“What are you talking about?”
“That blonde sugar baby from the website. You slept with her. I could read into that text you sent me.”
It was impossible to keep anything from him, and I didn’t know why I even tried. He didn’t have a life of his own and seemed to live vicariously through me. I’d much rather just move on with what we were doing for the day and not talk about Delilah at all, but that wasn’t likely to happen.
“First of all, I don’t think she’s one of those sugar baby girls like you think she is. Secondly, she’s a really nice girl and I’m not going to talk about what I may or may not have done with her,” I said. “I’m a gentleman.”
“I can’t blame you. I’d have taken a trip on that sugar rush, too. How much money does she want for her allowance each month? Maybe I can afford to have a girl like that by my side, too?”
Josh was really good at stock investing, but not all that great at listening. I understood where he was coming from with the idea that Delilah would be a girl looking for a rich boyfriend to mooch off of, but that wasn’t her – I knew it. I knew from the time we’d spent together that she wasn’t that sort of woman.
“Are we going to work on the futures trading market or are you just going to keep talking about my sex life?”
“Is that an actual question?” Josh said as he pulled up to my computer. “Because I’d much rather talk about your sexy girl than the futures market. I think you have an idealist view of this market. It’s not nearly as much fun as you think it is.”
“Just show me the basics, and we can go from there. I like to make my own decisions about things. I’d much rather know about it and choose not to invest, than not know what’s going on at all.”
My computer was set up with three monitors so I could watch the financial news, look at stocks, and have financial graphs all going at the same time. Josh had helped me get the set up organized and working; it made me look the part, even if I hadn’t figured out all the details of day trading yet.
“Have you been trading without me here?” Josh asked as a red flag popped up on my account when we logged in. “You know you shouldn’t be doing that. There are a lot of rules, especially since you just sold your company.”
“Yeah, but nothing too crazy,” I said. “I’ve been sticking to the stocks we talked about and the rules for trading.”
“Something’s wrong. It looks like your account might have been flagged by someone outside of the trading platform. We better not do any investing until I get this figured out.”
“They think I’m doing illegal trading?” I asked, a little nervous at the assumption.
“Not necessarily,” he said. “You could have just had a really good investing day and they flagged you. I’ve had my account flagged before, and it was removed the next day. Sometimes it’s for a silly infraction, like not taking enough time between trades and they think you have some software program attached to your account. Let’s just give trading a rest for a couple of days.”
“I haven’t done anything illegal,” I protested. “Really, I’ve stuck to the stocks we researched – and only those. I know there are a lot of companies I can’t invest in right now.”
“It’s not always about that. Between the trading platform and the dozens of federal agencies out there, it’s better to just give them a day or two to clear the flag,” he said.
“Should we call someone?”
“No, they will contact you if they have concerns or questions. Instead, tell me about this hot piece of ass you went out with.”
“She was hot, but not in the traditional way,” I said. “She was sweet and had a raunchy sense of humor. Within five minutes of meeting me, she was making a joke about women creaming themselves when I’m around. It was really funny.”
“Sounds like my kind of woman.”
I went on to tell him a little bit about Delilah, without going into too many details. It wasn’t necessary to tell him about her past and her loss; I felt like she had told me that in confidence, and I didn’t want to tell Josh just yet.
Although, it was clear that all those things from her past had made her into the person she was now. Delilah was much more put-together than the women I typically ended up going out with. It had been a refreshing change of pace for me.
“She’s a single mom, and I think she said her son is six. No, five, he’s five and his name is Connor.”
“Have you ever dated a woman with a kid before?”
I had to laugh. The idea that I would have dated a woman with a kid was preposterous.
In fact, up until I found out that Delilah had a son, I would have vehemently denied ever being willing to go out with a woman who had a child. It just seemed way too hard for me to deal with. I still had to deal with the loss of my son; I didn’t think I could handle a woman having a kid.
Yet, I hadn’t even thought about ending our date when Del told me she was a mother. The thought hadn’t crossed my mind at all because I was enjoying my time with her so much.
“No, I’ve never even thought about dating a woman with a kid. It always seemed a little too close to home for me. Plus, I’m not really the dating type, and I wouldn’t want to hurt someone who had that type of home life.”
“Are you sure this girl isn’t looking for a free ride?” Josh asked as concern crossed his face. “Let me play the devil’s advocate here for a second. Let’s say she looked you up and found out about your son. She plays off of her attractiveness and makes up having a son to play off of your sadness. Soon she has her claws in you and your paying for her rent and buying her a Mercedes.”