Jes

The next day, I was busy preparing in the kitchen when I heard my sister's guests starting to arrive. Being the only girl in our family for the past three generations, she was definitely the favorite. It was her 25th birthday, and she had invited her close university friends and her boyfriend. As everyone mingled and chatted, I set up the dessert table and brought in the cake. The immediate coos of admiration made me feel proud; all my hard work had paid off. While I struggled to straighten the cookie tower, someone stepped in to help. I turned to thank them and was pleasantly surprised to see Net.

"Net! What are you doing here?"

"Uh, P, Teresa invited me. We were university mates and took all our electives together for four years. You're her brother?"

"Yes, I am."

We both chuckled at the irony of the situation, amused by how small the world was. Net helped me and then soon went off to his group of mates. They all chatted away gaily, and the party was going in full swing when I received a call. I quietly stepped off to the side to hear from my manager who had some new assignments for me. We briefly discussed over the details while I also reminded her to ensure a time slot was blocked for Net's reshoot. She agreed and then I went back to the party, effortlessly mingling with my family and friends.

Finally, the party wrapped up around 11pm and everyone started to make their way home except for some of her close friends and Net who stayed back to help clean up. I had gone to throw the rubbish and came back only to find Net on the floor, cleaning cake frosting off the tiles. He said someone had accidentally dropped their cake and made a mess. I offered to step in and told him to take a rest as he was a guest, but he just waved it off and told me to rest instead given that I was still recuperating from my fall. I sat down with a cup of tea at his insistence and chatted away with him as he cleaned the mess, mopping the floor thereafter.

Once he was done, he made his move back home. I offered to give him a ride but he just looked at me.

"P! Just rest! You cannot seem to keep still, na?" He teased me. I just blushed, keeping quiet as Net bade my parents and sister goodbye and left, promising to see me at work next. I nodded as he went off. My sister came and stood next to me.

"What a pity, you are straight. Or else I think Net would make a good boyfriend for you!"

I glared at her dumbfounded; she was always up to some nonsense, about wanting to match make me with friends of her whom she saw as a potential for me. I just rolled my eyes. This has been an ongoing good-natured ribbing between us since I last broke up with my girlfriend of 4 years, about 2 years ago. Teresa never liked her anyways but was bummed when she saw how sad and depressed, I had become, and I had also moved to UK for a bit to get over the failed relationship.

Which is why, I didn't know how to tell Teresa that my ex had reached out to me, hoping to reconcile and was apologetic for the way she had treated me previously. I believed in 2nd chances but knew Teresa did not, not especially when it involved cheating. My ex had cheated on me with my good friend then which made the whole break up 10 times worse.

I think Teresa will never let me live it down if she knew my ex was trying to get back into the picture. Sighs.