After I dropped off the mail at the apartment, I took the stairs two at a time to Joanna’s floor bursting at the seams with the need to tell her what just happened to me in the mailroom. I hurry as best I can down the hall in blue fuzzy slippers till I make it to her door and knock rapidly. My heart is still racing as if I just ran a marathon but I can’t help but let my eyes wander further down the hall to where a door that reads 14C happens to be. I lick my lips nervously and knock again. Almost immediately after the second rapid knock, a frowning Joanna opens the door and crosses her arms.

“What’s with the excessive knocking? Got ants in your pants?” she raises a blonde pierced eyebrow. When did she get that? It’s not important now.

I ignore her weird probably rhetorical questions and I push pass her into her apartment. The place is decorated much like her colorful and artsy stylish. She has some of her paintings hanging up on the wall, the ones she couldn’t part with, and an almost out of place collection of Precious Moments figurines on a bookshelf against one wall in the living area. I have teased her a bit about those.

I flop face down onto her crimson suede sofa and pull a blue fuzzy throw blanket around me. My body is still tingling a little with the remnants of that bizarre encounter. I shiver a little tighten into a ball instead. I feel weight shift on the end of the couch not occupied some part of me. A hand touches my arm above the throw and I hear Joanna say, “Hey, you okay?”

I sit up then and glance at her with the blanket simply draping around my shoulders. I notice a smudge of green paint on her cheek and a bit of yellow and blue on her nose but I don’t mention it. Instead I sigh heavily and stare at her simple black coffee table covered in various magazines, a plate of crumbs, and a mug of cold coffee. “I met the new guy,” I tell her biting my lip.

“Are you serious? When? Where?” She turns halfway giving me her full attention.

“When I went to get the mail in the mail room, but…” I trail off a moment and frown. How should I explain it?

“But what? Did he do something creepy?”

“Kind of…I don’t really know,” he took a deep breath and then explained to her what happened in the mailroom. Joanna didn’t say anything about it immediately after I finished but asked if I wanted some herbal tea and when I agreed she made some before saying anything.

She took a sip of tea from a green with polka dots mug, “That is weird. Maybe he mentally raped you?”

I can’t believe she just said that and I nearly choke on some tea. “What the heck, Joanna?”

Jo obviously thinks she’s hilarious and merely laughs then smirks her sparkly pink lips at me, “I’m just kidding, honey.”

I hate it when she calls me that.

“Come on be serious, it really freaked me out. I mean it couldn’t have been him, right? No one could do something like that?” I’ve never met anyone that could give you multiple chills and tickle your sides and cause knots in your stomach. Then of course make it feel kind of good without even laying a finger on you. It’s bizarre and not possible. Perhaps I’m imagining things. That thought I had earlier nags at the back of my mind. It’s been rather persistent but I continue to ignore it.

“Sorry, Collie. Maybe…Maybe you’re just getting sick or something, yeah?” She bites her lip and looks down at her mug.

It’s probable considering my health. I know she’s worried that I’ve jumped off the deep end here but I know what I felt. Of course maybe she’s right. Maybe I am just catching a cold. It is the season for it. I tell Joanna this and lean back against the couch with a small sigh I hope she doesn’t catch. Either way, she smiles lightly and ruffles my dirty blond waves affectionately. If I had an older sister I would hope she was like Joanna.