His Huge Rock

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “Merrick, I’m confused. Did she lie to you to try and get money? She didn’t seem like that sort of woman.”

  “She didn’t tell me we had talked on the phone before. That’s lying.”

  Wyatt burst into laughter and came to sit down across from my desk. He didn’t know what it was like to have feelings for a woman who straight up lied to your face. His woman was truthful and caring and would never do something like that.

  “You know what this sounds like to me?” Wyatt asked as he sad totally relaxed in the chair across from my desk.

  “Like I’m a big chump!”

  “Uh, no. It sounds like a misunderstanding. Did she actually ask you for money? I think you are blowing this all out of proportion”

  “Not yet, she was probably waiting until I fell in love with her,” I said as I turned and looked out the window of my office. I could stand to look at Wyatt and how at ease he seemed during this whole conversation.

  “Merrick, maybe she called you before Patty had told her she set you two up. Maybe she didn’t know who she was being set up with. Perhaps after figuring it all out, she actually liked you and didn’t want to deal with this sort of reaction.”

  “She wasn’t honest.”

  “Oh, give me a break, Merrick. You tell people all the time that you can make them money, and sometimes we end up losing their money. We aren’t purposely being deceitful, but it does turn out that we lied. I would think you’d have a little more understanding. What did Kristina say about it all?”

  I strained to remember what had happened on the airplane. My anger and surprise about the whole situation had thrown me off, and I wasn’t sure I recalled exactly what she had told me. I did remember that she had insisted I knew her, but did I really know her?

  “She denied it being a malicious thing. Said that I knew her better.”

  “What did you say?” Wyatt asked.

  “Pretty much that I just needed to think about things.”

  “Merrick,” Wyatt shook his head in disapproval. “It’s such a stupid thing. If she had tried to get you to donate to her organization, I’d feel a little bad for you, but she didn’t even ask you for money?”

  “No, she didn’t. But she did say she was going to lose her job if she didn’t reach her donation quota.”

  “And she didn’t ask you for money? Even though she was going to lose her job? Um, that sounds like a stand-up woman to me. Sorry buddy … I’m not on your side with this one. Unless you think she was just saying all of that to get you to give a donation? How exactly was it said?”

  “She just talked about it as the stress of her job.”

  “How about we go talk to Patty and see what she has to say? She did a background check, and I’m sure she’ll have some insight into who Kristina is.”

  “It doesn’t matter much now; after the way I reacted, this isn’t going to be saved.”

  “Wow,” Wyatt said as he stood up to leave my office. “I didn’t take you for such a quitter.”

  Wyatt walked out without saying another word. I wasn’t a quitter. Anyone who knew me knew that I gave everything my all. I didn’t do something if I wasn’t willing to put everything I had into it. I had to talk to Kristina, but first, I wanted to see what Patty had to say. She had matched the two of us up, and she was my only contact that knew Kristina better than I might.

  I didn’t call; I didn’t make an appointment … I just went straight over to the Millionaire Matching site to see if I could find Patty and get her take on what was going on. I’d lived in New York for many years, and it wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities that a woman would try to take advantage of me. I totally understood it was possible; the part that was gnawing at me was how sweet she was, how much we got along, and how honest all our conversations were. Was it possible that she had only lied about this one thing, and everything else was the truth?

  “I’d like to see Patty, please,” I told the receptionist when I arrived.

  “She’s in the middle of a matchmaking session. It might be a little bit … would you like me to tell her you stopped by?”

  “No, I’ll wait.”

  “It really will be a little while. See all these women?” the receptionist said as she ran her finger from one side of the room to the next. “She’s meeting with them all in groups of three.”

  “Wow, okay, so how long do you think?”

  “One to two hours.”

  “I can come back in an hour or so, thanks.”

  I couldn’t sit in her lobby and wait; I was too jacked up to sit still, and I certainly couldn’t get any work done so I walked. I started walking north from my office uptown. There wasn’t a particular place in mind; I just wanted to keep moving while I thought about Kristina and everything that was going on.

  Soon I found myself in China Town and walking down the same street I had walked with Kristina. The shops looked less interesting in the middle of the day, and the whole area was not nearly as beautiful as it had been when I was there with Kristina. I paused outside a souvenir shop and looked at the knick-knacks in the window, but without her by my side, none of them were beautiful enough to evoke a purchase from me.

  After an hour of walking around, I felt worse than ever about how I had acted with Kristina, and I impulsively tried to call her. As the phone rang, I tried to imagine what I would say if she picked up. How would I reconcile how I had behaved with what she had told me? When the call went to her voicemail, I just hung up. There wasn’t enough clarity in my own mind for me to talk to her yet.

  When I returned to Patty’s office, there were still about ten women sitting in the lobby waiting to go in and talk to her. I decided to grab a seat and wait for my turn. The women were all of similar height and size, they had brown hair and large breasts, and I couldn’t help thinking there was a wealthy man who had requested those exact things.

  When the last group of women strolled out of Patty’s office, her receptionist called her to say I was waiting for her. After another ten minutes or so, Patty appeared in her office doorway and ushered me in.

  “Merrick, it’s nice to see you. How are things going with Kristina?”

  “Well, that’s what I’m here about. There was an issue, and I just wanted to find out some more information about her.”

  “What do you mean by issue?”

  “Well, apparently she had called me at my office before about her charity, and she lied to me about it.”

  Patty looked confused by what I was saying. I was choosing my words carefully as not to imply that Kristina was trying to trick me, but by the look on Patty’s face, it was clear I was going to have to tell her everything.

  “Kristina lied to you?” she asked.

  “Yes, I mean, sort of. Yes, she did lie, but I’m trying to figure out the motive and …”

  Patty held up her finger and motioned for me to be quiet as she dialed the speaker phone in front of her. The phone rang twice, and then I heard Kristina’s voice on the other end of the line.

  “Hello,” Kristina said.

  “Hi, Kristina, what happened with you and Merrick?”

  Patty’s willingness to straight out ask what was going on surprised me, and I instantly put my head into my hands as I waited for her answer.

  “Oh, well, remember that day you told me you were connecting me with someone?”

  “Yes,” Patty said as she stared me down.

  “Well, I was recruiting companies to sign up for my newsletter list that day. It’s a newer initiative we have so we can provide people information about Girls Tech and then hopefully get them interested in being more involved.”

  “Okay, what else?”

  “I talked to Merrick before I knew he was the person I was getting matched up with. I simply had him on my list as Stanley and Associates. Well, later that day, he called me, and it all started to come together, and I realized who he was, but when I went out with him on our first date, I didn’t tell him I’d talked to him before.”


  “Why didn’t you tell him?” Patty asked as she continued to look at me.

  I still had my head in my hands, but I was looking up at her while she talked to Kristina. Somewhere deep down I hoped there was a great explanation for all of this. I adjusted myself in the leather seat and then stopped moving as the sound of the movement echoed throughout Patty’s office.

  “Because I liked him; he was kind and smart and exactly what I never knew I always wanted. I didn’t want him to think I was tricking him,” Kristina said as she started to cry.

  “But that’s what happened? He thought you were tricking him?”

  “Yes. I don’t blame him, and I don’t blame you if you don’t want to work with me anymore. I wouldn’t want to date anyone else right now anyways.”

  “Kristina, I want you to take a few deep breaths and relax a little. I have a feeling things will work out just fine for you. You’re a smart, sexy woman that any guy would be stupid to give up on,” Patty continued to look at me and shake her head in disgust. “We will talk in a few days. Take care of yourself.”

  “Thanks, Patty.”

  As Patty hung up the phone, I knew I was in trouble. She leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms, and just stared at me. I waited for her to say something but then realized she was waiting for me.

  “I admit I acted hastily.”

  “Hastily? What exactly happened?”

  “We were on our way home from Sonoma and had just made love when she accidently said she worked for Girls Tech. I remembered the name and freaked out a little.”

  “While you two were naked?” She asked as her eyes burned into mine.

  “Yes, but I don’t know why that matters.”

  “Just like a man not to understand a woman feeling vulnerable when she’s naked. Okay, so what did you say or do for the rest of the trip home?”

  “It wasn’t good.”

  “It seems to me you have two options here. Either step up and admit you overreacted or walk away. You know Kristina told me not to connect her with any man who was specifically looking for a redhead like you were. I lied to her and didn’t tell her that was what you had asked for. We all lie sometimes, Merrick; you need to be able to weigh the gravity of it against the person who told the lie. I don’t think Kristina did this maliciously, but if you want to believe that, it’s up to you. I’d be happy to match you up with a new girl if you’d prefer.”

  A new girl? The idea seemed absurd to me. I didn’t want to be matched up with anyone else, and it took her saying that for me to snap out of it and realize how I felt.

  “I don’t want a new girl,” I protested as I sat up straight and leaned toward her desk.

  “Let me ask you something Merrick, and I don’t want you to take offense,” she started to say and leaned in toward me. “Is it possible you felt yourself bonding with this girl and made this whole thing into a big deal as a way of pushing her away?”

  “No, absolutely not,” I said unconvincingly.

  “From what I know about you, this is your first real relationship in a very long time. It can be scary when you have feelings that are new.”

  “Don’t analyze me. I know my feelings,” I protested some more. “I didn’t do this on purpose. I like her. I wouldn’t push her away …”

  I trailed off as the realization started to hit me. I might have pushed her away; it wasn’t a conscious decision, but I could see where Patty was coming from, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like that I played a role in this disaster.

  “It doesn’t matter now. If you care about her, go get her back. End of story.”

  “Okay. I will,” I said as I stood up. “Thanks, Patty.”

  “I don’t want to see you back here until you’ve fixed this, understood?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  I immediately thought of calling Kristina and trying to mend things, but as I left Patty’s office, I thought there had to be a better way than just dialing up Kristina. I needed to do something big, something that she would take notice of.

  Chapter 12

  Kristina

  I was lost for the first few days after I returned to New York with Merrick. It was so weird to have known someone only a few weeks yet feel like I was connected to him. As much as I wanted to call him, I wasn’t going to be that girl who hung onto something that wasn’t really there at all. If Merrick wanted to talk to me, he knew my number and could call me at any time.

  Life went back to normal, or as normal as it could get with the stress I was going through at work. It was clear that I wasn’t going to raise the ten million dollar goal I had, but I continued doing the best I could to organize our end of year gala.

  “September, how many people do we have confirmed for the event?”

  “Over three hundred. That’s good right?”

  “Yeah, how much do we still need in donations?”

  “I think we still need a little less than five million. I’m sure Maxine won’t fire you. We’ve raised so much money this quarter.”

  “Oh, she’ll fire me, and that’s just fine. I think there’s something else out there that I’m meant to do,” I said as I gathered a large stack of papers from my desk.

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know yet, but maybe my own organization or something like that. I love this place, though, and it would be horrible to have to leave.”

  “Let’s just hope some of these big spenders really kick in a lot of money. We have some great things on our auction block. Trips, paintings, even a car all donated by some of Maxine’s celebrity friends. A few of them will also be attending the event. This is possible Kristina; don’t give up.”

  “I’m not giving up, just not delusional either.”

  ***

  By Saturday night, we had the whole party ready to go, and I was ready to accept whatever the outcome was. I had literally worked as hard as I could; there was no doubt in my mind that I’d given it my all.

  “Kristina, how’s the fundraising going?” Maxine asked before the party.

  “It’s going very well. I’m sure we will get very close to our goal. It’s huge how much we’ve already raised, and even if we don’t hit the ten million, we will have set ourselves up to be very close to our goals.”

  “Kristina, I don’t want you to think I’m ungrateful because I really appreciate all you’ve done for the organization, but I can’t keep pouring my own money into this. If we can’t meet this goal, I think I’ll have to let you go as well as many of the other employees. I’m considering combining the group with another tech group and working together.”

  “Um, okay … I wasn’t aware there was another group,” I said to Maxine as I tried to get her to tell me more about this deal she was thinking of making.

  “It’s a small one that was recently started but has some great financing and a similar mission. I’m considering it. That’s all.”

  “Okay, well let’s see how the evening goes. I’m still optimistic we will reach our goals,” I replied.

  Maxine didn’t stick around to continue talking with me and left without even a goodbye. She was busy mingling with everyone as we set up the party. Beth had arrived while I was talking with Maxine and made her way over to me when it was clear.

  “The place looks amazing,” Beth said as she looked around the main ballroom.

  We had balloons filling the ceiling, flowers bouquets that stood almost six feet tall, and rose colored lighting throughout the main dance area. Luckily, many of our vendors had donated their services in exchange for being recognized during the ceremony.

  “Thanks, it’s been crazy this week. I’ll be glad when it’s all over.”

  “Do you need me to do anything?” Beth asked as she set her things down.

  “You could go grab my dress at my apartment and bring it here. I thought I’d have time to run home and get ready, but it’s just not looking like that is going to happen.”

  “Wow, I must really like you if I’m willing to say yes to t
his,” she laughed as she grabbed her coat and purse off the table.

  “You love me; what are you even talking about!”

  “You’re right, I do. Is there anything else you need? How about makeup? Hair stuff?”

  Beth was truly a great friend. I couldn’t have asked anyone else to take a cab during Saturday night traffic and get my dress for me. I was lucky to have her around.

  “Yes, grab makeup and anything else you think I might need. Thank you so much!”

  I continued to frantically work with everyone else at Girls Tech as we prepared the final items for our evening. If I didn’t raise enough to keep our organization afloat, I now felt even more pressure of what would happen to my fellow coworkers. A combining of resources between two non-profit organizations would certainly mean a few people were going to lose their jobs, and from what Maxine was saying, I was going to be first on that list.

  When the doors to the gala event opened, Beth still hadn’t returned with my dress, and I had no idea what I was going to do. I couldn’t exactly head the event in my sweatpants with my hair in a ponytail. I hid in the back dressing room and waited for Beth to arrive.

  The stress of everything that had gone on with Merrick and I still loomed high over me. I saw he had tried to call me once but never left a voice message and never tried again. I had to assume he had given up on us and what we had going. I didn’t blame him; it wasn’t as if I could change things. Everything was out in the open, and he made his decision. I just had to live with it.

  “Kristina!” I heard Beth hollering as she walked through the backstage area.

  “I’m over here.”

  “Wow, you were really hard to find. Here, let’s get you looking beautiful.”

  “What is this dress? Where did you get it?” I asked as I noticed the dress Beth had was not my dress from my house.

  “I got all the way to your house and realized I didn’t have your key, so I went to my house and grabbed you something.”

  “Wow, that’s some dress,” I said as I looked the long white gown up and down. “Will it fit me? It looks really small.”