I'm in a state of quandry-physically and mentally

My parents once told me I had a way of speaking that forced you to lean in—a soft, thick-tongued cadence I’d never quite outgrown despite the surgeries. Across the kitchen island, my wife, Corrie, didn't need me to repeat myself; she’d long ago learned to read the slight protrusion of my jaw as clearly as a printed page.

I snatched my keys from the countertop, kissed Corrie goodbye, hopped into my black Sedan, and faced the scorching California heat for the 17-minute drive from our Burbank home to my corporate office in Los Angeles. The traffic was congested as usual, and drivers were flipping each other off and exchanging profanity. Still, I wasn’t deterred because I would be going to my CEO position at a crypto company called OvaTech, where I’d be interviewing a Seattle transfer.

I would barely survive before I parked the car and walked into the building. It was the office's busiest day, and there were hundreds upon hundreds of customers crowding the lobby, asking about registration, finances, and why they lost three hundred something in crypto, but that wouldn't stop my coworker Lisa Mendez from wheedling her way over and handing me a random file with all the information about the hire and brought out her tablet to communicate, “The new hire is named Elliot Calhoun McCarthy, but he likes to go by Eli. He is an exceptional cultural archetype, thick-skinned, and can instill discipline in the rookies better than Cody can. Trust me, you will be impressed, and he is about the same age as you, and he’s from the same state as you are.”

Hearing the name Elliot Calhoun McCarthy from the text-to-speech didn’t faze me; it’s not like I never knew him or went to the same school as him.

Right?

But I was a bit surprised he was the same age and born in the same state as me, so I decided to ask Lisa another question out of curiosity, “If you don’t mind me asking, what city is he from?” Lisa slowly danced across her tablet before the monotonous voice replied, “Port Angeles, Washington.”

That’s when discomfort began to creep in, as the name started to evoke memories of a painful past; during my tenth grade year in 1998, I experienced a secret romance with one of my male best friends that lasted about a year, and at a New Year's Party in 1999, I confronted heartbreak when I caught him kissing a girl and cruelly mocking my appearance, leading us to never repair our friendship again; now, as the youngest CEO in the history of OvaTech at 42 years old, I reflect on how my past has shaped me and why my bond with Lisa is strong, considering we both faced ridicule for our unique physical features, such as my noticeable tongue and mild asymmetry, alongside her microcelphaly and scoliosis.

“Are you ok? Do you need to sit down?” the text-to-speech asked, “No, I’ll be fine…” but even that sounded fake to my ears, and I went to the smoke break room, where I ran into Loretta Morenzo and Stella Ketters. The two most brutally honest gossipers in the company.

“Oh my god, did you hear about what happened to Elizabeth?” Loretta said in her Italian New Yorker accent

“If I’m not mistaken, she had an affair with Lucyia’s husband, Craig Folley, right?” Stella replies.

“Yes, honey, but you know how she’s been skipping work and complaining about getting fatter?”

Stella shakes her head to signal continuation.

“Well, turns out, I saw her at a Target coincidentally while I was visiting New York again, and she had this huge baby bump, and right next to her, rubbing her back was Craig f*cking Folley.” She said with malice evident in her tone. She was revealing too much, so I intervened.

“Ok, ladies, are you done with your smoke break?”

That seemed to break the tension in the space, and the two immediately jumped at the sight of me standing with my arms crossed.

“Oh- uh, hey, Mr. Turner, your suit looks…perposterious today.” Stella stammered.

“Thank you for that backhanded compliment, Stella,” I said to her before turning to Loretta, but before I spoke, she clasped both my hands tightly and said, “Listen, I apologize for what I said about Elizabeth, but please don’t fire me, I don’t want to have to move back to Harlem because I’m too broke to keep up with rent and I also have a sick mother to take care of so give me some grace here.”

My expression shifted from slightly gruff to empathetic, “I’m sorry about your mom, Loretta, but you have been technically doing this for a long time, and I don’t care as long as you use appropriate language or you don’t speak with malicious intent, so this will be your first warning. Understood?”

Loretta shook her head in understanding and stubbed the butt of her cigar in the ashtray, “Ok, thank you, boss.”

Lisa then came in and spoke on her tablet, “If you’re ready, Mr. McCarthy is waiting in your office.” I looked at her and said, “Ok, Lisa, just allow me a few seconds, please.” Lisa forced her hand into a thumbs-up before wheedling herself into the lobby to go meet with the others. I would share a Marlboro pack from Loretta and talk about our personal lives before Lisa came back again, this time more impatient, so I said goodbye and went with Lisa.

When we reached my office, I saw the hire and my, my, he embodied the earth and sun, with silk-like blonde hair framing a striking, diamond-shaped face and a warm, molten amber gaze that highlighted his noble features and desert-like handsomeness.

I reached over the table and exchanged hands, “Hello Eli McCarthy, my name is Troy Turner, and I am the CEO of OvaTech. You don’t mind telling me a little about yourself so we can get started?”

Eli nodded his head and spoke, “Well, I am 42 years old from Washington State. I topped all of my finance and business classes in high school and college. I attended the University of Miami and graduatedin 2007, and I am a proud gay male with three children via surrogacy. I am planning on holding a position as either your coworker or employee.”

“Oh, sorry, all the spots are taken, but if you want, we can put you in as an employee,” I say, but for some reason, I felt like he would get mad at me and advocate for a position. Surprisingly, he remained calm and accepted it. “Ok, that’s fine.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and got started with the interview. “Ok, so it says on your resume that you worked in a different crypto company in Seattle called Mystic, no?”

Elliot nodded his head, so I continued on, “And it also says that you graduated from the University of Miami in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in FinTech, no?”

Elliot nodded again, “Ok, so now with the questions, how did you get into crypto and what specifically interests you about this space?”

“I got into crypto because I was inspired by the likes of Elon Musk and other famous businessmen, and I wanted to have potential high returns and to make huge investments.”

A look of impressiveness mixed with slight disfavor that made him shift uncomfortably, his explanation did sound a bit money hungry and shabby, but it was probably the best he could come up with, so I continued, “Continuing, what makes you annoyed at the current financial system, and what would you do to fix it?”

Elliot thought for a long eleven seconds before speaking, “The contemporary financial system is riddled with inefficiencies, stark inequality, and structural vulnerabilities that place considerable strain on households and businesses; for instance, by early 2026, consumers are still facing escalating costs for essential items such as groceries, housing, and utilities, which are not being compensated by equivalent income growth, indicating that the remedy lies in enacting policies that prioritize real income growth over mere nominal wage increases—this would encompass actions like bolstering supply chains, investing in technology that enhances productivity, and following suggestions from certain analysts to shift tax burdens away from income toward consumption and wealth to alleviate pressure on working families; furthermore, the global financial system finds itself burdened by excessive levels of public and private debt, which became untenable as interest rates have risen, leading to "too big to fail" scenarios wherein instability in one sector threatens the entire system; to address these concerns, it is essential to eliminate incentives for excessive leverage within tax codes, such as treating equity and debt alike, while also reinforcing capital requirements for large, intricate institutions and ensuring they have well-thought-out, credible plans for "wind-down" procedures to mitigate economic damage in the event of failures.”

I was impressed by his cruel, yet analytical assessment of our current financial system, and now he was starting to look like a better candidate in my eyes, but before I could give the next question, I noticed that he kept on hyperfixating on the nameplate sitting gallantly on my desk, so I decided to taunt him a little to bring his attention back to me, “Hello? Earth to Eli. Think my nameplate is more important than me?”

Elliot kept on staring at it before turning his attention back to me, “It’s you.”

I looked at him confusedly and said, “Sir, do I know you?”

That's done it.

He began crying, and Lisa immediately came over to comfort him. I was a little taken aback, so I said, “Elliot, what’s wrong?”

He would stammer and stutter until he stopped crying and wiped his face with a tissue I gave him and hoarsely said, “Remember Western Shoals High School? When I y’know…”

I stood paralyzed, gripping my pen tightly as the realization hit me—it was him all along, my secret love letter correspondent, the very man who had turned my life upside down in 1999 by transforming me into an object of ridicule and abandoning me for none other than my half-brother, Preston, who was merely eight months my junior; my heart was a tumult of emotions, torn between urging him to return to Seattle or finding it within myself to forgive, and as the memories flooded back, I could feel the sting of tears welling in my eyes from the pain he had inflicted. He was also the reason why I attempted to take my life at twenty.

“I’m sorry, Troy, so f*cking sorry,” Ellot aid earnestly, “If you don’t want me in your company, that’s fine, I’ll leave.” As he grabbed his stuff and opened the door to my office to exit, I acted on impulse.

“Don’t go!” I shouted. Flabbergasted, Elliot turned back, then his eyes showed a tiny glimmer of hope, “Really?”

I nodded profusely, “We were teenagers at the time. So what if you did humiliate me? My Beckmann-Wiedmann Syndrome is not even noticeable anymore, and that memory is twenty-seven years old; now we’re grown men and much more mature. I forgive you, and I don’t take offense, so sit your butt down and let’s continue.” Lisa smiled a little and gestured to the empty chair.

“But what about when I made you a-” I interjected, “Sit down, Eli, sit down! We can put all of this behind us and act like mature men and maybe even have a couple of drinks together.”

Elliot chuckled and said, “Well, I sure as hell didn’t come here for no reason.” he then sat back down on the empty chair, and we continued our interview from there.