Chapter 1

“I’m sorry sir, but there seems to be problem with the processing of this credit card. Would you have another one?”

It was truly an embarrassing moment for Nick James, rich playboy and flamboyant dealer in rare coins. He was dining with a beautiful, blonde at Ruth’s Steak House. One of the most expensive restaurants in Edmonton, it was on the corner of Jasper Avenue and 100th Street. He shifted his attention from his date to the waiter who stood at his side with the rejected card in his hand.

“Sorry about that. There must be some snafu with the bank,” Nick explained. He retrieved the piece of plastic, searched through his wallet, and handed the waiter another one.

He and his date were preparing to leave when the waiter came hurrying back to their table, a worried look on his face. The couple had spent almost $200 on steak and wine, and since the second credit card had also been rejected, he was worried they wouldn’t be able to pay the bill. He was hoping it was a simple mistake, and not a dine and dash scheme.

“Sir if I were you I’d talk to your bank as soon as possible because this card has also been rejected. Is there any other way you can pay your bill?”

“What?” Nick looked like he was ready to explode, as he made a grab for the maxed out card, but the waiter refused to relinquish it. By this time, he had a sneaking suspicion that his customer might be trying to pull a fast one on him, and he wanted to keep the offending card in his possession so he could turn it over to the police as proof of fraud.

It became a silent battle of wills. Nick had one end of the plastic, and the waiter kept a tight grip on the other end, neither was prepared to surrender his portion.

Nick finally relented, smiled disarmingly, and allowed the waiter to keep the card. He dug in his wallet again and produced a third credit card. “Try this one. It’s Bank of America Gold, so I’m positive you won’t have any trouble with it.”

While the waiter ran it through his machine, Nick told him. “Don’t forget to add $50 for all your troubles.”

The waiter nodded without looking at Nick. He was more worried about getting stiffed for the huge bill than getting a big tip. He smiled in relief when the card was accepted. To show there were no hard feelings, he returned both cards to Nick. “Sorry for the misunderstanding sir, but if I were you I would talk to your bank about your credit cards. You seem to have a serious problem with some of them.”

“Yes, I will most certainly do that,” Nick retorted. “I don’t know what happened with my cards, but I’ll get to the bottom of this as soon as the bank opens.”

The blonde waited until they were walking north on 100^th Street to where Nick’s car was parked before she exploded. “Why, I never! That waiter was so rude. I wouldn’t have given him any tip at all after the way he treated you.”

Nick shrugged. “He was just doing his job, and since I’ve never had a credit card refused in my life, I’m going to talk to my bank first thing tomorrow.”
“Oh Nick,” the blonde gushed as she squeezed his arm. “I don’t how you can remain so sweet and understanding after that terrible ordeal. You got time to come up to my place for a night cap?”

Under different circumstances, those would have been the magic words Nick wanted to hear, but because of the credit card fiasco he wasn’t in the mood for romance. His main concern was tending to a serious problem that must be remedied immediately. He begged off, drove his date straight to her apartment, and then headed home.