Although noon was approaching, the store was reasonably quiet. A van with the words "Make a Wish- Prints and Parties" stopped in the cafeteria parking lot and a tired-looking young man entered the store. He was carrying large bags that looked heavy. He went over to Hermes, who at that moment was resting his arm calmly on the counter next to the cashier.
"Good morning, I'm from Make a Wish. I came to make a delivery to Mr. Alberto, is he here?"
Hermes greeted him with a friendly handshake, but his piggish spirit prompted him to take a quick look at the bags out of the corner of his eye and only then did he offer to answer.
"Yes, he is, just go up that staircase and knock on the first door."
The boy passed Ricardo on his way to the stairs, so he took the opportunity to look at the bags and see their contents, but to no avail. They were dark bags, and it was impossible to see what was inside. A few minutes later he heard Alberto calling him from the top of the stairs.
"Ricardo! Come up here."
Working at the snack shop for almost a year had taught him that when Alberto called him, it had to be at the same time, and it was never something good. Going up the stairs, he passed the delivery boy coming down with his expression more relieved than before and when he saw him, he simply put his hand on his shoulder and said:
"Dude, good luck to you."
Ricardo didn't understand those words at that moment and entered the office confused. Sitting in his chair, Alberto was waiting for him with an unmistakable smile. On his desk, a large pile of papers separated into blocks wrapped in plastic. But the most worrying thing were the objects that lay on the chair and on the floor in front of the desk.
"Mr. Alberto, what is this?"
What Ricardo was referring to was a flashy white chicken costume with everything it had to offer: bird feet, fake feathers - many of them - made of plush, wings with holes in the tips for hands, red overalls with suspenders and a huge head with a crest just as big. And to complete the package of oddities, a yellow apron printed with the words: DELIWINGS'S - TWENTY YEARS FILLING YOUR BELLY!
"This is your new job."
Ricardo had no words for that moment. His disbelief didn't allow him to formulate anything, and the "good luck" he had heard minutes before now made much more sense. He dared to ask, even though he knew the obvious. He was screwed.
"What job?"
"You're going to wear this costume and hand out flyers on the street advertising the store on the sidewalk. I want you to do this right now until your lunch break, and you'll continue until it's time to leave. And I don't want to see you messing around!"
Ricardo's head was full of swear words like flowers in a garden. He thought Alberto was joking with him, but he wasn't. The costume was ridiculous and felt very hot to the touch.
"Are you serious, Mr. Alberto? I don't think spending the day stuck in this thing is going to do any…" - He was interrupted by a loud slam of a fist on the table from a stressed-out Alberto.
"YES, IT IS!!! And I don't even want to dream of seeing you coming back with the flyers in your hands! I want at least three hundred distributed in each round. Are you finished? Come back here and get more. Got it?"
"And what about my job serving customers ?"
"Marcelo will deal it with the girls, they'll find a way. Now get dressed and go outside."
"Yes, sir."
Pride swallowed dry like a stone from the floor, Ricardo picks up his costume and leaves the office, heading for the men's locker room. Until then he hadn't noticed her, but Marilise was comfortably lying on the office sofa, using her cell phone and holding back her laughter as best she could.
Ricardo reluctantly put on the bizarre outfit while he thought of new curse words, but for him there was no other choice. He would lose his job if he refused to wear that thing. Not daring to look at the result in the mirror, he crossed the hallway picking up a bundle of flyers from the pile thrown out of the office by Alberto. It was then that he heard the door slowly open behind him. It was Marilise who was photographing him and didn't even bother to hide it. Ignoring this, he walked down the stairs with difficulty because of his enormous feet that insisted on bending with each step he took, almost knocking him over halfway down.
When they arrived at the salon, people's reactions were mixed. Camila put her hands to her mouth in horror, Hermes ran to the kitchen to laugh, and Marcelo screwed up his face in pity, but inside he was relieved it wasn't him. One of the customers choked on his soda and a more excited one in the back couldn't contain his laughter despite his wife scolding him.
But Júlia, on the other hand, had a milder reaction even though deep down she also wanted to laugh:
"This is Alberto's doing, right?"
"Who else could it be? Now I have to go outside with these damn pamphlets until lunchtime and it'll be like this until it's time to leave. I haven't even left and it's already hot as hell."
"If he told you to, you better obey. Go now because Hermes is looking at you badly."
The manager was now standing near the cash register with a serious expression, his red eyes indicating that he had laughed as much as he could in the kitchen. He must have already known what was going to happen, but he must have thought that keeping it a surprise would be much more fun.
You bastard, you will pay me for this! - Ricardo swore to himself.
"Ricardo" - Hermes stifled a laugh - "It's nice, huh? Go ahead and kick asses!"
"I'd rather kick your ass". - He whispered.
"What did you say?"
"I said I'm going to kick asses!" - He held the flyers in his hands and left before he had to give any more explanations.
The sun seems determined not to hide behind the clouds so as not to miss the show. It was a little after eleven o'clock and noon was already approaching, increasing the sensation of heat that Ricardo felt while encased in his pathetic mortal coil.
Even though it was the end of a pleasant autumn, he was no longer sure where his body ended and his fantasy began, both in a forced symbiosis caused by the amount of sweat.
To make matters worse, the pile of pamphlets seemed to be never-ending and people passing by had mixed feelings about the ridiculous creature:
"Poor boy, under rhis sun."
"How bizarre, It looks like a spiritual offering, hahahahahaha!"
"I'm going to post it on my profile, it'll go viral."
Time passed like this. There were those who felt sorry for him, but the nasty comments would pile up around him if they had physical form.
He felt his strength slowly leaving his body. The costume didn't allow o bring his phone so that he would at least know how much time was left until his break and that bothered him.
It didn't take long for him to start making plans to ruin the damn costume and not wear it a second time, he believed he wasn't capable of such a feat. But remembering that he would be beheaded alive by Alberto if he don't move away from such thoughts. A familiar voice brought him back to sanity:
"Ricardo, I brought it for you!"
Julia with a bottle of mineral water in hands seems like a mirage in his personal desert. Ricardo grabbed the bottle and poured it into his mouth without thinking. Maybe because the water was very cold he didn't immediately feel that it was quenching his thirst.
Although he was bothered by the resulting thermal shock, he was grateful that they had remembered him.
"Phew! Thanks a lot, Julia, I really needed it. It wasn't Alberto who told you to bring it to me, was it?"
"Him? Ha! Not at all. I told Hermes that I was coming to bring you water and you need to see the look on his face. By the way, I bought this water, got it? You can pay me later."
"Hold on, I'll give it back right away." - He made a gesture of putting his index finger in his mouth and returning the liquid he had consumed back to the bottle.
"Ewww! I was just kidding, man!"
"I know, did you know you're an angel?"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Well, let me go before they call me screaming, hang in there."
"I'll try. Oh, Julia! Do me a favor?"
"Another one?"
"Yeah. Another one. Stop by the locker room, I think I forgot my phone on the mirror table. Put it in my locker for me?"
"Okay, I'll check for you. See you later!"
"Thanks. See ya."
With his mind clearer after the kindly offered water, Ricardo felt a weight on his conscience when he thought about Julia. He intended to keep the relationship going for a while longer until Marilise fell into his arms, but for a brief moment he thought it might be nice to stay with her and stop the random flirting. But only for a moment.
Well, I'll think about it better later. I'm still young. There are a lot of girls out there that I still want to meet before I settle down, it would be sad to take away their chance to get to know me.
Back at the snack bar, Julia walked straight through the dining room towards the stairs without paying attention to the movement, but she stopped for a moment before stepping on the first step.
"Camila, hang in there just a little longer. I'll go upstairs real quick, okay?"
Hermes, who had been counting the minutes until her return on his gold-plated watch, didn't stay silent when heard this:
"It's become a mess now, huh? First the water, now this. There are customers waiting, you know?"
"I'm just going to the locker room, I'll be back in five minutes!"
"Tsk, okay, go ahead and do it. But I'll take it out of your lunch time!"
Turning her back with a scowl, Júlia went up the stairs and crossed the hallway towards the men's locker room. In fact, Ricardo's cell phone was under the small table built into the mirror. Just as she picked it up, a bell rang. She hesitated for a moment, but curiosity got the better of her and the fact that the screen wasn't blocked encouraged her to continue.
Wow, it's full of messages. Who are they from?
It would've been better if her hadn't done that . As she scrolled through the messages, she saw that they were all from female senders, names that she had never heard of Ricardo's mouth, not even as a joke.
I'm his fucking girlfriend! How many girls are there? I'm going to check it out right now.
Resolutely, she slid her finger over the screen and, one by one, viewed each message, and the whole truth that had been hidden until that moment came to light.
>Alice Blonde:
"Honey, that trip to the mall is guaranteed, right? Reply to me as soon as you can, okay? Kisses."
>Carla Brunette:
"Hi! It's been a week since I've seen you! I want to see you, call me."
>Monique Bookstore:
"I loved that book you recommended to me. Who would have thought that you like something so romantic… Come with me to buy the next volume? Kisses."
>Lucia Big Boobs:
"Wow, Ricky. We hooked up that one time and you never came to see me again. I miss you so much! Call me."
Julia couldn't stop anymore. Her trembling fingers and teary eyes were no longer in control. She had forgotten that she could only be there for a few minutes, but sadness had made her time stop.
Dozens of different names and nicknames, all feminine… How long had he been messing with them? She had reached message number 43, and this one in particular caught hher attention. She felts a stab in her heart like a hot knife. It was dated today, still unread:
>Marilise Little Boss:
"Ricardo. You're actually quite funny and that stolen kiss yesterday gave me goosebumps. But seriously… What would I want with a bum? You works for my dad frying chicken.
I heard from Ines at the candy store that you never leave there without buying chocolates, but I've never gotten any. And I saw you following me at that party, and to make matters worse... I know you're dating that idiot Julia, or is she just a snack before me?"
"I hate that idiot, always getting involved where she shouldn't, acting all good. I hate pretending to be her friend, I even thought about asking my dad to send her away. You're a wimp, and that fool deserves you!"
Julia felt like she was going to collapse on the floor, but a new message had been just pop out, and that was the last straw:
>Marilise Little Boss:
"I almost forgot: That idiot asked Hermes for the day off on the same day as you, I bet she wanted to ask you out, a perfect date, maybe? But no."
"I changed her day off and forced that wimp Camila to lie saying she needed the day off, I love how she does what I want. And that idiot Hermes doesn't even say a word, after all, after my parents, I'm the one in charge here. "
"Why am I telling you this? Because you're a wimp, you're not going to tell her. And I love screwing you guys over. Happy Lovers's Day!"