AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I don’t want to work in a corporate environment, which is a bit of a tall order when Silicon Valley is fifteen minutes away. With a glowing reference from HumanITy’s CEO, my resume is more interesting to recruiters now and I find invitations to interview for office jobs every week. But I’m not keen on those, or pretty much any of the jobs coming my way.
I prefer to hang out with the seniors at the center, taking them on their shopping trips and escorting them to their dental and medical appointments. I learn a lot about bunions and warts and cataracts and skin lesions.
One afternoon, I’m sitting at the hair salon waiting for Mrs. Hernandez to finish up her blowout when one of the hair stylists starts talking to me. I tell her I’m in between jobs and that I just resigned from being a PA to one of the big CEOs in Silicon Valley. She wants to know which one and when I tell her, the name clearly doesn’t ring a bell. Then a guy in the chair across from me starts talking to me,
“You worked for Tate Sagarro?”
“Yup.”
I can’t see too much of this guy as he has his back to me and the stylist is snipping away at his hair.
“That must have been cool?” He has a warm, pleasant voice and for the first time in ages, I find myself not unwilling to chat about it. “It was, yeah. A bit crazy, but it was my first job so what did I know?”
When his hair is done, he gets up and comes to introduce himself, “I’m Carlos Aguero,” he says. I estimate him to be in his forties, an attractive man in expensive jeans and a nice jacket. He sees me taking in his shoes. “I grew up in this neighborhood,” he grins. “I still come here to get my hair cut. Keeps me humble,” he says and winks at me, but in a friendly way.
“I may have a job opportunity for you if you’re interested?”
He gives me his card and tells me to email him if I am. “It’s not big bucks or anything, but we’re looking for an office manager at our company. It’s a gaming operation, not one of the big guys but we’re growing. It’s mostly administrative, keeping on top of the projects, that sort of thing.”
It appeals to me right away.
His business card says he is the Chief Operating Officer and I decide I will email him and set up a coffee date.
On the way home, Mrs. Hernandez tells me all about Carlos Aguero. “I knew his mother, very nice lady. But his father…. Dios mío! He was a piece of work. Cheated on her, drank, was mixed up with all sorts of people. I think he died in jail.”
She told me Carlos had a brother and a sister who lived with their mother a few blocks away.
“Few children are like that, you know,” she said wistfully. I knew Mrs. Hernandez’s daughter, Daisy, had moved to Los Angeles to make it in the film business. She’d found work as a stuntwoman, apparently, but was always on her way to an audition or heading out on location. She hardly ever visited.
That evening, I set up a coffee date with Carlos for the next day.
We met at his office, which wasn’t exactly Silicon Valley and therefore exactly what I was looking for. The company consisted of about twenty people, mostly developers, a few marketing types and a couple of freelancers. I would be expected to co-ordinate with different employees, keep on top of all the projects, occasionally manage individual projects, sometimes set up meetings or organize lunches for the CEO. The current office manager had unexpectantly been admitted to hospital, they’d been waiting to see how serious it was, but Carlos had heard the day before that she needed a heart operation and would probably need several months off work. He was about to put up a job ad when he’d met me at the salon.
“If you don’t mind my asking, why did you leave HumanITy?”
“It was personal,” I admitted.
“I’ve heard he’s demanding,” Carlos said.
I didn’t want to say anything else and Carlos respected that. I liked that about him. He told me he’d discuss it with the CEO and let me know. But I got a good feeling about it. The company specialized in Spanish games and mostly educational games for Spanish-speaking kids wanting to improve English language skills. It felt like something I wanted to be a part of.
Even Luisa was impressed to hear of the new job.
“I’ve heard of them,” she said. “I played some of those games when I was little. So how is he, Carlos?”
“Nice,” I said.
“Yeah, nice as in really nice or pretend nice and screw-you-over-later nice?” Luisa didn’t have the full picture of what had happened with me and Tate. I’d never given her the detailsbut I felt she had guessed almost all of it.
I shook my head. “No, he’s nice. I like him. Not like that, mind you.”
When he called to confirm the job appointment, I was happy.
I started a few days later and instantly felt comfortable at the company. Everyone was welcoming and friendly, I got the hang of their systems quickly and there weren’t any weird dynamics or drastic deadlines. I was pleased to see that people mostly went home at the end of the day, they didn’t look as frazzled or on-the-edge as they had at HumanITy.
Luisa came to visit me one day and I introduced her to Carlos, I could see there were sparks between them right away.
I remembered what that was like.
