Four Reasons to Come

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “Merrick, it’s so nice to see you,” Dakota said as I stood up to greet her. She had slipped in and made her way to our table so quietly that I hadn’t noticed her until she was standing right next to us.

  “You’re looking amazing as always. I still can’t believe you picked Wyatt over me. What a shame.”

  “I know, it’s ridiculous, isn’t it? And he doesn’t even stand up to greet me like you do.”

  “What?” Wyatt laughed as he noticed we were talking about him. “I’m already all the way in the seat, just slide in here darling. You know I love you.”

  Wyatt needed to up his romance game; there was no doubt about it. Even I could tell that Dakota was displeased with him staring at the television instead of taking a moment to give her some attention.

  “It’s a good thing I love you so much,” she said and slid into the booth to kiss her husband.

  “Dakota, this is my friend Gina, she’s going to join us for dinner.”

  Dakota had probably met at least a dozen women over the last year that I had known her. Yet, every single time I introduced her to someone, she still smiled and took it upon herself to engage the woman in conversation. She was a gem among women that was for sure. Most women had this catty way of interacting with each other when they were put into date situations. Of course, not all women, but a lot of them would have gotten tired of the sheer number of women I was introducing her to.

  “It’s nice to meet you. I love that dress. Where did you get it?”

  “Actually, just down the street at Forever Twenty-One,” Gina said proudly.

  Dakota shot me a sideways glance as I shrugged. I couldn’t help it if I found young women attractive. The truth was I found women of all ages attractive, but women over thirty didn’t seem willing to put up with my games nearly as much as the younger women. Plus, women over thirty were in high need of a long-term relationship, and I didn’t want to waste their time.

  “I’ll have to go check it out,” Dakota said with a smile.

  Although Dakota wasn’t all that much older than Gina, she certainly seemed much more mature. Maybe it was because I had known her for so long, or perhaps it was because she was closer to thirty than she was to twenty, but Dakota was definitely more mature than my new date.

  Our evening went off like a typical night with Dakota, Wyatt, and whichever date I had for the moment. I tried to watch the game while stopping every now and then to flirt with Gina. Wyatt and I talked about the stocks we were watching and what the guys in our investment group were going to want to invest in next. We made plans to meet up a little before our normal Sunday group so we could discuss a couple of new guys who were looking to join. Brandon, or Ren as we called him, had recruited a few of his friends in the tech world to join our investment club.

  “We better get going,” Wyatt announced as the game ended. “Long day of work tomorrow for both of us. It was nice meeting you, Gina.”

  “Yes, it was nice meeting you,” Dakota added.

  “You two. Enjoy your evening.”

  “I think we should head out too. What do you think?”

  “Sure,” she said as she smiled shyly at me.

  We had spent the last three hours drinking and talking; it was plenty of time to get to know her enough that I wanted to bring her home. She wasn’t nearly as shy as she pretended to be, though; I saw it in her eyes every time I made an erotic comment.

  It wasn’t long before we were in the elevator to my condo, making out as it ascended toward the penthouse. I couldn’t wait to feel her naked body pressed up against mine. This wasn’t going to be one of those girls that I kept around for a week, though; this was going to be one night of fun.

  I held her hand as we walked toward my door and then quickly made our way inside. There was no time for talking, only touching, kissing and sweet soft moans as I let my lips move down her neck and to the top of one of her breasts.

  “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she said with a giggle. “I never do anything like this.”

  “It’s just one night of fun. Nothing more and nothing less. Just enjoy yourself,” I whispered to her.

  If I had a dollar for every time a woman said something like that to me, I’d be even richer than I already was. I figured women didn’t go home with the guys they were on dates with because either the men were too lame to ask for what they wanted, or the women just weren’t sexually attracted to them. I had never been sexually attracted to a woman and had her say no to my offer to come home with me; they always said yes.

  “Come here; let me show you the view.”

  My condo was on the 54th floor overlooking central park. It wasn’t all that convenient for me since I worked in the financial district, but it was the best view in town. To the right was central park and to the left, I could see Times Square and the rest of the city.

  “This is amazing!” Gina said as she stood in awe.

  I slowly started to remove her clothes as we stood there looking out over the city. We were much too high for anyone to see us, but it was always exhilarating to be naked in front of my floor to ceiling windows.

  Gina leaned back toward me as my hands explored her naked body. Soon I pressed her up against the window as I grabbed for a condom and slid it around me. There was an implied danger in leaning against the window at that height. Even though I logically knew that it wouldn’t just fall out, the adrenaline still excited me, and I could tell it made her nervous as well. Her hands braced against the glass frame in an effort to support herself as I slid inside of her.

  My smooth movements brought out a deep moan which urged me on more and more. My hands held onto her hips as I thrust hard into her and watched her face as I brought her pleasure. It wasn’t long before she was moaning so loud that I thought my neighbor below me had to hear us. My building prided itself on the sound proofing, but I always felt like my neighbor looked at me strangely when I saw her in the elevator.

  We continued our fun for a good hour before we both collapsed onto the couch in total exhaustion. I grabbed a blanket and pulled it over us so we could get some sleep. Unlike many guys I knew, I actually enjoyed having a woman spend the night with me. Even if it was only going to be a one-night thing, I slept better when there was company in my bed; or couch as it was that evening. There was a comfort in having a woman’s naked body next to mine as I drifted off to sleep. I was able to relax and forget about the stress of the day much better than I could do when I was home alone.

  Chapter 2

  Kristina

  “Now, let’s move on to the end of year projections and where we need to be with our capital donations. Kristina, can you fill us in?” Maxine said as she sat down and gave me the floor for our quarterly meeting.

  “We have struggled to bring in the funds this year. People are giving to international charities and in much smaller quantities than before. We still need to raise five million by the end of this quarter if we want to meet our projections for the year.”

  “How much did we raise last quarter?”

  “Three million,” I said as I avoided eye contact with Maxine.

  Maxine Winters was a high fashion model who started Girl Tech a few years before. The non-profit organization was dedicated to helping girls learn to code, digital design, and other technical programming that was essential in the new age. Many girls were not offered the classes in their schools or felt intimidated by all male classes. Our non-profit offered classes in over fifty cities, with summer camps in about half of them as well as regular weekly classes.

  Although Maxine’s heart was in the right spot, she wasn’t able to dedicate the kind of time that was really needed to running a non-profit organization. Of course, I couldn’t tell her that, though. Our Chief Executive Officer spent more time at the theater and on set than she did running her organization. We needed leadership badly, not just some social media posts every now and then.

  “That doesn’t sound good, Kristina.”

  “I know. It’s
been tough. I really need more staff in my department, and I think we need to hold a big end of year gala.”

  “No, we aren’t hiring any more staff, but yes, I think a gala is a fabulous idea. Okay, everyone, that’s it for today. Let’s get out there and make a difference,” Maxine said triumphantly as if our meeting had gone well. “Kristina, can I talk to you for a minute?”

  My heart sank. I wasn’t at all ready to talk to her about anything. I was fuming over the idea that she wanted me to take on more work in organizing a gala, but she wasn’t willing to hire any additional staff. I was already working fifty hours a week, and I’d have to add at least ten to twenty more hours if I was going to pull off an amazing event. The stress was pounding through my body as I stood there and waited for everyone to leave the room.

  “Maxine, I know the numbers look bad. But we just don’t have the marketing or manpower to bring in the big numbers.”

  “Kristina, I love you. I know you’re working really hard and doing your best. But I need more. I can’t keep this organization running if we don’t meet our goals. I’ll put a little more money into marketing, but I need you to step up. If we don’t hit our end of year goal of ten million dollars, I’m going to have to let you go. I don’t want to do it, but I’ll have to.”

  “What? I’ve been here since you started. You’ll fire me? And the number is five million.”

  “No, no, dear. I’ll let you step down, and I’ll give you a severance, of course. I just really need someone in this position who can bring in the funding we need. I know you understand that, right? And I’m making the number ten million. We need to really hit this out of the park so we can keep the organization growing.”

  No, I didn’t understand it. I could bring in the money we needed to meet our goals with a lot of work. I couldn’t bring in double what we needed, that was totally insane. She was asking me to bring in three times as much as we had raised the previous quarter, that was insane.

  I could possibly bring in what she wanted if she gave me the tools that other big organizations had. I only had three untrained fundraisers that were barely out of college. I had a mediocre marketing budget and zero budget for attending other large events to mingle with big wigs. It was insane to think that anyone could meet her goals.

  “I understand,” I reluctantly replied, but it was almost as if she wanted me to fail. Maxine was so over extended, did she really not understand how unrealistic her request was?

  There was no use arguing with Maxine. She had her own vision of things, and it didn’t really matter what anyone else thought. If she wanted something done, you better be able to make it happen, or it was going to be your butt on the line. I didn’t blame Maxine, though, she had several companies and a career to run; I just wished she would have handed the organization over to someone to run it who could be there on a daily basis.

  “Great, keep me updated. I’ll be in Greece for the next month and then out in Los Angeles, but I’m available anytime you have a need. Bye-bye for now,” she said as she strolled out of the conference room.

  The rest of my afternoon was a blur as I tried to pretend like the pretentious owner of the charity I worked for didn’t just threaten to fire me. It baffled me that she couldn’t see how hard I had been working or just how much I believed in the idea behind our organization. Girls needed to learn coding if they were ever going to get ahead in the new millennium. I honestly believed that was important, and I thought Maxine did too. But more and more, I had started to feel like she just wanted the exposure and publicity that came along with running a big charity and not the actual work that came with it.

  By five o’clock, I couldn’t wait to get out of the office and meet up with my best friend, Beth. She always understood me and listened to me when I complained about my work. I really didn’t understand why Beth never complained about her work, though. She worked as a cashier at a clothing store. There was literally no future in her job, and Beth was perfectly happy with it. She enjoyed being around clothing and helping people find cute outfits; she loved staying out late partying and sleeping in until noon. Beth just wasn’t the type of girl who was unhappy with anything that was going on in her life.

  I tried to be like Beth, and in a lot of ways we were similar. Normally, I could let things roll off my back. I had dealt with Maxine for a long time and learned to deal with her craziness, but the idea that I might lose my job made me wild with anxiety. I couldn’t control how much money people decided to donate. Sure, I could put together some fundraisers, but in the end, it was going to be nearly impossible for me to reach the goal she had set. I wanted to think it was possible, but the optimist inside of me was also a realist, and I knew the number would be so hard to reach. I would have to land some really big names or get a couple of corporate sponsorships if I was going to get anywhere close to my goal.

  “If you don’t have to carry me out of the bar tonight, then I’ve done a bad job of drinking myself into forgetting about this day,” I said as Beth hugged me as we both arrived at our favorite local bar.

  The dive bar we hung out at was more like a local watering hole than an actually New York City bar. The number of elderly men in the bar made me much more comfortable than any of the hip bars our friends liked to hang out at. Sometimes it was better to just hang out with my best friend than it was to go somewhere and get hit on all night long.

  “Your job isn’t supposed to be this stressful. It’s a charity, Kristina. This should be fun and parties all the time. We should be drinking at all your fundraiser events, not buying our own drinks at some boring dive bar.”

  “I know. I know. I really should just go work for a big organization that will appreciate my efforts, or at least pay me what I’m worth. But I believe in this so much. I love that I know how to code; I love watching little girls as they realize they can do amazing things with computers.”

  “Or you could start your own charity,” Beth said with a smile.

  She was always trying to get me to consider starting my own thing. Like it was that easy to start a charity? Charities were hard work, and they required more capital than I wanted to admit. A well-run charity could keep their finances in check, but it required a few key employees that really could multitask. I just wasn’t able to do anything like that. I needed a job that actually paid me a salary.

  “Maybe I should just get married and pop out some babies?” I joked.

  “Seems like a decent plan to me.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Sure Kristina, you aren’t getting any younger. People get married for a lot of reasons. Maybe you should just find a rich guy and get married, have some babies, and not worry about working. You could always divorce him when it didn’t work out.”

  “Absolutely not! I’d rather be artificially inseminated than get married to a guy I didn’t love. I don’t care how much money he has. Love is way too important to me. I want the fairytale.”

  “Eww, you would do that?”

  “Totally! Think about it. You get to make all the decisions; there is no messy relationship or divorce. It seems much simpler. Plus, nowadays you can basically pick out your baby with all the descriptions of men who donated. You can pick red hair, brown hair, tall, educated. You can pick anything that’s important to you.”

  “Not to me. I couldn’t raise a kid alone. I need a man! Plus, it sounds like you’ve looked into this a lot. Don’t go making these kinds of decisions without me.”

  “I need a man too.” I laughed as we sipped our drinks. “It’s just too damn hard to find love. I find a decent guy, and it turns out they are never who they say they are, or there is something horribly wrong with them. Why can’t I just find a nice normal guy?”

  “A nice, normal, rich guy,” Beth added.

  “Seriously, I don’t care if they are rich. A decent guy with a decent job is all I ask for. My standards are pretty low.”

  We both broke out into laughter as the waiter brought us another round of drinks. Dating in N
ew York was horrible. There were tons of single men, but none wanted relationships or wanted to even consider a committed relationship. I wasn’t talking about marriage, just a commitment to dating one person, was that really too much to ask? Going on a date almost always ended up in sex simply because I never knew when I’d find another guy I liked enough to actually go home with. I’d turned into the typical New York woman, and I wasn’t sure that was who I really wanted to be.

  “Why don’t you try that millionaire matching site? Patty works there. She’s really good at finding matches.”

  “What? I just said that money doesn’t matter. Why on earth would I go through the torture of her long application process to only get matched up with rich guys?”

  “Kristina, why settle for a poor guy if you can find a rich one? I mean, come on, that’s only reasonable. She’s really good, and I’ve heard she has some hot dudes that are her clients. It wouldn’t hurt to go visit with her.”

  “You’re exhausting.”

  “I know. I bet if I called Patty, she could hook you up with one of her guys. She’s always trying to find women that meet the requirements for her men, and a lot of them like red hair.”

  “The requirements? Like boob size and stuff like that? Do these guys pick their women like women pick their sperm donors?”

  I was laughing so hard that I noticed a few of the older men at the bar had actually turned around to look at us. It took a lot of commotion to get them to turn away from their drinks.

  “No, no, no, well maybe.” Beth laughed. “It’s more like the guys have a certain type of woman that they are usually attracted to, and Patty likes to find women that match in some way. She doesn’t always go based on looks; sometimes it’s just on a feeling she has. You definitely need to go meet with her.”

  It was comical to think that any of the infamous Patty Stillman’s millionaires would have anything in common with me. What would we talk about on our date? I’d tell them about my 250 square foot walk-up apartment; they’d tell me about their penthouse.