This story begins with my decision to employ a housekeeper to help me maintain my grand and, largely unused, home. As a single man living alone, and rapidly approaching my late sixties, I decided that some assistance would be necessary in order to keep my house in a presentable state, not that I had many visitors anyway. I had let myself go in the past couple of decades; I was overweight and certainly not in the best physical condition to be getting on my hands and knees scrubbing and polishing.
I placed an advert online and it wasn't long before I began to receive some responses. The first thing that I noticed was that the vast majority of applicants had names of Spanish origin. I suppose this shouldn't have surprised me as this industry, certainly in my part of the world, is generally dominated by women originally from Latin America. As I mentioned, I received a number of responses, most likely due to the generous pay packet I was offering with room and board included.
One application stood out due to the wealth of experience listed on the lady's resume; albeit, all done in, what I imagine was her home country of, Puerto Rico. Miss Camila Vazquez, forty-three years old. Via the website I had advertised on, I sent a message to Ms Vazquez to invite her to my home for an interview and, after she responded, we set a date for the following Saturday at noon.
Ms Vazquez greeted me warmly as she entered the porch and my first impression was that she would have been a real head-turner back in her heyday but even now, at the age of forty-three, she still had nice curves, in spite of her 5-foot 9 frame, as well as a pretty face and luscious, long black hair. What appealed to me the most, however, was further south than all of that. Her feet were truly delectable and it was a constant struggle for the following hour to stop myself from physically drooling all over them, let alone keep my eyes off them. She was wearing a battered pair of flip flops which she slid off in the porch and this just drove me even crazier as the tan lines they had made on her feet became more apparent. Her skin tone would be best described as caramel; a delicious light brown that complemented the bright red nail polish of her toes exceptionally. Moving on to her toes, they were perfectly shaped and pedicured and there were the faint beginnings of wrinkles on them; another sexy sign of her elegant approach to ageing. Despite her obviously being a working lady, from what I could see, her feet did not appear calloused at all and this reaffirmed my opinion that this woman knew how to take care of herself.
I managed to get over my adulation and began my tour of the house. I showed her round the whole property, including her prospective room which she seemed impressed with. After we had finished the tour, I offered her a cup of coffee and we sat in the living room to have a chat about the finer details of the position I was offering (her English was broken and heavily accented but we managed). She appeared to be very keen and said this was exactly what she was looking for as she had been struggling to find work since moving to the country a couple of months ago. She had managed to obtain a visa due to connections her ex-husband had had but now that he was no longer in the picture, she was on her own and needed some sort of income and somewhere to stay long term. She also had a daughter back home and needed to send money back in order to help her finish her education so that she could gain a scholarship to an American college which would allow them to be reunited.
I told her that I sympathised with her situation and that I would be in touch as soon as I had done the relevant background checks. At the mention of this, I saw her face sink for a split second before perking up into a bigger smile and thanking me. As she slipped her flip flops back on and made to leave, I could've sworn I saw a little smirk in the corner of her mouth as she caught me looking down at her feet. I embarrassedly bid her farewell and closed the door.
In truth, I had wanted to give her the job on the spot but I knew that it was necessary to protect myself by verifying her identity and working rights online. Later that day, once I had found the relevant website and submitted her details, I was surprised to learn that Camila did not have working rights in the US. I rang her up immediately and informed her of my findings;
"Hi, is that Camila?"
"Yes, Mr Harris! You have the job for me?!"
"I'm sorry Camila, but I've checked your details and visa eligibility and you do not have working rights in this country! Why did you lie to me?"
"I am so sorry mister. Please, you must understand. My ex-husband left me with nothing and does not give money for my daughter school. Please you give me this job and you pay cash so no one will know I am illegal!"
I could not believe I was even entertaining this conversation but something about her helpless tone made me believe this was worth pursuing and so I replied;