“Charlie,” Callum said, still holding my hand tightly, looking down at me with what seemed like pride. “This is Harper. This is the girl I was telling you about.” He squeezed my hand a bit harder.
“Harper,” Charlie said warmly, a smile reaching the corners of his eyes. “It is an absolute pleasure to meet you.” He took my free hand and lifted it to his lips, kissing the knuckles softly. I’d be lying if I told you it didn’t feel nice or that I wasn’t completely charmed by him in that moment and just as suddenly I finally got to see what Callum had been talking about.
“You, too,” I lamely said back.
Charlie righted himself and winked at me before turning to Callum and hugged him with heavy slaps to the back. He lifted his friend off the ground and shook him around.
“Good God, Callum. It is so good to see you.”
“What do you think of Harper, Charlie?” Sam piped in, seemingly from out of nowhere.
It’s a miracle! She does know my name.
Charlie laughed slightly, the smile meeting both his eyes. “She is breathtaking, Callum. How in the world did you find her?” He asked.
“We met at social services of all places but I’d like to think it was fate,” Callum said, tucking me into his side.
Blossoming warmth seeped into my body and I felt the blush reach even the tips of my ears as it swept across my face.
“That’s sort of cool,” Sam said, pathetically wrapping Charlie’s arm around her shoulders. “Did your parents die too, Harper?”
“Samantha!” Charlie said.
“I’m sorry. Did I say something offensive?” Sam asked him, feigning innocence. God, she’s good.
“Sam, apologize,” Callum said, his body tensing beside mine.
“No, it’s okay,” I tell him, squeezing him around his waist. “No, Sam. Actually, I have no idea who my dad was but my mom was young and addicted to drugs when she gave me away at the hospital.”
Sam seemed appropriately horrified for a moment but her expression cooled as she wrinkled her nose in mock sympathy.
“So, uh, Harper and I have to leave,” Callum said abruptly, surprising everyone in the room, including me. “We have some paperwork to attend to and need to catch up with Cherry. I can’t thank you enough, Charlie for letting us crash here. How can I ever repay you?”
“Just have Harper here save me a dance on Saturday and we’ll call it even,” Charlie flirted. Despite what Callum said, I can tell that Charlie is just being polite, albeit a bit cheeky, and really meant no harm but Callum’s grip on my hip tightened slightly, sending a secret thrill up my side.
In that moment, I glanced Sam’s way and she had Callum’s attention with her brow raised with an invisible ‘I’ll have you yet, Callum’ hanging in the air. Callum hugged Charlie once more and we left them alone inside as the door clicked behind us.
“It feels weird leaving there,” I said.
“I know. It was our first home together,” he said absently, not realizing what that meant to me to hear him say.
Callum and I found the nearest pay phone and rung Cherry to see if Kenny gave us the apartment or not.
“Cherry bomb! What’s up, baby doll. Hey, any word from Kenny?” Callum’s eyes widened and he nodded at me. I am so excited, I can barely keep myself from jumping up and down, screaming. “Okay. Alright, cool. Thanks, Cherry berry. Love you! Bye!”
Callum hung up the phone. “We got it!” He yelled, picking me up and swinging me around. His arms crushed around my torso and I selfishly wished he would squeeze me harder. His hands were the most amazing things I’d ever felt in my entire life and I found myself threading my hands in his hair and kissing his neck in glee. He slowly set me down, sliding my body down his. We both shifted uncomfortably, staring at one another, slightly embarrassed.
“What did she say?” I asked, trying to move our attention towards something slightly less awkward.
“She Kenny needs the first and last month’s rent in a cashier’s check. She mentioned it’d probably be smart for us to open a bank account.”
“Alright then. Well, where should we go?”
“Cherry banks right around the corner. That’s as good a place as any, I think.”
“Alright, lead the way, Mister Tate.”
Callum and I flew around the corner and entered the bank, breathless and oh so high off where our hard work was taking us. We signed our names onto the list to see a banker and sat on a non-descript sofa side by side. There was several people there and I was forced to wedge myself close to him, his warm, hard body felt so good next to mine. Callum grabbed a pen off a nearby desk and we played tic-tac-toe on the back of a deposit slip while we waited. It ended in a draw every single time.
“Cat’s game,” Callum says. “How many is that?”
“Eleven draws.”
“Why do you think they call it a cat’s game?” He asked me, leaning his head against the back of his chair and rolling the deposit slips into a tube.
I leaned my head as well but tilted my face towards him a little. He met my eyes and smiled.
“It’s called a ‘cat’s game’ because no matter how many times a cat chases his tail, he can never truly latch on. He does it anyway because it’s still fun to chase,” I explained.
“Seriously? How do you know that?”
“I don’t know if that’s true but it’s what I heard once.”
“Cool.”
“Harper Bailey and Callum Tate!” The banker called out with a little bit of deja vu’.
We stood and walked arm in arm toward their desk.
“Hi, I’m Asa.” He gestured towards the chairs and we sat. “What can I do for you guys today?”
“We’d like to open a checking account,” Callum said.
“We also need a cashier’s check before we leave,” I chimed in.
“Alright, that shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll just need two pieces of identification and a minimum of one hundred dollars opening deposit.”
We both nodded our heads.
Fifteen minutes later, Asa is wrapping up everything he needed. “I’ll just get these copied for you. If you’ll just get your deposit ready for me. Here’s the opening deposit slip. Just fill it out and I’ll be back shortly.” He stood and entered a room in the back.
While Callum filled out our deposit slip, I reached for my bag and pulled it up into my lap. I opened the top flap and reached toward the bottom for our cash but it wasn’t there. Must be in the front zipper, I thought to myself. I unzipped the front pocket and felt around inside. Nothing. My adrenaline started pumping furiously through my veins. I stood up and tossed the insides of my bag all over the seat of my chair.
“What are you doing?” Callum asked, confused but I can’t really hear him.
I rummaged through my belongings, knocking things off the sides of the chair, desperately searching for the bands of cash but there was nothing. At this point, Callum stands up realizing what’s going on and frantically started searching with me. I found my bag on the floor, unzipped all the pockets, tearing my hands through every inch of every compartment. Callum took the bag from me and turned it upside down, shaking it out, like he could force the money to fall out. My hands begun to tremble and I fell to my knees on the harsh, grey carpet. My entire body shook with disbelief. I brought both hands to my mouth to stifle the sob I was getting ready to let escape but Callum startled me before I could.
“No,” he said quietly. “No, it can’t be. Not after how hard we worked. Please, there’s no way this could be happening.”
“What do we do?” I asked, shell shocked.
Callum turned towards me, as if seeing me for the first time since our discovery. He shrugged his shoulders in defeat and joined me by falling to his own knees, barely able to keep himself upright. He hung his head and I couldn’t help but feel like the whole thing was my fault. I was so ashamed that I couldn’t even look at his beautiful face. He’s going to hate you forever for this, I though. I would. Why didn’t you zip it into the bottom compartment? I asked myself.
“I’m so sorry, Callum,” I barely choked out.
Abruptly, Callum stood and crossed over to me. Instinctively, I held my hands over my head, readying myself for the blow but it never came. Instead, Callum grabbed me by the shoulders and brought me to my feet. He pulled me into the tightest hug and I lost control of myself, sobbing into his shoulder.
“I’m so sorry, Callum,” I cried.
“Shh,” he said, stroking my back. “Did you really think I was going to hit you?” He asked.
I nodded in response unable to speak.
“Jesus, what kind of life did you have before me?” But it was a rhetorical question and when I opened my mouth to speak, he just shook his head and hugged me tighter.
“So sorry,” I mumbled out, still shaking with sadness.
“It’s not your fault, Harper. It’s not your fault,” he whispered. “It must have been the dude on the subway.” I nodded my agreement, sniffing loudly against his chest.
Asa chooses that moment to walk into his tornado blasted office, interrupting our full blown meltdown.
“What happened?” He asked.
“We, uh, lost over five thousand in cash. It was stolen actually.”
“Oh my God. I’m so sorry. Here,” Asa said to Callum, helping him place me in Callum’s chair. “Shall I call the police?” He asked.
“Please,” Callum said, before bending down and gathering all my belongings into a neat pile.
I bent down next to him and helped him fold my laundry and place my stuff back into my messenger bag. The salt from my tears must have clouded my eyesight and I was having trouble controlling my trembling hands because I kept losing my grip on my toothbrush. Callum grabbed it from me and placed it in the front zipper. He closed the top flap of the bag and placed it by my chair. When he stood, he brought me up with him one more time and hugged me closely. He kissed the top of my head but instead of comforting me, it sent me reeling down a spiral of guilt and the tears flowed nonstop until the police arrived.
The police took our statements but both Callum and I knew, we were never going to see that money again. We left the bank a few hours later in utter disbelief. Callum clasped his hand tightly into mine and silently guided me toward The Hope House to wait out the night in hopes we’d get a cot. How long we stood, I don’t know but I remembered suddenly being yanked from the line with a single curse from Callum. He dragged me to Central Park and sat me on a bench next to him. He dragged me closely to him, tucking me into his side much like when he introduced me to Charlie that same night. How quickly life can change. In an instant, you can lose your mother, your father, your life, your youth, your innocence, and your pride. Losing your money and possibly the best friend you’ve ever had seemed like too much, even for me.
“You’re going to leave me now, huh?” I asked him.
Callum looked at me, stunned. “What? No. Never, Harper.”