It’s so worth it! Oh, you bet it is!
Mornings are the hardest. Lately, she’s been freezing terribly. It’s warm inside already, but those few meters between her car and her home, or her workplace, are brutal. Her teeth chatter, and she feels like she’s going to die. Just two minutes out of her day, yet she dreads it in advance. The wool sweater she’s started wearing on early summer mornings doesn’t help. Franciska says it’s because of tiredness. Franciska is an idiot. Why wouldn’t it be possible to get used to waking up at four in the morning? Just because her friend can’t handle it doesn’t mean it has to be a problem or torture for everyone. Franciska isn’t just an idiot; she’s lazy too.
This new cleaning product is unbearable. It smells both heavy and sweet, with a biting bleach scent mixed in.
“Just look at it, Annamari,” the cleaning lady showed her proudly, “finally, it won’t smell like a hospital!”
As if this stomach-churning combination was any better.
Somehow, it always happens that they mop with it whenever she’s around. She might as well just forbid its use. After all, she runs this joint. She can do whatever she wants. In fact, she could fire the cleaning lady if she felt like it. She could replace her in a heartbeat. Someone who would breathe in the scent of traditional cleaner without a peep, without whining that it’s not citrusy or spicy enough. Though the owner might not take it well if she dismissed his babysitter’s mother, who cried her way into this cleaning job with two trays of cream puffs as bribes.
Everyone thinks that at four o’clock, when the café and breakfast joint closes, she rushes home to her partner, and baby-making begins in earnest until the next dawn. They’d be shocked to see her waitressing at a joint two towns away until eleven. By the time she crashes into bed at midnight, she’d go crazy if Lucas tried anything. In fact, if he did, she’d strangle him with his own… though Lucas senses his girlfriend has been filled with a strange, explosive rage lately. According to Franciska, of course, that’s also due to fatigue. Because Franciska is an idiot, and she thinks everything stems from exhaustion. It’s incomprehensible to her friend that someone might actually want to make an effort to achieve their goals. Just like the idea that life sometimes requires sacrifices. And compromises.
Oh, the look on that nobody Pali’s face when he saw the car! That was priceless! The way that jerk’s eyes skimmed over the leather seats, the door lighting, and the automatic transmission in astonishment.
“Is this new?” he asked hoarsely.
What an intoxicating feeling it was to throw the answer in his face.
“Of course.”
“Where are you living now?”
“In Austria.”
“Not bad at all!”
“That’s how we live over there,” she could barely hold back her laughter.
Oh, how she would’ve loved to sneer in his face: So, what’s up, Pali? Jealous much? With your lousy professor’s salary, you’ll never have one of these in a million years! You can wipe your ass with that degree of yours! Remember looking down on me because I had zero desire to finish university? Well, take a good look now!
Only, if it weren’t for this constant tearing up. Franciska says it’s normal to start getting all sorts of ailments after forty-five. Eh, that Franciska, she really thinks she’s so smart! If she knows it all so well, why is she driving a fifteen-year-old car? Yeah, well, when you travel around the world four times a year, don’t be surprised. Especially if you won’t even drag yourself out of bed before eight in the morning.