Caray, Caray!

• Rafa has oozed his way into the Classy Execs Club, but as they say, "You can run but you can't hide." Vicki Vicki Vicki (or as we know her affectionately, VVV) calls him and forces him to whistle lovingly into his cellphone just as the grand Refri Transport VIP, Julian LeMaitre, arrives with his lovely wife and some other babe of a similar age. He is surrounded by the press, which is good, as it hides from him the ridiculous antics Rafa is using to catch his attention (jumping on chairs and yelling "LeMac! LeMac!")
  
  
• Whether it's from lack of meat or the heat of the curry in Susana's Indian Vegetarian restaurant, Nelson ("Dandy") has melted, all the way to his no longer jaunty pompadour. He's sliding towards the floor. Susana accuses him of being a big meat-eater. "No, only twice a day." "Your body needs to detox, to recalibrate correctly."
  
  She asks again if he can bring her some Java Essence tomorrow. After Susana rises Nelson collars the waitress and asks if any establishment in the vicinity sells hamburgers or tacos.
  
  
• Finding out from a passing waiter that the woman in the black dress is LeMaitre's wife, Rafa eavesdrops on her as if his life depends on it.
  
  He then approaches her, lights her cigarette, and announces that it smells odd. "May I?" he asks, taking it, sniffing, and staring into its ashes.
  
  "You have a daughter - far away..."
  
  Long story short, he melds the info he's just accumulated with Rosaura's unending stream of gossip (the previous day) and he dazzles Beatriz with his ability to read her life from the cigarette, further pleasing her by promising her husband has no other woman but is madly in love with his own wife (her).
  
  "No, his problem is elsewhere..."
  
  Phone rings! It's not VVV - it's the other harridan in Rafa's life, Ale, desperate to know how things are going.
  
  But back to work. Rafa had asked the friend to puff on the cigarette while he took his call, and now back to Beatriz: "Your husband, he's a very important man... he has a group of employees, not all of them are trustworthy - "
  
  LeMaitre arrives and wants to take his wife home, but she wants to hear more, so LeMaitre listens also. Rafa now addresses him directly, while staring at the cigarette. "Someone is not playing clean - someone in charge of purchases - of renovating your fleet - he is colluding with a distributor and not allowing others to bid - you are only getting 2% discount when others would offer 4%..."
  
  LeMaitre is fascinated but skeptical. "You're not getting such exact figures from a cigarette butt." "You'll find clearer figures in the documents of MOUNTAIN TRUCKING." Rafa admits this info is not from the great beyond, but from a more immediate source. He gives LeMaitre his card. The scene degenerates when Rafa drops Rosaura's name, I missed why... and Rafa is besieged with women waving cigarettes for him to read...
  
  
• In the dark Rafa's phone wakes him from a sound sleep, it's Ale of course, unable to sleep a wink, wanting him in the office.
  
  
• At Auto Siglo after daybreak, Ale gives Susana an invite to the wedding and then goes to Beltran's office to deliver his.
  
  Beltran is sucking oxygen and looking down the shirt of his cute nurse; he is overwrought, more than usual, because a surprise audit is coming and Auto Siglo's sales are abysmal at the moment. He doesn't want to hear anything about this wedding, how selfish of Ale, and after she just spent a month in the US recovering from surgery! Better she should cancel the wedding and concentrate on sales.
  
  She doesn't agree to that but backs out of the room as he says it's time to bring back her native manner: loud, abrasive, grating, but effective.
  
  
• Nelson gives a smiling Susana her little gift of Java Essence. Ale tells her it smells putrid. Susana points out Ale seems totally uninterested in her wedding. "It's a small affair, and Marco and my aunt are taking care of it."
  
  "What about his parents?" "His mother is in the insane asylum in the U.S. and his father has to be with her all the time."
  
  
• Elsewhere, Chavez laughs at Marco about this story. The fact is, Marco's parents would be sent to jail if they came back to Mexico. Chavez passes Marco the wad of cash for wedding #2. Marco will spend some of the dough on a return trip to the hotel. Chavez thinks that's a waste - but Marco promised. Things should go better this time, his hickey is finally gone.
  
  
• Ale is yelling at her salesforce, which pleases Ramirez.
  
  The phone rings for Rafa and all chant "Vicki! Vicki! Vicki!" "No, it's a call from the jungle!"
  
  It's Magda, who whispers: auditors have arrived to look into Zarate's shenanigans. Rafa promises he didn't give her name to LeMaitre. He goes back to the meeting, where Marino (hasn't his hair grown back sufficiently to be better than this awful wig?) promises to sell 18 cars. Rafa, goaded, promises to sell 70-80 trucks. Consternation erupts.
  
  
• It's dinner time at VVV's house and her brothers and father are irritated that once again Rafa has stood them up. They laugh at VVV when she says Rafa's at the Cool Exec's Club: "He's probably cleaning the floor or the toilets. Did he make the sale?" "I don't know, he didn't call me." The knives come out again...
  
  
• Unfairly, speaking as Susana's employer Ale demands the name of her date the previous night; she chokes to hear it was Dandy. "How can you be so ingenuous?" "We just talked about oriental essences." "It's against company regulations to date a salesman, that's why we threw out Bulmaro." ?? Bulmaro was the guy Rafa replaced.
  
  
• I guess the whole sales team has chipped in, as an "investment," to pay for Dandy's wooing of Susana, so they are furious to discover (1) the vegetarian restaurant was very expensive and (2) Nelson did not manage to get Susana in the sack. Or even get kisses.
  
  "She's shy! And stop criticizing me! I dislocated bones for the cause."
  
  Rosaura defends him: "Susana isn't easy!" He says he'll try again; they say it better be spaghetti in a diner this time.
  
  Susana arrives, ending this conversation: "Rafa, Ale wants to see you."
  
  Nelson pretends to be busy working, but Susana points out his computer is off. She leaves. He bangs his head on the desk.
  
  
• Ale is furious Rafa made such a scene in the meeting and publicly promised to sell so many trucks. She warms to his story about meeting LeMaitre but cools again to hear nothing has been finalized, and is telling him to stop with the delirium and retract his foolish promise when - the phone rings - and it's LeMaitre's secretary! Rafa straightens up and prepares for the call...

Labels: dinero

Permalink posted by melinama @ 9:54 PM