Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!My phone"s alarm clock buzzed incessantly, urging me to get up. I didn"t dare swipe dismiss and succ.u.mb to sleep once more, afraid that I might wake up hours later. I reluctantly got up then searched for my gla.s.ses. I grabbed my phone then silenced it.
6:30am, November 15, 2017.
Upon seeing the date, I immediately perked up. Exactly a week from now, I"ll be leaving for Kyoto. It will be my first trip out to the land of the rising sun, my 30th birthday present to myself. I will be traveling alone; this was another gift I gave myself. Whilst daydreaming of my fifteen-day-long vacation, I went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
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I arrived at work ten minutes before my shift. My secretary, Anne, smiled at me as she fanned herself.
"Good morning, Ms. Hinata," she smiled, wiping the sweat on her forehead.
With a frown, I replied, "Wipe yourself dry first, don"t immediately cool yourself under the air conditioning unit. Do you wanna get sick?"
"But I feel so hot, I hate living in a tropical country!" she complained but followed my instructions. She took a facial tissue and started wiping her sweaty face. "Ugh. I feel so sticky and it"s only 08:20 in the morning! I envy you, miss. In two weeks you"ll be in cool and beautiful j.a.pan while I"m stuck in this country!"
I laughed. "Then you should stop spending your money like there"s no tomorrow and start following the 50-30-20 rule religiously!"
"50-30-20 rule?"
"Yes. 50% of your income should go to your living expenses, 30% goes to your flexible spending, and the remaining percentage to your savings account."
Anne immediately took her calculator from her drawer and computed how much each percentage represented. Seeing how much she had to save, her eyes turned into saucers. "Wow, why didn"t I know this!? I would"ve been rich now if I knew about this!"
"Now all that"s left is for you to practice self-control. Remember how you almost always don"t live within your means," I reminded her. "Two days after pay day you act as if I don"t pay you enough!"
She stuck her tongue out at me, I had to laugh at that. Anne is still in her early twenties and has yet to learn the importance of wise spending. I went inside my office, sat in my chair and immediately started working, seeing that I was already in work mode, Anne hurriedly threw her used tissues in the bin and started working as well.
Around mid-morning, I got a call from the company president requesting for an emergency lunch meeting. I informed Anne to adjust my schedule to make way for the urgent meeting. A few minutes before the agreed upon time, I went to the women"s restroom to touch up my makeup and to answer nature"s call. While sitting on the porcelain throne, I heard the main door open. The sound of heels clacking and the sighs of two women were then heard.
"I heard that hag with a man"s name will be joining us today," came the nasal voice of a woman who I immediately recognized as the head of Marketing, Rach.e.l.le Cruz.
A compact powder snapped and an equally annoying voice replied, "She is? I bet you my entire salary this month that she"ll be sucking up to the old man again in this meeting."
"That"s a given," Rach.e.l.le told the other woman whose name was Joan Castillo, the head of our Buying Department. "That"s her only purpose for joining our meetings: to make us look bad and to make herself the hero of the day."
Having heard enough, I hurriedly finished and flushed the toilet. Showing neither anger nor disgust, I walked to the lavatory and joined them. Seeing me emerge from one of the stalls, both women froze.
"Good afternoon, ladies," I said. I opened the tap and washed my hands.
"G-Good afternoon," Joan stuttered, obviously fl.u.s.tered and tense.
Rach.e.l.le, on the other hand, recovered immediately and smirked. "You heard us right?"
"Yes, every single detail."
"What do you have to say?"
I took my hair brush from my makeup bag and started combing my hair. Looking at myself in the huge mirror before us, I replied, "Nothing."
With narrowed eyes, she walked closer to me, "Are you sure?"
Satisfied with how my hair looked, I finally faced her. "Yes, definitely."