“What was it? What’s happening?” she whispered.
“The guy works for the securities commission and said Brandon is mixed up in some illegal stuff. I didn’t tell you that I got a weird message from Brandon’s online account when I knew he hadn’t sent it. And, when we came back to his house from the theater, it had been broken into. He didn’t let me go inside with him, so I’m not sure what’s going on, but I saw through the window when he opened his safe. Man, I think he’s mixed up in some crazy stuff.”
I took a deep breath as I waited for Mattie to reply. It was all too much for me. Investment fraud, break ins, computer hacking: I felt like I was in the middle of a crime show and not my actual life. All the chaos seemed to come from Brandon, though, and it was looking more and more like I had to step away from whatever it was we had going on.
“First of all, I didn’t hear half of what you just said. You really should breathe more when you talk,” Mattie said. “Second of all, I think you are right and you shouldn’t risk your own wellbeing around someone who has this kind of trouble in their life.”
“Mattie, I really like him, I do; but what else can I do? I mean a dude with a badge just came and interviewed me about a guy I’ve only been on three dates with. I’m not stable enough for this kind of drama.”
“You’re stable enough for anything, don’t fool yourself.”
“I don’t know what to do.”
“Del, don’t be so dramatic. You’ve answered the necessary questions; now get back to your normal life. It isn’t life-altering if you just take a week or two and don’t date this guy. Either things are going to get worse, or they will clear up and you can make your decision about him then.”
“Yeah, that’s probably true.”
“It is true. Stop worrying about it.”
“I just expect things to turn into some sort of disaster and look what’s happening: it’s a disaster. Why can’t I just have a normal relationship, with a normal guy, that doesn’t end in some big, dramatic way?”
“What fun would that be?”
“I’ve got to have dinner with the ex-in-laws tonight. I had intended to tell them all about Brandon and how the dating was going; now I’m going to have to tell them I got mixed up in some sort of illegal disaster?”
“Don’t tell them anything. Just go enjoy your dinner and wait and see what happens. Del, you really have no idea what’s going on just yet.”
“I know he’s under investigation for illegal trading, right? That’s what the security exchange commission does. So, at the very least, I know that much.”
“Take a couple deep breaths. Everything doesn’t have to be decided right now. How’s your computer issue going? Did you get that all figured out, at least?”
We made our way back to our desks as I took some more deep breaths and tried to refocus myself. I still had a whole day of work ahead of me and the distraction from the morning wasn’t helping at all.
After a lot of hard work and digging, I’d finally figured out how to block whatever or whoever had been getting into our system. It looked like they had gotten in from an internal connection, which was a little concerning, but it didn’t matter any longer; I’d blocked all outside edits to my work. When the time came that someone did need to make changes, they were going to have to go through me anyways, so it was simpler just to put the security measures in place.
“It’s taken care of now. We shouldn’t have any more problems.”
“That’s great. You’re so good at fixing those issues.”
“I have to admit, the consultant had a big part in the issues getting fixed. I’m glad Robert hired him – just don’t let Robert know I said that.”
The last thing I needed was my boss thinking that he had done something right by hiring a consultant to help me. I was barely holding onto my job as it was; I didn’t need him thinking that there were other people more capable than I was.
By five o’clock, Brandon had called me twice, and I had sent him straight to voicemail both times. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to tell him what had happened or not. All I knew was I didn’t have the strength to deal with him at the moment. Whatever was going on in his life was something he needed to figure out, and I would just talk to him in a week or two.
My emotions were so raw about everything that was going on. I genuinely felt like Brandon was a good guy, and to think he was involved in something horrible meant I was pretty bad at judging people. After successfully avoiding any relationships since Spencer had passed away, this wasn’t exactly showing me I could make wise relationship decisions.
As I picked up Connor from school and made my way to his grandparents’ house, I saw a text message come through from Brandon. I couldn’t talk to him. I couldn’t deal with whatever was going on in his life. I had to tell him I needed a break.
Brandon: How’s your day?
Delilah: I’m going to take a break from us. Best of luck.
Brandon: What?
I didn’t respond. I really didn’t want to be one of those girls who cause more drama when drama was already going on in someone’s life. The best thing I could do was take a little time and space to figure things out before they got out of control. I already had feelings for this guy; I couldn’t risk getting deeper into those feelings if I wasn’t sure about who he was or the type of character he had.
“Delilah!” Mary greeted me with a hug as Connor and I approached the front door to her house.