After clocking out from her shift she collected her paycheck from the employee break room in the basement. Her manager was reading a magazine about sports at the table. On the wall over the table hung a poster of the corporate mascot, an almost ominously cheerful clown.
She stood by the table.
“Um,” Beatriz said.
Her manager flipped a page, staring at the magazine without responding.
“I was wondering if maybe you could start giving me more hours,” Beatriz said.
“Do you wear deodorant,” Chad said.
She hesitated.
“Uh,” Beatriz said.
Suddenly setting aside the magazine, he looked at her. He stood from the table. He gripped her wrists. He lifted her arms.
Too horrified to look at him, she stared straight ahead at the poster on the wall as he bent his head, sniffing the pits of her uniform.
She could feel her cheeks burning with shame.
“I’m sorry,” Beatriz said.
Tears were shimmering in her eyes.
“I ran out,” Beatriz said.
The tears had blurred her vision.
“You have the most disgusting stench,” Chad said.
She felt tears streak down her cheeks as she blinked.
Looking repulsed, he raised his head.
“If you smell like that tomorrow, don’t bother to come back,” Chad said.
He stepped away from her, releasing her wrists, dropping her arms, and then he sat back down at the table, settling into the chair.
She became aware that her lips were trembling.
“Please,” Beatriz said.
He picked back up the magazine.
“I need this job,” Beatriz said.
“Have a wonderful night,” Chad said.
She climbed back up the stairs with her head bent toward the steps. She was so humiliated that she felt nauseous. But the most horrible feeling of all was when she realized that she also felt grateful. She felt grateful to him, because for once he’d actually spoken to her. She was that desperate. She was so pathetic.
She ate a couple of cheeseburgers out by the dumpsters, sitting alone on the pavement, crying as she chewed, sticking pickles into her mouth, licking ketchup from her fingers, feeling like trash, and then finally wiping the tears from her eyes she stood from the pavement, tossing the wrappers into the garbage and shuffling off down the street with her paycheck.