Bacic, Boris - The Door by Bacic Boris

Author:Bacic, Boris [Bacic, Boris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-10-12T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

Jessica unlocked her apartment door and stumbled inside. She was dead tired and desperately wanted a glass of wine. The whole day of taking clients on tours of apartments was draining of her energy, especially Mr. Wilson, who asked a million ridiculous questions about the apartment.

He was an elderly man, who insisted that the radiator in the apartment be dismounted and replaced with what he had, since he believed it was more cost-effective. Then he asked if the trees blocking the window view could be chopped down. When she said no, he wondered if any of the other apartments in the building were available instead. It took everything in her not to break out of her role and snap at him.

When she first started doing this job a year ago, her face muscles would cramp up from all the forced smiling she did. Eventually, she learned to do it habitually and it even became like a reflex to her. Her family members and friends told her a few times to stop being fake with them with all the grinning, but she could never help it.

“Professional deformity.”

She called it that way, having read somewhere that we bring our work inadvertently home with us. She had a friend who used to work in call center as a customer representative and since she used Dutch at work, she’d often start conversations in Dutch before correcting herself.

Jessica took off her shoes, feeling the pain in her heels and toes as she stepped barefoot onto the wooden floor surface. She turned on the lights and dropped her purse on the bar-like chair next to the kitchen counter. She went inside the kitchen and flicked another switch.

Fancy, purple lights lit up the counter from above, casting violet shades down. She placed a pre-readied wine glass on the counter and opened the Chloe Rose. She poured the pink liquid into the glass, until it was half-full.

Half-empty, she thought to herself and poured another half, considering herself deserving of such a reward. She closed the bottle and placed it back under the counter. She picked the glass up and brought it up to her mouth. She smelled the aromas of watermelon and raspberries, savoring them. She’ll wait until she’s in a more comfortable position. She went over to the sofa and sat down.

The remote was positioned facing the TV, so without even picking it up, she pressed the power button and the gigantic UHD TV mounted on her wall flicked on. An episode of How I Met Your Mother was on, just in time for Barney Stinson to make a joke at which the audience laughed. Jessica leaned back on the sofa, crossed her legs and took a small sip of her wine.

She immediately felt herself relaxing both mentally and physically. This was her zone. She closed her eyes and laid her head back on the headrest of the sofa, listening to the jovial conversations of the show’s characters and the exaggerated laughter of the audience. She could fall asleep easily like this, but it was still too early.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.