Delilah: Yep, I have just as much cellulite in person as I do in that photo.
I instantly cringed as I sent the message. I didn’t want to be one of those pretty girls that complained about her ounce of cellulite when a guy was trying to pay a compliment. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a confident woman who could just answer with a plain “thank you” when a guy offered me positive affirmations like that either.
Brandon: Absolutely do not agree!
Delilah: So, what are you doing with yourself today? Do you learn investing every day? Or are you just sitting around the house eating bonbons?
Brandon: I was working on it for a little bit, but my friend Josh had to run. Now I’m doing nothing. I’m literally the stereotypical unemployed man right now. Not exactly eating bonbons, but I did just eat peanut butter from a spoon.
Delilah: I’m picturing you sitting on a couch with your feet on a coffee table and the remote next to you. Are you watching daytime soap operas?
Brandon: How did you know? *shocked face* You’ve uncovered my dirty little secret.
Delilah: I was working for a little bit. That darn error that happened last week is going on again, plus some new ones. It’s a bit of a disaster; that’s the only reason my account is active again. Otherwise I’d have it hidden.
Brandon: Sure, sure, I bet you’re just on the lookout for another handsome billionaire to take you out on dates.
My heart sunk as I read his words. He seemed to have a joking tone to his message and I really didn’t want to take offense at what he was saying, but my gut spun in circles at the idea I would be looking for another man when I had just had such a wonderful date with Brandon.
I stared at the screen for a while as I tried to think of an appropriate response. If he was teasing me, it was easy – I’d just send a laughing emoji back to him. But what if he actually thought I was doing something like that?
Delilah: LOL. Well, I better get back to work. My computer is having a hell of a time. I’m going to be making my account private, so just text me if you want to talk this week.
Brandon: All right. Talk to you later.
I turned back to my work at hand. If I had to call some sort of consultant in to look at what I was doing wrong, I needed to make sure I’d done the best I could to check for all the possible errors first.
When anyone outside of my close group of computer friends had to look at my work, I got so self-conscious. Because I was blonde and a woman, guys really did think I was dumb, and I couldn’t give them any ammunition to add to those thoughts. I knew what I was doing and that frustrated me even more as I read through the code and looked for my errors.
“What happened? Why does your face look like that?” Mattie asked as she put her customer on hold to talk to me.
“What are you talking about? This is just my face, nothing going on here. Go back to your customers before they get angry.”
“You can tell me at lunch.”
I suspected I wasn’t going to be able to get out of going to lunch with her that day; there was just too much going on. But she was going to want some of the details or I was never going to hear the end of it.
When lunch rolled around, I had Mattie standing right next to me, waiting for me to finish up so we could go down to the lunch room and talk. I didn’t mind talking with her about my date. I didn’t really have anyone else in my life I could trust like I trusted her. It had just been a really long time since I had to tell anyone about a date I’d gone on.
“So, let’s skip past the bagel and get right to the part where you canceled meeting up to workout,” she said. “I’ve done the math that means you’d already been out with him for three hours. That’s one hell of a long date. Details, I need details.”
“Yeah, well, we went swimming and hung out on his private island. You know, just a typical date,” I rolled my eyes dramatically and pretended like it was normal to say I’d been on a man’s private island. “It was amazing. He was so nice, and we had so much fun.”
“Oh, yeah, so basically just like my date last week,” she laughed loudly and everyone turned to look at us. “Well, except for the island, swimming, and handsome guy part; other than that, it was identical.”
“He’s truly a good guy, Mattie, and oh man, he kisses like I’ve never been kissed before. I could seriously make out with him all day long. We talked for hours, made love, and even took a shower with rain water he had gathered. I’ve never been around someone like him and I can’t wait to see him again.”
“What else? Tell me everything.”
“Have you ever seen that tiny island north of Venice beach? The pier is called Planter’s Pier.”
“I think I’ve seen it. I thought it was some sort of city storage place for the life guards or something like that. Does he own that?” she asked.
“Yep, and he owns another island somewhere in the Caribbean, I’m not sure where. Can you even believe that I went out on a date with a guy that owns a friggin’ island? How the heck did this happen? Last month I’m getting hit on by complete losers, and this month I’ve got a billionaire asking me out.”
“You deserve it, Del. If there is any woman in this world that deserves to be happy, it’s you. Well, it’s me first, but since he picked you…then it’s you,” she laughed. “I have a good feeling about this guy. I think things are going to be a lot of fun for the two of you.”
The time Mattie and I had together since losing my husband had really been priceless. It was her humor that kept me going on my worst days. She didn’t let things build up and always was ready to be a warm shoulder for me to cry on. She had started as a friend from work, but quickly moved into becoming my only close friend.