Welcome to Envy Park (8 page)

The girl across from me, Ashley,
gave me a big smile. Too big. She had super straight hair, usually
the stuff of CGI in television commercials, and she seemed like she
was buzzing with energy that her petite frame couldn’t quite hold
in. The girl beside her, the one across from Ethan, was not as
glowy. She was very attractive, with light brown curls and
perfectly shaped lips, obviously taller even though she was
sitting, but something about the way she carried herself reminded
me of someone with something heavy draped over her
shoulders.

"Ashley is my sister," Ethan was
saying.

"Hi," I said, tentative and
casual, with all the finesse of a person just told she was about to
be given a test.

Curiously, he did not introduce Rin in a similar
way, so I just turned to her and gave her a similar smile. And I
got an abstract cloud of heavy back.

"Is that the—?" Ethan poked at my
burrito.

"
Lechon
kawali
yeah."

"And you know it has—"

"I know. I’m in the mood for
it."

"You should check your email by
the way."

"Hm?"

"Your email. Sent you something
about the thing."

"What thing?" I panicked. Did he
want to talk about
the thing
right there? In front of his sister? And being
all cryptic?

"I talked to my friend in HR about
you."

Relief, somewhat. "Oh, that
thing."

"You should check your
email."

"You didn’t have to."

"Thank me later."

When I lifted my gaze from my food
I saw Ashley and Rin just
looking
at me, but with totally different
expressions.

In retrospect I was aware of how
it sounded. The easy familiarity of it. Like Ethan and I were
talking in code, and while it was
nothing
, it felt rude. Or maybe it
was the way that Rin was looking at me.

Ashley on the other hand was
absolutely tickled. "So how do you like living in NV Park, Moira?
Because it must be so stressful. I can’t imagine living so close to
where I work."

I shook my head. "Why, what do you
do?"

"I’m in advertising," she said.
"If I lived nearby I’d never leave the office. What do you do,
Moira?"

"Oh, nothing. I’m
unemployed."

"So how can you afford an
expensive place here if you’re a bum?"

"She won't be one soon," Ethan
said.

"I don't know, I kind of like this
lifestyle," I said, half serious. "Do you know Matilda who lives on
the top floor?"

"Who is Matilda?" Ashley was so
interested.

"She's so glamorous," I
said.

"Like a magazine cover girl,"
Ethan added. "Except the effect's a little strange when you see her
up close."

"How close?" I said without
thinking, and honestly it was a joke.

Ethan smiled and held a palm
against my shoulder. "This close. Polite elevator
distance."

My shoulder went all tingly and I
actually pulled back, just so it wouldn't start a chain reaction
down my entire body. "Anyway, she's got a penthouse apartment but
she's just home all day. How do you get that kind of
gig?"

"Lotto," Ashley
suggested.

"She says she makes
candles."

"I think we should all make
candles then."

"I don't think she's making
candles," Ethan said, not joking.

Rin was just eating throughout this. I made sure to
look at her when I spoke, as if she were participating in the
conversation, but she was barely there.

"Moira," Ashley said. "Where's the
nearest pharmacy? I need to buy something."

"Two buildings in that direction,
ground floor," I said, pointing.

"Come along with me?"

"Um, sure."

-/\/\/\-

"I love your hair," Ashley
said.

"Thanks."

"Are you going out with my
brother?"

She said this maybe five steps
after we left the burrito place, so I assumed the pharmacy errand
run was just for show. I kept walking in that direction anyway.
"No. Well—no. We just had dinner a few times. Because I keep
running into him at the gym."

"He poked your food. I saw
it."

"I know, I should have told him
not to."

"That's just a bit too friendly to
me, I don't know."

"He's a friendly guy."

"Ha!" Ashley scoffed.

We made it to the drugstore and she led me into the
shampoo aisle rather aimlessly.

"Do you know who Rin is?" she
asked me.

"No."

"She used to be his girlfriend.
They just broke up in November."

Well that explained the refusal to
acknowledge me. "No, he never said anything. Not that he should, to
me. I barely know him."

Ashley rolled her eyes. "I don't
know why he's socially awkward like this. You should have at least
gotten some vibe off him, I don't know, that he was with that girl
for two years. But he can be so..."

"Guarded?"

"Ugh, socially deficient. No one
else in the family is like this. Rin is my friend, I actually
introduced them. And you know what tonight is?"

"No, sorry. What?"

"He and Rin work together. She's
my friend but she's a bit, well, clingy... She found a job there
once they started dating so she'd be close to him, and now that
they're broken up she can't deal with it. So she quit. Today is her
last day at work."

Wow. Must have been super awkward for him either
way. Why invite me to the table though?

Ashley absently picked up a
"hairfall control" shampoo. "They don't talk anymore, but she
insisted that I set up this dinner so she could get to say goodbye,
or whatever. Kuya Ethan didn't want to go unless I came
along."

"Sounds like a bad
breakup."

"It's not that bad. It's my
brother's fault."

"You don't have to tell me
anything, Ashley." Curious as I was, I felt I had to say
that.

"No," Ashley said, smiling at me.
"I think it'll be good for you to know, because I don't think he'll
say anything. He's like that. He waits for things to happen to him,
and he's missed out on so many good things because he just lets
them drift away. He wasn't into Rin, at first, or maybe ever. I
convinced him to go out with her, and he just did. And he kept
going out with her. And suddenly she was his girlfriend, but I
really think he just didn't want to say he didn't want to, you
know?"

I wasn't sure how to feel about this. Undeniably her
words were like air, inflating the cardboard cutout Ethan in my
mind into something with a bit more shape, not exactly in a
flattering way.

"He didn't even break up with her
until he absolutely had to," Ashley continued. "And I feel like I
had to tell him to do it, because putting Rin through a
long-distance relationship like that wasn't fair to her. She's
really into him. She was probably going to wait
forever."

"Long-distance?"

"Oh. Of course he didn't tell you.
Last year he was assigned to move to the Beckett office in San
Francisco. As in California. He was supposed to leave in November
but at the last minute he had to do something for a client, so he's
still here. But he's already technically an SF office employee and
he's here like he's on foreign assignment, with paid housing and
everything. But as soon as the emergency project is over, he's
done. He's expecting to fly out any day now."

I caught my reflection in a shiny bottle of shampoo
and saw that my smile was distorted in it. Or was it actually like
that on my face? I tried to make it better for Ashley's
benefit.

"Good for him," I said. "I'm
actually planning to get a job somewhere else, too. Soon. But he
doesn't have to explain that to me."

"I'm not surprised if he doesn't,
which is why I'm telling you," she said. "He didn't tell Rin about
the move until after he accepted it. I swear, he just lets things
happen, like he's a leaf in the wind."

The same phrase that made last night really hot
felt, well, lukewarm now.

"It's easier," I said.

"It's annoying," she retorted. "Do
you know why we're here now?"

"It's not so you can warn me about
him in private?" I said with a wry smile.

"Two birds, one stone. I wanted to
leave him and Rin alone so they can say goodbye properly. Because I
don't think he ever will, if it were up to him." Ashley checked her
phone. "Let's give them five more minutes. But hey, don't hate my
brother okay. He's really wonderful. He's just..."

"A leaf in the wind. I get
it."

ETHAN

I. CAREER AND FINANCES

+ Enviable promotion and transfer

+ Great housing perks

+ Possibly rolling in money

II. FAMILY AND FRIENDSHIPS

+/- Family is around but maybe he’s avoiding them

- Not friendly, not neighborly

III. LOVE AND RELATIONSHIPS

- Strange dynamic with ex

- Spontaneous kisser

+ Spontaneous kisser

IV. PERSONAL FULFILLMENT

? What do you find fulfilling when
you’re a "leaf in the wind"?

Chapter 11

I woke up thinking, it figured that I would walk into
something like this. When you tell the universe that you’re not
staying long in your hometown, you end up making out with someone
leaving even earlier.

But maybe I should be happy that I was getting a job
interview out of this. When I checked my email last night I saw
that Ethan had indeed gotten me a meeting with someone in his
office’s HR department, for a position that was temporary. Looked
interesting. Mostly admin and event logistics work, to help out
during a conference hosted by the Manila office in June.
Pre-conference work was starting, and the position was officially
until August, and it included post-conference evaluations and
paperwork.

So. How to think about this.

Maybe if I hadn’t spoken to Ashley, I would have
thought this meant something. The day after we kissed, he set me up
to get a job in his place of work, on a contract that would make me
stay home longer than I’d intended.

But since I
had
spoken to Ashley, then no, this
was just a job referral. Kiss or no kiss, whether or not Moira
remained a bum until June, then it was just a job. A nice thing he
was doing for his "neighbor in Tower 3."

Why should you be affected even, Moira?

Nothing about this changed my original plan. In
fact, things just got better for someone.

I finally called Roxie. "Don’t get
mad at me," I said as soon as she picked up. "I know I screwed up
my interview."

"Damn right you did," she yelled
back. "How hard is it to just tell him what he wants to hear? You
know how to do that."

"I’ve punished myself enough for
it already, okay? Can you not beat me up over it any more? I have
good news for you."

"What, did you apologize to
Jonas?"

"Better. I kissed someone
yesterday. Curse is over. Go forth and find your next man, he’s
probably outside right now just waiting for you."

"Are you serious? Who’d you kiss?
Was it a stranger?"

"Semi stranger. A new
friend."

"I hope it’s a hot new friend.
Will there be more kissing?"

"Not that much, I
think."

"Why, did you tell him you’re
leaving already?"

"He knows yeah."

"You’re an awful poker
player."

I did still honestly feel bad
about letting Roxie down at that interview, so I let her say stuff
without saying stuff back. She knew I was thinking it
though.

-/\/\/\-

There was no shortage of cute kids
all over NV Park. I noticed that apart from people like me, Ethan,
and Matilda, there were the "young family" types. I was well
acquainted with chubby, cherubic toddler Liam way before I met his
mother Sarah.

Liam liked to run around the Tower 3 lobby in the
afternoons. Apparently as he did that, Sarah would be sitting on
one of the couches, using the lobby’s free wireless internet,
messaging with her husband David on her phone.

David worked in Dubai, while his wife and son lived
a few floors up from me. This wasn’t an odd situation at all, at
least if you lived in Manila, but I personally didn’t know anyone
my age who was doing long-distance marriage.

That day was the first time that
Liam actually greeted me like a friend when he saw me at the lobby,
a break from his usual running past me like I was one of the cement
posts. This time he went right for me, grabbed my leg, and said
something like "angry phone."

"What?"

"Mama angry phone."

There was a clatter, and it was
Sarah over by her regular chair throwing her phone onto the table.
It bounced, flipped over, and then fell to the floor.