by Claire Adams
I had lots of acquaintances and I knew there were friends who cared about me a lot. But everyone had their own lives and their own struggles; it was hard for them to pull away from their life and come be part of mine.
“Thanks, Mattie. So how are you and Markus doing? I really do appreciate you guys coming to the art show with me. You know I hate going to those alone.”
“We broke up.”
Normally, a good friend would act shocked at the notion of her best friend breaking up with her long-term boyfriend, but I was truly excited. I wanted to scream happily at the top of my lungs. He had treated her badly for far too long.
I also wasn’t sure that Mattie was going to stay broken up with him, so I had to walk a very narrow line as I waited to see if it would last.
The two of them had broken up before and I had talked badly about Markus, then when Mattie decided to get back together with the guy, I had to play nice. This time, I was going to play it as neutral as possible until I knew for sure that they weren’t going to get back together.
Although, I really, really hoped she didn’t get back with him. Mattie deserved a love like she hadn’t experienced yet, and if she stayed with Markus, she might miss her opportunity.
“Oh, what happened?” I managed to ask calmly.
“You know, it just didn’t work out. I’m going to try and get me one of these guys from our website. It seemed to work for you, so maybe it will work for me, too.”
“I don’t know, it was sort of a lucky break for me. I browsed through some of the other profiles and a lot of them are really old. I wouldn’t have gone out with very many of the other guys I saw on the app.
“But maybe if you put a little time into looking through them, you’ll find someone. Margret in marketing said that the really good guys find a woman really fast and then take their profiles down. Maybe it’s just a matter of catching them when they get on.”
“I’ve decided that looks and age are no longer my criteria. I want rich and nice,” she said as she put on a pretend happy face. “I’m fine with dating one of the old guys. I’ll learn to love him, I promise.”
“Are you sure you’re doing all right?” I asked. I could see the sadness behind her smile. “It’s okay to be sad about Markus. I’ll be here no matter what. You have to know that.”
Mattie quickly turned into a puddle of tears as she started sobbing in the middle of the lunch room. Her crying was making quite the scene, but I wasn’t about to try and stop her. Markus was a jerk, and she had dedicated a lot of her time to him, she deserved to have a good cry over those wasted months of her life.
“I loved him,” she whimpered through her tears.
“I’m sorry, honey. I’m here. Do you want me to cancel my date for Friday so the two of us can go out?”
“Absolutely not! What, do you think I’m some kind of animal? I need you to go out with this guy and prove to me that there are decent men out there. This has to happen,” she said with a totally serious look on her face.
“It’s still possible that he’s not a decent man, you know.”
“Nope, I refuse to believe that. He sounds pretty damn good to me, and I need you to follow through with this guy. Don’t start getting all freaked out the second the two of you get close. I know it’s hard.
“Well, okay, I don’t know how hard it is to lose a husband, but I know you and I know you’ve been through such a tough few years. You really deserve to just have some fun. This guy doesn’t have to be the happily ever part two guy; he can just be the guy who gives you lots of orgasms and makes you smile.”
“Yeah, that’s the guy I need. A fun guy who gives me lots of orgasms and doesn’t cause me any heartache.”
“Me, too. Find out if he has a brother. We could both have the perfect guy.”
Even when I wasn’t up for talking with Mattie, she had a way of brightening my spirits. She had taken my mind off of what was going on at work and moved it onto the delicious Brandon Baker.
“I don’t actually know all that much about him. I know he sold his parts manufacturing company last year for over a billion dollars. I think his parents live out east, and he’s an only child.”
“A billion? Like the letter B?”
“Yep.”
“Wow, he’s a great catch, for sure. I mean, it’s not all about the money and I know that’s not important to you. But he’s got to be really smart if he built a company that was worth that kind of money. Plus, he’s really damn handsome and makes you smile from ear to ear, so that’s a definite good sign.”
“I also know he lost his son to cancer six years ago,” I said as I let Brandon’s secret out of the bag.
I had debated on whether or not to tell her, but I just couldn’t keep that big of a secret to myself. Plus, he was a pretty public figure around Los Angeles, and I figured details about his son’s illness were probably posted on the internet anyways.
“No, that’s horrible,” Mattie said as her normal smiling face turned to a frown.
“I know. I started crying when he told me. I could only imagine how horrible it would be to lose Connor. I just couldn’t do it. I don’t know how a parent could move on after going through something like that.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty intense. So, he’s divorced?” she asked with a look of disappointment.
“Yes, but it’s really hard for people to stay married after they lose a child. He said they are still friends and his ex is even getting re-married soon. He seemed really well adjusted about the whole thing.”
“Okay, we need to get out of this sad zone. Let’s get back to talking about the sex. Tell me all about him.”
The desire to know about my sex life wasn’t new with Mattie. She had an insatiable appetite for everything sordid when it came to me – and anyone else who sat near her in the office. I did my best to keep the main details to myself, but there were a few things I couldn’t help but share with her.
“You know, he’s really good with his hands. Like expert massage level good. When his hands pressed against my lower back, I wanted to move things to a massage table and just let him go to town. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a good massage,” I winked.
“Girl, me, too!”
“I’m seeing him again Friday, but we are doing the real date thing. I’m not going to sleep with him.”
She just shook her head at me in disappointment.
“Why on earth would you make such a decision? You like him, and he likes you. If the date goes well, you bring him back to your place and screw his brains out. This isn’t a marathon you’re running; you don’t need to save your energy for later. This is casual dating, Del. Casual means you have fun and relax.”
“I don’t want him to think I’m easy like that.”
“Oh, because sleeping with him on the second date would mean you’re easy, but the first date didn’t?” she teased. “Come on, just have fun for once in your life. Let things progress. Get to know him and just enjoy yourself. Just because you go on more than one date with the guy doesn’t mean the two of you are going to be walking down the aisle.”
Logically, I knew Mattie was right. I was enjoying getting to know Brandon and wanted to date him casually. The problem was that I only had two speeds when it came to men: I either fell in love with them, or I discarded them after one night. If I planned on dating this guy, it was going to be really hard for me to keep my feelings in check and I knew it.
“I’ll do my best.”
“Yeah, do your damn best and forget about the rest,” she said in a chant as we made our way back to the elevator and to our desks.
When I arrived back at my desk, the computer consultant that had been there the other day to bring me my computer was there again. If Robert had called him earlier this morning, the guy sure did move quickly.
“Your boss says there are some errors in your system?”
“Not really. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. There are errors in the website coding, not
actually with the computer. I’ve gone over the code and just can’t seem to figure out what I’m missing.”
“Oh, I see. If you’d like to log into your administer section, I can take a look. I’ve got several years of coding experience. Sometimes it just takes another set of eyes.”
“Sure, I could use another person scanning through it. Anything at this point,” I said as I logged in and pulled up the internal code I was having trouble with. “I’ll be just across the way talking with my friend for a minute; let me know if you need anything.”
Chapter 10
Brandon
“I’m sorry, sir, your card has been declined,” the waitress said softly. Josh and I were out to lunch, and I had offered to pick up the tab.
“What?”
“Is there another form of payment you’d like to use?”
She was a very nice waitress, but I was dumbfounded as to how on earth my credit card could be declined. It wasn’t like I rode my cards close to the limit and didn’t have availability on them. Something strange was going on, and I needed to get over to my bank and get it figured out.
“Yes, I’ll pay in cash,” I said, afraid of using a different card and having some sort of similar issue.
“That’s weird,” Josh started to say. “Has anything like that ever happened before?”
We were both thinking the same thing, I could tell. My heart raced as I looked at him and shook my head. If some government agency had tagged me in an investigation and frozen my bank accounts, I was going to be pissed. I was an upstanding citizen who followed all the laws. There was no reason for me to get involved in anything against the law. I made millions by following the rules.
Josh and I didn’t talk at all as we left the restaurant. I knew he wanted to say something about the damn trading account. But I would have exploded on him if he had mumbled one single word. My anger was building, and we quickly walked the two blocks down the street from the restaurant to the main branch of my bank.
“Take some deep breaths and don’t lose it in there. Banks kind of freak out when customers get volatile.”
“I’m fine. I just need to find out what the hell is going on with my account. Can you do me a favor and go log into my trading account to see if there’s any notices or anything like that? I just don’t see how this could be related, though; this is a credit card and not attached to any of my bank accounts.”
“Well, if they freeze…” Josh started to say before deciding against continuing on. “I’ll go check your account. Do you want to just meet up with me at my house when you’re done?”
“I’ll call you when I’m done.”
As I walked into the bank, I took a couple deep breaths to try and focus myself because I could tell I was already getting really worked up about what had happened at the restaurant. I hadn’t had a card declined since I was in college. It was ridiculous, and I wanted to find someone at the bank to share how I felt about their customer service and declining a transaction from a client such as myself.
I wasn’t trying to be an asshole, but certainly the bank earned a lot of money from all the business I did through them and they should treat me better than to decline a transaction for no cause.
After going through a teller and a shift manager, I was finally led to the branch manager’s office to discuss what was happening with my account. Up until that point, I had been level headed and calm. There had been no yelling at all, and I was pretty damn proud of myself.
“Mr. Baker, I hear there is some potential fraud going on with one of your accounts that we need to take care of right away,” the man said as he shook my hand. “I’m Jerrod Anderson, the bank manager. Let’s get this straightened out.”
“Yes, I’ve never had any issue with this account before. I’m very disappointed I had to deal with the embarrassment of having the transaction declined,” I said firmly.
“Of course, sir; let me look at the account. Do you have the card with you?”
“Here it is.”
I handed over the card and tried to maintain my firm stance with the man. Unfortunately, he was so insistent on being friendly and helpful that it was hard for me to continue to stay angry. After watching him type into the computer for at least five minutes, I finally gave in and sat in one of the extremely plush and comfortable chairs across from his desk.
“Did you know that there is a Rose Baker still attached to this account as an authorized signer?” the bank manager said as he turned and looked at me from his computer.
“That’s my ex-wife. She shouldn’t be on the account anymore.”
“Actually, the account was opened by the both of you. If you’d like to remove her, I’ll just need to have her come in here and sign some paperwork.”
“That’s fine, but it still doesn’t tell me why the account was declined.”
“You’re right, sir. It looks like Rose had this credit card listed as a backup source for her PayPal account. Several charges went through in one day and triggered a fraud alert. Unfortunately, they did try to call you a couple of days ago and did not receive a return call regarding if the charges were yours or not. So, the account was put into fraud status for your protection.”
I had received two voicemails from the bank that I had forgotten to return. They didn’t say they were from a fraud department, though, only generic messages to call them back. I had totally blown them off.
“Let me call her and see if she can come down,” I said, ignoring the fact that I had messed up by not returning the banker’s calls about the account.
“Sure. I’ve got some business to do with another client. Feel free to step out and then just have one of the tellers grab me when you’re ready to have Rose sign the necessary paperwork.”
“Thank you.”
I went out to the lobby and then out to the street so I could call Rose and see if she would come down to the bank. I really didn’t care all that much about the charges made on the account, I just didn’t want my card being flagged for fraud or the embarrassment of having it declined.
“Hey,” I said when Carlos answered Rose’s phone. “Is Rose around?”
“Yep.”
“Can I talk to her?”
“I don’t know, can you?”
“Carlos, I don’t have time for this crap. Get Rose.”
“Brandon, I hear you’re doing some day trading. You should be careful with that stuff. I hear a lot of crack downs are going on and people are getting arrested.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“I’m just trying to be helpful, bro. I’m sure Rose has told you I’m working with the government undercover. I hear things all the time. I would hate for you to get mixed up in something like that.”
“I swear to God, if I find out you’ve had anything to do with what’s going on with my bank account, I’m going to come over there and kick your ass.”
“Why, what’s going on with your bank account?”
“Just get Rose,” I said loud enough that people on the street were now paying attention to me.
Carlos took his time going to get Rose and when she finally got on the phone, I felt like I was going to explode. My anger had been building up since my card was declined and I no longer wanted to explain anything over the phone.
“Can you come down to First Trust Bank? Your name is still on an account and we need to fix that.”
“Does it have to be today? I’m in the middle of something.”
“Yes, and after dealing with that ass of a fiancé you have, I think coming down here is the least you can do for me.”
“What did he say now?”
“Never mind. Can you just come down and get this taken care of? I’ve had a crazy day.”
“Sure, I’ll be down in twenty minutes.”
“Thanks.”
It was probably going to take her more like an hour with the traffic, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that. I wasn’t about to leave the bank until I had everyt
hing worked out.
My whole week had seemed to be one weird occurrence after another. First the flag on my trading account, then my Dating the Rich account profile was totally messed up, and now this. Something was definitely going on, and I was starting to get nervous.
The mess up with my Dating the Rich account had taken out all my preferences and allowed anyone to message me, and I’d be charged for it. Again, it wasn’t about the money, but I did hate having all those messages and knowing I wasn’t going to be responding to any of them. I was interested in Del now; there was no need to keep looking for other women.
Del had been very helpful when I called her and talked about the errors I was getting. The website seemed to be having ongoing problems, and I ended up just making my profile hidden so I wouldn’t have to mess with it any longer. There really was no need for me to even log in. Del and I were exclusively communicating via text messaging and phone calls, and I wasn’t talking to any other women from the website.
“Thanks for coming,” I said as Rose got out of an Uber in front of the bank.
“Sorry it took so long; you know how traffic is.”
“No problem. So apparently, you’ve got a PayPal account that’s connected to this card. A bunch of charges came through and they froze the card for fraud. When I came down to fix it, they said it was still connected to your account.”
“Crap, I’m sorry. I’ll pay you back.”
“Oh, come on. I don’t care about that, but I don’t want to have my card declined when I’m out. That’s embarrassing.”
“Brandon, I understand. Let’s get it fixed.”
Rose and I got along well. Actually, getting divorced had been the best thing to ever happen to our relationship. When the demands of being a couple were taken off of us, we were finally able to go back to being friends, which seemed like a happy place for our relationship.