Don't Be Afraid To Love

Chapter 3

The shortest horror story: It's Monday morning.

The problem wasn't that I didn't like my job, but I didn't like waking up early in the morning. And Monday of all days was overwhelmingly hard to get by.

And on top of that, it was raining. Gloomy days like those made me feel awfully drowsy and irritated.

I worked as a junior realtor in a relatively new real estate agency in the city, "new" meaning we had to work our butts off in order to prove we can compete with the larger companies. The paycheck wasn't great; we worked mostly on commissions, but I liked it anyway. Staying for eight straight hours behind a desk was never my thing, so I really enjoyed this line of work because I was out most of the time, meeting with clients and showing them houses.

I hadn't worked in that field before, but as I was hired at the company, they sent me on a three-week intensive course in the capital which cost almost 2000 euro, but it really helped me getting the hang of the real estate business. It wasn't paid by me, of course, but there was a clause in the contract that said that if I left the company sooner than 1 year after signing the contract - for whichever the reason - I was forced to pay them the costs of the course. That wasn't going to be a problem, though, because I really liked it there and I didn't plan to leave for the next year.

Before I was hired at the agency, I used to work as a secretary at the company where my mom had been working the past two decades as an accountant. Well, actually, it was she who landed that job for me when I finished college. It is a decent job, and maybe one day you would get promoted, she would say. In reality, I never thought she would care if I got promoted. She only liked the fact that I was close to her all the time and she could control me.

I parked my silver Yaris in one of the employees' spots and searched with my hand in the driver side door pocket. Through the dozen receipts that I always forgot to throw away, I found the pack of cigarettes I was looking for. I opened it, and there were 4 pieces left. I contemplated whether to light one up or not, but the addiction got the best of me.

"What the hell..." I said out loud and lit a cigarette up after I exited the car.

The rain was almost stopping, so I took my time drinking my coffee and finishing my cigarette, enjoying the few remaining minutes until 9 o'clock when my schedule was supposed to start.

"Hey!" I heard Cristina joyfully coming towards me just when I was about to head for the building's entrance.

"Morning", I greeted her and waited for her to reach me so we could go inside together.

"You're not wearing the heels you got yesterday," she observed.

"Yeah, I'm still getting used to them," I replied, in reality not knowing I would actually ever wear them to work.

We entered the office, went to the back room to leave our bags and jackets, and returned to the front office. Our desks were next to one another and I loved it because we could chat whatever we wanted when our boss wasn't present.

The desks faced the front door so we could see the clients entering. The exterior wall that contained the front door was made of glass and was facing east, and since there were no high buildings across the street, the morning sun peaked pretty annoyingly through the clear glass, right into my eyes, in such way that I almost always had to squint my eyes. It didn't bother me that much, but I just didn't want the clients to think that I was giving them an angry look or anything.

Cristina's desk didn't have the same problem because there was a decorative shelves pillar that was somehow placed in such a way that it blocked the sun from her direction.