Page 59 of Dark Endures

“The only one that would offer me one was the neighborhood loan shark.”

What? How does Waylon even know a loan shark? I don’t wanna know. I really don’t want to know.

“He should have been paid off last week. I had a huge contract that I completed. It was more than enough to pay off the loan shark, you, and have a little left over.” Waylon absentmindedly stirs his drink. “They didn’t pay. I finished the contract and sent them the invoice. And they didn’t pay it. They might not pay it for a while. Who doesn’t pay their bills? It’s a billion-dollar company, and they gave me some line about having to go through the proper channels to get paid. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” His head falls down, and he holds it up by a handful of hair on either side of his head.

So that balloon payment actually went to a loan shark and not a bank. “How is that possible? They can’t not pay you. You can take them to court.”

“They have lawyers. Lots and lots of lawyers. It’d take even longer. Years maybe for them to actually pay me what I’m owed. It’s better if I wait, but the loan shark won’t wait.”

My stomach sinks.

“He wants more money because I was late paying him. Twenty-five thousand dollars. I was careful this month andsaved a little over ten thousand dollars out of the business budget, but that’s not nearly enough to pay him. Mindy, what am I going to do? He won’t just wait until next month to get paid. What am I going to do?”

Never borrow money from a loan shark!! But we can’t change the past, only the present. “Are you sure you can get it by next month?”

Waylon’s head pops up. “Yeah. I think so. Do you have a plan?”

Not a plan. I have a check. “You pay the loan shark off until you get the money next month.”

“How? How am I going to get fifteen thousand dollars in a few days? Selling my kidney is sounding better and better than walking in with nothing. This guy is scary.”

The urge to scream fills my lungs and tightens my entire being. I take a deep breath. Urbium usually smells like a thick soupy mixture of the boy’s locker room in my high school, a port-a-potty, and the unwashed masses. But in the coffee shop, it gives a false sense of beauty and joy with the scent of coffee and baked goods..

You can handle this. Flipping out helps nothing.

A boatload of chocolate might help, at least for a few minutes.

Why? Why did my one smart, kind brother have to go do something so incredibly stupid?

“What about your dad?” I don’t consider his father my stepfather anymore. The only good thing that man did for me was pay for my boarding school and not beat up my mom. That can’t be said for all of her boyfriends.

“You know Dad. He’d let us starve or die to prove that we need to be independent adults.”

Yes. Yes, he would. Waylon didn’t eat for a week except for the food I snuck him after a fight with his dad. Thankfully,he went back to boarding school, or else Waylon would probably have starved to death.

Waylon went to a loan shark. My caring, sweet brother went to a loan shark. He put his world at risk to save a job.

Fine, it’s not just a job. He worked his entire life to build this business. To make something of himself to show his dad. “I’m going to write you a check.”

“I can’t ask that from you, Mindy. Your job barely pays anything. And you just got your apartment. It took forever for you to save for that.”

Saving again forever is better than him being broken…or dead. “You didn’t ask. I offered.”

“I can’t take your money, Mindy.”

“You can and you will. My niece needs her father all in one piece, without any broken bones.”

“Mindy, that wasn’t why I invited you to coffee. You… You… You always have practical suggestions and you’re good at puzzles.”

There’s no puzzle strategy to get you out of a loan shark’s clutches. “I know it wasn’t.” I reach out and set my hand on his. “But that’s what needs to happen.”

“I’ll pay you back.”

“I know you will.” Waylon would never cheat me. “But right now, you need to focus on getting this guy paid off.” Buried deep down in my purse hidden between an old receipt is what I like to think of as an emergency check. Most people don’t even use a checkbook now, but there are bank card fees everywhere.

What if I ever need to run for my life and hide from the cops somewhere? I can cash my emergency check and then get out of town.

That might officially make me a weirdo, but I’m still good with that.

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