Perfect Encounter (On hold)

chapter 2

Valentina

Staring at the door in front of me, I adjust Aurelia on my hip and give myself a quick pep talk.

This morning was an absolute pain in my ass. Getting Ari up wasn't fun since she's not a morning person. It got even worse when I had to fight with her just to put on her clothes. She finally calmed down when I gave her strawberries and promised to take her to the park if she cooperated.

Standing in front of the double clear doors I feel a sense of nervousness washing over me. I want to do my best in this interview. The pay is better and I could probably better myself once I'm done.

I put Aurelia in her stroller and buckle her in. I suck in a slow steady breath and released it "Wish mommy luck, Ari." I say looking down at my daughter, she gives me a toothy grin and I take that as her version of good luck.

I pull one of the clear glass doors open and walk inside to the big office building with at least 20 floors "Behave for me okay?" I say, giving Aurelia the bag of animal crackers that she was eating earlier. "If you could fall asleep too, that would be a big help" I mumble to myself.

Walking up to the receptionist I introduce myself "Hi I'm Valentina, I have an interview at 10 today." she gives me a soft smile, eyeing the stroller "Aw, isn't she just adorable, just give me one moment let me check you in."

While she does that I hand Ari a sippy cup filled with apple juice and take up her now empty bag. "Ok so I've confirmed your interview and signed you in, you have some time to wait before it's your turn, you can wait over there." She hands me a slip and I take it from her "Okay, thank you."

I turn to see the line of people already waiting for their turn. I have no idea how I missed them earlier and I let out a sigh, this is going to be a long wait.

Aurelia hands me the bottle, not fully empty but, she is finished with it. I know she's going to get impatient and annoyed with being strapped in the stroller so I take her out and set her on my lap. Handing her my phone to watch octonauts to keep her distracted for the wait.

"Mama look." Ari called out to me but the 'L' in her 'look' sounded more like a w. "What is it baby?" I asked looking down at the screen which is what she is pointing at.

"Shark sick, they give boo boo." she says, looking up at me making sure that I'm looking at what she's showing me, then looks back down at the screen where Peso, 'I believe' is wrapping the shark's fin.

"Oh yea, tell me what happened." I say to her, lately I've been trying to get her to learn more words and say bigger sentences. So with that I engage with her more and use longer sentences and encourage her to speak more.

"He ran rock that was in ocean and hurt his tail." I released a low breathy laugh "Ari that's a fin, remember sharks have fins, not a tail.'

"Fin," she tests the word on her tongue "fin!" she drops the phone and I quickly catch it before it falls then smile at her as she claps her hand as she bounces happily because of the new word she learned. "Shark fins." she says, grabbing my face in her hands.

"Yea, sharks have fins they can help steer them in the direction they want to go." she lets out a hum before taking the phone from my hand and proceeding to watch the next episode.

I busy myself with double checking to see if I have everything I will need for today's interview. Hopefully they don't have too much of a problem with Aurelia being here....

....

"Alright next up is Valentina Flores." A woman says and I stand buckling Aurelia back into her stroller and walking toward the woman who called my name.