After she collected the menus and left, Jeffrey opened up a folder and set some papers out on the table.
“Alright, Brandon. So, as you’re aware, your mother had several jobs and contracts over the years, and she tucked a lot of it away for you. In her will, the home was to be sold, along with all of the contents, and the funds were put into a trust account for you. Her directions, if you were found, was for me to set up a generous monthly allowance for you. There are three separate retirement funds that were set up for you. You can’t draw on them until you’re fifty, then sixty, then seventy. They each have five million in them.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry, Brandon. That’s just for the retirements.”
“No, I didn’t mean that as if I were mad. I’m trying to grasp three retirement accounts with five million in each.”
Jeffrey smiled and showed me each of the account statements. I paid close attention and memorized each account number on the statements along with the financial institution where each were held.
“Your mother made sure that you would be taken care of financially, Brandon. She loved you.”
All I could do to keep from crying was nod and keep my mouth tightly closed. I couldn’t begin to think about any of this right now.
“She had a lot of stock in each of the companies that she had modeling contracts with or was a spokesperson for. All of those have been transferred to your name already. If you would like, we can leave them as is, or we can sell them and transfer the funds into an account for you.”
“Um, no. That’s okay. Just leave them where they are,” I decided.
I really had no fucking clue what to do with any of this, and I was quickly becoming overwhelmed. Jeffrey moved the papers back to a folder as we discussed each one, and as he was putting the stock certificates away, the server brought over our cups of soup.
I dipped my spoon into the steaming soup and concentrated on bringing the spoon up to my mouth. I could feel the heat as the spoon neared my mouth. I knew from recent experience that I needed to let soups cool a little; otherwise, it would scald the wounds on the inside of my mouth. Carefully, I set the spoon back in the bowl and reached for the water glass that was drenched in moisture from the humidity.
“Too hot?” Jeffrey asked while he stirred his spoon around in his bowl.
“Yeah. It’ll cool.”
Jeffrey pushed his bowl to the side and pulled up another asset document. He pointed to a figure and said that he was going to refrain from saying the numbers out loud for the benefit of my privacy. I stared at a figure just over nineteen million dollars.
“This is for the sale of the home and the effects inside. It’s the account that I will arrange for your monthly figure to come from. Is there a bank that you prefer to have as your liquid account? It’ll be the account that you can debit or take cash out of. Basically, it’ll be the account you live off of.”
Without turning my head to look out the window at the bank that was across the street, I gestured with my head at the window.
“That one, please.”
Jeffrey looked out the window, nodded, and wrote down the bank name. I picked up my spoon and brought it up to my mouth to check the temperature. It was much cooler now, and I was able to go ahead and eat. Jeffrey followed my lead and after his first spoonful of soup, he asked me to let him know as soon as I had my photo identification. He explained he needed a copy of that in order to finish setting up the accounts.
“Okay, it’ll probably be a few weeks before I have that,” I advised. I really hadn’t even thought of something like that yet.
“That will be fine. Take your time, Brandon. In the meantime, if you need any money, just give me a call,” Jeffrey pulled out his business card and on the back of it he wrote down two phone numbers before he slid the card toward me. “The top one is my cell phone number, and the bottom one is my home number.”
I collected the card and focused on the numbers to memorize them. I nodded and thanked him for giving me his private cell and home number. We finished our soup and wrapped up as it neared 5:00, according to the neon clock that hung on the wall above the hallway that led to the bathrooms.
The rain looked like it had stopped, so I didn’t want to linger and give the sky a chance to dump again. As we walked out, Jeffrey agreed to hold onto all of the paperwork until I got my license so he could finalize the account setups. He offered to give me a ride, and as tempting as it was with thunderclouds roaming above, I declined. I didn’t want him to come looking for me. At least, not yet. I couldn’t jeopardize anything with James. After Jeffrey drove off, I zipped up my hoodie, pulled the hood over my head, and cautiously walked through the parking lot to the crosswalk.
My head was so full of all the info Jeffrey went over. While I waited for the signal to change at the crosswalk, I pulled out the business card. I closed my eyes and recited the two phone numbers under my breath and then looked at the card to make sure that I had them memorized. I smirked and smiled when I saw proof that my ability to memorize things was still working. I tossed the card in the trashcan next to the traffic signal.
As soon as I got across the street, the sprinkles started.Okay, no big deal, I told myself. I made it here and would make it home. I walked briskly in the drizzle and then picked up my pace to a jog. Jogging was a catch twenty-two because the rain started to hit me in the face. And once that happened, it was lights out for me. Game over.
I stopped running and for a few minutes, I stopped moving completely. I tugged the hood down over my forehead, hoping that it would help. But the rain began to come down harder and hit my face. I couldn’t control the urge to blink and opened and closed my eyes rapidly. By the time I arrived at James’ house, my clothes were wet, and I felt ice cold.
My hand shook as I opened the front door and stumbled inside. I made my way down the hall to my bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. My face was wet, and I couldn’t tell what were raindrops opposed to what were my tears. Desperate to get away from the feeling of drowning, I scrubbed at my face with a towel. I went to my room and sat on the bed, hoping to feel better. But everything was crashing around me. I went to the living room and sat on the couch, hoping it would make me feel better, but it was worse because the rain was beating down against the windows. I covered my ears and went to the one place where I always feel better.
I fell to my knees on the large pet bed in James’ room and then curled up on the warm blankets. Folding my arms across my chest, I slipped my balled-up fists inside my hoodie for warmth. The shakes were so bad that my muscles and stomach hurt from quivering.
After some time had passed, I heard the garage door open. My brain told me to get up and go sit on the couch before James came inside, but my body and brain weren’t talking right now. I was thrilled that James was home.
I heard the door open that led from the garage into the house. Inside I was begging for him to come find me.
