Chapter Seventeen
Delilah
“Come here, take a SnapChat photo with me,” Mattie said as we waited for the staff meeting that morning.
“God, Mattie, you need to get over all this social media stuff. Does anyone even follow you?”
“Hey, I’ve got several hundred followers.”
“Fine, take the photo.”
I leaned over our cubicle so she could snap her picture. As usual, instead of taking one photo, Mattie continued trying to take the photo with random filters. What should have taken three seconds stretched into three minutes in her search for the perfect photo for her social media account.
“Delilah, this man is here to see you,” my boss Robert said from behind me.
As I turned around, my face was hip level to Robert and another man in a suit. Both men took a step back as I stood up to make the interaction a little less awkward. I wasn’t expecting a visitor and really had no idea why this guy would be at my office to talk with me.
“Hi, I’m Carlos Rodriguez; I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
“Is this related to the hacker we have had? I think we finally fixed those errors, and I don’t see any other issues.”
“No, ma’am, this is a personal issue.”
Suddenly, I was worried. My heart jumped in my chest as I looked frantically between my supervisor and this man. I didn’t do illegal things or anything that required someone to question me. My life was extremely boring – more than boring, it was lame. I held my hands close to my body as I tried to calm myself down before going with the man to answer his questions.
“You can use my office,” Robert said.
Worry filled every pore of my body as I followed them. I hated being in trouble. I’d purposely been a really good child just to avoid any sort of need to talk to me or punish me. As an adult, I lived by pretty much the same theory. I didn’t break the law, I didn’t hang around others who broke the law, and I did my best to avoid situations like the one I was currently walking into.
“We will just need fifteen minutes or so,” the man said to Robert.
“Take your time,” he replied in a nicer voice than I had heard from him in years.
“So, Miss Hunter, I’ve just got a few questions for you and I’ll be out of your hair.”
“Okay. Sure. I’ll answer what I can.”
My nervousness had taken over and I felt small beads of sweat at my temples that I tried to ignore. My fingers shook and I held them together in an effort to calm them, but it didn’t work.
“Do you know a Brandon Baker?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know him?”
“He’s a friend.”
“Can you elaborate on this?”
“A good friend.”
I wasn’t purposely being short with my answers, but I didn’t want to say or do something that I would regret. I had no idea who this guy was or why he was there to ask me questions. I certainly didn’t feel comfortable sharing details about my life if I didn’t know who I was talking to.
“Miss, I need you to be honest with me. How do you know this man?”
“Where did you get that picture?” I said as I reached for the snapshot in his hands. It was a close-up picture of Brandon and me at the bagel shop. “Who are you? Why should I answer your questions if you haven’t even identified yourself?”
“I told you, my name is Carlos Rodriguez. I’m an investigator with the federal government.”
“With whom in the federal government?” I asked suspiciously.
“I work with the Securities Exchange Commission,” Carlos said as he pulled out his identification and handed it to me.
I took some time looking over the identification and handed it back when I was satisfied he was who he said he was. But I still didn’t know how I had anything to do with an investigation of Brandon.
“I’m dating Brandon. What else do you want to know?”
“Has he been moving money around lately? Were you privy to any conversations where he discussed hiding assets, or have you participated in helping him hide his fortune in any way?”
“No, I hardly know him.”
“He’s involved in some serious stuff. I’d advise you to stay away from him if you value your life and the lives of your loved ones.”
“What? Aren’t you involved in investment issues? What’s going on?”
“Listen, you seem like a nice lady, and I can’t go into all the details of this investigation. I can tell you that this man has some pretty dangerous people involved in his scam life and it’s not the place for a young mother like yourself.”
“How do you know I have a child?”
This guy was really starting to freak me out. Brandon didn’t strike me as the type of guy who was involved in dangerous things, but that message I received through the online system was still in my head. Whatever was going on in Brandon’s life was getting out of control, and I didn’t want to be part of it any longer. I couldn’t risk something happening to me or my son and I didn’t want to be part of the drama.
“I’m an investigator, ma’am. Here’s my card. If you think of any other important information, please give me a call. And like I said, I’d try staying away from the trouble that Mr. Baker has himself in.”
“Okay, thank you,” I replied as the man left the office and I continued sitting there.
The whole encounter had seemed rather odd. How did this guy even know who I was? I had only been on a couple of dates with Brandon, and I couldn’t have been the closest person in his life that they were able to contact.
But none of it mattered. As much as I was starting to like Brandon, I certainly couldn’t be in dangerous situations. He was going to have to figure things out before I was going to spend any more time with him.
“What’s going on? What happened? Are you going to be arrested? Am I going to be arrested?” Robert said as he rushed up to me.
“No, Robert, neither of us is going to be arrested. I can’t really talk about anything more than that.”
“You’d tell me, right? I mean, if they were after me, you wouldn’t keep that to yourself?”
I had to laugh at the paranoia that Robert had and couldn’t help but wonder what sort of trouble he was getting himself into that he actually thought someone was coming after him.
“I’d tell you, Robert. Now I’m going to get back to my desk and my work, if that’s all right with you?”
“Sure, yeah, of course. You do what you need. Let me know if you need any help. I think you’re doing a great job.”
I quickly made my way back toward my desk and grabbed Mattie as I continued walking down the hall. She pulled away from me and we looked at each other with an understanding that there was a lot we had to talk about.
“What was it? What’s happening?” she whispered.
“The guy works for the securities commission and said Brandon is mixed up in some illegal stuff. I didn’t tell you that I got a weird message from Brandon’s online account when I knew he hadn’t sent it. And, when we came back to his house from the theater, it had been broken into. He didn’t let me go inside with him, so I’m not sure what’s going on, but I saw through the window when he opened his safe. Man, I think he’s mixed up in some crazy stuff.”
I took a deep breath as I waited for Mattie to reply. It was all too much for me. Investment fraud, break ins, computer hacking: I felt like I was in the middle of a crime show and not my actual life. All the chaos seemed to come from Brandon, though, and it was looking more and more like I had to step away from whatever it was we had going on.
“First of all, I didn’t hear half of what you just said. You really should breathe more when you talk,” Mattie said. “Second of all, I think you are right and you shouldn’t risk your own wellbeing around someone who has this kind of trouble in their life.”
“Mattie, I really like him, I do; but what else can I do? I mean a dude with a badge just came and interviewed me about a guy I’ve only been on three dates with. I’m not stable enough for this kind of drama.”
“You’re stable enough for anything, don’t fool yourself.”
“I don’t know what to do.”
“Del, don’t be so dramatic. You’ve answered the necessary questions; now get back to your normal life. It isn’t life-altering if you just take a week or two and don’t date this guy. Either things are going to get worse, or they will clear up and you can make your decision about him then.”
“Yeah, that’s probably true.”
“It is true. Stop worrying about it.”
“I just expect things to turn into some sort of disaster and look what’s happening: it’s a disaster. Why can’t I just have a normal relationship, with a normal guy, that doesn’t end in some big, dramatic way?”
“What fun would that be?”
“I’ve got to have dinner with the ex-in-laws tonight. I had intended to tell them all about Brandon and how the dating was going; now I’m going to have to tell them I got mixed up in some sort of illegal disaster?”
“Don’t tell them anything. Just go enjoy your dinner and wait and see what happens. Del, you really have no idea what’s going on just yet.”
“I know he’s under investigation for illegal trading, right? That’s what the security exchange commission does. So, at the very least, I know that much.”
“Take a couple deep breaths. Everything doesn’t have to be decided right now. How’s your computer issue going? Did you get that all figured out, at least?”
We made our way back to our desks as I took some more deep breaths and tried to refocus myself. I still had a whole day of work ahead of me and the distraction from the morning wasn’t helping at all.
After a lot of hard work and digging, I’d finally figured out how to block whatever or whoever had been getting into our system. It looked like they had gotten in from an internal connection, which was a little concerning, but it didn’t matter any longer; I’d blocked all outside edits to my work. When the time came that someone did need to make changes, they were going to have to go through me anyways, so it was simpler just to put the security measures in place.
“It’s taken care of now. We shouldn’t have any more problems.”
“That’s great. You’re so good at fixing those issues.”
“I have to admit, the consultant had a big part in the issues getting fixed. I’m glad Robert hired him – just don’t let Robert know I said that.”
The last thing I needed was my boss thinking that he had done something right by hiring a consultant to help me. I was barely holding onto my job as it was; I didn’t need him thinking that there were other people more capable than I was.
By five o’clock, Brandon had called me twice, and I had sent him straight to voicemail both times. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to tell him what had happened or not. All I knew was I didn’t have the strength to deal with him at the moment. Whatever was going on in his life was something he needed to figure out, and I would just talk to him in a week or two.
My emotions were so raw about everything that was going on. I genuinely felt like Brandon was a good guy, and to think he was involved in something horrible meant I was pretty bad at judging people. After successfully avoiding any relationships since Spencer had passed away, this wasn’t exactly showing me I could make wise relationship decisions.
As I picked up Connor from school and made my way to his grandparents’ house, I saw a text message come through from Brandon. I couldn’t talk to him. I couldn’t deal with whatever was going on in his life. I had to tell him I needed a break.
Brandon: How’s your day?
Delilah: I’m going to take a break from us. Best of luck.
Brandon: What?
I didn’t respond. I really didn’t want to be one of those girls who cause more drama when drama was already going on in someone’s life. The best thing I could do was take a little time and space to figure things out before they got out of control. I already had feelings for this guy; I couldn’t risk getting deeper into those feelings if I wasn’t sure about who he was or the type of character he had.
“Delilah!” Mary greeted me with a hug as Connor and I approached the front door to her house.
Mary and Steve were the nicest people. If I couldn’t have my own family with me, I would have picked the two of them, for sure. They loved me and Connor through their own grief and put every bit of their energy into making sure we were happy.
“Hi, Mary, you look great. Have you been doing yoga again?”
“You know, I actually stopped eating sugar. I know that seems a little extreme, but I feel great and my arthritis is practically gone.”
“How’s Steve doing with this new diet?”
Mary was always on some sort of health kick and since she did most of the grocery shopping and cooking, her husband ended up going along for the ride. It was actually really adorable and gave me goals for my future. Their love also made me miss my husband terribly. We were young and just getting started in our marriage, but I’d sometimes pictured us getting old together and ending up like his parents – and that wasn’t a bad picture at all.
“I hate it,” Steve said as he snuck past Mary to grab Connor. “Can you imagine not eating another piece of candy?”
“Nope,” Connor said. “I think I would die.”
“Well, I don’t know if that will happen, but I really want some chocolate,” Steve said as he and Connor ran off to the play room.
“You know, Steve is a really good guy. I don’t think I could survive getting rid of sugar from my life,” I added as we sat down in the living room to talk.
“Delilah, sugar is the number one cause of cancer. You really should stop eating it all together. And, do you know how much sugar they add to cereal, bread, and our drinks? It’s everywhere. We are becoming sugar addicts without even knowing it.”
“No, I didn’t know all that. I’ll pay closer attention,” I offered, knowing that there was no arguing with Mary when she was on a new health kick. “Thanks for having us for dinner. I’ve had a long day, and I’m really glad I don’t have to cook.”
“You know you and Connor can come over for dinner any time. Or just drop Connor off if you want to go to dinner with your new boyfriend,” she said with a huge smile.
“Oh, no…” I started to say.
“It’s okay, you know. Steve and I are really excited to see that you are finally getting out there and dating. You’re a beautiful woman, Delilah, and you deserve more happiness in your life. I want you to know that we support you in this new dating thing.”
“I’m not dating that much. Just one guy I’ve gone on a couple of dates with. I really appreciate you guys taking Connor the last couple of weekends. It’s just easier when I get home late and don’t have to worry about him.”
I wasn’t about to admit that I’d been staying out all night with Brandon; that seemed like a little too much for my ex-mother-in-law to have to deal with. She was a loving and understanding woman, but my sex life wasn’t an area I wanted her to be part of.
“Whatever you need, we are here for you and Connor. So, tell me about this guy…”
“Well, he’s just a businessman from around here, nothing exciting.”
“What kind of business is he in?”
“Manufacturing or something like that. We haven’t really talked about it too much. You know how those first couple of dates are – really boring and awkward.”
I lied to her. I lied straight through my teeth to one of the kindest women I knew. Things between Brandon and I hadn’t been awkward, at all. In fact, from the moment we sat down together in the bagel shop until the last time I had been with him, I felt extremely comfortable with him.
“I’m so excited for you, honey. You know I think of you just like my daughter and I hope you’ll always keep us involved in your life, even after you remarry.”
“Oh, no,” I busted out laughing. “There will be no getting married anytime soon.”
“You never know, dear. You might just find another prince charming who sweeps you off your feet.”
“I don’t think I want to be swept off my feet. I’m happy, Mary. I’ve got a good job, a great family, and Connor is by far the best child I could hope for. Maybe I’ll just stay single forever.”
Her face turned from upbeat and happy to extraordinarily sad. The corner of her mouth turned down, and I saw a hint of tears forming in her eyes.
“Delilah, Spencer would want you to be happy. Don’t let your heartbreak keep you from finding love again. We are meant to love one another.”
I loved Mary so much. Even though her own heart was breaking at the loss of her son, she still wanted to see me happy. She was the epitome of a selfless woman and always thought of others before herself. I don’t think I would have had as strong of a relationship with her had Spencer lived, but I hoped that I would have been able to love her as deeply as I did through our mutual grief.
“I promise I’ll love again someday. I’m just not in a hurry, and I’m not sure this guy is the right one,” I said. “I’ll keep my eye out, though.”
“You should go out to those dance clubs with that funny friend of yours. I bet there’s a lot of nice boys at the dance clubs.”
I had to laugh at how Mary thought about dating in the current day. Sure, there were a lot of men at the dance clubs, but they weren’t the kind of guys you started relationships with. The guys I had met at clubs were pretty much only good for one-night stands and nothing more than that. Online dating didn’t seem to be much better, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to get involved in the whole matchmaking business.
Dating and finding someone to fall in love with seemed so overwhelming now that things were crumbling with Brandon. I couldn’t even think of getting back out in the market until I figured out what had gone wrong with choosing him. He had felt so right to me. I felt good around him and that was hard to understand now that other things were coming out. Nope, I was definitely going to be taking a dating break.
“Yeah, my friend Mattie wanted me to go out with her this weekend. She always wants to go out now that she broke up with that jerk of a boyfriend.”
“You should go out. We can keep Connor here again.”
“No, no, he’s already stayed over for two weekends. I can’t have him imposing on your guys all the time.”
“Imposing,” she said loudly. “Absolutely not! Connor is our grandson, and we love having him here. I’d come over and steal him from you every weekend if you’d let me.”
“I know you guys love him and he really does love coming over, I just don’t think going out three weekends in a row is a good idea. Plus, have you seen my dance moves? I’m no good at dancing, anyways,” I laughed.
“You stop it right now, young lady. I’ve decided already that Connor and I have a date Friday, so you’ll just have to go out with your friends. He’s wanted to see that new animated movie and I really want some buttered popcorn,” she said. “So, it’s decided. I’ll get him from school Friday, and you can go do whatever you want to do. You can just sit in your bathtub and read a book for all I care; but take some time and relax or go out and have fun.”
“I remember Spencer telling me about this bossy side of yours,” I teased. “Fine, I’ll let you take him to the movies.”
She reached her arms around me and hugged me tighter than I’d been hugged in a very long time. I loved the feeling of her arms wrapped around me and the comfort I felt there with Mary. For a moment, I considered telling her everything that was going on with Brandon, but I decided against it. When I knew more, then I’d tell her.
We spent the rest of the evening as a family, cooking dinner, eating around the table, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company. I hoped that when I finally found someone else, they’d be able to understand just how much Mary and Steve would always mean to Connor and I. It was a tall order to think that a new man would be accepting of my late husband’s parents, but if I ever actually settled down, I wanted to find someone that had a heart big enough to understand this complex part of my past.
By the time I was driving home with Connor, we were both exhausted. Visiting others almost always took an emotional toll on me. I had to be happy and funny. I had to interact without making them sad because of the loss we’d endured. Even though I felt very comfortable with Mary and Steve, I still had the stress of trying to show them how well adjusted I was.
When we pulled into the driveway and climbed into our beds, there was a relief that drained from me. At home, I could be myself. In my own bed, I didn’t have to worry about making anyone else happy or if they were uncomfortable because I brought up my late husband. In my house, all I had to worry about was me and my son; I really liked that.
But when I was with Brandon, I hadn’t worried, either. As much as I tried not to think about him, as I lay in my bed, I did think about Brandon and just how comfortable I was around him. I knew Connor would have been comfortable with him, too, and that made me incredibly sad.
There were three voicemails from Brandon that I deleted without even listening to them. My life was complicated enough – I didn’t need whatever was going on in his life interfering with the stability I had built for Connor and me.