“No, I don’t think she’s like that. I really don’t.”
“Want to make a bet?”
“What’s the terms?”
“If she asks for any sort of reimbursement for her time, you will let me drive that fancy blue convertible of yours for one day.”
“You could drive it anyways,” I said.
“I mean I want it for the whole day. I want to go pick up some hot chick and have her thinking I’m an uber-rich playboy. Deal?”
“The whole day? You’re crazy. What if you crash it? Oh, hell, whatever, fine. But if she doesn’t ask me for money, you’ll stay and show me how the futures market works.”
“Oh, God, why do you want to get into that? I told you the futures market is too volatile for new investors.”
“Is it a deal or not?” I noticed Delilah had started to type a message as the little bubbles on the screen moved across. “She’s typing right now. Is it a deal?”
“Deal! Come on, Delilah, be a sugar baby. Be a sugar baby!”
We both looked at the screen intently as we waited for her to answer. It was hard not to laugh at how much I wanted to get this girl’s number. There certainly seemed to be some sort of science to the idea of wanting what you can’t have because the more this girl pushed me away, the surer I was that I was going to have her.
Delilah: 818-555-4565, but call in an hour or so. I’m in the middle of something right now.
Brandon: Done. I’ll talk to you soon.
I couldn’t type fast enough after I read her message. There was also a weird dinging noise from the computer Josh was using for his investments. We both turned to look at the screen and saw flashing red down arrows across the monitor.
“Shit!” he said as he quickly pushed a few buttons. “See what I was saying? No distractions!”
“What happened?”
“I hadn’t put my sell order in yet and the stock dropped – I basically just lost a lot of money.”
“Sorry, but maybe you can make it up in the futures market when you teach me about that,” I laughed.
“Man, you are lucky I like you, dude.”
“Seriously, though, I’ll cover your loss on that. It was my fault. How about I put money into your trading account?”
“No, I don’t take charity.”
It wasn’t odd that Josh wouldn’t let me pay his loss from that sale, yet he had no problem with me paying him to teach me. He was a proud guy and an honest one, which was probably why we had become such good friends.
Chapter Five
Delilah
“Hello,” I said as I answered the unknown number that had called me.
“Hey, it’s Brandon from the dating site.”
I was really glad he hadn’t said Dating the Rich; it still bugged me that the company was named that. If our mission was to match people up, I never understood why we would designate our clientele to rich men primarily. Or why we seemed to have hundreds of thousands of young girls who matched up with the rich guys. It wasn’t exactly the mission I would have if I wanted to help people find true love.
“It’s nice to be able to put a voice to a face,” I laughed.
“So I was thinking we should go get a bagel Saturday morning; how does that sound?” Brandon asked.
“Sounds like you’re trying to see if I’m real or not.”