Lance Pratchet gaped at his friend when the latter looked at him incomprehensibly.
He had never known Thomas to be a prankster. The man might be an asshole in Lance's book because of what he had done to his wife of many years, but bros had got to stick together, and that was why he had agreed to help him with the sales of the two properties that Thomas had acquired with the help of the wife he was leaving for his side chick.
Lance had never liked the bimbo-looking babe with her voluptuous body and wiles that had hooked his friend for years, but Lance did not really like females these days anyway, not with the way Alexa had frustrated his life throughout their three years of marriage and continued to do so since they finalized their divorce a year ago.
She had gotten everything she planned with her friends, and they had accused him of being abusive. Fat, dark bruises had shown up in graphic details in court, and with a long line of witnesses to corroborate her claims, Lance knew that he could be hot-tempered, but he had never raised his hand against the bitch. Even he had not been that bad.
The court believed her.
Lance had counted himself lucky to scale through with the clothes on his back; she had jetted off to fucking Arizona, yet she still found ways to torment him by threatening to never let him set his eyes on his kid again if he did not pay the alimony and the one thousand and one expenses she was always coming up with, all in the name of Davies.
Lance couldn't let the kid suffer because his father had been a loser at choosing a partner. No, Lance does not care much for any woman now. He had justified his involvement in Thomas's deceit by telling himself that he was not close to Reyona anyway; he doubted if she even liked him. So he couldn't be expected to tell her anything, right?
When his conscience wanted to raise any guilt regarding what he knew about, he firmly reminded it of how they would have some peace of mind from the commission he would make from the deal and just how much someone like Reyona had made him suffer for years too. His conscience had chosen to lay dormant with no stirring whatsoever.
Moreover, he had not expected to see Thomas anytime soon anyway, as he had intended to stop his friendship with him before he got him involved in anything else like that again, not that they would be close by anyway. He fully intended to steer clear of Reyona, too.
He had not expected this.
To be seated with Thomas mere days later in the same bar he had done sent off to the about-to-start-afresh jerk. And now what?
Thomas looked at him quizzically "What do you mean by "Am I playing?" I am talking about the payments for the properties, of course. You did say that you had sold it, and the man paid immediately. So what's the hold-up, man?"
"What hold-up? Didn't you check the account you gave me? I sent it immediately after the payment came through. I deducted my commission, and I sent the balance immediately the moment I got home two days ago. What then are you talking about again?" Lance said it with trepidation as he lifted his drink to his mouth before he realised that he had drained it.
He turned to look at the waiter, but the lad had his back turned to him. Lance turned back instead of calling out to him. He doubted if he would be able to take another drink anyway.
Something was amiss.
He did not like the way Thomas's eyes had narrowed.
"Are you messing with me, man?" Thomas asked in a strangled tone.
"What do you mean by I am messing with you? Would I joke with that much money? I did send it to you. What are you talking about?"
Lance became more serious as he realised that Thomas meant what he was saying, and this was no joke or prank of any kind.
"You are serious."
"Of course I am... What are you saying?" Lance said as he realised that he needed not to stress himself when he had the evidence with him. He brought his phone out and opened his bank app "Why will I joke with over a million grand? If this is a joke, I would appreciate it if you stopped it right now. I have enough shit to deal with already, and I am not obligated to add yours to it. Here," he handed the phone over to Thomas and leaned back in his chair as he half expected Thomas to laugh anytime and told him gotcha.
Lance could see that that was unlikely, though, as Thomas's face blanched when he checked the transaction that Lance displayed in his app. He looked up at Lance and said, "I never got this. Are you sure you sent it to the correct number?"
"Of course I sent it to the correct number; check it yourself. That was the Luxembourg account details you gave me, Applegate, yeah? Thomas Lanoth. Of course, I am not crazy not to verify something like that over and over again before sending it. I sent yours, then I sent most of the agreed commission to... well, you know who. I called her to confirm, and she confirmed she had gotten it. I called you, but your number was not going through, and I figured that you were probably busy with your plans and all. How could I…"
"You should have called me again; you should have. I didn't get anything." Thomas thumped his fist on the table so hard that the glass bounced.
The barman looked over and asked if everything was fine. Lance replied to him that all was fine before leaning closer to Thomas.
"Calm down, man. What are you getting agitated for? Did you get any alerts? No, you couldn't possibly have," he corrected himself when he saw the look Thomas gave him "Still, it could be the bank's server error or something. How did you even open the account without being there? I never thought to ask about that."
"Through their online medium, of course. I opened it and forwarded my documents for verification. I have a little fund left with me that I have sent, and I got an alert for that. How can I possibly not get an alert for this kind of amount?"
Thomas had a very bad feeling about this. Why is everything happening together now? The initial heat he was feeling turned to chills as he thought of what this could mean. No, he had to stay optimistic. Even if Applegate was a Luxembourg bank, he should be able to rectify whatever could be causing the delay in the transaction from here.
"It could be a bank issue, as I said," Lance repeated.
He desperately wanted to believe that the opposite was not even worth thinking about. "Just give them a call or an email to explain this to them. I am sure they will get it sorted out in no time at all. This is a twenty-first-century man; you need not sweat over things like that," he said with a hint of a smile.
"I have a bad feeling about this, man. A bad one," Thomas said as he handed Lance's phone back to him.
He brought out his phone to check his messages again. Nothing.
He checked his email. All he saw was the little over one thousand grand he had sent over to the bank to tide them over before Lance would send the money after the sales of the buildings.
He couldn't believe that Lance had sent it even before he left the country, and now the money had not been acknowledged. When he got the bank authorities to sort out the error that caused that, he would have to withdraw his money from that bank.
When. Thomas knew he had to focus on when; he couldn't possibly think of the word if. No, the money was intact and safe in his account; he just did not get an alert for it. That was all; nothing else was worth thinking about.
He brought out his phone and sent an email. He leaned back and decided to take his mind off it. No, he would not think about it. He just needed to wait; they had been pretty fast with their mail when he got in touch with them for the opening of his account. Yes, that was it.
Two hours, was it? Yeah, it wasn't up to two hours before he got a reply. He would get a reply, and they would apologize, and all would be fine. He would receive the alert. Or they would simply update his account. Yes, it would either be one way or the other; yes, that would be it. Nothing else but that would happen.
"Are you okay, man?" Lance's voice jolted him out of his reverie.
"What? Yeah, yeah, I am fine. Just as you said, it can only be a server issue. I already sent them a message, and they would reply to me, and all this would be okay. We would even have a drink over this. Why did you think I was not okay?" He asked anxiously when he suddenly thought that if Lance could detect that he was not okay, then his sensitive wife could as well.
Lance gave him a sceptical look. "Maybe because you are about to drill a hole through that table," he said, nodding towards Thomas's hand.
Thomas looked at his hands and realised that he had been drumming his fingers agitatedly on the table. He forced his hand to relax, then looked up at Lance with a tight smile "There," he said, looking away from Lance's unconvinced look and shouting at the barman to send two beers over.
The waiter served them, and he hurriedly drank his beer as he thought that he needed to get his act together. He had a wife to go home to, after all, and it wouldn't do at all for her to catch on to anything.
"Susan was arrested," he said suddenly, earning himself another cold drink on the face.
Lance, who had his drink in his mouth before Thomas dropped his bombshell, tossed his handkerchief at Thomas to clean up the drink he had spewed on him as he coughed.
He glared at his friend the moment his cough stopped. "Jesus Christ, do you want to kill me, man?" He pointed at the side Thomas had missed. "There, around your nose too."
Then he leaned forward as he lowered his voice. "What do you mean by she got arrested?"
Yeah, good question. Thomas thought.
He cleaned his face and drank his beer.
That email had better come fast.