I want an ugly secretary

By Leonardo

—Don't laugh, I really want the ad to say that.

—You're not going to have any candidates.

—Why not? Do all women think they are beautiful?

I told my friend and partner, while I was checking some files on my computer.

—No woman is going to admit that she is ugly.

He tells me this with great certainty, wanting me to come to my senses, but I am obsessed with this topic.

—I want an ugly secretary who speaks three languages and can accompany me to meetings, cocktail parties, and business trips, without looking for a husband.

He smiles sarcastically.

—Just because she's ugly doesn't mean she doesn't want to get married.

She declares this while still smiling, and I'm getting angry.

Despite that, I admit she has a good point, but if she was ugly, nobody would want to marry her.

I explained it to him like this.

—You're a pig.

—It's a reality.

—It isn't.

He can't be right.

—Anyway. —I cut him off, annoyed. —I want a skilled and ugly secretary. I've had four secretaries in the last year, all of them coming to me looking for marriage candidates, and all of them leaving me to marry clients or businessmen, all millionaires, by the way.

There's a knock at the door and it's Melina, the fourth secretary, who was about to marry a businessman she met at a business dinner she attended with me as my secretary.

I look at her with hatred.

—I already posted the ad.

She says with a smile, almost shy.

She was beautiful, but not as much as the previous one who had only lasted 2 months, Melina lasted 4 months, yes, only four damn months.

My company wasn't a stepping stone to finding a husband, nor one of those places where you could find partners.

Apparently so, I'm going to charge a damn commission to each of the secretaries who marry someone related to me.

I'd rather have an ugly secretary.

Ricardo laughs.

Of course, your secretary has been with us for 6 years, since we started our company.

That was when we took over the company.

Actually, it's not that we started it; our parents were partners, and we're the same age, we've known each other all our lives, we're like brothers.

We went to elementary school, high school, and then college together.

Here we are now, both being civil engineers, without many options having chosen another career.

I mean, we had pressure from our families to follow in our parents' footsteps, and even before we had graduated, they were already throwing multi-million dollar projects at us, and we had to solve them.

We were party buddies, but at work we were professionals, that's for sure.

As for our studies, we had no other choice; we had the largest construction company in the country, or at least one of the largest.

We work for the government of our country and also with those of neighboring countries, as well as with private investors.

We always won important bids; we had a lot of prestige.

We build bridges, dams and enormous buildings, those imposing and modern skyscrapers that stand out proudly and are among the others; the largest in the city are ours and there are more than twenty of them.

Anyway, I love what I do, despite my father's pressure.

Of course, as a child I wanted to be a footballer, like most children in my country, but it wasn't functional for our company.

Company Haber and Smith, that's the name of our company.

I am Leonardo Haber and my partner is Ricardo Smith.

When we took over the company, Ricardo decided to keep his father's former secretary.

My secretary was about to retire, so I decided to hire a beautiful young assistant, who got involved with me and ended up quitting after finding me in the arms of another girl at a nightclub in the city.

She received a hefty compensation.

I didn't learn my lesson, because I got entangled with the next three secretaries I had, and with each of them I had a similar problem.

Then came one that lasted three years; she was married and loved her husband. She didn't give me any room, and I wasn't interested either, but she quit when her husband was offered a job in another city.

That's how I got to my final year.

I learned not to mess with my secretaries, but they mess with every man who has anything to do with my company.

It must be my karma.

—Add that I want her to be a university graduate, with a degree in business administration or an accountant or a lawyer, something like that, don't forget to mention that she should be ugly, that she should be fluent in three languages and that she shouldn't wear inappropriate clothing, I want someone who dresses like my grandmother.

I had told my secretary when I indicated that I wanted her to say the announcement.

-You're crazy.

Ricardo insists.

—No, I want a secretary who will last.

—Then don't make it a requirement that they be between 22 and 26 years old.

—I don't want someone who's 45 and can't come to meetings with me because they go to bed early.

—You're not going to find someone like that.

My secretary was listening to our conversation.

I know Melina felt guilty, but she was going to get married anyway and leave me.

I went by my parents' house, as I do every Thursday night, and we had dinner together.

It's part of our routine.

—Hello little brother.

Angy jumped on me, she is my beloved sister, she had returned from Europe.

When she graduated with a degree in business administration, my parents gave her a trip to Europe as a gift.

The trip lasted 6 months.

She went with a friend, although I don't even remember her friend's name, I don't think I ever saw her.

I was happy to have her back home, even though I don't see her often, I really missed her.

He showered me with gifts that he had bought in every city he visited.

I feel like he thinks about me all the time, and that, as his older brother, fills me with pride.

My parents allowed him to choose his career, as long as it had to do with business, although they did not require him to study civil engineering.

I told them that my secretary was getting married, that it was the fourth one this year; it's just that as soon as they learned to handle themselves the way I needed, they abandoned me.

He seemed obsessed with the subject.

—I want an ugly secretary, one who won't run off after a businessman.

—No woman is going to admit that she is ugly, and depending on the man, she may or may not be considered ugly, and you are a misogynist.

Angy tells me, and I think she's offended by my thought.

—That's not true, I'm not a misogynist.

We discussed the issue, nobody seemed to understand my situation, and at my parents' house they were upset with me.

I said goodbye to my family; I didn't want to continue arguing about the issue. That's how I feel, and the announcement had already been made.

I got home, checked my emails and nobody had sent anything, not even a measly resume, and then they said they wanted to work.

Did all women consider themselves beautiful?

Maybe it wasn't that they all considered themselves beautiful, maybe they were ashamed to admit to others that they were ugly, but it's not like I'm looking for a needle in a haystack, I'm simply looking for someone ugly and educated, it's even more logical that an ugly young woman is better prepared, since she doesn't have as many opportunities to have a partner and to come out as a beautiful woman, I don't know why nobody finds logic in my thoughts, if it's a simple equation.