After one long tiring day at work, I flop back on the couch and sigh. Ed's driving me literally nuts. He  discovered my company email address, [email protected] and he had been sending me weird messages the entire day.

Some went like this:

Dear Chloe, the coffee machine's great. Oh, I forgot. You don't drink coffee, Ed.

Or maybe....

Dear Chloe, if you're tired, take a break. Ed.

Hello? Hello? What on earth is this guy thinking? He's supposed to acting like a mature adult. Besides, he sounds like my mum with his naggy smses.

I deleted all of them instantly the moment I read them. It's pointless to be constantly reminded of him.

"Knock. Knock, Chloe!" Someone bangs on my door.

Evelyn. Good. I need someone rational and perfectly sensible to keep myself optimistic.

"Coming!" I call and open the door with a flourish and took a step back.

What....happened to her?

Her brown hair's dyed platinum blonde and there's an excessive amount of mascara on her pale, sallow face. In fact, she looks like a vampire out of that Twilight movie. This is so not her. She has always been a fashion conscious person and she once maxed out her credit card and had a $5000 debt because she bought too many clothes and makeup.

"Evelyn, are you PMSing...?" I ask cautiously and usher her in.

"No, I'm not," she huffs and plumps herself down on my tattered old armchair. "Do I look my shit, honestly?" She touches her face self-consciously.

"No, you look great!" I lie. The last time I told her she looked awful, she almost punched me in the face. Even though she looks petit and docile, Evelyn practises karate. She can literally kill a man with her own fists.

"I've been having morning sickness these few days. I feel disgusting," she moans.

What? WHAT? Morning sickness? Is she....

"Evelyn..are you pregnant?" I ask excitedly.

"Yes, for the fourth time!" she groans and puts her hands over her eyes.

"Congratulations! Berry must be so happy!" I gush as I hand her a soymilk packet drink. She needs to get as much food in as possible from now on.

"Yea, he is," Evelyn replies morosely. "That's the problem."

"What's wrong? Aren't you happy?" This is not typical of her. Maybe she's going menopausal. When she had her previous 3 kids, we went partying all night to celebrate her pregnancy (of course, she reluctantly took non-alcoholic drinks) and she was in a perpectual happy place.

"Berry's over the moon. I mean, he wants a daughter to go with Brandon, Jerry and Mark," Evelyn grunts. "But I....I can't deal with another child! Having 3 boys is enough!" Her eyes pop wide open and I can see her vein throbbing with emotion. She squeezes the packet drink and soymilk bursts out.

"Oh shit." She hastily grabs a rag and mops it up.

"Let me do it, you're pregnant." I snatch the rag away and soak up the liquid myself.

"Stop reminding me that I'm pregnant," she snaps. "I want an abortion."

"You want what-?" I was flabbergasted. Come on, but Evelyn can't even kill an ant without saying sorry. Has the world turned red? Why would she want to kill her own child?

"Don't judge me, Chloe," she sighs. "Our finances are practically snatched thin and the 3 boys are driving me crazy. You know how boys are. Besides, I'm so sick and tired, you know? I mean, who on earth has 4 kids in our modern world? I was born an only child. You were born an old child. Berry only has 1 sister. " She leans back against the armchair, looking all forlorn and sad.

Okay, fine, I do pity her sometimes. I mean, she's always cooped up at home tending to her kids and we rarely go out together anymore. She's always driving her kids around to the pre-school or cooking meals for Berry. It's her ideal type of family but I think she's going crazy because of the lack of control of her life.

"Have you talked to Berry yet?" I ask gently. Berry's a total sweetheart. He's loyal and sometimes clueless but he simply adores Evelyn. Evelyn once pretended to want to move to Brazil and Berry immediately bought plane tickets and almost quit his job because of that. I can't see how Evelyn can possibly bear to disappoint Berry.

"I'm trying to find a way." She bites her lips nervously. "I love him so much but I don't know how to tell him my feelings."

"You'll find a way, Eve," I reply.

Buzz. Buzz.

Shit. It's my phone. I glare at that pink object, willing it to disappear.

"Aren't you going to check your phone? Don't you have a message?" Evelyn asks and she picks up my phone instantly and reads it. Her eyes widen and she perks up.

Uh-oh. I think I know that look. She got the same look when her university crush asked her out to eat popsicles together under the rain. I didn't see how that kind of a date would work out but she thought that it was romantic.

"Who's Ed Hardy? Is he your boyfriend! I can't believe you didn't tell me all about this!" she screams.

I wrestle the phone away from her. Boy, even though she was pregnant, she was strong. Must be all those karate classes.

I read the message with disbelief.

Chloe, I noticed you didn't eat your lunch today. Can I take you out to dinner to satisfy your appetite? Name your restaurant. Ed.

WHAT? Is he stalking me? I mean, yes, obviously, I didn't eat my lunch today because I was too busy hiding in the toilet since I was afraid that I would bump into him or worst still, sit with him in the staff cafeteria. How did he know about that? And he has the nerve to ask me out. What happened to me warning him to keep a professional distance?

Do men ever listen?

The answer is obviously no.

"Tell me! Tell me!" Evelyn's eyes are shining. Woah. Woah. What happened to her depressed attitude previously? She practically lives for gossip.

"Mum arranged a blind date for me," I add reluctantly. There's no point hiding anything from her. She could have been a successful tabloid reporter if not for her decision to be a stay-at-home mother. "And he turned out to my boss."

"Wow," Evelyn laughs. "Such a coincidence?"

"Coincidences don't happen," I grunt as I delete the message.

"Why are you deleting it? Aren't you going to accept the invitation?" she asks.

"No. Because I'm a professional and I don't do bosses," I retort.

"Come on, don't give me that crap," Evelyn snorts. "I personally know for a fact that you went out with our university professor one time. That's worse. You were a student back then."

Man. I hate it when she brings up stuff from my past. I mean, can you blame me for doing weird things when I was a teenager? It's all because of my raging hormones, that's what.

"Please, he was an intern. AN INTERN," I emphasise. "Besides, he's good-looking."

"And this Ed isn't?" Evelyn teases. "Is he grossly disfigured or anything?"

"I don't know. I don't care," I mutter. I don't want to admit to her that I want to jump his bones as a matter of fact.

"Look, I'm worried about you. You're single and you haven't dated for a long time."

"You sound like my mum."

"Ew," she winces. "Don't compare me with the Queen of Terror." Evelyn and I once made up a list of names for Mum when we got drunk because of vodka once. All of them weren't pleasant and I still have that list stashed in my underwear drawer. "So are you going or not?"

"Nope. Look, it's getting late, Berry will get worried."

To be truthful, I don't want the same scenario to happen again. Evelyn once stayed over at my house without telling Berry and Berry lodged a police report. Hello, mister, just chill for a second. She's your wife and she has a life. She doesn't need to report everything to you but of course I don't tell him that. He's a nice guy but does he have to get all possessive?

"Okay." Evelyn lets herself out of my house. "I wish we were back in university. I won't have to ever worry about this."

"Life's not that simple, sister."

"We all know that."