Welcome to Envy Park by Mina V. Esguerra Page B

in my wall. How would I cover
those up?
    And then I felt like having a wrap.
    The burrito place wasn’t
exclusively Mexican, more of Mexican-Filipino fusion. I walked in
and was thinking of which manner of pork to have in my burrito when
I noticed Ethan—9J—9th Floor—already inside, sharing a booth with
two girls.
    Women, technically. But I thought
"girls" in the way that I thought "girls" to refer to women younger
than me, which they were.
    He saw me a split second after I
spotted him. I smiled, because my mouth just wanted to do that, and
it was remembering the nice things his mouth did, but my brain was
yelling abort! abort! Act
casual!
    Dear God. This was not how I wanted our first
post-kiss encounter to go.
    He sort of awkwardly waved at me, and I did the
same. And then he sort of awkwardly waved me over, an invitation to
join, and I sort of awkwardly signed that I still had to order. And
then I definitely awkwardly stammered my order to the counter girl.
I had more composure when I walked over to them with my tray, and
took the only empty seat, the one beside him.
    I was on autopilot when I did that. I just plopped
myself down on the chair, but then he got up and I wasn’t sure if
it was because it was the polite thing to do, or if he was actually
about to do something, like touch me.
    And then I wondered if I did the wrong thing by not
touching him anywhere just then.
    It wasn’t like we were an item,
right? I mean, the only people who knew about last night were him,
me—and all of the night duty security, if they happened to be
watching the hallway CCTV footage.
    Oh god the CCTV footage.
    He was introducing me to the girls
as his "neighbor from Tower 3" so okay, the no touching tactic was
a good one.
    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