(Renata Pellegrini)
"A coffee with six spoons of sugar and milk, please,” I ask the girl at the coffee shop.
"Six spoons?", she repeats my request with wide eyes, "Are you sure?"
"Oh, you're right", I smile, "Better put eight spoons.!"
"N-no, I didn't mean it's not much, it's just...."
"And please don't heat the coffee."
She sighs and finally gives up.
"Okay, just a moment, please."
Just imagining the look on Veronica's face when she tastes the coffee, I can't help but smile with anticipation. I know this might not be the mature thing to do in this situation, but right now I don't care. I just want her to pay. Since she enjoys humiliating others, why not feel a little of her own venom?
'Where did you get all that courage?' - my mind asks me, 'It's not courage, it's anger, frustration, disappointment, all mixed together' - I answer myself in thought.
I look around as I wait for the coffee, this is my third day at the company, so much has happened in the four days I have been here in the United States. My boss gave me a ride, had dinner with me, the next day I did my first make-up and in the evening I wore a designer dress, and that same night I kissed my boss! Sunday was the only day I spent without something actually happening, just every measly second remembering how good my first kiss was. And on Monday? My boss kissed me again and now I'm about to lose my first job.
"Here, thanks for waiting", she hands me the coffee.
I take the coffee and walk slowly towards Mrs. Veronica's living room, I don't knock on the door, I enter without caring, she looks at me, I smile and walk confidently towards her, she is sitting behind her desk holding some papers.
"Don't you know how to knock?"
"Couldn't keep you waiting any longer, here's your coffee", I handed over the cup..
I place my hands on my lower back, watch as she holds the cup in one hand and continues to look at the papers. She notices that she doesn't come out of her living room, she looks at me with a raised eyebrow, we look at each other for a few moments.
"What are you still doing here?", she breaks the silence.
"I was just seeing how nice your living room is, and thinking how nice it must be to have a living room of your own", I say smiling.
"Yes", she speaks, stands up and approaches me, "it's incredibly wonderful to have a living room", she brings her mouth close to my ear, today she's wearing bigger heels than when we met, "Has the power to command others", she whispers.
"Yes", I turn my face, practically touching my nose to hers, "But the world turns, and who's up today, may be down tomorrow."
"What do you mean by that? What are you implying, girl?", she asks, walking away.
"Nothing, it's just a saying, but it's very real. You know, I also know another one who is like that, we only reap what we sow, there are others too, he who wounds with iron, with iron will be wounded..."
"Where are you going with this?"
"Nowhere, I just mean that it's not right to make someone kneel down to apologize."
"I don't know what you're talking about", she says, pretending not to understand.
"Hum, and about blackmailing someone because they didn't want to sleep with you... That's some ugly, unscrupulous whore stuff! A scumbag! A..."
"And then to say what about those who give their pussy to the boss just to get a job?"
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"Oh, spare me, you're so much lower than me, you think you're fooling everyone with that saintly little face, but it's just another interest", she drinks some coffee and spits it on the floor, "What the fuck is this shit you gave me, you want to give me diabetes and a stomach ache, bitch?!"
Before I can process the accusations she has directed at me, I feel the cold liquid from the drink running down my hair and face.
"What is your problem?", I exclaim loudly, I'm tired of this woman's arrogance!
My reaction brings a smile to Veronica's lips, who looks at me with a look of superiority.
"You are my problem!", she points her finger in my face and approaches me again, "Since you came here, my work has tripled and I was forced to take you on, I have to see you and breathe the same air as you!", she laughs ironically, "I am forced to work in the same sector as you, seeing you flirting with my boss, the contaminated with your little street bitch paws, a scum...."
I make her stop talking by slapping my hand hard on her face, she turns her face and my five fingers are marked on her face, some of her makeup is stuck to my hand.
"Finally showing your claws, bitch!" Veronica punches me in the pit of my stomach.
'That bitch knows how to punch' - I think as I lean in.
I try to catch my breath by backing up a few steps, but this bitch doesn't give me time and knocks me to the ground, gets on top of me, starts slapping me, but I grab her by the wrists and pull her down. I bump my head on yours, it leaves her disoriented for a second, just long enough for me to reverse positions, start punching her in the face, but she fights back with her hands.
I don't want to fight here, it has to be in front of everyone! I get off her and pull her hair, I don't let her get up, I drag her all the way down to reception. I feel everyone's eyes on us, I stop in the middle of the hall and punch her in the stomach, just returning the favor. I push her away and she hits her head on the floor, her nose starts to bleed and she coughs, a circle starts to form. I take a few steps backwards away from her.
"You bitch! Do you think it's going to stay like this?!", Veronica gets up and tries to hit me again, I position myself just waiting.
But, again, my boss's big, broad back blocks my view.
"Basta così! - 'That's enough!', Felippo says loudly, making her stop, "I don't like scandals! Go back to your duties!", he says to the employees who are attentive to the fight.
"That bitch started hitting me for no reason, darling!", she says pointing at me.
'Darling?' - so, are you two really close friends? Yuck, I thought he knew how to pick the women he was close to.
"Lying! She spilled coffee all over me and started slandering me, saying I was flirting with....."
"Let's go to my living room!", he interrupts me rudely, I stand there watching him walk away from the circle he has made, "I will not repeat an order twice", he says in a lower tone, leaving no room for annoyance.