Chapter 2 A maid in trouble

Diana Rodrigues*

Looking at the tall, thick-legged man in front of me, I blurted out the dumbest comment I could have made to the hotel owner where I work.

"Beautiful," I said.

"What are you talking about? Do you think it's nice to have broken my collection watch?" he snapped at me.

"I'm sorry, sir. Please don't fire me. I need this job."

"I don't usually give second chances to employees like you."

"Please reconsider. My family depends on me, and I need this job. If necessary, I'll apologize and kneel in front of you." He huffed and said:

"Take some of my suits to be ironed, they are wrinkled, and then bring them back. I have some appointments and I'm running late. In the meantime, I'll think about what to do with you." He walked away from me, grabbed three suits, and handed them to me.

"Yes, sir." I took the suits, the broom, and the rag. "Thank you, sir."

The rag fell to the floor. It had to be like that. It wouldn't be me if I didn't drop something. I bent down, but not in the correct way, and in an embarrassing way. I ended up facing the hotel owner. This time, he would fire me. I just do everything wrong. I didn't even look back. I left the suite and ran to the service elevator.

I've never been very lucky in life; that's a fact. When I was little and got a beautiful gift, another child would come and break it. My friends always attracted the attention of the most handsome guy, got the best job - and it's not envy, because I rooted for them. It's just a matter of my bad luck. I guess my appearance didn't please anyone, with my glasses, simple clothes, and my body not helping much. I've always been the ugly one in the group. Today I'm here, I couldn't fulfill my dream of going to college, I had to work to help at home, while my brother went to college, bought his motorcycle, and went to parties. But for my mother, I'd do it all over again. I felt sorry for that poor woman who worked day after day to support us alone and give us a decent life, but Mom, besides doing everything my brother wanted, she also liked to spend what we didn't have, and I was always the one who paid for what they both spent. There wasn't much left for me.

I took the service elevator down and ran to the laundry room. There, I was going to ask someone to iron my boss's suits, the hotel owner. All the girls were busy, and remember my luck? No one wanted to iron the suits for me. But I had done it before; ironing clothes was easy, so off I went to iron his suit. I ironed the first and second suit, and when I was finishing the third, my manager called me.

"Diana, what are you doing here in the laundry room? You know you should be cleaning the suites up in the penthouse, don't you? How can you be so incompetent?" She put her hands on her waist.

"I've already finished my work," Sirlene came out of nowhere, that cow, "while Diana is playing around and not doing her job," she gave a little smile because she knew the manager would scold me.

"I'm ironing a guest's suit, he asked me..."

"You know that's not your job," she pointed her finger at me, "your job here is to clean, not iron clothes. Today I'm going to make that clear to you."

"He is the..." I try to say.

"I don't want to know who he is, you take the suits to the guest and come to my office," and she left grumbling.

"I think someone is going to be fired today," Sirlene provokes me, "and I'm going to laugh so much at you. I can't wait to say goodbye and never see your dumb face again."

"Listen here, you..." - but as I'm about to curse that cow, the smell of burning reaches my nose.

"Diana, do you see how you only make mistakes? I want to see you stay here after burning the hotel owner's suit. He'll end you. Maybe I feel sorry for you. You'll be the next unemployed person in town," she left laughing, leaving me there with that problem.

I knew those suits cost a lot of money, just like the watch. And the suit was burnt. The iron mark was stamped on the back of the jacket, and if he hadn't fired me yet, he would definitely fire me now, and the money I have to receive from my service settlement won't be enough to pay for that suit, let alone the watch. What am I going to do? First, I'm going to go up there and face the beast, then I'm going to try to make a deal with him.

With the burnt suit in my hands, I went up there. I took the service elevator and went to the top floor. My head was thinking of a thousand ways I would talk to him. One thing was for sure: the street would be my future, my destiny, and my ruin. I needed that job so much, but I couldn't just leave the suit there. I would be fired anyway. I got off the elevator and headed for his suite door. I knocked, and it was soon opened.

"Come in and put it on the bed," he was on the phone. "And you can leave," he wasn't going to fire me. I almost shouted with joy, but I had to talk about the suit. I was always in trouble. "I don't want to get married," the person on the other end of the line must have said more things and he replied: "I'm not getting married, I'm not giving in to my father's wishes. I'm not a little boy he can boss around."

His conversation lasted for a while and I stood there listening. From what I understood, he should have been married for some years now. It seems his father was doing everything in his power to get him married or else he would be punished. I overheard that their hierarchy works as a clan that passes from father to eldest son. And as I stood there like a statue with functioning ears, he was angry because apparently he raised the family's fortune that his father couldn't manage and lost everything in failed businesses.

"What are you doing here?" - he was furious. "Were you listening to my conversation?"

"I need to talk to you, sir."

"Brother, there's a persistent employee here listening to my conversation. I'm going to hang up the phone and fire her." He said some words in another language. "What do you want? I don't have time to pay attention to the employees' conversations. Isn't it enough what you did to my watch?"

"I," I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and said, "There was an accident with your suit."

"What did you do?" - he glanced at me quickly.

"It burned with the iron, but..."

"You burned my suit? You can't do anything right? I want you away from me," I had to agree with him, I needed to stay away from this man. I'm scared of what I might do. "I'm going to deduct the value from your salary, and until you pay it all, you're stuck in this job."

"And how much does this suit cost?" - I asked, afraid of the answer.

"I don't know, twenty or thirty thousand, depending on the brand, I'm not sure. Now get out of my way, I have other things to do and problems to solve."

"Just one more question. Twenty or thirty thousand reais?"

"Dollars. I don't buy clothes in Brazil."

"Oh my God," I sat on the couch and started crying. "I'm lost."

"You're a girl who doesn't pay attention to anything." - he approaches me and observes me, his eyes running between my face and body.

"It wasn't my fault, it was my manager who distracted me by fighting with me."

"That's a sign that you're not a good employee. Now leave. I have other things to do. I'll ask to deduct the cost of the damages you caused today from your salary. What's your name?"

"Diana," I was crying in anger. "Diana Rodrigues. Please deduct it from my salary. Excuse me." - He was already sitting at the table looking at the computer and apparently not paying attention to what I was saying.

And so I left the suite and closed the door. I couldn't believe I would be stuck here for years, paying all of this and still having to deal with my mean manager. My eyes were full of tears and I didn't know what to do. But then I felt a hand on my shoulder.