Prospects

Esperanza agreed. There was nothing else to say. She had just been fired. She turned around and closed the door of his office; the same in which he had asked her many times to take off her pants when there was no one else looking. After all, he was her boss, the big fish, and she was just an underdog. Esperanza sat at her desk, looked across the room and saw Mrs. Brown secretly eating an enormous chocolate cake, her pink sweaty cheecks moving as fast as those of a mouse. Esperanza closed her eyes and thanked God for not having to put up with Mrs. Brown's demands anymore. She was impolite and bossy, especially when she was hungry. But she was always hungry. Hence, her eternal impoliteness and bossiness.

Without looking back, Esperanza left the building, taking with her only a blue pen she liked, a stapler, and the black purse her ex husband had given her the night before he left two years ago. She thought of how similar her now ex-boss was to her ex husband, controlling men, impotent, Napoleon's successors. What a shame! She thought of why she still had the purse. She couldn't know why.

She stayed in her apartment for three straight days until her refrigerator was almost empty. She could no longer deny her situation. She had done nothing, but ponder. She realized she had two choices, starve or go on a diet. Life is more bearable when you decide your destiny, she told herself. She observed her silhouette in the mirror and caressed her blond curly hair. It felt warm and soft in her bony trembling hand. Without a doubt, she decided to go on a diet.

She went to her closet and found the old cardboard box she had hidden a long time ago or 778 days ago, to be exact. The black mini skirt, slightly eaten by moths, was still there. She wore it over her panty hose and covered her tiny lace bra with a woolen dark brown coat. She would need it to protect her flesh from the cold during the long waiting hours. Marisol, her sweet transvestite friend, and her cigarettes were going to keep her company. With her reddish thick lips and sexy high heels, Esperanza got in cars driven by males similar to her ex-boss and ex husband, and dreamed about abundance in her refrigerator. She couldn't wait to reach her ideal weight.