Monday, January 21, 2013

Entry# 4: Approaching the Edge......

Dear Diary  -

Thanksgiving was approaching and Jason had decided to go to Miami to spend it with his family since this was the first holiday without his mom.  So it was basically three weeks since he had left the flash drive at my house and I wasn't going to see him for at least another week or so.  I figured that I could utilize my newly found free time to get some holiday shopping done.  I was in a men's clothing store looking at some items for Jason for Christmas when he called me.  He asked me what I was up to and I said nothing much.  I asked him what he wanted for Christmas and he said that he wanted an Ipad.  I told him good luck on that one as it was not in my budget.  Plus we hadn't been dating that long and as far as I was concerned, he had yet to earn that gift level status.  He then told me how he needed clothes and the brands that he liked to wear and of course Coogi was at the top of the list.  I kept the conversation short because I was afraid that I would slip up and tell him that I was shopping for his Christmas present.  After I ended the call, I gathered the items that I had picked up and headed to the register.  I reached into my wallet to pull out my credit card and it was nowhere to be found.  I then remembered that I had purchased some items on-line and that I more than likely left my card at my house.  I paid for the items with my bank card and headed home.

When I got home, I checked my home office for my card and when I didn't see it, I assumed that it was in one of my handbags and I would look for it later.  Instead, I decided to get ready for the next day and pack my gym bag.  When it was time to put my iPod in the bag, I remembered that I had left it in my purse upstairs and made a mental note to put it in my bag in the morning.  I was headed into the kitchen when Jason called me to tell me that he decided to leave the next day for Miami which would have been two days earlier than planned.  I asked him if I was going to see him before he left and he said that he was going to be in the studio all night until it was time to head to Miami.  I then asked him again when I was going to see his house and he hesitated before he answered.  He still didn't feel comfortable about me going there and I told him he had one more week to make it happen and that after Thanksgiving, I was going to see his house and that I could care less about what his brother did or who he had up in his house.  As far as I was concerned, I was his lady and his brother would have to respect that.  He then said okay we'll see.  I said whatever, make it happen.

On Thanksgiving, I decided to give Jason some space because I knew that this was a difficult time for him.   I figured that if he wanted to, he would contact me.  Later on that night, he sent me a text wishing me a happy Thanksgiving and that he would call me later.  That call never came.  I chalked it up to him being busy with his family and left it at that.  The next morning, I called him and I heard a lot of noise in the background.  He said he was in the mall with his family trying to take advantage of the black Friday deals.  He mentioned that he needed new laptop and saw one that he liked on sale.  I simply said "That's nice."  He continued to talk about the features of the laptop and I remained silent.  He was beginning to irritate me for some reason.  When he noticed that I wasn't saying anything, he said that he would give me a call when he was done shopping.
 
About an hour later, my phone rang and it was Jason.  When I answered, I could hear him and a woman talking.  Apparently, he butt dialed me.  So I put the phone on mute and listened.  I assumed that he was talking to his sister since he said he was out with his family.  The two of them weren't talking about much but then I heard him say something that sounded like baby.  My head jerked and I listened more carefully.  The conversation continued and they were talking about car repairs.  I figured that I heard him wrong because the conversation sounded really innocent.  I then hung up the phone and called him.  He sent me straight to voice mail.  I called him again and he answered the phone.  He said that he would have to call me back because he was driving and he didn't have his earpiece with him.  Once again, he didn't call me back that night.  It was in that moment my gut started to twist and turn.  Something wasn't right but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.  There was a great possibility that I was potentially about to turn a molehill into a mountain for no reason so I made a mental note of the incident and filed it away in the back of my mind.

A few days later, I was doing some more online holiday shopping.  When it was time to enter my credit card information, I still could not find my card.  So I checked my account and saw that there was almost one thousand dollars in charges on my card.  The type of stores were sportswear apparel, Bakers Shoe Store,  a  gas station and a couple of other places.  I checked the dates and realized that the last time I had used my card when I had gone out with some girlfriends after attending the Bronze Lens Film Festival.  I immediately called the company and informed them that I did not make those charges.   The customer service rep informed me that they had shut my card off because the person was attempting to use it at an electronics store.  They recognized that these were not places I typically made purchases from.  I asked them why someone didn't contact me and I was told that I was sent an email.  While I was on the phone, I text Jason and told him how someone had my credit card and racked up a bunch of charges.  He text me back and told me that he would call me when he had a chance.  The rep informed me that they would launch an investigation and that they would credit my card by midnight.

Once I was off of the phone, Jason called me and asked me what happened.  I told him that I must have dropped my card at the restaurant without noticing.  He asked me what the credit card company said and I told him.  I also stated that I didn't think they would launch an investigation since it was probably cheaper to just credit my card.  He asked if I was okay and I said that I was fine as long as the matter was rectified.  I told him that I had to go and that I would touch base with him later.

That night, Jason sent me a text message telling me that he was in need of a laptop for work.  I picked up the phone and called him.  Quite frankly I was getting annoyed with these blatant hints that he wanted me to buy him one for Christmas.  I asked him why didn't he just get a new laptop from his job.  He said that he was a contractor so he had to provide his own computer.  I responded by pointing out that he never said he was a contractor for his company and that I was under the impression that he was a full time employee.  I then told him if it's that serious, to finance the laptop.  He started fussing about APRs.  I told him to get over it and that it's a justifiable purchase because it's a need not a want.  I then started to remember, he once mentioned that his family stood to inherit a lot of money from his mother's life insurance.  So I brought up the inheritance money.  He gave me some story about it being tied up and that there were some legal issues where his aunt used his mother's name causing the money to be inaccessible for the moment.   I told him that I was fresh out of suggestions and that I couldn't help him and then told him I had to go.

A few minutes later, my cousin Tammy called me and she noticed that I sounded really tight.  I told her how annoyed I was and that Jason was getting on my nerves about the damn computer.  She then asked me if I ever looked at the flash drive.  In that moment, I was so irritated; I said, hell, why not.  I turned on my laptop while Tammy was still on the phone and I plugged in the flash drive.  I clicked on the option to open the files and as the files were uploading, I saw something that made my jaw drop.  When I finally closed my mouth, I said to my cousin, "Girl, Jason is married......"

©All original content copyright Kim M. Washington, 2012-2013.

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