Tahny
It's been nearly three days since I've made it home from the hospital and to say I'm exhausted is in understatement. Not only is the shop situation stressing me out, but trying to reach this insurance company is hard. The four of us are crowded around my kitchen table, a scattered mess of papers in front of us and not a single reachable number for them. "We've tried every fucking number on this packet and even the one at the bottom of the contract. Macy and Olivia drove to this address-", Yasmine continued saying as she pointed to the address on the front page of the company's packet, "and there was a old building that's damn near falling apart." I ran a hand over my face, letting out a defeated sigh. Olivia turned in the chair beside me, her hair up in a bun on her head as her "professional" glasses stayed perched on her nose. "This doesn't make any sense though, I called them the first year we opened, we had a whole conversation on how they were tracking our activity and all the precautions being taken to avoid disasters to the building. How can they just disappear?"
Macy tossed down another stack of papers, hanging up the outgoing call she was making. She shook her head, placing her phone down. "Another dead end number." She said softly while looking between all of us. "Maybe they never existed, we got scammed." Macy added as she grabbed the papers, putting them in a neat stack between us. "I thought when you get scammed, they make the deal, take the money then leave. What kind of scam keeps in contact with their victim?" Olivia complained, her voice getting louder as she stood up and grabbed a wine glass from my cabinet. She took the wine bottle from the fridge, topping off her glass before offering us some. I agreed, grabbing my own glass as Yasmine and Macy got theirs. "It just doesn't make no sense." I mumbled while sipping from my glass, closing my eyes with another sigh. "I tried calling Mindy, she said she will email me but hasn't got to it."
Mindy was the lawyer Olivia brought up. She told us she could help us but when we really needed her, she wasn't answering any of our other calls or emails. Olivia and I even went to her office but she wasn't in. For someone who makes promises, she sure as hell doesn't keep them. "What are we gonna do bae?" Olivia asked as she looked over at me, her eyes hopeful for an answer that I can't even give her. "What can we do? We just lost thousands of dollars with a fake insurance company, we don't have a lawyer to forward this case we're tryna make and we're jobless. What the fuck else can we do Olivia?" I asked while downing the rest of my wine. We all sat in silence for what felt like ever. "I need a job, I can't keep paying for this place without a job. I'm not taking no more money from my family, they held that axe over my head for years and I'm not going back to beg for shit." I said before getting up and out of my chair. I grabbed the wine bottle out the fridge, pouring the rest in my glass before placing the now empty bottle on the counter. "I'll start looking for other shops, something in our profession to help us build back up." Yasmine said before clicking a few things on her laptop, the sound of the buttons being pressed filling the kitchen. Then once again, it was quite.
About three hours later, everyone had left and went home. I was sitting in my livingroom, sipping from yet another glass of wine. I just stared at the blank television in front of me, my mind on how everything has been falling apart since coming back to 'reality'. My shop is gone, I don't have insurance money to make up for my loses, I need a job, I can't even rely on a lawyer, and from what information I got earlier, my bank account is closed until I go to the bank for some type of verification set up. Someone tried to spend money on my card and caused my whole account to seize up. What's worse though, is the same exact thing happened to my cousin a few years back and she lost all her money.
All three thousand of it.
I got up from my couch, going to the kitchen and grabbing my unopen bottle of wine. I used my cork screw to take out the wooden piece, tossing it in the glass bowl placed on my counter. I sipped from the bottle, letting out a sigh as I took it to my room with me.
