Maggie and Alicia are friends, meeting on a job where Alicia was a temporary worker. They remained friends after Alicia’s two-month temporary job was over. Alicia went on to start her own business as a public relations specialist, freelance writer and photographer specializing in the travel industry. Being in the industry Alicia got a number of subsidized trips and would ask Maggie to go along as her assistant. Later, when Maggie became unemployed, she volunteered to help Alicia in exchange for the travel. Both women became very concerned about their health—and their looks—so would oftentimes talk about eating healthier. When Alicia gave Maggie a book on healthy eating that she truly thought she would enjoy, Maggie turned on Alicia and never wanted to see or speak to her again. Although Alicia tried asking her what happened, Maggie was adamant on having no contact with Alicia, except for the one time she sent her a letter asking her for money owed to her for accompanying her on her trip and assisting her with office work, although that was never the agreement, and which Alicia ignored.
While Maggie and Alicia travelled, Maggie was married and Alicia was not, but Maggie would still flirt and would get jealous when some guy would hit on Alicia that Maggie had her eye on. On one trip she wouldn’t speak to Alicia for the remainder of the trip even though they shared the same suite. Maggie on numerous occasions made Alicia swear she would never tell Maggie’s husband of any of her infidelities.
Upon further investigation, Alicia discovered that about the time Maggie was asking her for money, that her husband was unemployed, and they were having marital problems.
It was two o’clock on Thursday, an hour after Alicia’s routinely late lunch. She still tasted the daily special on her breath. She covered her mouth with the attempt to swallow some of her personal air, hoping it was actually possible. The endless rat race was killing her.
Despite working so hard the last few days to alter the order of her day, hoping she could catch up on busy work, she realized she had fallen back into her daily routine. She cursed under her breath, wondering if she could get through the copying without having to speak to anyone unnecessarily. She realized that if she had any real friends that it might help to kill the time. But she had to admit that lately, friendship was probably the last thing on her mind. Undoubtedly, her workdays were torture, but her relationships were just as bad.
The copy room was a good twenty meters away. Despite the short distance, she was convinced that someone would come running up to her with some randomly urgent business, look at her in shocked horror because of the odor flowing from her mouth, and run the other way while screaming. Office karma was like that, Alicia thought. Just when you thought it was safe to pass gas, here comes a crowd of co-workers who all needed to breathe her personal air and issues at the best possible time.
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Lia Garcia
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