by Claire Adams
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,” she said. “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?” she asked.
“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.
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,” she said.
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 said. “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,” I said.
“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,” she said. “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,” I said. “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,” she said. “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 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,” she suggested. “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 said. “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,” I said.
“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,” I said.
“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 Ten
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?” the waitress asked me.
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 abou
t 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.