The time I had a gun pointed at my head and I was still fired from the fucking Coffee Chain

It was 2011, after being heartbroken, I was too emotionally drained to pack my bags and leave again. So I stayed in my home country for a year and a half.

I rented an apartment in Palermo, Buenos Aires with one of my best friends. He was gay and called me “his marida”.

I worked for almost a year in an HR job and things were difficult money wise. I was used to live with American Dollars and now I was living with Argentinian pesos. I got another job as a supervisor for a well-known coffee chain. I always hated F&B jobs but the money was good and I was tired of being broke.

5 months passed and it was getting more and more unbearable. I didn´t like the job and the actual physical shop had many problems with clogged pipes. My colleagues were ok but because I started right away as their supervisor, they didn´t really include in their conversations. I didn´t enjoy going to work, but we do what we got do do, right?

One day my shift started at 5pm. I arrived, put my uniform and put my smile on. As soon as I start, one of my colleague says: “Cata love, the toilets are clogged again”. The shop was full and we had people waiting in line to get their afternoon coffee. So I went to the back, where the toilets were located, to check how bad the situation was.

To go back to the front I had to pass by right in front of the baristas and I see one of the girls looking terrified.

She says my name and nothing else. I looked to the right and there was this guy standing.

He says: “Who is in charge?”

I said: “Me”

He pulled up his shirt and show me the gun on his pants. He says: “You don´t want any trouble, right?”

I said no and start walking in direction to the registers.

One thing that I should have done as soon as I started my shift was to cash out the registers. I didn´t. I was in the back assessing how bad the toilet problem was.

I gave him all the money. He says: “I know you have a safe too”.

The safe was in the office, which in this particular shop was located in a basement.

I thought maybe this is it, this is how I died.

I walked downstairs with him, entered the password, grabbed the money, put it in a bag and waited.

He says: “Stay here” and opens a door on a side of the office where some of my colleagues were hiding.

I waited for a couple of minutes, checked on my colleagues and went back upstairs. I had to know if they were gone.

They did.

Called my manager, police came over, had to go to the police station to give my statement, went back to the shop and finished my shift. All my colleagues were upset and they asked to leave.

A week later I was fired. They said I should have cashed out the registers as soon as my shift started. I was upset for a day or two. I’m a proud person and I was hurt.

But there was a very good side to this. I lost a job I didn´t like and they paid me good money to leave for only 5 months of work.

After this experience I was ready to leave Argentina again.

That´s when I applied to work at cruise ships and I was able to afford the long process until you get your ship assignment.

Is funny how sometimes we think that is life slapping us in the face, when is actually life giving us another chance.

Photo by Kelly Lacy