MY SECRET BOSS

3

Flashback on

- So you've never sucked on a mango?

- Yes, of course I have. - With my arms crossed, I looked around at the vast expanse of mango trees; I was very apprehensive, feeling like a thief. I looked at the road, the car stopped there. - But not like this... without washing, just starting up and... - I lost my voice when Lorenzo opened his mouth and closed his lips around the fruit, biting into it. - Without cutting it?

Lorenzo and I were on our way back from my parents' farm. When we passed a vast mango plantation; he simply stopped the car and ran off to steal mangoes.

- You're a very cool city girl. Take that. - He just lifts his arm, plucks a mango and hands it to me. I put my hand to my throat and swallow.

- Here, Angel. Suck it.

- Ah... I...

- What? - He laughed. So beautiful, like that, smiling debauchedly.

- Ah... not me. Okay! I don't know how to suck this huge thing and it's unwashed.

- You know how to kiss me, don't you?

- What's that got to do with it?

- Do it like this, look: - sensuously, he opens his mouth and sucks with gusto, humming. When he pulls his mouth away, a little melty, and runs his tongue over his lips, I'm breathless - I think he's kissing me. Here, suck it.

Off

I wipe the tear that has just come down from my eye. Again. With every memory I have of my past, the pain comes back with force. I'm sitting on a bed in an emergency ward, head down, looking at my bandaged wrist. I was brought here after the assault. Everything hurts, my body and my chest. The memories that were once dormant don't leave me alone for a second.

- Daughter. - My parents enter the door of the small room I'm in.

- Oh my God! Angel! Are you all right? - My mother runs to hug me. I asked the restaurant staff not to make a fuss. So they took me through a side door and I stayed there, in a room, near the storage room, until the police arrived and I was taken to the emergency room.

- Take me away, Mom. I'm fine. - I just said. My father took my coat and I left, hugging my mother.

It will pass. The shock of almost getting married has passed. Why won't it pass?

I exhaled deeply, knowing that tonight I wouldn't sleep, thinking and looking at the updates to see if Carmen had written anything silly about me, but I knew it would pass.

Everything suddenly started to go wrong. Out of the blue. I was doing fine, minding my own business, trying to get on with my life, but overnight my world started to fall apart. My father wanted to throw in the towel as soon as Madde, my family's fashion empire, started going downhill, but I held on, carried it on my shoulders.

Alone. I never expected that one day I would be mugged at the door of that luxurious restaurant, my cell phone and bracelet taken. The bracelet that belonged to my family. As well as leaving me with a hard back for days and a bandaged wrist. Nothing happened, no one was arrested and I just decided to move on. And a whole month passed. As I said, it passed. Life goes on.

I woke up later today, because yesterday I had to finish making the final adjustments to some sketches. I need to deliver the drawings to production soon, so I was up all night working. I got ready, went downstairs and the coffee was ready. Lourdes, who cooks for me, used to work at home, but when I decided to move out on my own, my mother asked her to give preference to the services in my apartment.

She makes breakfast and lunch and leaves. I never learned to cook, I didn't have to, my mother was always concerned with just keeping my nails and hair immaculate.

- Hi Lourdes.

- Hi Angel. Did you miss the time?

- No - I put my bag and coat on the table - I went to bed late, so I had to wake up a bit later.

- Coffee?

- Yes.

She puts coffee in a cup and brings it to the table for me.

- What do you want to eat?

- Ah... French bread with cream cheese, that's fine. - She puts the basket of bread in front of me. She puts a plate with sliced papaya and pineapple on it. I quickly drink my coffee, say goodbye to her and run out.

I've done everything in my power. Everything to save Mademoiselle. I spent sleepless nights doing the accounts, I fought with my father several times to stop him succumbing to the creditors and selling the company. I went to banks and banks. The doors closed completely after an unfounded rumor, a grotesque lie, against my family's company. The shares fell, everyone went crazy and the banks refused to give loans. According to my father, the only place that could offer us help was Orpheus. But I'd rather close my doors or visit hell than go there for help.

I didn't close my doors, on the contrary, I lost everything. We lost everything. The AMB bank was in charge of the negotiations and wouldn't accept the deadlines I asked for, they were merciless with me. I still thank Maria Luiza, the bank's director, for trying to find a way out on my behalf, but the other directors, those macho sons of bitches, slammed the hammer down and the bank acquired the rest of Mademoiselle's shares. I was left with just fifteen percent. The only thing that relieved me was that AMB bank didn't get the majority of the shares, they got 40%. There are still 30% in the hands of shareholders and 15% in the hands of my father. If I got his shares, and those of the shareholders, together with my 15% I'd have sixty and I'd be president again.

Happy with this chance, I called the psychopathic Davi Brant, swallowed all my anger, bowed to them and agreed to return to Mademoiselle, in my old position as director. I met with the AMB bank people and they approved the clauses I had asked for, such as: I had carte blanche to make any decision favorable to the company. And in the contract there was: I had to submit to the orders of the president of the company, in this case the bank, for a period of one year. If I wanted to renew the contract after that time, it was up to me. And the rules were clear: Breach of contract would be penalized with shares in the company. In other words, I could get screwed over inside and I'd have to put up with it, so as not to break the contract and lose the last shares I had left. I would hold out long enough to get everything back, get the 30% from the shareholders, my father's 15% and that would be it. I'd be president again. But that didn't happen.

I received the news as a blow. AMB bank sold the shares it had acquired. The buyer was one of my shareholders and he had already negotiated from the outside, secretly, on the quiet. He became a secret boss. He achieved a significant majority. Now he had the sixty percent I was looking for and there was no other choice but to hand everything over to a stranger and continue to be at his or her mercy because of the one-year contract.

I stop my car at the company entrance, get out quickly, grab my bag, the folder with the sketches I finished at home and give a quick wave to the employee who takes my car keys to park. Today is the day to deliver the first sketches for the fashion show that will take place in a few months' time. It's Madde's renewal parade. The parade that will mark the triumphal entry of the new boss. It's been almost two months and I don't even know who the pest is. All I know is that he's making me sleepy. He sends me strange demands through his lawyer, such as: No loose hair in the company. Stay at work one day a week until eight in the evening. Donate a small amount of money in clothes to needy women. Researching women's underwear. Hello? Does he think Madde can create panties and bras? Not to mention, of course, the major disasters that happened, humiliating me and the lawyer always claiming that it was a coincidence or a mistake.

Inside the elevator, I mentally go over my schedule, I always do this, it takes me a while to memorize it but at the beginning of each day, I have it ready in my mind. The door opens, I step out and see Beth running around, going from one table to another, solving problems.