“I’m just trying to be helpful, bro. I’m sure Rose has told you I’m working with the government undercover. I hear things all the time. I would hate for you to get mixed up in something like that.”
“I swear to God, if I find out you’ve had anything to do with what’s going on with my bank account, I’m going to come over there and kick your ass.”
“Why, what’s going on with your bank account?” Carlos asked.
“Just get Rose,” I said loud enough that people on the street were now paying attention to me.
Carlos took his time going to get Rose and when she finally got on the phone, I felt like I was going to explode. My anger had been building up since my card was declined and I no longer wanted to explain anything over the phone.
“Can you come down to First Trust Bank? Your name is still on an account and we need to fix that.”
“Does it have to be today? I’m in the middle of something.”
“Yes, and after dealing with that ass of a fiancé you have, I think coming down here is the least you can do for me,” I said.
“What did he say now?”
“Never mind. Can you just come down and get this taken care of? I’ve had a crazy day.”
“Sure, I’ll be down in twenty minutes.”
“Thanks,” I said before hanging up the phone.
It was probably going to take her more like an hour with the traffic, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that. I wasn’t about to leave the bank until I had everything worked out.
My whole week had seemed to be one weird occurrence after another. First the flag on my trading account, then my Dating the Rich account profile was totally messed up, and now this. Something was definitely going on, and I was starting to get nervous.
The mess up with my Dating the Rich account had taken out all my preferences and allowed anyone to message me, and I’d be charged for it. Again, it wasn’t about the money, but I did hate having all those messages and knowing I wasn’t going to be responding to any of them. I was interested in Del now; there was no need for me to keep looking for other women.
Del had been very helpful when I called her and talked about the errors I was getting. The website seemed to be having ongoing problems, and I ended up just making my profile hidden so I wouldn’t have to mess with it any longer. There really was no need for me to even log in. Del and I were exclusively communicating via text messaging and phone calls, and I wasn’t talking to any other women from the website.
“Thanks for coming,” I said as Rose got out of an Uber in front of the bank.
“Sorry it took so long; you know how traffic is.”
“No problem. So apparently, you’ve got a PayPal account that’s connected to this card,” I said. “A bunch of charges came through and they froze the card for fraud. When I came down to fix it, they said it was still connected to your account.”
“Crap, I’m sorry. I’ll pay you back,” she said.
“Oh, come on. I don’t care about that, but I don’t want to have my card declined when I’m out. That’s embarrassing.”
“Brandon, I understand. Let’s get it fixed.”
Rose and I got along well. Actually, getting divorced had been the best thing to ever happen to our relationship. When the demands of being a couple were taken off of us, we were finally able to go back to being friends, which seemed like a happy place for our relationship.
I still had regrets over our marriage ending, but it was always wrapped up in the sadness over losing my son. Both of us knew that we weren’t going to be able to move forward in our lives if we had stayed together; it just wasn’t going to work for us. Maybe some couples could make it work, but not us.
We went in and visited with the bank manager and within a few moments, had all the issues taken care of on the account and I had access to my card again. Although I had plenty of other credit cards, I was relieved that this particular issue had been taken care of.
“So, what’s up with you and Carlos? Are you still marrying the guy?”
“Yes, Brandon, I’m marrying him. He’s a nice guy. I think you and he would actually get along if you stopped having pissing contests every time the two of you talked.”
“Hey, it’s not me,” I said. “He’s the one who acts like a ten-year-old child when I call and ask for you. Why is he answering your phone, anyways? Is he controlling you? Do you need help getting out of a controlling relationship?” I was joking, but it did annoy me how he had answered her phone.
“Carlos and I don’t have secrets. If my phone rings and he’s around, I’m perfectly fine with him answering it.”
“And, he lets you answer his phone?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow.