Short on Love

"Banks Breaks Bank!" was the headline in the New York Times morning paper. The article stated,

"Joshua Henry Banks, A man of many means started his first hedge fund at the age of 23. His company Banks and Banks grew to a market cap of more than 10 million over the course of 5 years and he ran his business in his 2nd floor loft on 42nd street in the middle of New York. Early this morning Banks and Banks claimed bankruptcy due to a large investment on a shorted stock that went in the opposite direction. It has been said that users on an online stock forum rallied the stock price up more than 100% causing Banks and Banks to sell at a much higher rate losing all of what it was worth."

Joshua paces back and forth in his living room holding his head and shouting, "Oh my god! What have I done? and what am I going to do?"

Immediately he begins to dismantle his entire apartment, taking pictures of everything and posting them online for sale. He sells all his assets and stocks that were bought separate from the company. He even sold any properties that he owned to cover whatever losses he had. He then decided to do something he thought he would never have to do. Call his parents.

After a long conversation with his parents that morning Joshua packed up his things and two weeks after he was on an evening flight heading to Florida. On arrival his parents picked him up from the airport and it was nothing but awkward silence the entire ride to their house in Orlando. Once they arrived Joshua stepped out of the car, retrieved his suitcase and headed towards the door. His parents with worried looks in their eyes stopped him, but he looked at them and continued walking.

Once they all got inside nothing was said and Joshua did not eat the dinner that was prepared for him. He went straight to his bedroom that was the same as he had left it and cried himself to sleep.

The next morning he woke up to the smell of bacon and pancakes. Although the scent was tempting Joshua could not bear to move in the midst of his sorrow. He remained in his bed for a while then he began looking around his room acknowledging all the things he had left behind and he began to feel like himself again.

He sat up on the edge of his bed and took a deep breath. Then he opened the top drawer of his night stand to find his little black book. He grabbed it and began to look through the numbers and emails of most of his old friends and classmates. Joshua noticed a book marker a few pages in and he opened it to that page. The page read: date with Annie Campbell, May 15th, 2016 at 12pm. She was his high school crush, and they had not seen each other until four years later after he had graduated college. Joshua looked up and squinted his eyes remembering that he stood her up because he got a phone call from a colleague before he was on an early flight to New York that morning.

He felt bad for not even calling her to apologize so to make up for his fault he decided to call the number in the book. Joshua didn't care if the number might not work because it's been a while; he wanted to call anyway if there might be a chance that he could just apologize. So, he grabbed his phone off his nightstand, and he called. The phone rang a few times but there was no answer. He sighed while still sitting on the edge of his bed then he took in the scent of breakfast once again. It was his favorite meal as a kid, and he knew he could not say no to bacon and pancakes. He got up, quickly showered, put on his best suit and headed downstairs to have breakfast with his parents. Once downstairs he sat at the table and greeted his mother, "Good morning mom".

"Good morning Joshy boy, I made your favorite" his mother responded. "mmm I know, the second I smelled it I was reminded of when I was a kid." Joshua replied. He takes a bite of his mom's homemade pancakes and he closes his eyes remembering how much he loved her cooking. The back door to the kitchen opened up and his father walks in shaking the dust from the yard off of his hands. " Where ya goin' so early this mornin' son? we didn't think you'd be up for breakfast"

Joshua calmly replied, " I thought it would be best if I go out and maybe look for a job. I emailed a few firms out here before I left that are looking for managers", "Well good for you son!" his father replied. "Thanks!" said Joshua.

Joshua quickly ate his breakfast, said see you later to his parents and walked out the door.

He got into his car, put his hands on the wheel and took a deep breath. The car starts as smoothly as a Mercedes should and he slowly drives out of the driveway. A few minutes down the road Joshua thought he would stop for coffee before he makes his rounds looking for work. There was a little coffee shop on the corner a few blocks from where his parents lived, and he decided to park and go inside. He got out of his car and began walking toward the door of the coffee shop; at the same time, he heard a ping on his phone and he retrieved it out of his pocket to see what it was.

As Joshua was walking toward the door looking at his phone there was a woman with curly red hair wearing multicolored stockings and a beige sweater backing out of the doorway with her hands full of coffee. Joshua who was consumed with his phone didn't see her and he ran straight into her dropping all of her coffee on her attire.

"What the HELL!" she shouted while shaking spilled coffee off her hands and looking down at her now stained clothes.

"I am so, so sorry" Joshua replied " ill....ill repay you for everything, Please!"

She looked up at Joshua with a livid facial expression and something happened. She and Joshua locked eyes and it was as if this was not the first time they had met. Someone walks out of the coffee shop ringing the bell on the door and Joshua was distracted away from her gaze for a second before quickly gazing back at her.

"Please, let me buy you your coffee back." Joshua pleaded.

The girl huffed then insisted and she and Joshua went inside to place their orders. As they were waiting Joshua kept secretly staring at the red headed girl through the side of his eyes hoping she would not notice. He thought she looked so familiar he had to get another look. The girl saw him this time and she looked at him and asked " why are you staring at me? I'm beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable."

Joshua looked back at her and replied " I'm sorry....Again, but you just look so much like an old friend of mine and I thought you were her but you can't be....right?, anyway." He then folded his arms and looked in the opposite direction of the girl.

She looked at him strangely, shook her head then walked up to the counter to ask about her order. The gentleman behind the counter shouted out her name and handed her the coffees. She grabbed them, politely walked up to Joshua to say thank you and rushed out of the door. Joshua's eyes followed her movements and with a little curiosity thinking that he was not wrong about who she might be, he began to watch her through the front glass of the coffee shop.

As she was walking toward the corner, he thought about calling the number that was in his little black book again. Joshua grabbed his phone out of his pocket and redialed the number. The phone rang twice and on the third ring the woman stopped walking and rested her coffees on a nearby mailbox to grab what seemed like a phone. She put the phone to her ear and heard Joshua speak before she could even say hello.

" So, we HAVE met before?" said Joshua

"What?....who is this?" The girl replied,

Before answering Joshua giggled then said " it is me, coffee shop guy! I told you that you looked familiar."

The girl was shocked by his response huffed into the phone and asked, "How did you get my number?"

Joshua replied " it's the number of an old high school friend of mine. She and I graduated together."

The girl was intrigued by his accusation and wanted to know more so she asked, " What was her name?" and Joshua replied " Annie Campbell!"

In that moment she went silent and Joshua questioned if something was wrong. She began to whimper on the phone and murmur some cryptic words before crying out loud. Joshua was still watching her from the coffee shop window before hanging up and rushing out of the door to her rescue. He ran up to her and she was still murmuring strange words only this time she was twitching her eyes as well.

He did not know what to do at this point so without wanting to embarrass the girl further he grabbed his phone and called his mother. Joshua's mother worked in the field of medicine and Psychology was her secondary major. He thought she would know exactly what to do. Joshua dialed his mother's number and she picked up immediately "Hey Joshy boy, what's going on?" she asked

Joshua replied with panic in his voice while stuttering " mom, i...i..i ddon't know what t..to do. I'm in the front of the corner coffee and I..I met this girl that l..l.looks like Annie from high school. She's speaking some weird language and..."

The mother interrupts "Bring Her here! Now!"

Joshua did exactly what his mother told him to do. He walked the girl to his car that was parked a few feet away and he helped her inside. He got in his car and drove straight to his parents' house. Once he arrived his mother was waiting outside to help him carry her inside. Immediately they put her on their couch as his mother got to work. She grabbed a few ice packs from the freezer and ran into her husband's corner office to get some sedatives that she legally carried. She administered the sedative after applying the ice packs on the girls head and the girl stopped her twitching and random murmuring. She began to calm down and it seemed as if she was peacefully resting.

Joshua began to feel relieved that the girl was going to be okay, but he decided to stay home for the remainder of the day until the girl wakes up. He became a little concerned when hours went buy and the girl did not even move so he asked his mother for some reassurance. She insisted that the girl remain unbothered and said that after an episode like that one she should get as much rest as possible.

Joshua waited, and waited. He watched her sleep for more than 6 hours. He began pacing back and forth once again but only for the better. Joshua got up to go to the bathroom with plans to return, but on the way to the bathroom he overheard his father having a conversation in his office while the door was cracked. His father said over the phone, "I've got the girl, now where's my 20,000?".