Oliver V.S. the World

Oliver’s knuckles turned white as he gripped the edges of the briefcase on his lap. This cab ride was unbearable. Oliver would have preferred an eternity in hell to this painstakingly long ride in what felt like a sauna. He insisted that the driver roll down the windows after he discovered that the AC was faulty but that didn’t do much good in the traffic they were stuck in. With the sleeve of his grey, pinstriped suit, he wiped the sweat from his forehead. But this only led him to find the melted chocolate along with a silver wrapper glued to the side of his arm. He discovered a wide variety of wrappers all over the back seats and floor. Oliver let out a groan of disbelief and threw his head back onto the headrest.

“Is this really what I deserve?” Oliver exclaimed to the busy New York traffic. He resorted to his calming habit of fiddling with his ring as he stared out of the window, but his right hand met nothing but the pale base of his left ring finger. He had been divorced for almost a month now. He missed Katrina. He always thought it was a bit early to already have been divorced, after all, he was only 28. He also thought he’d be over it the whole ordeal  by now, but the guilt was eating at him from the inside out. He lost track of all the lies he told. And everyday at work was painfully awkward. She was his boss after all. He always knew it was his fault. Although his work was a great distraction, the thought of her only put him on edge even more. Now, the driver’s constant yelling over the phone finally started to anger Oliver. The argument he seemed to be having suddenly became verbally aggressive.

“I can make the payment! Just give me until this Friday and I’ll have the rent! No! Please! I really need this! I swear to god, if you hang up. . .” The driver looked at his phone when the call ended. “God dammit, I-I’ll kill him!” He threw his phone out of his window and picked up the speed as he ran through the last second of the yellow light and the beginning of a red at the intersection.

Glass flew from the right side of the car and thousands of shards showered onto Oliver and the car began to slide over to the left. His head ached and ears rang but he pushed open the door and stumbled out of the cab. The glass crushed under his shoes. He inspected his body head to toe for blood but he managed to remain unscathed. The ringing in Oliver’s ears began to fade and he could hear the cab driver cursing into the air. Saliva flew from his mouth as he was yelling at and accusing the young woman on the other side of the caved-in vehicle. The man was screaming lies at her, accusing her of being at fault. The scene in front of Oliver didn’t seem to bother him until he went to check his watch and saw the pale band around his ring finger.

“Shut up!” Oliver screamed the cabbie. “Shut up!” The short man flinched and froze in utter fear for a moment. Even the crowd around them grew quiet. Then the driver began to speak but was interrupted again.

“Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare try to lie your way out of this! How could you have the nerve to scream lies into the face of this poor innocent woman. You. . . You are at fault!” Oliver shouted this as he approached the man. He towered over the cabbie but then saw the look of fear in the man’s eyes and realized he was going too far. And still with the thought of Katrina stuck in his mind, he realized that that was the same thing he yelled at himself in the mirror for the past month. He gave an apologetic look to the woman on the other side of the cab, grabbed his suitcase, and threw a twenty on the ground before the driver. He walked over to the woman and handed her his card.

“If you ever need a lawyer,” he said with a with a charming smile. But the woman wrote down her number on the card and tucked it back into his coat pocket.

“My name’s Darcy.” Oliver couldn’t help but grin. He then loosened his tie, ruffled his hair, and jogged off down the street.

“Ah, Oliver. A few minutes late I see,” Oliver’s colleague said jokingly after he removed the cigarette from his lips.

“You know those’ll kill you,” he said, disregarding the previous remark. His coworker glared at him for a moment, but then a warm smile grew on his face and the two of them chuckled as they opened the front doors to the lobby.

“Everyone else is upstairs and waiting on the both of us. The boss is getting impatient though. You have everything you need? All the documents you had to fill out? She’s very particular. You’re ex wife is a total hardass, bro,” he sighed as he pressed the call button for the elevator. Oliver froze. The doors slid open but Oliver didn’t step inside.

“You coming or what?”

“I can’t face her, man. I’m done.” Oliver threw him his suitcase and pressed the floor number for him and waved as he walked off. He dialed a number on his phone as he removed his tie with the other hand.

“Where are you Oliver? The meeting is starting!”

“I’m not going Katrina. I quit. The only reason I bothered to call is because I wanted to apologize. I realized it’s my fault for what happened, and I don’t want to have to face you every day and remember that,” Oliver said and ended the call before she could reply. He pushed open the double doors and stepped outside of the building. He pulled out the card from his coat pocket and dialed the number as he walked down the block.

“Hey, it’s Darcy, right?”