Four Reasons to Come: A Reverse Harem Romance

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “Five dollars,” Jason said as he handed Kevin the tomatoes.

  “Do you have a minute to talk?” Kevin asked as he looked over at me.

  “No.”

  “Jenna. I just need a minute. I promise. I’ll come back in a little bit when things die down? How about that?”

  “Yeah, that would be best,” Jason said as he looked suspiciously at me and then at Kevin. “We will calm down in an hour or so. Or whenever we run out of food.”

  “Great, I’ll finish the rest of my shopping and come back,” Kevin reached out and let his fingers touch mine before walking off.

  If I was going to try and deny knowing Kevin, that touch had ruined that option for me. Jason’s eyes widened as he looked from me to Kevin and then back to me while he continued helping out customers.

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” I blurted out before he had a chance to say anything.

  Jason was bagging up some fresh spices for a customer, and as they handed him the money, he just shook his head in my direction. He clearly wasn’t going to let this go. He smiled at me as if he was just waiting for me to break and tell him what was going on.

  “So, you don’t want to talk about the most eligible bachelor in San Francisco just coming to our produce booth and waiting for twenty minutes to buy four tomatoes?”

  “Yep. I don’t want to talk about it.”

  We both continued helping customers as we talked. Jason obviously knew that something was going on between Kevin and me, but I wasn’t about to admit to it. Jason and Jackson wouldn’t let me live it down if they knew the truth of what had gone with Kevin and me. The last time I had a boyfriend that they knew about, I was harassed over text messaging daily until they got to meet the guy. No, there was going to be none of that with Kevin because I wasn’t dating him.

  Sure, we had been on a date. Sure, he was a very attractive and nice man, but we absolutely were not going to go out again. It had been two weeks since our trip to the burger joint and my second night with him. The feelings I had for Kevin were way too strong for me to be around him any longer. Not if I wasn’t going to be able to let things go farther. Not if I was never going to be able to keep him. No, what we had was great, but it was over.

  “I think he seems like a nice guy,” Jason said when we had finally finished selling everything we had brought to the market. “I mean, I’ve heard some not nice things about him, but I imagine those tabloids make a lot of that stuff up.”

  “What have you heard?” I asked eagerly.

  “So you do like him!”

  “No, I just want to know what you’ve heard.”

  “Just that he dates around a lot. Lots of supermodels and different girls every weekend. That kind of stuff. Nothing too horrible.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard that too,” I said as I saw Kevin walking toward the booth. “Don’t leave me alone with him. Jason, don’t …” I said as Jason grabbed some boxes and started to walk away.

  “Perfect timing,” Jason said to Kevin. “I was just hauling these boxes to the recycling bin. Be back in a bit.”

  “I hate you!” I yelled after him. “Sorry, that’s my brother Jason. I guess I could have actually introduced you to him. If he wasn’t such a dick and running off trying to get out of loading these tables and the tent back into the truck.”

  “I’ll help,” Kevin said as he set his bags down by the back of the truck. “So your brother has a farm?”

  “No, our mother turned her entire backyard into an herb vegetable garden. She had one lemon tree back there and thought she needed some herbs, then suddenly we didn’t have a backyard, and she had tons too many vegetables.”

  “That’s cool. I wish my mom would have done stuff like that when I was younger.”

  “So you come down here to get your own groceries very often?” I asked as I tried to keep the conversation going. “You don’t seem like the sort of guy who likes to come to the farmer’s market all by himself on Sundays. I mean, well, you probably stay up late on Saturdays. Not that I know or anything.” I laughed as I babbled on.

  Kevin grabbed one of the folding tables and made quick work of flipping the legs in and loading it onto the truck. In fact, before I’d even finished my response, he had all four tables folded and loaded onto the truck.

  “I heard there were some good organic foods down here and wanted to check it out,” he said as he continued to help me with pulling down the shade tent that we used as our booth. “Plus, I mean once I saw you here, there was no way I was leaving without getting a chance to talk to you. Did you get your badge back at work? I dropped it off with that friend of yours.”

  “Elaina, yes. She gave it to me. Thank you. I can’t believe I left that there.”

  “I need your phone number. Is there a particular reason I don’t have it?” Kevin said bluntly as he stopped moving and stood straight in front of me.

  The sexual tension between the two of us instantly grew as our bodies weren’t moving and were in such close proximity to one another. I felt pulled to move closer and closer to him. Even though my brain was telling me I needed to end things, my body wanted Kevin so desperately that I actually ached as I stood there looking at him.

  “My phone number?” I swallowed hard as I tried to think of a reason not to give it to him.

  “Yes, here. Just put it into my phone, and I’ll have it,” Kevin said as he handed me his phone.

  I froze as I tried to think. I had to just tell him no. This wasn’t going to work. I knew it, and he had to realize it too. We were only compatible because I’d lied to him. I was literally working a produce booth to help my mother get a hundred dollars, and Kevin dropped that sort of money without even thinking twice.

  “God, I look terrible. Um, I should get going,” I said and handed him the phone back. “You know, I think you’re a great guy. I laugh a lot when we are together, but I’m really busy with life right now. And well, I think I better just get going.”

  “You’re really not leaving without giving me your number.” He playfully stood in front of the door to the truck and handed me his phone again. “Please, Jenna, I really like you, and I’d love to take you on a regular date. You know, where I pick you up at your house, hand you some overpriced flowers, all that boring date stuff. I’d love to do that with you so it isn’t so boring.”

  “Kevin …” I tried to protest.

  “Please,” he insisted as he held his fingers around mine as I held his phone.

  There was nothing else for me to do. I couldn’t say no to him. So I started typing a phone number into his phone. It wasn’t my number; it was a random number, but at least he’d leave and let me leave as well.

  I was weak around Kevin. Not weak in the sense of who I was as a person because I actually felt strong and more capable with my life and my goals when I was around him. I was weak because I desired him so much and couldn’t stop wanting to touch and feel him.

  His energy radiated off of his body toward mine when we were close, and I felt like it mixed perfectly with my energy. If only I hadn’t started this whole thing off with a lie. If only I’d been upfront with him at some point before then. But it was too late. This was over. We would never happen.

  “Finally,” Kevin sighed in relief. “You know, believe it or not, it’s usually a little easier for me to get a girl’s phone number.”

  “Thanks for helping me load up,” I said with a smile. “I better get going.”

  “Anytime,” Kevin said as he pulled me toward him.

  My heart skipped a beat as I felt him moving in to kiss me. I wanted to push him away. I wanted to tell him we would never see each other again. But I was weak. I moved my lips towards his and felt the electricity as our mouths collided.

  I’d never felt such a perfect fit for my lips. His taste, his softness, even the way we moved our lips around each other was the best fit I’d ever had. I genuinely enjoyed kissing him and could have done it for hours if I’d been given the chance.

 
“I better go get my brother; sometimes he gets lost and spends all our mom’s money.”

  “I’ll call you later,” Kevin said with a proud smile. “It was really good seeing you.”

  “Thanks again for the help.”

  There was so much more I wanted to say. I should have told him I wasn’t planning on dating him. I should have just said that I didn’t want him to call me. Maybe I could have even thought of a better excuse if I’d tried, but instead, I got into the truck and closed the door.

  I had to get away from him. I pulled away and didn’t look back even though I felt his eyes on me. Maybe I wouldn’t be able to avoid him forever. But he really wasn’t going to be happy when he realized I’d given him a fake number. He wasn’t going to be happy at all, and I hoped it would be the end of him trying to track me down and trying to make something of this thing that was going on between us.

  There was nothing more that could be done about the two of us. I made my mind up. He didn’t deserve a liar like me. Kevin deserved more, and that was the end of it.

  As I pulled up to the recycle bin, I found Jason standing there with our boxes in his hand. I knew he wasn’t really going to recycle them. Our mother would kill us if we wasted her boxes like that. Instead, he was standing there just playing on his phone and waiting for me to come get him.

  “Did you kiss him? Did he ask you out? How long have you two been dating? Wait until Jackson hears about this. Wait …” Jason said as his eyes got really big. “Wait until Mom finds out. She is going to be so excited.”

  “No, don’t tell anyone. There’s nothing between us. I just broke it off. I’ll never be seeing him again,” I said as Jason loaded the boxes, and we got back into the truck. “He’s not the right guy for me.”

  Without another word, we drove off to our mother’s house. Jason must have heard the sadness in my voice because he didn’t ask any more questions. He just looked over at me and then touched my hand with a little squeeze of support.

  Chapter 12

  Kevin

  “It’s a lot harder out in the dating world than it was when you met Barbra,” I groaned as Ed and I grabbed a coffee the Monday before my big charity event.

  “So what happened with that dancer? I guess I don’t understand. She didn’t like you? She broke up with you?”

  “There was no breaking up. She ghosted me.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Ed said as he rolled his eyes at me.

  Ed wasn’t all that much older than me. He was just in his forties, but technology wasn’t a big skill of his, and he definitely didn’t know the random dating language that was going on today. He was lucky; he had Barbara, and they were going to get married. Ed was done with the whole dating world. I knew by the way he and Barbra looked at each other that the two of them were going to last.

  “Basically, she sent me away with a fake number. I went to see her; I waited to talk to her after she had already avoided giving me her number the two times we slept together. Then I talk to her, she kisses me, and everything seems perfect. I give her my phone to put her number into, and she gives me a totally fake number. She disappeared. That’s why it’s called ghosting someone.”

  “Oh, I see. That sounds like a pretty mean thing for someone to do. Was she a mean person?” Ed asked. “I’ve seen you date some whoppers.”

  “No! She was a really nice girl.”

  “Except for the part where she disappeared?”

  “Yes, we got along better than any other girl I’ve talked to. The connection between us was out of this world. It was like I knew what she was thinking when she was there in front of me. I felt it, you know. A vibe between the two of us that was totally comfortable.”

  “Wow, that bitch,” Ed replied nonchalantly as he drank his coffee.

  “She’s not a bitch; why would you say that?”

  “You’re right. She doesn’t sound like that sort of girl. Maybe, just hear me out here, maybe she was nervous and accidentally put the wrong number into your phone?”

  A lump started to form in the base of my throat as I contemplated what Ed was trying to say. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t thought about that before. It was the first option that popped into my mind, but my gut was telling me she put the wrong number into my phone on purpose. My gut, but not my head; my head tried to reason with me and explain that it had to have been an accident. But it wasn’t until that moment when Ed brought it all together for me.

  It was entirely possible Jenna really did mess up the phone number. I couldn’t know for sure. But there was a problem. I absolutely couldn’t show up at her work two weeks after I last saw her and say that the number was wrong. It would look like I’d waited two weeks to contact her.

  Or maybe it would look desperate because I was chasing her down again. I wasn’t really sure. This girl had me so twisted up that I hardly knew which way was up anymore.

  “It’s possible,” I finally admitted. “But she seemed to not want me to have her number.”

  “Why?” Ed asked as if I knew the answer to his question.

  “Obviously, I don’t know what she was thinking.”

  “Come on Kevin, you’re a smart guy. Why would a girl not want you to have her number after she slept with you twice? That’s what you said, right? She slept with you twice.”

  “Two nights, but many times during those two nights,” I said with a wink.

  “Yeah, yeah, don’t rub it in. So here’s the deal. You should bring an invitation for her to come to the fundraiser.”

  “She was the one who had the idea for me to have it at the house. She’s invited. Of course, she is. She doesn’t need an invitation.”

  “Yeah, but you also haven’t talked to her since you finalized the date and details. Right?”

  “Right,” I agreed as my nerves started to build. “I don’t want to just mail it to the studio. How will I know that she got it? Maybe I should stop by the studio and hand deliver it?”

  Again, it was going to come down to me showing up at the studio and trying to talk to her. This wasn’t me at all. This wasn’t the sort of guy I was, but at this point, I had to make sure I really understood what was going on here. If she didn’t want to see me, I needed her to say it right to my face.

  Ed was probably right all along. Jenna could have given me her number and not even known there was a typo in it. She could have been sitting around getting angry at me because I never called her.

  “Man up, Kevin. What’s going on with you?”

  “Dude, I don’t even know. This girl has me all mixed up.”

  “Take your ass to the dance studio. Hand her an invitation and walk away. End of story. You want to invite her; you don’t need to care about any of the other stuff.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know why this girl has me so stuck in my own head,” I muttered to myself.

  We finished our coffee and talked about the plans for the charity. It was exciting that Ed was coming on board to help out as well as a couple of my other friends. Although I would still be busy transitioning out of my company for a few more months, the charity gave me something to really look forward to.

  With an invitation in hand, I made my way over to the dance studio. Originally, I’d planned on inviting the whole organization but ended up just inviting the other big donors that I knew. My event wasn’t supposed to be a fun get together with the dancers, etc. I was planning on raising insane amounts of money, and my invites coincided with that goal. Although, I really would love to have Jenna attend. Even better would be if she’d agree to be my date for the night.

  I sat in my car for a good twenty minutes while I worked over what I wanted to say and how I was going to say it. It was a beautiful day out, and the sun was beating into my car as I optimistically got out and made my way toward the front of the building.

  My plan was simple. I would ask for Jenna. When she came up to the front, I was going to hand her the invitation and say that I hope she could make it. Then I’d just see
how she reacted. I was positive I could tell if she had given a fake number simply by her reaction to me being there and handing her an invitation.

  My hand shook as I reached for the door and pulled it open. There was a man sitting at the front desk, and he looked familiar, but I wasn’t sure if I’d seen him there before or not. He had a friendly and welcoming smile as I walked up to him.

  “Good morning, Mr. Fox, how can I help you?” the guard said as he stood up.

  “Good morning. I’d like to speak with Jenna please,” I said as I hoped he knew who she was. It was promising that he knew who I was though so I was optimistic.

  “Sure, let me call down to the rehearsal room and see if she’s available.”

  Relief rushed over me as he sat down and started to dial a number. At least he knew who I was talking about and how to reach her. That was a big plus already. I took in a deep breath as I waited for him to do what he had to do.

  “Kevin Fox, what are you doing here?” I heard an annoyingly familiar voice say as I turned around and saw Cassandra coming in through the main doors.

  “I was just stopping by to visit a friend.”

  “Really? Who?” She asked with a huge fake smile on her face.

  “Jenna. We met at the fundraiser; I was just going to drop this invitation off for her. She gave me some good ideas for my own event. I’ve started my own non-profit.”

  “Wow, that’s amazing. You are such a wonderful man,” Cassandra said as she flirted and put her hand on mine. “It’s nice of you to invite someone like Jenna.”

  “Someone like Jenna?”

  “Yeah, you know what I mean.”

  “Actually, I don’t,” I said a little confused on what she was talking about.

  “I mean, she’s just a low-level clean-up girl. It’s nice that you’re being kind to her,” she said as I looked even more confused at her. “Wait, you did know she was the janitor right? Well, sometimes she’s my assistant and does errands too. Sweet girl, but she has a reputation for lying and manipulating wealthy men.”

  I couldn’t believe what she was saying. My heart was pounding so hard it was echoing through my ears. This didn’t sound like Jenna. She seemed like a nice girl, and I’d actually seen her dancing. Certainly, she wasn’t just some janitor at the dance company.