My Ex-Girlfriend's Sister

A knock at the door.“Who is it?” “Herbie.”Mandy ran to the door to let him in.“Your sister here?”“You mean, Annie?”Herbie shrugged his shoulder shaking his head with a smirk. Mandy had been teasing him that since he broke up with her sister about 13 years ago, Yes, it was that long time ago! he couldn’t seem to say her name. They had been in the same room many many times after that and those times had always been awkward.Not that he still had feelings for Annie. There he said her name though only in his head. It’s just awkward period. He could choose not to be around Annie but that tiny little tickle in his heart far outweighed the awkwardness of the atmosphere. Nope, it’s not her that’s giving him that feeling, it’s actually her sister, Mandy!"What’s up?"

He blurted it out loud enough bringing Annie out of her room. “Herbert?” Herbie turned around to find that it was Annie who called. He looked down on the picture in his hand then looked up at Annie. Oh, yes, it is Annie! his head screaming. And what about Annie? She was equally surprised, baffled, shocked. Annie’s eyes grew big when she confirmed that it was really him. Mandy came out of her room opposite her sister’s, looked at Annie and Herbie back and forth and asked - “You know each other?” “He’s our neighbor?” Annie asked turning her attention to Mandy. “Yes, why?…. Is there a problem?” Mandy asking her sister. When she didn’t get an answer, she looked at Herbie, who suddenly stuttered as he said his goodbye that sounded like - “Mandy, Annie, nice to meet you two… I’ll see you around.” When the door shut after him… “What was that all about, Mandy?”

It had been weeks since Herbie last saw Mandy and he had been worried that she was intentionally avoiding him. It was like everything changed after that night of the kiss. He didn’t know whether to be thankful it happened because it gave him the push to confront what he had been feeling for her all along or to regret it happened because after that, he couldn’t get a hold of her. He would call her on the phone and it was always Annie who would answer. He would visit their apartment before he left for work, or after work and still it was Annie she got to see. In all those times, he had to think of reasons real quick and he was not good making up excuses. One time, he said he ran out of coffee. He knew it was the most ridiculous excuse because well, there were dozens of coffee shops, one right at the groundfloor of their building and the others were just a few blocks away. The ridiculousness of his excuse was written all over Annie’s face but she gave him an unopened pa

Name a color. Every color that you could think of was right there before Herbie’s eyes. So different from  the usual view from 1205 which was usually just different shades of gray depending on which building you would like to look at. There were trees alright and maybe some birds that maybe got lost from their flocks but they were nothing compared to the view that was right before him that morning. The sound of the city, especially on a busy day, masked the sound of birds, or the sound of water flowing from the creek nearby and was heading to where all bodies of water meet - the ocean. Within their building, it was always the artificial smell of fresh air that he knew came from a bottled spray or that pine tree air freshener one would always see hanging from an airconditioning vent. Right outside, was air one could see and sometimes feel from all the smoke and dust that were mixed with it. From where he sat that lazy Saturday morning, he stopped browsing

Herbie and Mandy agreed to meet at Ryley’s at 7:00 in the evening that night, a habit they had developed after their trip together. It was enough to keep him calm. He didn’t want to mess up what they had going by talking about the night of the kiss. He felt that Mandy wasn’t ready to entertain anything romantic at this time. Besides, being mistaken for a couple most of the time was working to his advantage that men who might be taking interest in her could be thinking twice to even try to approach her.  And he loved it that she didn’t even try to correct people about that. Herbie was in his third cup of coffee and Mandy had not arrived yet. It was unusual. That’s another thing that he loved about her. She didn’t like being late and if ever she did, she always had some valid reason. If it was not Mandy that he was meeting, he would probably be on his 10th stick of cigarette. Before her, cigarette was his best friend and companion. But Mandy didn’t