“Isabella!” Celina yelled as she emerged into the room.
Isabella sprang up from the bed into a sitting position with her heart beating when she heard her name being called. Her eyes were too heavy for her to fully open them to see her mother standing at the door. She wondered why she screamed her name so loud; does she have any idea what time it is that she’s waking her up from her beauty sleep? “What is it, mom?” she asked, almost sounding angry about her mother invading her room while screaming her name aloud and disturbing her from sleep. She prayed she wasn’t woken up for something stupid.
“Do you know what time it is?” Celina asked coldly.
“Of course I know, it’s time to sleep,” Isabella replied nonchalantly, without hesitation as she was more eager to fall back to the bed and sleep. She wondered why Celina had just burst into her room to ask her such a question. Doesn’t she have a clock in her room or what? It irritates her whenever she is awakened from a deep sleep.
“Are you not going to work this morning, Isabella?” Celina asked.
Hearing that statement, Isabella’s eyes flung open with a jolt. She reached out for her phone on the bed and turned it on to check the time. ‘8:00am’. She thought she set her phone alarm for ‘6:00am,’ so why is she awake so late? Why the phone-alarm didn’t alerted her at all? She thought. Isabella’s heart hammered hard against her chest when she realized she was late. She was supposed to be at work at this time, but she is still in bed.
“Hurry up Isabella,” Celina urged, then departed from her room.
“Oh God, I’m dead,” Isabella lamented in a haste as she got up from bed and rushed into her bathroom.
A few minutes later, she came out of the bathroom with her body all dried up. She applied cream to her body then wore her underwear before she dressed up in her uniform.
She combed her hair roughly despite the pain before putting it all up in a ponytail. She quickly grabbed her black bag and applied light makeup to her face to look good.
Isabella rushed out of the room after she was done, then headed towards the kitchen. Breakfast was already ready; A cup of hot tea and sliced bread on a plate. She took a few slices of bread and drank the tea. She couldn’t finish the tea since it was hot so she just took a sip and dropped the remaining on the tray. She didn’t have much time to finish her meal as she was late and in a hurry to get to work.
“Goodbye, mom,” Isabella said to her mom and left the kitchen without caring to know her response.
Celina followed Isabella from behind as she left the kitchen, “You haven’t finished your tea yet”, She said.
Isabella heads for the door and without looking back, she said, “Yes I know mum. I will finish it once I come home”.
She stopped walking and stood at the entrance of the house, “Isabella don’t you think your dress is too short”, Celina said calmly.
Isabella opened the door and went outside. She took a moment and turned to face Celina, “Mom I’m late, maybe when I come back home we can talk about this”, She suggested.
“This dress is too short Isabella, just change into something else that can cover your body then once you reach there you can change ”, she complained bitterly. Celina isn’t a kind of mom that could let her daughter wear sensitive clothes outside. Not in a country like this, that has a bunch of drunkers and drug dealers wandering around at night, looking for women to devour and kidnap to sell out for an exchange of money.
“Mom I’m already late, maybe tomorrow”, Isabella assured her and turned to leave. She could still feel her mom was worried about her. She wanted to make Celina feel better but since she’s in a hurry, she couldn’t turn to look back.
She got to the roadway and boarded a taxi to a five star hotel. She would have called Bianca to drive her to work, but she’s a heavy sleeper and hardly wakes up early. Although. Bianca won’t be awake by now, so she simply took the taxis.
Isabella’s heart raced in her chest as the thought of her boss snapped into her head. He must be angry by now and might be thinking of a punishment to give her for coming late. She could imagine how he would react when he sees her come into the hotel by this time; he would probably take it as an opportunity to fire her since he hated her so much. ‘Fuck’, she cussed. She doesn’t want to get embarrassed on her first day of work, nor does she want to get fired.
The car abruptly stopped and Isabella looked up from the backseat to see what went wrong through the windscreen. “Fuck!” Isabella cursed inwardly, seeing the huge traffic jam on the road. The whole road was extremely congested with cars, and the traffic was slowing them down due to the group of people crossing the road to the other-side. She checked the time on her phone; its 9:47am. She is supposed to be at work by now, but the traffic is delaying her and making her feel impatient. “My boss is going to kill me for coming late”. She pondered in her heart.
“Please hurry up,” She pleaded with the cab-man, and he nodded his head in response despite the fact that he couldn’t help the situation right now.
The road is always busy whenever she is late, in a heist or has something urgent to attend to which annoys her. She wondered if she was cursed because on a normal day, the road wouldn’t be preoccupied like this. Isabella clenched her fist angrily, hearing the disturbing sound of the people murmuring and cars honking in the busy city. It was annoying. Somehow, she felt the urge to step out of the car and trek to her destination since she can’t afford to lose more time. Of course she would have done this but it was a bad idea since the hotel was still a few meters far away from where she is presently. It would be the worst decision she has ever made and she might even arrive there two more hours late at the hotel so the car is more preferable. She couldn’t even bring her eyes down to check the time on her phone because that would just upset her the most.
They waited about five minutes for the car to start moving before the cab-man started driving to her destination.
They arrived at the hotel, and Isabella heaved a sigh of relief. She alighted from the car and paid the cab driver off. She rushed to the big gate of the hotel, and the guard observed her outfit before they opened the gate for her to go in.
Isabella raced into the hotel and stopped at the receptionist’s table. She breathed heavily after the long run and ceased to catch her breath.
“Late again,” Sofia said, rolling her eyes.
“I’m sorry. There was a traffic jam on the road”, Isabella explained while she had come late as Sofia, the receptionist lifted her hand up in the air and stared at her beautiful polished pink fingernails like she didn’t care at all to listen to her useless excuse for coming late. “Is the boss around?” Isabella asked.
Sofia simply responded. “No”.
“Thank God!” Isabella heaved a sigh of relief. She was lucky her boss isn’t at work yet; that means she’s on the safe side. She never wants to see his face again after what he did to her yesterday. Seeing him would just make her feel uncomfortable. “When do I start working?” she asked, not wanting the boss to meet her here, doing nothing and discovering she came late. It would be bad for her.
Sofia brought down her hand and placed it on the desk as she glanced at the computer in front of her, “You are to clean room 025”, she said.
“Where is room 025?” Isabella asked.
“Stupid girl, you take the elevator,” Sofia grumbled, tired of seeing her presence here. She dislikes Isabella even if she hasn’t done anything bad to her. She just hated everything about her; she’s just off-class. She despised the fact that her boss had given her the job even-though she doesn’t have the body he wanted that would attract guests like had stated.
“Alright,” Isabella said as she turned towards the direction that leads to the elevator. She began to approach the elevator.
“Hey girl, wait.” Sofia called as she remembered something.
Isabella paused and turned. “Me?” She inquired.
“Yes, you idiot, come here,” Sofia ordered.
Isabella went back to her. She hated the fact that Sofia was calling her names when she hadn’t done anything wrong. Even if Sofia is having a bad day, she still has no right to insult her. She respected Sofia because she might be older than her. Although she would have insulted Sofia back they aren’t in the office. She doesn’t want to cause a scene and probably lose her job after everything if she had to bring out a fight in the office. “Take your nametag and pin it to the side of your chest,” Sofia instructed, offering her a badge that had ‘Isabella Laurenza’ written on it.
Isabella took it and pinned it to the right side of her chest, then smoothed it with her palm.
“Good,” she says. “Don’t lose the name tag because you would need it for work. It should always be seen on your chest so the guest will know you are a worker and won’t misbehave with you.” Sofia added.
“What?” Isabella asked in shock. Misbehave with her? Could it be that she misheard Sofia?