A Friend Called Levin

"I'm warning you. One more time and you're out of here." There wasn't even disappointment in his voice. Just apathy. Raine remembered the look on his brother's face as he'd spoken. It made him feel as though they were no more than strangers. The memory was etched into Raine's mind, surfacing at random. As he walked into the corner store, he almost felt like his brother was watching him even now with those cold eyes.

'One last can won't hurt. But this is really the last one. Definitely.' Trying to ignore the memory of his brother's words, Raine headed straight for the alcohol section. A fridge in the corner was packed with rows and rows of beer. Raine glanced at the prices, hoping for a sale. A yellow sticker caught his eye.

"Buy 2, Get 1 Free!"

Raine stared at it for a moment. Then he grabbed a can and headed for the counter. As soon as he paid for the beer, he pulled the tab. He found the sound of the hiss and pop strangely satisfying. He chugged it as he made his way out of the store. The familiar sensation of warmth in his stomach was calming.

The sky was reddening. Raine checked the time on his phone, a five-year-old flip phone, and considered hurrying up. But he barely changed his pace. He wasn't expecting anything in the first place, so why rush to his inevitable failure? He took a few swigs of his beer and sighed.

Soon enough, the can was empty. Raine crushed it and stared at the trash bin a few yards away. He tossed the crushed can, aiming at the bin's relatively small opening. The can bounced off the side of the opening, hit the bottom edge, and fell into the bin. Raine smiled wryly. At least it went in.

A short way down the sidewalk, Raine stopped at a crosswalk and waited for the light to change. He pulled out his phone in the meanwhile and checked his inbox. It was empty. He'd expected as much given the lack of notifications, but it still made him sigh. 'Should I send a message?'

The light turned green, and Raine started walking. Preoccupied with his phone, he didn't realize someone was about to bump into him.

"Ow." It wasn't a brush, but a solid hit. Frowning, Raine stopped and looked back at the one who'd knocked into him.

It was a tall girl in a school uniform with a red jacket draped over one shoulder. She didn't even try to look apologetic. Her hand patted his shoulder almost condescendingly. "My bad."

Then she was off.

'What a rude kid.' Raine shook his head and continued on his way. There was too much on his mind for him to care about some annoying girl. He quickly forgot about her as he walked down the street, heading for a small cafe already in sight. It was a shorter walk from the convenience store than he'd expected.

"The Gemini Cafe," a sign read. It was small and plain enough that Raine had almost missed it. The exterior seemed nice enough. As Raine approached the entrance, he looked in through the front window. There didn't seem to be any customers inside.

The bells on the door jingled as Raine pushed it open. The smell of coffee hit his nose, and the sound of indie pop reached his ears.

"Hello, welcome to Gemini!" The young man at the counter stood up from the wooden stool he'd been on as soon as he saw Raine and put away the book in his hands. He was the only other person Raine saw in the cafe.

Raine nodded in response and looked up at the chalkboard behind the young man. It listed the available drinks, and for a moment, Raine was ready to complain that there wasn't any alcohol. He controlled himself and ordered an espresso.

"Sure," the young man said. "Anything else?"

"No, that's it."

"Okay, that'll be $3.90."

Raine nodded and reached into his pocket. Nothing. His heart missed a beat. He shoved both hands into his other pockets. Phone. Receipt for beer. Some coins. Nothing else. "Aww, fuck."

He massaged his temples. You've got to be fucking kidding me. What the hell?

"Uh…is something wrong?"

'No shit!' Raine barely managed to stop himself from snapping back at the employee. "Forget about the order."

Raine hurried to the entrance. Where had he dropped it? Actually had he dropped it at all? The last time he'd touched it was in the corner store, so he must have had it at least then. Then he'd headed straight for the cafe and . . .

'The girl,' he suddenly realized. He gritted his teeth. 'I got fucking pickpocketed.'

He wanted to slam open the door and sprint off. But as he was about to leave, he saw a familiar face on the other side of the glass door. He groaned.

It was a friendly-looking guy in a blue blazer and jeans. He was Levin, Raine's former classmate in college. Levin wore a look of surprise when he saw Raine, but it quickly gave way to a grin. He opened the door and cried out, "Raine! Hope you've been doing well."

Raine wanted to let out a howl of frustration. He squeezed out a smile and replied, "Yeah, I've been doing okay. How about you?"

His driver's license, a bus pass worth five bucks, and $20. Even as he and Levin made small talk, he was thinking about what he'd lost. He was lucky his brother had taken his credit card the previous day.

It wasn't worth going to trying to get his wallet back now. There was far more to gain by staying there and speaking with Levin, even if the odds of success were slim to none. Raine wasn't sure it would do him any good to run around looking for his wallet anyway. The girl was probably long gone.

Levin ordered a slice of cheesecake and a latte, while Raine just drank some free filtered water. Their conversation jumped from topic to topic almost entirely thanks to Levin, but after they exhausted the unimportant things to talk about, Raine started getting to the main purpose of their meeting.

"Heard the news about a possible recession coming up?"

"Of course. More than a handful in my team are scared they'll get laid off if it hits. I'm even holding off on buying a new car." By "new car," Raine knew Levin didn't mean a Toyota or a Honda. Even in college, Levin had driven a new Audi.

Raine nodded. "So I'm thinking the auto industry's going to take a beating in the next six months. With how much corporate debt automakers are loaded with, they'll be an awful place once their sales numbers weaken. Their execs don't have great track records either. I'm planning on buying put options on them."

"Okay, any particular companies in mind?"

"Bolstridge more than any other."

"Why's that?" Levin frowned. Raine was less than thrilled to hear the incredulity in Levin's voice.

He felt like he might have blown his chance. Still, he managed to keep his voice fairly calm as he responded, "They've been compromising on quality for the last decade. By itself, it doesn't mean they're screwed, since a brand name can keep up sales for a while. But their brand's losing its strength. People our age see a Bolstridge as an old guy's car. And the company's trying to transition to EVs too quickly. They barely have any footing in that market, and their last electric car model was okay. Not great, not awful, just okay."

Levin scratched his chin and seemed to contemplate Raine's words. He slowly nodded and took a sip of his coffee. "Well, yeah. I guess you're right."

Raine saw opportunity. He rattled off items in a mental list of other reasons to support his view, and as he spoke, Levin nodded his head repeatedly. His response gave Raine hope, making him straighten up subconsciously and speak with more passion and conviction.

And when Raine was finally done with his last argument about the company, mentioning its Shiller price-to-earnings ratio, Levin grinned. "Okay, I'm convinced. I'll drop 25 grand today. 250 up front and four percent of the return as the fee, right?"

Raine blinked. His pitch had failed half a dozen times before. "Are you serious?"

"What, it's not enough?" Levin stared at him incredulously.

"No, no! It's not that. Not at all. I just wasn't expecting so much."

Levin gave him an easy smile. "Yeah, well, if things really turn out like you say, I'll double the investment."

Raine grinned. He hid his hands under the table, on his lap. They were trembling from joy. "Thanks, Levin. I really appreciate it. I really do."

"Well, hold on," Levin said. "Remember what I said in the email? I need you to do something for me in return."

His words cooled Raine's excitement, but not by much."Yeah, I remember. I'm fine with anything." Raine paused for a moment. "Just nothing illegal. Or unethical."

"Of course not. And by the way, the pay is decent for the work. You'll get about three grand for it. But it's a bit of an odd job." Levin took out his iPhone. "Gimme a second. Hm…where is it? Ah, here."

Levin held out his phone in front of Raine. On the screen, there was a picture of an Asian girl wearing a baseball cap spelling out Yale. Her long hair peeked out the back of the hat in a ponytail. She looked no more than 20, maybe 21. Raine raised his brows. "Who's this?"

"Sora, the daughter of my dad's best friend. I've never met her, but she'll be in L.A. for a while, and I need someone to watch over her. Making sure she doesn't wander into a sketchy neighborhood, looking out for her at bars or whatever, driving her around. That kind of thing. Basically being her bodyguard."

'More like babysitter.' Raine didn't object to the idea of being paid $3,000 just to do that, but he felt like it was too easy. "Why me? I'm not qualified."

"Well, you did it in college."

"I had no idea what I was doing." He'd quit after getting shot in the leg, something he hadn't been too eager to share with his friends.

"Well, I want you to do it anyway. And don't worry, you won't be alone. I've already gotten a few others to help too."

Raine frowned. "Is her father rich or something?"

"Yeah, rich as hell. And famous to boot." Levin chuckled. "He's also on Bolstridge's board of directors."

"Oh." Raine laughed awkwardly. "Wait, but then why doesn't he just hire actual bodyguards? As in, professionals."

"Long story short, their family's had bad experiences with professionals. And she's apparently a bit of a loner, so her father wants bodyguards who'll double as friends to her."

Raine could tell he didn't have much of a choice if he wanted the investment. "Okay, fine. When will she be in L.A.?"

"Next week Wednesday. I don't know exactly how long she'll stay, but you won't have to deal with her for any more than five weeks. You'll be with her six hours a day, six days a week."

Raine nodded. He had told Levin in an email that he had plenty of time on his hands. Five weeks of boring work for $3,000 and a $25,000 investment didn't sound like a bad deal to Raine. They worked out the details for the next half-hour, after which their conversation drifted off to minor topics. Levin got a call soon after, and he quickly got up. Work, apparently. The two left the cafe and bid each other farewell. Raine watched Levin get into a blue BMW i8 and drive off. He smiled wryly, remembering when he drove the same model every day to work. 'Ah well. Maybe I'll be able to buy another one in a few years.'

As he made his way home, he passed by the corner store he'd been to earlier. He glanced at the glass door for a second and felt like he deserved to celebrate a little after his talk with Levin. But he quickly recalled that his wallet was gone. He sighed and continued heading home.

"Alright, thanks. Huh? No, I'm lazy. I'll join you for the next one."

Raine shot a glance behind him and saw a tall girl in a red bomber jacket. She wore a pair of on-ear headphones and held her smartphone up to her mouth, talking to someone over it. She seemed oddly familiar.

Raine shrugged and kept walking. He knew a lot of people in the neighborhood. More than a handful of his old college classmates lived there. He didn't want to meet any of them. Even though there was something about the girl that bothered him, he ignored the feeling and just picked up his pace.

'Wait.' In mid-step, his foot stopped. From the depths of his subconscious, a sudden thought occurred to him. 'What if it's her?'

Raine turned around again and saw the girl turning a corner. He hesitated for just a moment. She was about to walk out of sight. 'Fuck.'

He ran after her.