“She said he does undercover work. Who am I to argue about what he does? I don’t really care, as long as he treats her right. I don’t like the guy, but he doesn’t seem interested in revenge.”
“And, you don’t think an ass wipe like him couldn’t cook all of this up to get back at you? I’ve seen guys do some pretty crazy things for the women they love.”
“Josh, there’s no point in it. There has to be a strong motivation, and as much as I don’t like Carlos, there’s nothing between the two of us. He is moving on with my ex-wife and I’m happy for them. What purpose would any of this have for him? I just don’t see it.
“I think we need to look up that girl Kimberly I picked up last month. She tried calling me at least a dozen times after my night with her. You should have heard the nasty voicemail messages she left.”
“A one-night stand isn’t going to go to this sort of trouble for you, though, dude. I mean, you might be a good catch, but would she really freak out this much?”
“There could be others. I’ve pissed off a lot of girls, I’m sure. They hide it well and not many go to the trouble of leaving nasty voicemails, but I know there are some angry women out there.”
The truth was, I knew there were some hurt feelings in my relationships recently. I didn’t want to think about how I’d hurt these girls, but if I was being honest with myself, I knew I had. Some of the women I’d brought home would talk about going on dates with me in the future, they’d laugh about how their family would freak out if they met me; I ignored all that talk. When our night of fun was over, I moved on and expected that eventually they would, as well. I stayed oblivious to the knowledge of how any of the women actually moved on. I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to feel bad.
“Okay, I’m going to get my buddy working on it some more. Did you end up going to the police or your lawyer?”
“Nope, I think we need to handle this. It’s sounding like scare tactics and no actual threats. I’m not too worried about it.”
It was a lie.
I was worried about all that was going on, not because I cared if someone hated me, but I cared that they had contacted Delilah. She was the onl
y good thing that had happened in my life in a very long time, and I wasn’t going to let whoever was behind all of this get between what she and I were building. When they contacted Del, that was the last straw. I wasn’t going to hold anything back; I was coming after them.
“Let me call him and see if he can just come over and talk to us. I think you and he can work together and figure out what the best next step is. He’s been around some crazy shit as a private investigator; he knows a lot and nothing really surprises him.”
“Sounds good.”
He called in a favor with his friend and the guy arrived at my house less than two hours later. His hipster suit made Josh’s friend look more like a marketing agent than any sort of investigator – but I didn’t know any investigators, so I had no idea what they were supposed to look like.
Being a billionaire had its advantages. When you called someone and wanted to hire them for a job, those people dropped everything else to come make you happy. It was a perk of my fortune and I knew it, but I still really liked it. I probably hadn’t had to wait longer than a couple hours for anything since the sale of my company; I was getting spoiled by my wealth and I felt it.
Yet, I wasn’t going to be the person to tell people to treat me like everyone else. Who wanted to be treated like everyone else? If that happened, I’d be ignored and pushed off for weeks or months and nothing would ever get done.
“Hey, I’m Billy Stalling. I hear you’ve got an issue on your hands.”
“You can say that. I’m not sure how much of my current issues are connected or not. It could all be connected, or maybe none of it at all.”
I went on to describe all the strange things that had come up in the recent weeks. Each issue on its own seemed to be no big deal, except maybe the large man in the suit who had shown up at my house. But when I said them all aloud, they started to sound like I had a rather large problem building up that could explode at any moment.
I told him about the women in my life, the business partners, friends I’d talked to recently, and everything else I could think of. Josh chimed in and filled in details where I skimped and the investigator took notes the whole time. When we had finished telling him about everything, Billy looked through his notes and underlined areas before turning toward me to ask some more questions.
“Tell me about the girl who works at Dating the Rich,” Billy said while he wrote down some more notes.
“She’s a great girl. Funny, easy to talk to, she’s a lot like me. I don’t know, what do you want to know?”
“All these issues seemed to start popping up when you met her. What part could she be playing in all of this?” His question hit me in the gut like a sucker punch. I hadn’t expected him to question Del or her motives. She was such a kind person, so loving and devoted to her family. I absolutely didn’t think she had anything to do with the mess that was going on.
“What? No. Why would she have anything to do with this?” I said defensively. “Delilah is a widow, she takes care of her son all by herself, and she’s by far one of the best women I’ve ever dated.”
“Please know I don’t mean any offence here. I’m hired to dig into everyone and figure out what’s going on. From what I know about Dating the Rich, there is a large following of women who are scam artists. I’m not saying this girl is; she could very well be exactly who you say she is. I’m just letting you know I’ll need to include her in my investigation.”
My eyes darted over to Josh, and I knew he was in agreement with his friend. Josh had been warning me about the website and Del since I first started talking to him about it. I understood their concerns. Sure, there were women on the site that were trying to land themselves a rich man and would do anything necessary to make it happen.
I knew Del, though. I knew her better than either of these guys and she wasn’t like that. She hadn’t joined the website to hook up with guys; she was simply doing her job when I’d messaged her.
“I messaged her. She didn’t reach out and contact me. She didn’t chase after me or try to get me to ask her out. It was my initiation that started our contact. She was even here with me when one of the messages was sent to her. She showed it to me in her email. This is not Del causing all of this. I know it.”
“Did she have an overly provocative profile picture up?” Billy asked.