New Character #12: Josh
"When will you be back?"
Josh sighed and tried to focus on the article he had printed out the same morning.
"As soon as possible", he promised. His girlfriend, Therese, huffed impatiently.
"That's what you always say", she said, "but you've been gone for almost a month now."
"I haven't done everything yet", Josh replied and glanced up at the clock on the wall of the station. Seven in the morning. That meant one in the morning, the next day, for Therese.
"Love, I'm going to have to hang up now", he said. "I have to head down to the subway. I'll call you again later, alright?"
"Yeah", Therese said. "I love you."
"Love you too", Josh said before he hung up. Quickly he then gathered his belongings and walked downstairs. A yawn escaped him as the subway train approached the platform but he threw away any thought of sleeping onboard. Last time he had done that he had missed his stop – four times – and he definitely did not have time for such errors again today.
He was heading to New York University to give a speech about global warming. He had given the speech at least a hundred times before, so he was not really worried about getting it wrong. No, he was more worried about the fact that today's event would be attended by two prominent American Senators. If his speech affected them the way it was intended to affect people he would have taken the first big step towards his goal.
Josh exhaled in relief as he stepped off the stage and accepted a cool bottle of water from a person standing behind the black curtains.
"That worked out well", she remarked.
"Thanks", he replied, shooting her a quick smile. Then he stopped. The woman was of Indian descent, with thick black hair and deep brown eyes. She cocked her head at him.
"What?"
"Sorry", Josh quickly apologized, "I was... surprised to see you. I mean, I was expecting Nathalie to man the drinks today as well."
The woman chuckled.
"She's sick, or her child is sick, so I offered to step in. I'm Indira."
"Josh", he said and accepted her outstretched hand. Behind him he could hear the continuous applauds, but they seemed to matter little to him right now. In fact he could not really understand what they meant anymore.
"You're supposed to go out there again", Indira remarked.
"Oh. Right, yes. Look, can I take you out for coffee sometime? Apologize for my slightly rude behaviour, perhaps?"
"Sure", Indira replied. "I work in a café not far from here. I'll leave the address with your water bottle; got to run to the next gig, you know."
Josh smiled widely, before he hurried back out onto the stage. As he bowed to the audience his thoughts were no longer on how the Senators were reacting to it all, but instead focused on the Indian woman and made him sneak a glance back to where she stood. She was scribbling the mentioned address on a piece of paper.
His mind then flickered briefly to Therese.
"Shit", he muttered to himself, grateful that the mike was no longer on. This was going to get complicated.
Not many characters left to introduce now!