Read Online Welcome to Envy Park by Mina V. Esguerra - Free Book Online Page B

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.
    "Did the phone do something bad?"
I said to Liam, but he had already run off.
    "Sorry about that," Sarah said,
leaning forward, as if to pick up the phone, and then she changed
her mind. "Did he bother you?"
    "No, he didn’t."
    "You’re single, right,
Moira?"
    I tried to remember if we had ever
talked about it, me and Sarah. But it showed in my lifestyle
anyway. Whenever I passed by the lobby during Liam’s playtime I was
in sweats, going out with a small, empty canvas bag and coming back
with groceries obviously for one. "Yup," I said.
    Sarah looked like she wanted to
cry, but from anger, or frustration. "Enjoy it. You really, really
should. I’m hating myself now for all the time I spent wishing I
were in a relationship."
    This wasn’t about me, obviously. It was about her,
and her husband who wasn’t nearby, and the phone that got hurt in
the process. I really didn’t know much about her, so I felt I
couldn’t say anything except generic positive sentiments.
    "Long-distance relationships are
tough," I ended up saying.
    Sarah was apparently a year
younger than me, but she acted and seemed much older. I thought it
was the haircut (low-maintenance bob that reminded me of my mom’s
haircut when I was a kid), but it might actually have been the
weight of her regrets. "It might not be the distance. I just might
have married a douche."
    "Well..."
    "I’m serious." Sarah shook her
head and swiped the phone from the floor. "Why would I want to be
with someone who chooses to parent my son on Skype and gets off
telling me what I’m doing wrong? When I’m actually here for every damn
thing?"
    David made enough at his job that Sarah didn’t need
to work. She was a full-time mom and in happier moods (last week
was the latest one) she would say things during our short talks
that made me think she chose this life. She wanted to stay
home.
    "But then you wouldn’t be able to
live here," I said, remembering what Ashley said. "NV Park’s great,
but expensive."
    Sarah shrugged. "It’s a building.
I would have been happy anywhere with him."
    Did she mean that? She couldn’t possibly. I looked
over at Liam running between two security guards and thought that
this was a safe and secure environment for a child to grow up in.
Sure, Sarah was having her own problems, but the solution in her
mind right now, while closing the door, would just open
windows.
    I wished her well and went off on my