Happy Sábado ☕
Coffee's hot, so sit down. We are in Buenos Aires today, at a little café on a gray afternoon.
Two old friends are at a corner table. One of them wants a raise she has been too scared to ask for.
The other one is done watching her stay quiet.
THE SCENE 🖼️
Flor: Che, me tiemblan las manos. Mirá.
Hey, my hands are shaking. Look.
Nico: ¿Por lo del aumento? Dale, tranquila.
Because of the raise thing? Come on, relax.
She wants to ask her boss for more money. The shaking hands say the rest. And notice Nico already knows exactly why she called him.
Flor: Es que hace dos años que no me suben nada.
It's just, they haven't raised me in two years.
Nico: Dos años. ¿Y nunca dijiste nada?
Two years. And you never said anything?
Hear how he repeated "dos años"? He is not really asking. He is letting the number hang in the air so she has to hear it too.
Flor: No sé. Me da cosa pedir.
I don't know. Asking makes me feel weird.
Nico: Flor, "me da cosa" no te va a pagar el alquiler.
Flor, "it makes me feel weird" won't pay your rent.
There it is. He took her fear and turned it into a small joke. That is a very porteño move. Tease the fear a little so it gets smaller.
Flor: ¿Y si se enoja? ¿Si me dice que no?
And what if he gets mad? If he says no?
Nico: ¿Y si te dice que sí y perdiste dos años callada?
And what if he says yes and you lost two years staying quiet?
Nico: El que no llora, no mama, Flor.
The one who doesn't cry doesn't get fed, Flor.
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