"That's why I wanted to settle!" The businessman shouted into his Bluetooth. As he shuffled along the busy city street, no one seemed to notice his disgruntled features. He was young looking, but his face appeared haggard, and it was clear that stress had already taken a toll on his body.
"Yes, that's my point," he replied to whomever he was speaking to as his polished shoes clacked against the pavement. "Tell them that Teddy said to settle. No, Not Theodore, they call me Teddy, they know me by that name. I don't know, but it's worth a shot."
The business glanced up at a street sign and turned the corner before resuming his conversation, "And I'm telling you that it's better than sitting around and doing nothing while our other accounts tank! Can you do that? Thank you! Fine...sure. Okay, sounds good, keep me posted. Bye."
Once the call had ended, the young man, who allegedly went by Teddy to his friends and coworkers, glanced down at his smartwatch, "2:27," he muttered as he began to look around. He had a few minutes to kill until his conference call at 3, an event which he was most certainly not looking forward to. He took a deep breath and shook his head: saying that he wasn't looking forward to it was an understatement. He would have rather lit his own arm on fire than attend the meeting, but there was no way he could avoid it.
After he'd recovered from his short moment of self commiseration, he examined his surroundings and furrowed his brow, "Where the hell am I?" He asked himself lowly as he looked up and down the street. He could have sworn that he'd turned down eighth, the street one block away from his firm. There was a coffee joint that he frequented regularly, and he'd planned on getting something strong to help him through his conference call.
He realized something else as he surveyed the street: there was literally no one around. His skin began to prickle as he realized that there were no cars parked on either side of the street, and there was no sign of the pedestrians that only moments before he'd been trying to ignore.
"What is this, the twilight zone?" He asked himself with a nervous chuckle. A bit of fear was beginning to build up inside of him, but he shrugged it off almost defiantly, "All right, let's just see what the GPS has to say."
He produced his phone and pulled up the mapping app. He was right about to feel triumphant when he saw a phrase appear on the screen:
'Sorry, but we can't find your location'
His eyebrow twitched, "You've gotta be kidding me. Stupid cellular dead zones..." he muttered as he turned to look at the storefronts. There was an Italian restaurant that he'd never seen, a conscription shop and an acupuncturist. Oddly enough, they all appeared to be closed.
"There's gotta be some sort of...ah!" He exclaimed as he looked to his right. There was a place that appeared to be open, and he headed toward it immediately.
There was a single metal table and matching chair in front of the building, and a quaint looking handwritten sign that hung from the door, "The solitary Cafe," he read the sign aloud. The windows were tinted as well as the glass door, and there was no other signage besides the handwritten one, not even a health code rating or an hours sign. "Seems fitting," he added as he glanced around the street. He'd never seen or heard anything about the place, but that fact wasn't too surprising. There were hundreds of small coffee shops in the city and he was willing to bet that that particular establishment wasn't even listed on anyone's website. He stared at the window for a long moment before placing his hand on the door and swinging it open.
"Hello, welcome to the solitary Cafe," he was greeted immediately by a cheerful, feminine voice.
He heard the greeting before he realized where it had come from, "Hi..." he took a step forward as his eyes roamed the interior. He'd been expecting the run of the mill, indifferent downtown coffee joint furnishing, but he was surprised to see a classy looking set of booths off to one side and an assortment of oak tables with matching chairs in the middle. His eyes darted to the surrounding walls where he saw several pieces of framed art. He thought for a moment that his mind was playing tricks on him, but it seemed that every single picture depicted some sort of rubber duck. He remembered himself then and moved his gaze to the counter.
A young woman stood there, smiling politely at him. She was of average height, brunette, and her skin was deeply tanned. There was nothing particularly arresting about her features, though she would have been considered attractive by anyone's standards. Despite that fact, Teddy felt suddenly nervous and out of place, and he barely managed to keep from stuttering, "Um, this is kind of embarrassing, but...I may be a little lost. What street is this?"
"Oh, that's nothing to be embarrassed about, happens all the time," the girl flashed him a smile, "This is asterisk street."
Teddy pursed his lips. He'd been working in the same firm for nearly five years, and he'd thought that he had a good grasp on where everything was in reference to his office, but he'd never heard of an asterisk street. Were it a different sort of person behind the counter, he might have admitted his ignorance immediately, but he didn't want to look like a fool in front of the girl, "Ah, okay. So, if I'm trying to get to eighth which way should I go?"
The girl, whom he could now see was wearing a very tasteful white blouse, continued to smile, "You can go either way and you'll end up on eighth."
The businessman's confusion quickly turned to irritation at the comment, but the girl spoke again before he could comment, "Sorry, just a little joke. If you make a left out of the door then a right at the next intersection you'll hit eighth."
