His Tempting Widow

Chapter 7: Hired

Shaina appeared earnest and reliable while Paola’s employer perused her resume. She heard that Mrs. Garcia was a nice woman from what her friend said.

In her guesstimation, the businesswoman was in her fifties, with complete jewelries on from the ears to her neck and wrists. She was a mestiza; her skin was fair but with reddish tint just like other half or Spanish-blooded Filipinos. She was a bit rotund with an average height; she was taller than Shaina. Her dyed red hair was in a bun, and she smelled nice—like sweet floral scent. The young widow knew it was an expensive perfume, unlike her who only used talc and cheap baby cologne.

They stood in the small rectangular room of the laundromat where there was a small green plastic table with a few folders and logbooks and a monobloc chair of the same color at the right side.

On the opposite side was a collapsible tabletop ironing board, a long horizontal pole built in the wall where hangers were placed and some shelves, wherein the folded clean clothes were arranged neatly for customers’ retrieval. These were all in a transparent plastic.

Shaina noticed there were numbers and names on each of these, placed on top of the plastics for easy identification and to avoid mixing up with the others.

Mrs. Garcia sat on the green monoblock and looked up at Shaina. “You don’t have an experience, Shaina,” she said in a slightly gruffy voice.

Shaina’s heart started to tremble.

Of course, she’ll not hire me, her disappointed thought.

She glanced at her friend, who looked expectantly at her employer.

“But since Paola recommended you, I will trust that you can do your job well,” Mrs. Garcia added, still with a stern-looking made-up face.

A smile split the widow’s face. “Oh, thank you, thank you! I really need this job, ma’am! I promise to learn whatever it is to learn here real quick,” she assured the older woman.

Mrs. Garcia nodded, looking her up and down in her jeans and blouse paired with flat sandals. “I trust Paola will do the rest. If not for her partner quitting the job to look for a greener pasture, you wouldn’t be here. But I’m glad Paola has saved me the trouble to find someone to help around here in such a short time. Not everyone would like to have this job. I think more people prefer the call center and other BPO companies rising in our small city, since they have higher pay and bonuses.” She smiled at her approvingly.

“Oh, I’m not confident to work at call centers, ma’am. I don’t speak English very well, and I usually mispronounce words.” She smiled awkwardly and shyly. “I also heard it’s a stressful job. My late husband worked at a BPO company, a publishing one, and he worked in shifts, so the schedule was not truly convenient. I’ll be happy to work for you for a long time, ma’am,” Shaina assured her.

“Oh, I’m so sorry for your loss. Paola told me.” Mrs. Garcia gave her a sympathetic look.

Shaina’s eyes fluttered as tears formed in her eyes. “I’m trying to be strong for my children, ma’am. And thank you again for hiring me.”

Wallace, who stood near the stout woman, sighed. “I wish you’ll not work so hard, hon. I don’t want to see you tired and weary.” He was reminded of the insurance company that would not want to give his widow the money, and he seethed. If there was anything he could do, he would have done it already to save his poor little wife.

“When should I start to work, ma’am?”

“Today, if you’re up to it,” Mrs. Garcia replied with a kind smile.

“Of course, ma’am. I’ll just let my mother-in-law know, so that she wouldn’t worry. She’s the one who’s taking care of my children.”

“All right then. You have to work here from Friday to Saturday, 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. You have an hour break at lunch.”

“Got it.”

“I will need your Social Security System number for your contribution, as well as your tax identification number for the withholding tax, and I’ll need you to sign later some papers for the HealthCoverage and others.”

“Okay, ma’am.” She nodded.

“So, how do you like to have your salary? Twice a month, every fifteenth and the end of the month? Or weekly, every Saturday?”

“Uh…” she hesitated, looking at her friend.

“Weekly would be good, I think. That’s what I chose,” Paola told her.

“All right. Weekly, ma’am,” Shaina answered to their employer.

“Okay, that’s settled then. If we need to discuss further some things, you can always ask me. I’ll be here everyday, every morning and before we close up,” Mrs. Garcia informed her.

“I’ll keep that in mind, ma’am. Thank you.”

Mrs. Garcia nodded.

“Come, I’ll show you what to do, Shai,” Paola urged her, and they left Mrs. Garcia to do some work in the room. Basically, their employer was going to check the book and everything else.

“Oh, I’m so, so happy she hired you!” Paola hugged Shaina, while Wallace shoved his hands inside his pockets. He eyed her intently.

“Thank you for this, Pao. It’ll really help us to get by,” Shaina thanked her friend sincerely. She was tearful again.

Paola pouted. “Hey, I’m so sorry it’s not grand, but I’m glad it can help you. If only I know something better other than this job, I wouldn’t—”

“Hey, it’s more than okay! I could’ve ended up nowhere. The wage is just about the same as a saleslady working in a mall, and you know salesladies stand all the time. But here, I think we can at least sit down.” Shaina shrugged.

“Yes, of course! We do have snacks, too, and we can gossip!” Paola dropped her tone and grinned.

Shaina’s tears were suspended, and she laughed.

She then made a quick text message to Hilda to let her know of the good news, then she and Paola began her orientation. Her ghost husband, on the other hand, was just hanging around, leaning against the wall with crossed arms.

“So first, we get the dirty laundry from the customers, we weigh them, we give them the receipt and the schedule when they can come back to retrieve their stuff. We usually have one to three days turn around time. It depends on how many customers we have. And then, we sort their things—you know, the colored ones and not, the delicate ones and those that aren’t. You know that already. And we’ll also fix some things, if they need fixing. We usually charge that when they retrieve their stuff, but we must ask them first just in case, so that they won’t complain. It has an additional fee after they already paid beforehand.”

“Okay, got it. We need to iron them all, right?”

“Yes. But we only have one iron and one ironing board, so it’s just either of us who’s going to do it.” Paola shrugged.

“We’ll take turns, of course.”

Paola giggled. “I can laze around and say I’m just training you, so you’ll do all the work for about, say, two months at least?”

Wallace’s eyes blazed, glaring at the unsuspecting Paola, while his widow laughed at her friend’s joke.

“Hi. I’d like to get my stuff back.” A sexy, tall chinita came up about an hour later. She wore a stylish pair of city shorts and and sleeveless tank top, showing off her flawless fair skin and nice model-like figure.

Shaina and Paola turned to look at her. She was stunning and looked half-Chinese and half-Filipina, with past shoulder-length dyed light brown hair. They smelled her sweet fruity scent that was obviously pricey.

Paola moved her head to Shaina in a signal to get it for the customer. The widow took the claim stub from the woman, seeing the name Rhoda Lee. She then told the thirty-year-old woman to wait while she would get her stuff.