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

people what they wanted, I’d get what I
needed, arggg."
    "Are you regretting screwing up
because there’s a possibility you would have stayed? If the job had
been worth it?"
    "I don’t want to think about
it."
    "You’ll feel better. Scenario A.
You get the job and you hate it. What happens after two and a half
months?"
    "I leave."
    "So you would have
pretended—lied—about being in this for the long-term, accept their
offer, and then leave anyway."
    "I have a plan."
    "Scenario B. You get the job and
you like it. Then?"
    "I leave."
    "Wait—what? Even if you like
it?"
    "I said I have a plan." I was
starting to act all sulky, but I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t done
beating myself up over it yet. " Scenario
C , FYI, is this one, right now, wherein I
don’t get the job and I’m eating grilled onion to punish myself.
Welcome to Scenario C."
    "This is good," he said, as he
chewed his grilled beef. "Remind me one day to tell you what I
really think about this interview thing."
    "You won’t tell me
now?"
    "Not right now, no."
    "Fine."
    My phone rang, and that happened so rarely recently
that I was concerned, and then was tempted to ignore it. But the
caller ID showed that it was Allie in Singapore. I motioned to
Ethan that I was going to take it.
    "Allie babe," I said.
    "So very sorry to be calling you
at this hour." Her voice was different across the seas, for some
reason. For a long time she was the closest friend I had, but I
hadn’t actually spoken to her since I got back. One of the things
that tended to happen when we both made the trip back home; we kind
of skipped catching up with each other, taking for granted that
we’d see each other again once it was all over. "But I forgot to
tell you that my credit card’s due this week and I’ll need your
share for the drinks."
    "Right, of course. I’ll send it
tonight." Right before I left, we had a going-away margarita party
and invited our friends. We used Allie’s credit card for it but I
promised to pay half. "How are you? How’s the new
flatmate?"
    Ethan looked away and checked his
own phone, but he smiled when he heard me say "flat" again. I
raised an eyebrow at him, which he saw through his peripheral
vision too and made him stifle a laugh.
    "She’s weird," Allie was saying.
"Twice as weird as you."
    "Great, thank you."
    "I don’t know. I just got
nostalgic all of a sudden. I don’t think I can talk to her like we
used to talk about things, you know? And then when I offered to buy
her dinner she said no thanks. Who says no to free
dinner?"
    "She probably thinks you’re so
needy."
    "Well she’s
antisocial."
    I knew Allie, and she was a little clingy. But
she was fun, and she enjoyed company, and was probably responsible
for half of anything happy I’d remember from my time there. "Is
something wrong?" I asked, shifting gears as easily as if I’d been
there in the flat with her, arriving from the train ride and quick
walk from work. No matter how long or crappy my day had been, I
never really wanted to burden anyone with it. Allie and her daily
little dramas always made me feel in control of my life, for some
reason. "Why do you feel the need to buy a new friend?"
    "Shit, I’m really sorry for doing
this to you. I just need...do you have time?"
    "If it’s for your sanity? I don’t
think my friend will mind," I said, tapping his wrist. He sort of
shrugged in that universal sign of "it’s okay" and peeked at me
periodically between phone scrolling.
    And Allie launched into that continuing narrative of
the evil ex, the confusing current boyfriend, the monster boss. She
was aware though that she was making an overseas phone call and
gave me an abbreviated version, speaking nearly at twice the speed.
Ethan could hear snippets of this and stopped pretending that he
wasn’t listening.
    "You can’t call him," I said,
finally, once Allie stopped to breathe. "I’m not there to stop you
but I swear I’ll get the weird flatmate to watch you if I have
to."
    "I