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 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 said.
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,” Carlos said. “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?” Carlos asked.
“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,” I said.
“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,” I said before hanging up the phone.
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 everything 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 for me 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,” I said. “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,” she said.
“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.
I still had regrets over our marriage ending, but it was always wrapped up in the sadness over losing my son. Both of us knew that we weren’t going to be able to move forward in our lives if we had stayed together; it just wasn’t going to work for us. Maybe some couples could make it work, but not us.
We went in and visited with the bank manager and within a few moments, had all the issues taken care of on the account and I had access to my card again. Although I had plenty of other credit cards, I was relieved that this particular issue had been taken care of.
“So, what’s up with you and Carlos? Are you still marrying the guy?”
“Yes, Brandon, I’m marrying him. He’s a nice guy. I think you and he would actually get along if you stopped having pissing contests every time the two of you talked.”
“Hey, it’s not me,” I said. “He’s the one who acts like a ten-year-old child when I call and ask for you. Why is he answering your phone, anyways? Is he controlling you? Do you need help getting out of a controlling relationship?” I was joking, but it did annoy me how he had answered her phone.
“Carlos and I don’t have secrets. If my phone rings and he’s around, I’m perfectly fine with him answering it.”
“And, he lets you answer his phone?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow.
I knew damn well that guy wasn’t letting her answer his phone. He seemed like the type of guy who had more secrets than there were closets in his house.
Rose had told me he worked in some sort of undercover job with the government, but she couldn’t tell me any more than that. It seemed a little fishy to me. He was an ex-marine and had a really hard time controlling his anger when I was around. I found it very suspicious that the government would trust him for any of their sensitive jobs. But then again, he probably fit in really well with the criminals if he was working undercover.
“I’m not going to talk about my relationship, Brandon. I’ll talk to you another time,” Rose said as she hugged me quickly and then turned to grab a cab.
As she turned around, she ran smack dab into a couple of women who were walking past. The collision happened so quickly, I wasn’t sure if she had run into them, or maybe they had all run into each other.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I heard a very familiar voice say.
“Delilah?”
“Oh, hey, Brandon,” she said as she hugged me and then looked at Rose and pulled away.
Although Rose and I weren’t close to each other, it was still clear that she had been there with me and was turning to leave when the collision happened. All three of the women stood there looking each other up and down as I tried to figure out a good way to introduce Delilah and Rose.
“Delilah,” I said as I pulled her close to me. “This is my ex-wife, Rose. Rose, this is my friend, Delilah.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Del said as she reached her hand out to Rose.
“You, too. Brandon didn’t mention that he was dating someone new.”
“Oh, well, we are just friends right now,” Del stumbled as she replied. “I mean, we went on one date, but we are friends for right now,” she repeated.
“Hi, I’m Mattie,” Del’s friend introduced herself and forced her hand to mine and then to Rose, as well. “This is super awkward. So, you’re the ex-wife. Interesting.”
I saw Del’s eyes dart toward Mattie and then back to me. She seemed to be apologizing for her friend, but it was fine with me. I didn’t care what Rose thought of me dating Delilah; in fact, I was a little disappointed that I had used the word friend instead of girlfriend when I introduced the two women.
“Well, I better get going. It was nice meeting you, Delilah,” Rose said kindly. “Talk to you later, Brandon, and sorry for the mishap on the account.”
“No problem,” I said. “Thanks for coming down.”
When Rose was in a cab and out of sight, I felt Del relax a little as my arm wrapped around her lower back. I squeezed her a little and kept her there next to me.
“So, this is the infamous Mattie? It’s nice to meet you officially.”
“You, too. I bet Del wasn’t planning on this happening for a very long time. She likes to keep me in the dark as long as possible and then surprise people with me.”
“Oh, um, all right,” I said, a little confused by what she was talking about.
“Mattie and I were just on our way to lunch. What are you up to?”
“Just a mix up at the bank. It’s amazing that even after so many years, they still had Rose on an account.”
“You know what? I forgot that I have to finish a report before the end of the day,” Mattie said. “I don’t think I’m going to go to lunch. Brandon, could you take Del out for me? I know she’s starving.”
Mattie looked at me and winked as she started to walk away without waiting for me to answer her. I was starting to like this girl already; she had basically forced Del into saying yes to lunch with me. Although, she probably would have agreed anyways.
“I guess you and I are going to lunch. Where were you two heading?”
“We were going for sushi.”
“Then let’s have some sushi,” I said without mentioning that I had just finished eating with Josh.
I really didn’t care if I had to stuff my face with some more food; it was nice to see Del before our Friday date. There was no pressure on us to fill a lot of time, and I knew she had to get back to work. We could just have a nice lunch together.
Del was dressed in a fabulous red skirt and a practically transparent white blouse. I could make out the outline of her lace bra and wanted to ask her if it was the one I gave her, but decided against it.
“It’s nice to see you again,” she said as she grabbed my arm tightly on our walk to the restaurant.
“You, too. I’ve been thinking about our swim all week.”
“Oh, yeah? Well, I’ve been thinking about that shower.”
“Yes, that was a very memorable shower. I think I’ll remember that for a very long time.”
Her soft skin pressed against my fingertips as I gently stroked my hand up and down her arm. The feeling of her skin and mine together seemed like two forces of nature. The more I rubbed her, the more energy my body seemed to have.
What had started as one of the most frustrating days I’d had in a very long time, had quickly turned into an invigorating date with a woman I hadn’t stopped thinking about in days. I no longer cared about the mess at the bank or the flag on my trading account. In that moment, all I cared about was seeing Del’s beautiful smile and watching her slip pieces of sushi past her lips.
Perhaps if I was lucky, I’d even manage to get an afternoon kiss out of our date. I let my hand move to the small of her back as we walked into the restaurant, and she shivered slightly at my touch.
“Wow, I like your hands on my body,” she said just before the hostess came to us. “Two please,” she told the hostess and then smiled at me.
She wasn’t going to give me a chance to respond to her comment. Instead, I was left to think about her words and how much she wanted my hands on her body again.