SLUT

All the girls called Maria “Slut.” All the boys called Maria by phone. Girls voted her Least Likely to Succeed, while boys voted her Prom Queen. “Hold your head high,” her mother, Sofia, told her, “They can’t shame you if you’re not ashamed.” No boy got past third base with Maria, but rumors are immortal. Virgins at school watched her being escorted by popular boys, and cringed. They imagined what was being done to her in boy’s cars on weekends. Pity and envy curdled their blood. Maria loved her teachers, and they loved her. She got A’s effortlessly. Boys talked. In health class, when human reproduction was taught, Maria watched and listened closely, raising her hand often. Girls talked. Those girls learned about sex, not from slide shows, but by unbuttoning this and unzipping that, in secret.

After graduation, while most of her class attended college, Maria worked as a receptionist at a hotel, to help her mother pay the bills. The girls who attended college fooled around in dorms at their parents’ expense, rejecting the sexist “Slut” concept altogether. But Maria stayed behind in the hometown, working long hours at the hotel, with little time for social activity. For her work ethic she was promoted swiftly, from receptionist to administrative assistant, but the older women who were passed over for promotion whispered “Slut,” behind her back, assuming she was sleeping her way up. Maria worked seven days a week and was awarded another promotion, to assistant manager. Less ambitious women all assumed the worst and thought “Slut.” When the hotel manager was transferred and Maria became manager, her subordinates, from concierge to housecleaning, wagered she was not smart, but “Slut.”

The hotel chain Maria worked for merged with a diversified nationwide firm. The board of directors monitored her performance, leading them to move her up to the New York headquarters, where she got a corner office with glass walls and skyline views. Maria worked seven days a week. She posted pictures of her office view on social media. A year later, she posted pictures of the view from her Miami condo balcony. Two years after that, she posted a panorama of the beach in front of her San Juan villa. Some slut-shaming comments popped up from her old classmates and co-workers. Maria held her head high, occasionally calling home for encouragement from her mother.

Maria started her own business online, a service reviewing and linking the country’s best bed-and-breakfasts and guest houses. She worked seven days a week, hiring primarily men, and carefully discriminating against women. Men competed to be her favorite, willing to sleep their way to the top, aware they could never be called “Slut.”

At forty, Maria fell in love with an employee ten years younger, and proposed to him. They married in Paris and honeymooned in Rome. On their wedding night, Maria finally lost her virginity. It was worth the wait.