know that.
'WTF, she doesn't even know what she's got.'
MYRIA: Well, that's it, let's go out.
She nervously pulled us out of her room, practically pushing us out, she hadn't been comfortable having us there, I could tell.
'It's not like I had any interest in being in her room either.'
Myria POV
I hate Alba but I like talking to her. I hate Alba but I like her pictures. I hate Alba but she smells good. I hate Alba but I think she's pretty.
'But you don't hate her. Alba hates you. She's indifferent to you.'
I don't know what's happening to me with her, but it's clearly not indifference. I think too much of her to be indifferent. In the end it will be true that I hate her. I don't like hating people, it's a terrible feeling. Hate is a feeling of a bitter and bad person, why do I have to hate her?
'Agh, how could I not hate her.'
With her smug airs, her pretended indifference (because I know she's faking it), how straight she sits in her chair (who sits like that?), her scolding for absolutely everything (she even scolds me for breathing), her work exploitation: 'Make four million photocopies one by one', 'The office is not a bar for you to be flirting'... mimimimimi....
But today I spent the four hours of Elena's stream sticking to her, and although she wasn't wearing the perfume I like, I loved her smell, she smells good even when she doesn't wear cologne, it made me want to sniff her.
'I am your head and you make me cringe.'
And why did my cats approach her? They indeed hate people, they never want to be with anyone but me or Elena. And even with Elena, they go a lot less. Alba arrived and they seemed to say: 'Is that Mommy's exploitative boss? It looks like a good place to sleep'. She's turning my cats against me.
'WTF do you say, Myria?'
I've been lying in bed for two hours and I can't sleep. This is Alba's fault. She seems to have come into my life to turn everything upside down, now it's not only bothering me at work and on nights out with my friends, now it's even affecting my sleep.
My mobile vibrates. I look at it immediately. It's her. She's texted me on Tinder.
'Alejandra, not me. She wrote Alejandra.'
But I am Alejandra. I don't even have to pretend or make anything up (apart from photos and where I live, of course, but those are minor details). She's uploaded a new photo to her Instagram and wants me to see it.
It's the sky from her window.
Why am I grinning like an idiot?
'Because you don't hate her.'
Alba POV
The following days at Elena and Myria's house were fun. It's different working like this. Instead of being in the office passing out reports and drinking industrial sized coffees we are with the cats, among friends, enjoying watching Elena play video games. She played several different ones I didn't know and she was very funny, I think I'm getting used to her sense of humour. She didn't do any livestream eating because she was embarrassed that we were in front of her. She told us that it was enough that she let us be there while she was playing, but she didn't eat anything. We were looking forward to seeing it, I'm not denying it.
The campaign was going really well, Myria's mini-game idea was proving to be a success and by the time we had been there for only two days we had already exceeded the numbers we had to do in seven, so the rest of the week was more relaxed and chilled out.
If it can be relaxed to spend four hours a day sticking to Myria.
I admit that she is less annoying at home than in the office. As she tries to be a good hostess as well as a professional, she always looks after us, brings us food, coffee and tries to make us feel comfortable. I guess it is awkward for her to have us there. Since the first day she has not let us back into her room, who knows what she's hiding in there.
Friday was the last day we would spend there. On Monday we would start the follow-up from the office and next Wednesday we would finish the project. When the stream was over the girls wanted us to stay for dinner on Tuesday to celebrate the arrival of the weekend and the end of work at home (although this didn't deserve a celebration, I would have spent another week there).
ELENA: You are about to taste the best chicken in Madrid. You will see. I decided to become a streamer after eating this chicken.
MYRIA: I can tell you that.
Rosa and I chuckled.
ROSA: She's been talking about it for weeks.
Elena ordered it online and it should be here in half an hour.
ELENA: By the way, tomorrow we thought we'd go to karaoke, Isabel is getting out of jail.
My eyes widened, I was caught off guard.
ALBA: Jail?
Myria and Elena laughed.
MYRIA: Isabel sometimes has adventures that end badly, we hadn't heard from her for a few weeks and it was because she was having one of her sensory experiences and she got arrested. She spent a couple of nights in jail but now she's free.
ELENA: Don't worry, it's more common than it might seem at first. In the end she always manages to get out of jail because her parents are millionaires.
Rosa and I don't know what to say, my friend's mouth is open and she looks at them in silence. I think my face must look similar.
MYRIA: Well, we don't exactly know if they're millionaires, that's our theory.
ELENA: She lives in a huge luxury flat in Gran Vía and doesn't work.
MYRIA: As far as we know.
ROSA: Well, let's celebrate her release. I love karaoke.
We all laugh.
After a while the food arrived and one of Myria's cats, Ming, climbed onto my lap. The boys had been very close to me these days, but the female cats had barely made an appearance. Maybe she noticed that this would be the last day we were going to be there and wanted to say goodbye. I caressed her under her chin and behind her ears. Myria looked at me quietly, looking surprised.
ROSA: Listen, this chicken is spectacular.
ELENA: I told you. I'm the biggest chicken expert in town.
We giggled.