Page 23 of Ruthless Riches
He lowered his gaze to the ground. “I’m not bothering anyone,” he mumbled. “I’m just sitting here.”
“I know. We aren’t here to move you along. We just brought you some food,” Nate said, holding out the paper sandwich bag. I held out the coffee at the same time.
Brian raised his chin and stared at us, hazel eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Who are you, and how do you know my name?”
“I’m Alexis. Sascha’s sister,” I said, holding out my free hand to shake. “And this is Nate.”
He ignored my hand and took the paper bag from Nate instead. “Who the hell is Sascha?”
“She uses that art studio sometimes,” I said, pointing toward it.
“Oh, her. She’s nice,” Brian said, face brightening a bit. “She’s your sister, huh?”
“Yes. She told me about you,” I said, crouching to place the coffee next to him.
“Right.” He looked down and inspected the contents of the bag. “Thanks for this.”
“You’re welcome.”
He picked up the coffee and took a sip. Then he glanced up at us again. “I assume there’s a reason you’re still hanging around.”
I nodded. “We were hoping we could talk to you about a few things.”
He rolled his eyes upward. “I’m not interested in your religion.”
“It’s not like that,” Nate said. “We just want to know more about the homeless community on Avalon. Anything you can tell us would be really helpful.”
Brian scratched his light brown hair and nodded slowly. “Fine.” He patted the ground next to him. “Take a seat.”
We joined him on the cobblestones. He took a small bite of his sandwich. Then he looked over at me. “I’m guessing you probably want to know how I ended up like this, huh?”
I shook my head. “You don’t have to tell us about that if you don’t want to.”
“It’s fine. Bad luck, really.” He took another bite and slowly chewed. “I lost my house ten years ago, after the GFC. Lost my job, too. Managed to find another one, but it didn’t pay as much. There was no way I could ever buy a place again. Then I messed up my back.”
“How?”
“Car accident,” he said. “Anyway, my insurance covered some of the medical bills, but not enough. I lost my new job, too, because I couldn’t do the work anymore. Not with an injury.” He paused to take another small bite. “Debt collectors started to come after me for the medical bills, so I spent the last of my money paying them off. Had to sell my car to get it done.”
“What happened then?”
“Couldn’t afford my rent anymore. I thought they might give me a bit of leeway for a few weeks, because I told them about my situation, but they were strict. Had me evicted as soon as they could.” He paused to let out a sigh. “A guy I used to work with let me crash at his apartment for a while, but I ended up outstaying my welcome. Then I ended up here. All I had was seventeen dollars and whatever I could carry.”
“What about your family?” I asked.
“I don’t really have any. No one I can stay with, anyway.”
“Sorry. That really sucks.”
“Yeah. I’m used to it, though. I’ve been out here for a few years now.”
“Why don’t you go to the mainland?” Nate said, raising his brows. “There’d be more jobs over there, right?”
“Not enough,” Brian replied. “Also, think about it this way. How much is a ferry ticket from here to Seattle?”
“Thirty dollars.”
“Yup.” Brian grimaced. “Sometimes people give me a few dollars here and there, and when I manage to scrape enough together to go down to the dock and get a ferry ticket, I always end up thinking about what else I could get for thirty bucks. I could get several packets of ramen, some canned foods like beans and chili, some cheap fruit at the farmers market up in Montgomery Park… enough to last me a couple of weeks.”
