the last of him

it was quite a small gathering. I saw my officemates and our HR officer. Seemed like an orientation program for newly-hired employees and I came in late. Just when I snuck in to settle to an empty chair, our HR officer came by and said “guess who’s looking for you!". I wondered who it could be. Then from a corner came Erwin—not quite different from the last time I saw him. Aside from the long hair, he still looked neat and with the usual artsy get up. and he was all-smiles.

he told me he was surprised to see me and the HR officer told him I was working in the same company. Not sure if I was going to be happy to find a long lost friend as my officemate. At the back of my mind, this might be a beginning of trouble. Knowing Erwin, he courted me when I was going steady with my 6-year old relationship. He was persistent, always ‘the life of the party’… but at some point, just sits on a corner and pin you down with his stare. Sometimes he’d hide from you and at times, he’d stalk you like a madman. Somehow he’s two years younger than me so I found him somehow a little immature back then.

so the full-of-life conversation began again like those old times he'd sit by my office table and made a whole different world out of the stories he'd tell.

I woke up feeling weird. weird because right after I opened my eyes, i had several moments deciphering whether I am in a dream, still dreaming or I’m in the real world.

somehow I was relieved to find out everything was a dream. and realizing I’ll never get into trouble anyhow. Later in the morning, my husband told me I was snoring the whole night.