by Claire Adams
As Josh left, I quickly checked my phone to see if there were any messages from Del. I had asked her how her day was going earlier, but she hadn’t responded yet. Soon, I found myself looking over her online profile and then quickly getting out of it again. I didn’t want her to see that I was digitally stalking her like a lovesick puppy and knowing that she worked at the website made me hyper aware of the skills she might have to know who was looking at her page.
I went back to my trading platform and watched the stocks of the day. There was a lot of movement, and I found myself keying in on one particular stack as it moved up a little and then back a few points. It looked like it was gearing up for a nice spike before the end of the day, and I wanted to get in on it.
Just before one o’clock, I threw in an order for as many shares as I could buy with the available funds in my account. Sure enough, I watched as the stock took off and started one of the best climbs I had seen in a really long time.
First it was up to $12.03, then suddenly it was $13.49, and by the time I sold off my shares, it was well over $18.00 per share. It was my best buy all on my own and I wanted to call up Josh to tell him all about it, but I held back. I wasn’t supposed to have been trading and I knew he would get angry.
As I sat in my guilt-ridden happiness, I hoped I hadn’t just made more of a mess for myself. The trades had been one hundred percent legal, though, and I knew it. There was no reason for my account to be flagged, unless it was some sort of random issue.
I watched my computer monitor steadily as I waited for some sort of sign that I had been watched.
In life, I wasn’t much of a rule breaker. Sure, I liked to push the general rules if they didn’t fit with what I was doing with my business, but I never straight out committed crimes. In general, I was a very law-abiding citizen and probably a little tame in the risks I took with my life.
It made me nervous that my trading account had been flagged. I hadn’t ever dealt with a real investigation into my life, either financially or legally, and I really wanted to keep it that way.
After a good thirty minutes of no action on my account, I finally clicked out of it and tried to find something else to keep myself busy as I waited for Del to message me back.
There was plenty for me to do; I certainly wasn’t all that hard up for work. I was working on a new business deal with some of my old partners and we were actively looking for new companies to invest in. I also had a lot to do around my house. I’d spent so many years working that I hadn’t put any effort into decorating the place to show who I was. I was hoping to make it more livable and less like a bachelor pad.
Delilah: I’m doing good. How’s your day?
She texted me. I could have gone into all the crazy flagging that was going on with my account, but all I wanted to do was talk to her. Instead of texting her back, I just dialed her number. It was a bold and spontaneous move that I hoped would come across that way to her.
“What kind of maniac responds to a text by calling someone?” she laughed into the phone as she answered.
“Sorry, I just thought if you were available, I’d much rather hear your voice than just look at your words on the screen.”
“Aww, you’re forgiven. My day is going all right. We seemed to have a hacker in our online system, though. Well, not sure it’s a hacker yet, but the work I did last week has totally reverted and my code needs to be re-written.”
She certainly sounded like a computer woman who knew what she was talking about. I wished Josh was there to hear her talk about her job. It would have put him at ease with all his conspiracy sugar baby talk.
“I’m not sure I understood all of that, but I hope your day gets better.”
“It’s all right. I mean, it’s not like it’s my personal account. At least at the end of the day I get to go home. But I really hate when it looks like I suck at my job. I’m already the only woman in my IT department.
“Oh, crap, I need to run. Get online and I’ll message you there; it looks like I’m working then.”
“Okay,” I laughed as she hung up quickly.
My adrenaline surged at the idea that she wanted to talk to me even though she was at work and might get in trouble for it. I quickly logging into my Dating the Rich account and pulled up the instant messaging to talk to her. She wasn’t there yet and I waited, and waited, and waited.
Talking to Delilah felt weirdly perfect to me. When she finally came online, I couldn’t help but get excited that I’d have a few moments to sneak a conversation in with her while she was at work.
Chapter 9
Delilah
“So, what did you do to the system this time?” Robert said as he hovered over my desk.
“Like I said in my message to you, I didn’t do it. I actually had the error fixed last week and my changes have been removed. I think it’s possible someone has hacked into the account, but I’m not sure.”
It was so frustrating to talk with Robert about what was going on. He was by far the most useless person at our company. He didn’t really do anything. His whole job was to supervise other people while they did their jobs. I didn’t even know what skills the guy actually had. He certainly was good at delegating work and not helping with anything.
He was also good at making me feel like crap and like I wasn’t doing my job well enough.
The way he talked to me, it was as if he thought I was just pretending to know about computers and didn’t really know how to do my job. He didn’t seem to think a woman could do much and often made rude comments about any number of the women in the company. It was surprising that he had lasted so long at our organization because most of the people in charge didn’t seem to share his belief that women weren’t capable.
“Or, it’s possible you don’t know what you’re doing and you messed up?” he asked and then stood there waiting for me to agree with him.
There was no way I could have removed all my own work and I knew it, but I also had learned that arguing with Robert was very counterproductive for me actually getting my work done. He had the strange ability of twisting everything around and making me feel like maybe I had done something wrong.
I could have explained to him what work I had actually completed, and if he had been a halfway decent manager, he might have asked that of me. But instead, he just stood there waiting for me to tell him he was right and that I had totally messed up my own work. It was ridiculous, and I wasn’t about to give in to him. I wasn’t going to let him think that I had messed everything up when I knew I hadn’t.
“It’s possible there is another reason for the errors,” I said. “We have a lot of old code in here and some of it might be interacting poorly with the new code. I’ll go back through it line by line and see what I can find.”
“You’re the one who crashed her computer and had to get a new one last week, right?”
“Yes, but that wasn’t because of something I did. It just crashed and wouldn’t turn back on,” I protested, although I was starting to see where he was coming from on thinking I had something to do with the errors. “This is the new computer, and it’s working great, I really appreciate you making it happen so quickly so I could keep up with my job tasks.”
My attempt to praise him went unnoticed as he just huffed and tried to figure out what it was he was supposed to do with my information regarding the possible hacking. I really didn’t know if it was hacking, but there was a bigger error than I thought I was capable of fixing and I needed help. He was my supervisor and seemed so worried with what I was doing with my time, I’d hoped he would actually try and help fix the problem.
“Do you know it’s a hacker?”
“No, I don’t. I could have Tom come sit with me and go over what’s going on. Is that all right with you?”
“Tom’s on vacation. I’ll call the computer guy who brought that computer in for you. He knows a lot.”
“But it’s not actually a computer issue, Robert; it’s an internal server issue tha
t-”
“Okay, you’re welcome. He’s a high-level consultant. I’m sure he will be able to figure out what you’ve done. Hell, maybe if he’s really good, I’ll even hire him.”
“Robert, it’s an internal issue and that computer guy doesn’t know our system; he just knows the hardware that he brought in. I really think-”
“I’ll see if he can come today. Try not to break anything else until then,” he said as he walked away.
“Don’t quit your job,” Mattie said as she leaned over and tried to calm me down. “Remember, you have bills. You have a son. Don’t quit your job,” she continued to say quietly to me as Robert walked away.
“Who does he think he is? He literally has no idea what he’s talking about and thinks some random computer set-up guy is going to be able to fix the problems that I’ve been wrestling with for weeks? Damn chauvinist pig.”
“Remember you love your job, you just don’t like him. He’s not going to last much longer, I know a lot of people are getting angry with him. You need this job,” Mattie said in a calm voice as she comforted me.
She was right, I needed my job. I was one of those people who literally lived paycheck to paycheck. I could probably only last one month on the savings I had, and even that would be really tight for us. It wasn’t how I wanted things to be. I really had great intentions to save my money and make sure Connor and I were secure. Unfortunately, there just was never enough money to save.
“You’re right. It just makes me so mad that he talks to me like I have no idea what I’m doing. Who does he think is setting up our website on a daily basis? Does he really think the guys do all of the work and I’m just for decoration? I swear he wouldn’t know a line of code if you sat it right in front of him. I have half a mind to storm into his office and tell him what a total ass he really is.”
“I hate to break it to you, but yes, he’s an ass, and he probably does think the guys do all the work. That’s probably what he thinks and you can’t do a damn thing about it. Just keep doing your job and that is all that matters. Oh, and who were you on the phone with?”
“Brandon,” I said as a huge smile crossed my face and I was pretty sure I blushed a little as well.
“Oh, Brandon. As in the Brandon that you dumped me for over the weekend?”
“Yep, that would be him,” I noticed he had sent me a message online and quickly typed a response to him while I kept talking to Mattie.
Delilah: Sorry I had to go so quickly; my boss was here.
Brandon: It’s all right. So, how is Friday for me to take you out? Will you let me pick you up from your place this time? I think I’ve proven I’m not a lunatic.
Delilah: Hmm, I’m not sure it’s safe for me to be alone with you.
“Oh, I see what’s going on,” Mattie said as she leaned over the desk and saw I was messaging Brandon in the Dating the Rich app.
“Shhh, I’m trying to work here,” I joked. “I wouldn’t want the boss man to see me actually talking to someone on here.”
“Yeah, I see you’re working really hard.”
“Go back to your desk before you get me in trouble,” I demanded as I pushed my friend away playfully. “I’ll fill you in when I’m done talking to him.”
I really did want to talk with Brandon and I couldn’t have Mattie ruining it for me. My heart raced as I went back to my conversation. If I closed my eyes, I could still taste the delicate softness of his lips on mine. I wanted him again. It had only been a few days and I already felt like an addict who needed her hit.
After being with Brandon, I had been high on life for the rest of my weekend. Connor and I went to the park, and I ran with him like my energy levels had been doubled. When the night calmed down and Connor crawled into bed, I spent the next couple of hours doing chores around the house that I’d been wanting to get done for months.
Brandon certainly had done a number on me, and my smile was another positive outcome. I’d probably been smiling since I’d left him at the bagel shop. I just couldn’t stop, or at least I couldn’t stop smiling when I thought of him. And, it happened to be pretty damn impossible not to think of him, so that meant I was walking around with a permanent smile on my face.
Brandon: You could always meet me, but I’d really like to come pick you up and make it a proper date.
Delilah: I was just teasing; I’d love to have you pick me up. Would seven o’clock work all right?
Brandon: Yes. Now, enough about that, let’s talk about this damn profile picture again. I must say you look just as beautiful in person, which is a unique quality in the online dating world.
Delilah: Yep, I have just as much cellulite in person as I do in that photo.
I instantly cringed as I sent the message. I didn’t want to be one of those pretty girls that complained about her ounce of cellulite when a guy was trying to pay a compliment. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a confident woman who could just answer with a plain thank you when a guy offered me positive affirmations like that either.
Brandon: Absolutely do not agree!
Delilah: So, what are you doing with yourself today? Do you learn investing every day? Or are you just sitting around the house eating bonbons?
Brandon: I was working on it for a little bit, but my friend Josh had to run. Now I’m doing nothing. I’m literally the stereotypical unemployed man right now. Not exactly eating bonbons, but I did just eat peanut butter from a spoon.
Delilah: I’m picturing you sitting on a couch with your feet on a coffee table and the remote next to you. Are you watching daytime soap operas?
Brandon: How did you know? *shocked face* You’ve uncovered my dirty little secret.
Delilah: I was working for a little bit. That darn error that happened last week is going on again, plus some new ones. It’s a bit of a disaster; that’s the only reason my account is active again. Otherwise I’d have it hidden.
Brandon: Sure, sure, I bet you’re just on the lookout for another handsome billionaire to take you out on dates.
My heart sunk as I read his words. He seemed to have a joking tone to his message and I really didn’t want to take offense at what he was saying, but my gut spun in circles at the idea I would be looking for another man when I had just had such a wonderful date with Brandon.
I stared at the screen for a while as I tried to think of an appropriate response. If he was teasing me, it was easy – I’d just send a laughing emoji back to him. But what if he actually thought I was doing something like that?
Delilah: LOL. Well, I better get back to work. My computer is having a hell of a time. I’m going to be making my account private, so just text me if you want to talk this week.
Brandon: All right. Talk to you later.
I turned back to my work at hand. If I had to call some sort of consultant in to look at what I was doing wrong, I needed to make sure I’d done the best I could to check for all the possible errors first.
When anyone outside of my close group of computer friends had to look at my work, I got so self-conscious. Because I was blonde and a woman, guys really did think I was dumb, and I couldn’t give them any ammunition to add to those thoughts. I knew what I was doing and that frustrated me even more as I read through the code and looked for my errors.
“What happened? Why does your face look like that?” Mattie asked as she put her customer on hold to talk to me.
“What are you talking about? This is just my face, nothing going on here. Go back to your customers before they get angry.”
“You can tell me at lunch.”
I suspected I wasn’t going to be able to get out of going to lunch with her that day; there was just too much going on. But she was going to want some of the details or I was never going to hear the end of it.
When lunch rolled around, I had Mattie standing right next to me, waiting for me to finish up so we could go down to the lunch room and talk. I didn’t mind talking with her about my date. I didn’t really have anyone else in my life I could trust
like I trusted her. It had just been a really long time since I had to tell anyone about a date I’d gone on.
“So, let’s skip past the bagel and get right to the part where you canceled meeting up to workout. I’ve done the math that means you’d already been out with him for three hours. That’s one hell of a long date. Details, I need details.”
“Yeah, well, we went swimming and hung out on his private island. You know, just a typical date,” I rolled my eyes dramatically and pretended like it was normal to say I’d been on a man’s private island. “It was amazing. He was so nice, and we had so much fun.”
“Oh, yeah, so basically just like my date last week,” she laughed loudly and everyone turned to look at us. “Well, except for the island, swimming, and handsome guy part; other than that, it was identical.”
“He’s truly a good guy, Mattie, and oh man, he kisses like I’ve never been kissed before. I could seriously make out with him all day long. We talked for hours, made love, and even took a shower with rain water he had gathered. I’ve never been around someone like him and I can’t wait to see him again.”
“What else? Tell me everything.”
“Have you ever seen that tiny island north of Venice beach? The pier is called Planter’s Pier.”
“I think I’ve seen it. I thought it was some sort of city storage place for the life guards or something like that. Does he own that?”
“Yep, and he owns another island somewhere in the Caribbean, I’m not sure where. Can you even believe that I went out on a date with a guy that owns a friggin’ island? How the heck did this happen? Last month I’m getting hit on by complete losers, and this month I’ve got a billionaire asking me out.”
“You deserve it, Del. If there is any woman in this world that deserves to be happy, it’s you. Well, it’s me first, but since he picked you…then it’s you,” she laughed. “I have a good feeling about this guy. I think things are going to be a lot of fun for the two of you.”
The time Mattie and I had together since losing my husband had really been priceless. It was her humor that kept me going on my worst days. She didn’t let things build up and always was ready to be a warm shoulder for me to cry on. She had started as a friend from work, but quickly moved into becoming my only close friend.