“Oh, you will get them right away, after the loan has been processed, which only takes forty-eight hours. But it is the weekend coming up, too, so I’d estimate it will be processed by Tuesday.”
I rolled my eyes and looked at Dick in search of some sort of answer to this issue, but he only shrugged his shoulders. I was at the mercy of the bank and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. One thing I knew for sure, though: when this mess was figured out, I would be switching my accounts to a different bank. The security at this one was horrible.
“Thank you for your help,” I managed to muster before hanging up. “You know, I haven’t used that credit card for anything in a long time. Oh wait, I did use it,” I said as I pulled the account up on my phone. “I used it to join Dating the Rich.”
“Is that the only place you’ve used it?”
“Yep, I think so.”
“Weren’t you dating a girl from there? Josh said there was some trouble with you and her,” Billy asked and I felt the blood rushing from my extremities to my heart.
“Yeah,” I responded. “She’s pissed at me and not returning calls.”
“Just playing devil’s advocate again: is it possible she is an identity thief?”
“No.”
“Let’s look at what we have going on here. Your problems started after you met her. The bank has evidence that the attack on your accounts originated from the credit card you have on file with her company. And, she’s suddenly disappeared from your life?”
When he said it like that, it didn’t look good. Delilah wasn’t some sort of identity thief, though; she wasn’t causing all this trouble in my life. It just wasn’t possible.
“It’s not her,” I quietly mumbled as I continued to think through everything that had happened. “Josh told me there were scam artists on that site. I don’t think she is one. We connected. I really like her.”
“Brandon, I hate to break it to you, but scam artists are really good at what they do. If they were bad at it, they wouldn’t make any money. Using a good-looking young lady like that is just one of the tricks to their trade. You said there was a man who visited you. Was it possible he was just casing the joint as part of a larger team?”
“No. Well, maybe. I don’t know what’s real and what isn’t anymore. I guess he could have been there to case the joint. He seemed to know a lot about me and my former business partner, though.”
“These sophisticated networks of thieves work closely together. They sometimes even infiltrate your friends and marry people close to the target in an effort to swindle people. I’ve seen a lot of really wild things. It doesn’t surprise me that you liked this girl. They probably hired her because she was someone they thought would appeal to you,” Billy explained.
“Man, I’ve heard of these scams, Brandon,” Dick added. “We can find them and sue them if there isn’t enough evidence for criminal charges. Don’t you worry; we will get revenge.”
I was dumbfounded by everything the guys were saying. It just wasn’t possible that Delilah was part of this scam. I couldn’t believe it and I wouldn’t until I talked to her. She and I had a real connection that couldn’t have been faked. Plus, we’d slept together. We talked about our losses and that wasn’t a lie: I saw it in her eyes when she talked about her late husband.
“Are they going to take all of my money?”
“No, no, no. The bank won’t let them pull that money out. Most likely they are freezing it and then will get in contact with you and request a sort of ransom in exchange for giving you access to your accounts again,” Billy continued to explain. “They know it takes banks months to straighten this stuff out and if you authorize a transfer to one of their bank accounts, they will unfreeze everything. Or so they say. I’ve heard of people getting stuck in that loop for a while with the criminals, as well.”
“Hey, hey, what’s going on,” Josh exclaimed as he bounced into the office.
“I need a drink is what is going on. But I don’t have any money, so you’re paying this time,” I said as I grabbed him and made our way out of the office. “You two call me when you figure this out. Don’t let them steal all my money, please.”
“Dude, what’s happening?” Josh asked.
“It’s a long story, and I need to be drunk to go over it again. Let’s get some food and then head out.”
“Absolutely, man, I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to pay the check,” Josh laughed.
We both knew he didn’t have billions of dollars, but considering I had absolutely zero dollars to my name, Josh was officially richer than I was that night.
I expected to feel better when we got to the club. The lights, alcohol, and music were going to drown out my sorrows – but I didn’t feel better at all. All I could think about was Delilah and how nothing seemed to be matching up. I still held out hope that she had nothing to do with what was going on, but the longer she avoided my calls and refused to talk to me, the more it was looking like she was guilty.
We drank bottle after bottle of beer as Josh tried to keep up with me. I didn’t give a crap anymore. Nothing mattered, and I was going to get so drunk that I’d have to be put in a cab and delivered to my front door.
The funny thing about my mindset was I didn’t want to find another woman to bring home. That was the strangest thing to me by far. Normally
, I’d have chalked Del’s behavior up to her being a horrible person and the best way for me to get over that was to find another woman.
I just couldn’t do it, though. I couldn’t see Del as a bad person, no matter how much evidence was piling up against her. There had to be an explanation. I was waiting for a damn explanation.