“Mrs. Rouco, are you coming to see how the company is doing today?”
Adán Rouco wrapped his long arms around her waist and looked at her with interest.
The man, evidently invisible, but to Estrella Berrocal the darkness in her eyes made her feel faint.
“You’re overthinking this, I was actually just stopping by for dinner with my high school friends and thought I’d stop by to see you, but now it seems like I’m interrupting your good work.”
The last half of the sentence had a milky, fierce tone.
The slight smile between Adán Rouco’s eyebrows deepened. “If you don’t like it, I’ll have Santino Yepes fire her later.”
Estrella Berrocal snorted and frowned, “You make me sound like a tigress, I’m not that jealous.”
Adán Rouco approached her face, in a low and affectionate voice: “Mrs. Rouco, my stomach hurts”.
“No, your stomach hurts after eating a chili pepper, you have a terrible stomach.”
“So, how do you make it up to me?”. Adam Rouco exhaled a hot breath that diluted between his nostrils.
Estrella Berrocal’s face heats up slightly and her small hands push him: “Don’t you dare, this is an office and, besides, I’m pregnant now”.
As he said this, he put his hand on her stomach and rubbed it gently. He said, “Why is your stomach so bad? Don’t drink too much wine for future social functions, drinking hurts your stomach.”
“From now on, I will have to rely on Mrs. Rouco for my stomach.”
“Porridge is good for the stomach, I’ll make you some kind of porridge every morning, I’ll make you fat and white.”
Estrella Berrocal reached out and touched the man’s face, teasing him a little.
Adán Rouco was not amused, he was white, he was white, but not fat.
“Would you accept it if I got too fat?”.
Estrella Berrocal had a vision of a fat Adán Rouco and immediately shook her head: “I don’t think so, it wouldn’t look good”.
And it affects appetite. …
“But dogs, cats and pigs are cute when they’re fat, but why are people the only ones who don’t look good when they’re fat?”.
Adán Rouco lifted her up: “I’m going to ask the Creator for you…”.
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
Adán Rouco answered lightly and said, “If you want to stay here, sit down and rest for a while, if you don’t want to see me work, I will ask Santino Yepes to take you home.”
“I’m going to disturb your work if I’m here, I’d better go home.”
“Well then, I’ll ask Santino Yepes to take you.”
Adán Rouco was about to pick up the phone and dial it when Estrella Berrocal stopped him.
“This is downtown, it’s easy to catch a cab or something on the subway, it’s lunchtime, Santino will be resting, so you don’t need to ask him for a ride. I’m not your prisoner, you don’t have to have someone watching me around the clock.”
Stunned, Adán Rouco pulled her into his arms and asked in a muffled voice, “Is it okay for me to go home alone?”
Estrella Berrocal grabbed his hand around her waist and looked up at him, “I used to go home alone before I met you, Adán Rouco, are you trying to spoil me so much that I can’t even walk?”
“I would like to, but you don’t want to.”
Estrella Berrocal stood on tiptoe, gave him a kiss on the chin and said dryly, “Then may I go?”
“Take care of yourself.”
“Good.”
…
When Estrella Berrocal left in the afternoon, the housekeeper knocked on the door to report her work.
Adán Rouco immediately said, “Go to the finance department and settle this month’s salary”.
The assistant froze, not understanding what he meant: “President Rouco, this is …. what does this mean?”
“Indemnify you another six months’ salary and have Santino Yepes take you to finance for it.”
“… President Rouco, have I done something wrong?” The attendant had an innocent look on her face and was on the verge of tears of aggression.
Adán Rouco rightly said, “You’re right, it’s just that Mrs. Rouco doesn’t like having a female assistant around.”
The assistant bit her lip, a little angry, but not daring to get angry: “President Rouco, how can Mrs. If I do something wrong, you can fire me, but I work very hard every day, why should I …”
Adán Rouco’s long fingers tapped his desk, his eyes indifferent.
When the assistant saw that Adán Rouco was not moved at all, she shouted twice more, but Adán Rouco became even more indifferent, even a little impatient.
Adán Rouco immediately called Santino Yepes: “Come to my office”.
…
When Santino Yepes came in to take the assistant away, on her way to the finance office, she was teary-eyed, as if she had been terribly wronged.
“Santino Yepes, why did President Rouco marry the lady, what does President Rouco like about her?”.
Santino Yepes froze and, after a few seconds, joked: “The boss likes his wife to be different”.
“What’s different about her? She’s ugly, she’s bossy, she’s not good enough for President Rouco!”.
Santino Yepes couldn’t take it anymore: “Come on, do you think he doesn’t know what you’re thinking? Even if your wife doesn’t come to the office today, the Boss will find the opportunity to fire you later. Look at you, don’t have those twisted thoughts when you are working well, how are you going to get fired, you are always thinking about finding reasons to get into the president’s office, is that it?”
The female assistant poked her small mind, somewhat embarrassed, “I…”
“And ah, you cry in front of the BOSS, you really commit a taboo. the BOSS doesn’t like it when women cry, the more you cry the harder his heart will be.”
The assistant clenched her fist, “How can President Rouco be like that, he has no mercy.”
“You are not a wife, what kind of love does the Boss have for you, then, the Boss has no love for you in the first place, so where is the love.”
The attendee, having completely lost interest in Adán Rouco, asked nosily, “And if that Mrs. Rouco cried, would President Rouco hate that too?”
“You tell me.”
“I think it would also be annoying, it seems that President Rouco has a cool personality at all.”
Entering the elevator, Santino Yepes tugged at the corner of his lips and pressed the floor. “If his wife cried for a star in the sky, the Chief would send someone to pick it up for her. The sexual indifference thing is only for people, not things.”
Female assistant: “…”
…
In the evening, Estrella Berrocal went to pick up Paulita to take her home.
Paulita asked, “Estrella, Aunt Claudio Belles asked you to go to the class reunion, are you going to go?”
“I think he’ll go …, I haven’t seen those classmates in a while either.”
Paulita reflected: “Angelo Herrán’s dad is very handsome”.
“You’ve met Angelo Herrán’s dad, right?”.
Paulita nodded, “Yes, once Uncle Herran came to pick up Angelo Herran, and Uncle Herran was as tall as Papa! But Papa was the handsome one! Incredibly handsome!”
The little girl made an exaggerated gesture with both hands.
Estrella Berrocal smiled and rubbed Paulita’s head, saying, “Yes, Paulita’s daddy is the most handsome.”
The little girl and the older boy were about to enter the house when the black Maybach entered the yard and Adán Rouco returned.
Estrella Berrocal handed Paulita her little school bag: “You go in first, I’ll help your daddy”.
“Mmm!”
Estrella Berrocal walked over to the Maybach, put her arm around Adán Rouco and said, “I just picked up Paulita from school and I met my high school friend again in front of the school asking me to go to the Saturday night reunion, I was wondering if I should go.”