Firefighter's Virgin

“Where does she work?” I asked.

“It doesn’t say. Was she at that art show we went to the other day?”

“Oh, shit, you know what? I think you’re right. Pull up her hobbies again,” I said.

“Yep, there you go. But, wow, if she was there, why weren’t you talking to her? You did talk to a lot of women that night.”

“Josh, you remember that girl who looked like she was going to murder the guy who grabbed her arm? That was her. I swear it was.”

“Oh, yeah! I see it now. She was hot!”

“See, so she’s not one of these girls who are looking for some sort of financial arrangement,” I replied in a bit of relief. “If she was at the art show, she probably has her own money and was looking to buy a painting herself. Maybe she’s even wealthier than I am.”

I was excited about the idea of going on a date with this girl. Not only would she be a hell of fun in the sack, she seemed to be pretty witty and able to hold a good conversation, too. She was beautiful and might also have money, so we wouldn’t have to worry about that as an issue.

“I hate to break it to you, but I’m even more convinced now that she’s one of these girls who wants to date for money. A party full of rich guys is the perfect place for a sugar baby to get hooked up with someone.”

“What are you talking about?” I protested. “She was at the art show, just like us.”

“Exactly. You were there because you have a bazillion dollars and they wanted you to buy stuff. I was there as your guest,” Josh said.

“Why else would she be there?” Josh continued. “Unless she’s rich like you, it’s pretty damn hard to get an invite to such an expensive art collection showing. Do you really think she has your kind of money and you’ve never heard of her? You knew almost everyone who was wealthy at that event.”

“Maybe she works there?”

“Maybe, or maybe she’s a sugar baby? Just keep your eyes open and… Oh, look what we have here – she is just logging in. It has a green bubble by her name.”

“Did she message me back?” I asked.

“Dude, you aren’t a teenager; come do this yourself. I’m getting back to my investing.”

“I’d rather do it myself,” I grumbled. “What should I say? I already asked her out and she ignored the message and got offline.”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something,” Josh said.

Brandon: Hey, how’s your day?

She didn’t respond. I wasn’t used to getting rejected by women and certainly wasn’t used to being ignored. I racked my brain to think of anything I might have said during our last online conversation, but I had totally behaved myself.

I found myself sitting at my laptop staring at the screen as I waited for her to respond. If she was one of those girls who just wanted a rich guy to give her an allowance, she wasn’t doing a very good job of hitting me up for money. If she was just a regular girl, I couldn’t figure out why she wouldn’t respond to me.

As I watched Josh get into his investing, it was easy to be envious of him. He really loved what he was doing and was really good at it.

I had felt like that while running my company, but after selling it, I was left with a big hole of time that I hadn’t quite figured out what to do with yet. Learning how to invest my own money was simply a place holder while I tried to figure out what my next big adventure was going to be.

One of the things I was lucky enough to learn right away in business was that I had to be passionate about what I was doing or it wasn’t going to work. I thought if I loved my job enough, then I’d never really be working, and it was the truth. I comfortably worked up to 15 hours a day because I worked from my phone, laptop, and airplanes. I wasn’t confined to an office, and I set my own rules for how I wanted things done. It had been one of the big keys to my success. I’d never have worked so hard if I hadn’t been passionate about what I was doing.

Delilah: Hi, Brandon. My day is good. I’ve been having problems with my computer at work. Sorry if our conversation got cut off.

Brandon: It’s all right. I’m used to women blowing me off…lol.

I totally was not used to it and after typing that message, it looked like I might have been saying I was really bad with women. That certainly wasn’t the truth. I had successfully landed every woman I’d gone after. Instead of correcting the perception, though, I figured it was fine to let her believe I had a little bit of a hard time with the ladies. Maybe that would get her to say yes to a date?

Delilah: Yeah, I doubt that.

Brandon: You never know. There might be a lot of women who have turned me down.

Delilah: Nope. You can’t sell this lie to me. I know better…lol. You’ve probably got hundreds of messages on here.