Firefighter's Virgin

“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. Ba

ker, 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?”