It was Sandra who did. She hurried to the now chaotic scene which had both parties yelling at the peak of their voices.
“How dare you speak to me like that! You are nothing but a mere cleaner and a nobody! I can’t have you speak to me like that and go free!”
Sandra was still screaming – “It’s enough! I said it’s enough!” But the both parties, Neuer and Amanda would not stop. All Amanda wanted was to defend Nelly. To hell with the job! She didn’t want the job if this was how they were going to be treating them.
“Please stop, Amanda. There’s no use…”
Nelly was trying to also calm Amanda down but she didn’t listen. She interrupted Nelly before she could finish –
“But he’s always doing this! One day he might just hit us in the face, that’s all that remains!”
No, no. It was getting all too noisy. Sandra had to ask Nelly and Amanda to head home and continue the cleaning the next day. She knew that as long as they were still there, Amanda would keep talking back to Neuer.
“You should have both of them fired, sis!”
Sis? Nelly and Amanda paused. They never knew he was Mrs. Sandra’s brother. Amanda thought he was just an ordinary employee looking to flex his muscles that was why she stood up to him. Now, perhaps, she was wishing that she never did.
Nelly and Amanda were home, contemplating on what their fate in the studio would be when they heard a knock on the door. It was Sandra, she had come not to scold or chid them, but to apologize for the stupid behavior her younger brother exhibited.
Nelly was fine. She was unaffected by Neuer’s words. She let Mrs. Sandra know that. Neuer was so different from who his sister was. His sister, Sandra, was calm, sympathetic, and kind. But Neuer was the complete opposite of who she was. He was far from being sympathetic and definitely he had not been kind with even his words.
Sandra promised to speak with him and further went ahead to assure Nelly that he would not be picking on them again.
“I hope that is the case. I felt like smashing his face with the mop!”
“Amanda!” Nelly had to bring her to order.
“Let her be, Nelly. I’m sure she’s just speaking out of hurt. I know Amanda would never do that,” Sandra said, wearing a lovely smile as usual.
The next day at the office, as Nelly and Amanda continued cleaning from where they stopped the previous day when they were asked to go home by Mrs. Sandra, Neuer walked into the studio again. He found Nelly alone, trying to bend to be able to reach under one of the tables.
*Hey! You!” Neuer said and got Nelly’s attention.
She turned to find him standing behind her. Nelly wondered how long he had been standing there. She felt a little bit embarrassed or was it shy? Whatever, she felt weird knowing someone had been watching her. She couldn’t just settle with the thought that Neuer just came in. Someone like Neuer would definitely stay silent for a while, watching you, before he finally makes you aware of his presence.
What? She thought Sandra said he wasn’t going to bother them again.
“You’re doing it wrong!” Neuer said to Nelly as he approached her. It was just the two of them in that particular office. Amanda was already cleaning at the back and other staff had gone upstairs for their daily motivation before the day started. It was a norm in the studio.
“Give it to me, I’ll show you how it’s done.”
Nelly handed over the mop to Neuer and he began cleaning the floor with it. He reached where Nelly could not because of her pregnancy.
When he was done, he handed over the mop to Nelly and said – “accept my apologies for what happened the previous times we met.”
“I hold no grudge against you, I’m only a worker here and maybe you thought I was just being lazy but I wasn’t.”
Neuer apologized again for treating Amanda and Nelly the way he did before. It was during his apology that Amanda showed up.
“What is he doing here again?” Amanda offensively asked immediately she got back.
“He’s just here to apologize, that’s all.”
Amanda scoffed – “don’t tell me you believe a word he’s saying to you. We probably made Sandra scold him and he only wants revenge now.”
Always, the way Amanda saw matters was different from how Nelly saw it. They both had a different view of the world and then people, but similar.
Nelly was sweating profusely. She looked extremely tired and it was because she hadn’t had anything to eat that morning.
“Are you alright?” Neuer asked. He noticed the unease Nelly was going through even as she spoke.
“I’m good, I’ll just finish up and then I’ll have something to eat.”
“You can’t continue working like this. You are burning up and you need to eat something before you can continue working again.”
What? Neuer was suddenly concerned about them? Amanda could not believe it. He was the same person who kept yelling at them even when he was told that Nelly needed to rest because of her pregnancy and now he was showing sympathy?
Not just that, Neuer also wanted to pay for the breakfast they’d be having at the cafeteria.
“We don’t need it! We won’t accept anything from you!” Amanda said while wishing silently that Neuer would be persistent enough for them to now say yes.
“Just let me do this, please. I feel sorry about the way I treated you. I was just in a very bad mood and I let it get the best of me. I’m sorry.”
This was just the kind of persuasion Amanda needed to agree. She didn’t want to look easy, that was why she initially refused to it.
As Nelly stood up from the desk in the office, she lost her balance