Job

The phone rang, Alicia woke up and immediately remembered everything from the night before, shook her head and answered a little discouraged.

—Hello?

—Daughter? I already took the girl to school.

It was Celeste who was calling. Alicia looked at the clock, surprised by the time, and saw that it was 11:00 in the morning.

—Ah, mom! Ok, thank you very much.

Alicia answered, still sleepy.

—Daughter… Today Gabriel spoke to me. He told me about the divorce, which is a fact.

Celeste began to hear sobs on the other end of the phone.

—Mom, he left me, I left me, I love him so much, what did I do wrong?

Alicia cried, inconsolable.

—Daughter, don't cry, he's my son, I loved him too much, but he's a fool to let you go.

—Mom, what will I do now? I'm nothing anymore.

Alice answered through tears.

—Alice! Calm down! Don't talk nonsense, you're a beautiful woman. I don't know what's going on in my son's head. He didn't mention anything other than the divorce. Maybe he's confused and stressed.

Hearing this, Alice thought that it wasn't like that, since her husband had left her for another woman, but she decided not to tell her mother-in-law yet, since she felt ashamed.

—Daughter, what do you think if I stay a week in April here at home? This way, you take your time to calm down; find something to do; that will help you.

—Okay, Mom, I'll talk to April later when she comes back from school.

Alice answered a little calmer.

They hung up the phone. Alice didn't get out of bed all morning; she was still curled up in bed. The dinner she had made for Gabriel was still on the stove. She cried for hours. She couldn't believe this was happening. After she had calmed down, she remembered her mother-in-law telling her that she would look for an activity to distract herself with. After sighing, she took her cell phone and opened her social page. She hadn't logged in for a long time, so she had messages from old friends and among them one from a friend of Gabriel's from high school. For Alicia this seemed very strange, but she ignored it. She was looking for something to entertain herself with and when she didn't find anything she was thinking of going out, but unexpectedly a job advertisement caught her attention: "Should I work?" she asked herself at the same time that a message arrived.

"Hello."

Alicia opened the message, realizing that it was from Luis, Gabriel's schoolmate; they were always together, they were the most sociable, many girls were in love with them, but after she started dating Gabriel, they no longer went out together.

"Luis, is that you?" "Long time no hear from you."

Alicia wrote.

"Hi, yes, it's been a long time; rather, you are the one who was lost from society."

Luis replied.

"Ha, ha, ha, yes, right?"

Alicia wrote.

"How has it been?", Miss Torres, or sorry, "Mrs. Cruz."

Luis wrote: When Alicia read that, she couldn't help but remember the moment when Gabriel and she got married…

—Miss Alicia Torres Luna. Do you accept Gabriel Cruz Álvarez as your husband?

—Yes, I do.

That day she became Mrs. Cruz. She was the happiest woman in the world; her heart ached again when she remembered that brief moment and she couldn't stop that tear from coming out. She shook her head, wiped the tear; she hesitated whether to correct him and tell him that very soon she would be Torres again, but she didn't. She couldn't assimilate it yet, so she didn't mention it.

"He, he, he, yes, well I've been doing very well, you know, living alone I went online for a while to distract myself, I'm looking for something interesting to do."

"Oh, are you bored of your married life?"

"No, it's not that, I've been thinking about doing something, it's time, my daughter is already 7 years old, it's easier."

Alicia didn't hesitate to answer him; since Gabriel and the divorce, a job had crossed her mind. When her mother-in-law mentioned an activity, she reinforced that idea. She was not normally so open with her ideas and thoughts, but she felt so alone without anyone to tell her about her things. When she got married, she locked herself in her house, left her friends and that's why she didn't hesitate to mention to Luis about looking for a job.

"Oh, you're looking for a job and what does Gabriel think about that?" As far as I know, he was always very jealous of you.

"If he agrees."

Alicia looked at her watch, noticing that it was 4:00 p.m. Her daughter had already left school and wanted to talk to her.

"Luis, I have to go, it was a pleasure talking to you again."

Alicia wrote. Luis never really had much dealings with her; she remembered him as a very attentive boy, although he didn't talk to her much. The few times he did, he always gave her a very warm smile. She still didn't understand what had happened between him and Gabriel, that they ended up so distant that he didn't attend the wedding. Gabriel didn't mention anything about him anymore.

"Yes, have a nice day; it was nice talking to you anyway."

Alicia closed the conversation and immediately called her mother-in-law.

"Ma, good afternoon. Will Abril be around? I wanted to talk to her."

"Daughter, yes, let me," he said.

Celeste put down the phone to call Abril.

“Mommy?”

She answered with a sweet little voice after a few seconds of silence.

“Yes, my love, how are you, my sweetheart? How was school?”

Alice asked.

“Well, mommy, it was a lot of fun today. Mommy, Mommy Celeste says I'll be staying here for a few days and she'll take me to the park.”

“That's great, my love, yes, you'll be staying with Mommy Celeste for a few days. I'll send you your clothes. You behave very well, pass me Mommy Celeste.”

“Yes, mommy, I love you. Wait, I'll pass them to you now.”

Silence was heard again.

“Yes, daughter, what happened?”

“I'll bring you Abril's clothes tomorrow; Mommy wanted to ask you something else: How is she doing, Dad?”

Alice asked. Her father-in-law Carlos' health had declined in the last year; She even thought that was the reason Gabriel was sad and stressed: he had been diagnosed with cancer, it was in the final stages, and he was cared for 24 hours a day by a nurse.

—Well, anyway, daughter, let's hope, he stays like this, stable.

She answered with a sad voice.

—Tomorrow, when I bring Abril's clothes, I'll go see him.

—Yes, daughter, then I'll see you tomorrow; I'm glad to hear you calmer.

—Yes, mom, don't worry, I'll leave Abril in your care... I love you.

Alicia hung up the phone and left it on the table; she saw that Gabriel's dinner was still there on the stove; she remembered that she hadn't picked it up since the night before, so she took the spaghetti, put it on a plate, opened her door where she walked into the small patio and when she opened her gate she saw a little dog coming in from the street; she put the plate on the floor, the little dog came over and ate from the plate. Alicia hated throwing food away; She preferred that someone hungry eat it. When the dog was done, she picked up the trash, went back into the house, undressed, took a shower, and when she came out, she put on shorts with a very large shirt. Finally, she tied her hair up; that was really how she felt comfortable. She lay down on the empty bed. Her daughter was not there and neither was her husband. A sadness invaded her. Alicia was immersed in her sadness when she heard the phone ring. It was a notification of messages; she wished it was Gabriel. She hadn't heard from him all day, but she knew deep down that it wasn't him. So she opened the notification, saw Luis's name.

"Alicia, I have news for you. You told me you wanted a job, right?" Well, it's your lucky day; the company where I work needs a secretary. "They just fired the boss's secretary today and they put out an urgent call for applications, since the president of the company can't be without a secretary and I thought of you, what do you say?"

Alicia read the message; she didn't know what to answer; she thought that maybe it was too soon because she had just signed the divorce and what if he regretted it? She wondered, but she also thought that he had made everything clear, that he no longer wanted to be with her, that he had wanted a divorce for a long time because that document had already been drawn up some time ago, so she didn't think about it any more.

"Really?" If I'm interested, tell me, "where should I go?"

"Great, yes, look, the interviews would be tomorrow at 8:00 in the morning, since, as I said, he needs it urgently. The company is "Caballeros Tours". You can find the address on the Internet, with the exact location, okay?"

"Ok, then I'll be there tomorrow, I'll make my resume. Thank you very much, Luis."

"It's nothing, I'll see you tomorrow."

Alicia was excited, since she had never worked. She and Gabriel decided that she would dedicate herself to the house and, if they ever had children, she would take care of their children, which was the case when Abril was born. She had not even studied at university. Instead, Gabriel, if he had studied, had graduated in Business Administration, even though they lived in a modest house and had only one vehicle. Gabriel's family was well off; he even owned an insurance company, but he always wanted to do things on his own, to start from the bottom. She admired that about him and, although he did for a long time, in the last year he had been left in charge of the company due to his father's illness, since he was an only child.

Alicia began to write her resume, although she did not write anything in her work. She got to the section on marital status; she was about to write "divorced," but she remembered that paper, the signature she had put on it; with the pain in her soul she wrote "divorced," and when she printed the document, she went to sleep. Despite being in that bed, sleep did not come, but after a few hours he finally managed to sleep.