Chapter 4

Kristina

“Hi, Kristina, this is Patty Stillman from Millionaire Matching. I received your profile, and I have someone I’d like to match you up with. Please give me a call at your earliest convenience.”

“Why is Patty calling me?” I asked Beth as we sat at the coffee shop one Sunday afternoon.

As usual, the coffee shop was packed with millennial getting their morning fix of caffeine even on a Sunday morning. The smooth jazz music played in the background but was drown out by the chatter of all the conversations going on around us.

“I don’t know. Maybe she wants you to meet someone.”

“But I didn’t finish setting up a profile,” I said as I stared her down.

“What? You didn’t?” Beth smiled as she coyly drank her coffee.

“You set it up, didn’t you?”

“You were never going to do it. I couldn’t wait forever. I wanted to see if she would find you a match. You should be happy. She actually called you? What did she say?”

“She said she has someone she wants to match me up with and to give her a call,” I replied reluctantly. “I’m not ready for this. What am I going to have to talk to some millionaire about? I can hardly talk to the dorks who hit on me now.”

I wasn’t sure I was ready to be matched up with a millionaire. Those guys were looking to get married, to find the woman they were going to stay with forever; that was a lot of pressure on me. How was I supposed to deal with that kind of pressure when I was just getting into dating real guys and not losers?

“Well call her back.”

“What if she wants me to go out with some old guy? What if he’s a total nerd? How am I supposed to deal with this? Oh, my gosh. Beth, this is crazy. She already has a match. ”

“She won’t set you up with someone horrible; I know her, and she wouldn’t do that. I specifically put your age range on there. I know you; I made sure she knew the kind of guy that would be best for you.”

“What’s my age range?” I laughed. “I don’t even know what my age range is; how could you know, Beth? What kind of guy is best for me? You don’t know these things if I don’t know them yet.”

“I put that they could be from twenty-five to forty-five.”

“That’s good. Okay, what else did you put on my profile? Did you put real pictures of me? I don’t like it when people put up pictures from a long time ago or pictures where they don’t really look like themselves.”

“I’ll show you the profile in a minute; just call Patty back already. I want to know who she fixed you up with.”

I dialed Patty back, and my nerves had me shaking a little bit. It was all happening so fast. I had just been talked into the whole dating thing, and she had already found someone for me to go out with. My mind flashed to scenes from the movies, and I couldn’t help wondering who this guy was going to be.

“Hi, Patty. This is Kristina Masters, returning your call.”

“Oh, yes Kristina. I’m so happy we connected. I’d like to go through your profile with you and see if I can match you up. I think there are a few different men who you could match with. Do you have a minute?”

“Of course,” I replied as I eyed Beth. I was supposed to go over a profile that I hadn’t even seen yet.

“You have red hair. Is it naturally red or are you naturally another hair color?”

“It’s naturally red, although I do have it dyed to brighten up the color and give me some dimension,” but I’m not looking to date guys who only want to go out with me because of my hair.”

“Of course; I totally understand. I’ll make sure that you’re a match in many other ways. In fact, I’ve got a gentleman who I think might work out perfectly for you. He’s in his mid-twenties and a radio jockey here in town. His name is Jeb he’s a sweet guy and would make a good first date.”

“Jeb?” I snickered at the name. “Really?”

“Yeah, he’s really nice and around your age, but he does spend his evenings working in the clubs.”

“Do you send his profile to me or what do you do? I’m not sure I would be a good match for someone who likes to go out to the clubs all the time. I don’t mind going out, but I’m a little more laid back than that.”

“I would add you to his available list if that was alright with you.”

“Sure. Do you have any others?” I asked as I looked around the coffee shop to see if anyone besides Beth was paying attention to my conversation. Of course, no one was. Everyone in New York knew how to focus in the midst of chaos, except me. I found myself glancing around at the tables near us and distracted as I tried to refocus on what Patty was saying.

“Yes, I’ve got a couple of finance executives that I think you would work well for. Do you mind if I add you to their profiles so they can contact you if they are interested?”

“Sure, I guess.”

“Oh, wait. I’ve got one in particular that I think would really work well for you. His name is Merrick. You know I really think you two would hit it off. Would you mind if I just gave him your number, and he could give you a call to set up a date?”

“Without seeing his profile?”

“I’ll send it over to you, but I’d like to send him your information right away if that is okay with you? The two of you might just be a perfect fit.”

“I guess, but I’m still really nervous about this whole thing,” I muttered.

The truth was that I was extremely nervous. My hands were literally shaking at the idea of some millionaire calling me up and asking me out before I even knew what he looked like. I wasn’t some sort of dating expert who could go on a date with ease; I got nervous, and this guy was already making me really nervous.

“To tell you the truth, I’m not sure he’s ready for a commitment yet, and I’ve got a rule about no sex before a commitment. Even though you two would make a good match, just keep that in mind. He is a good first date for you to get you started. If you two hit if off, that’s great, but I’m not sure Merrick has the hang of this whole dating thing just yet.” Patty laughed. “He’s one of those guys who has been playing the field so long that he has no idea what it is he’s really looking for. He’s a nice looking man, though, and very sweet. You could just go out with him for a relaxing date and to have some fun. If it doesn’t work out, I’m sure I have plenty of other men we could set you up with.”

“Alright, but please send over his profile too so I can take a look.”

“I’ll get it over to you first thing tomorrow. I have a good feeling about you, Kristina; I don’t think it will be long before we have you matched up.”

***

By Monday morning, Patty still hadn’t sent me the profile, and I was back to my busy job. We’d been working our butts off to get donations, but they just weren’t coming in like we had hoped for. Cold calling people was one of the worst parts of my job. I honestly didn’t think it was possible to get people to donate through cold calls, but I just wanted to be able to get their emails so I could send them information about our upcoming events. Email addresses were valuable to me, so we had to build up our list before we could plan an event large enough to sustain the dollar amount we needed to get in donations.

I had September working with me on that day and the two of us had taken over our small corner of the office. She was a young nineteen-year-old student at NYU and was horrible at making cold calls for donations but fantastic at getting them to sign up for our newsletters. It was a good compromise for me, and I had made a goal of us signing up 200 people for our newsletter that day. We had added almost 1,000 people the previous week, but we had four people calling, and I couldn’t afford to take everyone off their regular tasks on Mondays.

“Okay, so I’m going to call this list,” I said as I grabbed one of the sheets of paper. “You call that one and let's see who can get more people to commit to the newsletter.”

“Oh, you’re going down,” September said dramatically. “I’ll bet you a large pizza that I’ll kick your butt.”

“I’ll see your large pizza and raise you some cocktails.”

“Deal. By five o’clock tonight. Ready, set, go,” she said and ran off to her office.

I went straight to dialing and was able to grab a good dozen email addresses before I got held up at Stanley and Associates. It was obviously a big company, and the only number I had was to the main number. But big companies were run by people with big money, so it would be worth trying to get this guy on the phone.

“Hello, I’m looking for Mr. Stanley,” I said when the young woman answered the phone.

“Do you have a scheduled call?”

“No, I just need to talk to him.”

“He doesn’t take unsolicited calls,” she said curtly and hung up the phone.

Crap! Getting a bigwig like this on board with our organization could be huge. With one email, he could introduce us to his entire organization, and I’d be swimming in donations. I wasn’t willing to give up just yet.

After googling a few different people that worked at Stanley and Associates, I found one that had an extension listed.

“Hello,” the man said on the other end.

“Yes, I’m sorry is this Mr. Stanley? I think I might have the wrong number?”

“No, this is extension 5455, he’s at extension 4535.”

“Ah, thanks so much. I’m sorry,” I said as I raised my fist in happiness. That had been much easier than I thought it was going to be.

This was it; I felt like if I could convince this guy to talk to me, I would get him on our side. Stanley and Associates was an investment firm, but they were a high-tech investment company, and I was positive they would endorse women being more involved in technology. I took a deep breath and dialed the phone before I lost my nerve.

“Hello,” a man said curtly when he answered the phone.

“Hi, um, is this Mr. Stanley?” I asked in a shaky voice.

“Yes, who is this?”

“Well, hi, I’m with Girls Tech,” I said as I tried to calm myself. “We are a non-profit that …”

“How the hell did you get this number? Did Wendy pass you through?”

“Um, I’m sorry. Is there a better time I could call? We have a great program that helps girls, and young women have access to tech training programs.”

“How about you call my secretary like all the other worthy causes trying to get their hands on my checkbook?”

“Wow, that’s a pretty big assumption, Mr. Stanley. Just because I’m calling you, you’re assuming I want your money?”

“Yes. That’s how this goes. You call me. You tell me how your charity is so much better than a hundred other charities, and I’m supposed to give you a big fat check. I’m sorry, young lady; I don’t have time to give to every charity that calls me. That’s why I let my secretary set up appointments once a week with charities that go through the proper channels.”

“Well, I wasn’t calling for money,” I lied. “Maybe you could stop being such a self-absorbed jerk for thirty seconds and actually listen to me before you accuse me of money grubbing.”

“Calling me self-absorbed is supposed to get me to listen?” He laughed.

“I’m sorry.” I really should not have talked to him like that. “Do you have a minute to talk or could I call you back another time and talk with you. Please? I promise I’m not calling to get you to write a check.”

“Oh, now it’s a minute,” he joked. “I’ll give you five minutes if you call me back next Tuesday at ten o’clock. What’s your name again?”

I looked at September as she sat across from me and I felt my face flush with excitement. He was actually going to give me some time with him. This might just be the break we were waiting for.

“Miss Masters, sir. I’m with Girls Tech. I will call you next Tuesday exactly at ten o’clock.”

“And you promise you’re not going to ask me for money? Because I don’t like it when people lie to me; that’s a surefire way to get me to hang up on you and not take any more of your calls.”

“Promise.”

“Fine then. I’ll give you the time, but only because you were honest about the self-absorbed comment. Goodbye.”

He didn’t wait for me to reply and quickly hung up, but I couldn’t hold back the excitement. I had actually landed the opportunity to talk to him about our organization. I was rude and not at all well behaved on our call, and he actually liked it. Men were such strange creatures.

“Got him!” I yelled at September even though she was literally only a few feet away from me

“Who?”

“Mr. Stanley from Stanley and Associates has agreed to talk to me for five minutes next week. Well, he agreed as long as I didn’t ask him for money,” I said as I reclined in the chair and put my feet up on the desk.

“How exactly is that a good thing? We need money. The exact thing you are supposed to be talking to him about is money.”

“No, it’s okay. He runs a huge organization. I don’t necessarily need his money. I could ask him to work with us and get his staff involved or something like that. I haven’t thought out all the details, and I was pretty rude to him on the phone, but it’s a good thing. Yeah, it’s good.”

“You were rude, and he still agreed to talk to you.”

“Yeah, he said he liked my honesty. At least I don’t have to meet with him face to face, that would have been terrifying. He sounds really intense.”

“Oh, he’s gorgeous. I wouldn’t have been able to talk to him even on the phone. I’d probably have passed out the second he answered the phone.”

“Well I don’t know him, so I guess it was a good thing I made the call.”

September thrust her phone into my face with a picture of a beautiful looking man in a blue suit. He had shaggy light brown hair and a bit of scruff for a beard. His brilliant blue eyes made my heart skip a beat, and I instantly understood what September was saying about passing out. It was definitely a good thing that I had not known what he looked like before I made that call.

“Isn’t Merrick so dreamy?” She swooned.

“Yeah, he’s a very handsome …” I stopped cold when I realized what she had called him.

“Merrick?”

“Yeah, this is Merrick Stanley. He’s like a millionaire and owns Stanley and Associates. Wow, it’s so amazing to me that he’s actually single still. I would have thought somebody could have snagged him by now.”

I swallowed hard and felt my legs get shaky as I sat back down in my chair. The entire room was spinning. I had just called Merrick Stanley, a self-absorbed jerk, and Patty was fixing me up with him.

“Are you okay? See, I told you he’d make you pass out.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m okay. I’m just going to take a little break. How about we meet back here in an hour or so?”

“Sure, I’ve got some other work to do, but this doesn’t mean our bet’s off.”

“No, no, we are still on for pizza.”

September left, and I reached for my purse to call Beth. She wasn’t going to believe this. In fact, she was probably going to flip out. I couldn’t wait to tell her. My phone started to ring as I pillaged through my purse, and I slid the button over to answer it before looking to see who it was. There were only a few people who ever actually called me, Beth and my mother.

I made my way back to my own office so I could talk to her with a little privacy. My office was sparse, but I liked the minimalistic feel of it. It made me want to work harder so I could travel and fill all my shelves with amazing knick knacks from around the world.

“Hey,” I said as I leaned back in my chair with my eyes closed.

“Hello, is Kristina there?” A deep sexy voice asked.

I instantly sat up straight and looked at the caller ID, but it was blank. The voice sounded really familiar, though. It certainly wasn’t my mother or Beth. My foot started shaking as I tried to figure out who had my personal cell phone number and was calling me.

“This is her.”

“Hi, this is Merrick,” he said in a much nicer voice than he had been talking to me when I had just called his office. “Patty gave me your number.”

“Oh, yes. Hello, how are you?” I said as properly as I could manage.

Hopefully, he couldn’t tell I was the same girl that had just called his office and called him names. I shook my head as I tried to talk to him and not freak out on the phone. I really wished that September hadn’t shown me his picture. All I could think about was his dreamy blue eyes, and how they made my body tingle when I looked at a photo of him; I could only imagine how much power his eyes would hold in person.

“I’m doing well, thank you. It’s a little weird to be calling someone up for a blind date, but I did read through your profile, and I think we have a chance of a decent connection. At least we could enjoy a nice drink together, right?”

“Oh, okay,” I fumbled.

“Are you free on Saturday?”

“No,” I replied before I could stop myself.

My mother had always told me to deny a guy a date if he asked for a Saturday night with you right away. She always said, ‘no girl has Saturday night free on short notice if she has a life.’ She would tell me that same thing throughout high school and college. I hadn’t followed that rule in years because most guys didn’t bother actually asking me out for a real date.

“Okay, how about Friday night?”

“Sure,” I replied.

According to my mother’s advice, I probably should have said no to Friday as well, but I didn’t want to say no to him twice. Our date would likely be a disaster of me staring at him and him thinking I was a lunatic, but I was definitely going to go out with this guy.

“I’ll text you from my personal cell phone. Maybe we could talk a little this week?”

“Sure.”

“Would it be alright with you if I picked you up from your place around six on Friday?”

“Sure,” I replied again and realized I had said the same thing for every question he had asked me. “That would be fine. I’ll text you my address later this week. I mean after you text me from your phone. Since I don’t have your phone number or any way of reaching you,” I babbled on and on.

“You mean after you’re sure I am who I say I am?” He gave a deep laugh that sent tingles throughout my body. “I’ll send you a message shortly so you have my number.”

I felt my face flush with exhilaration as I held onto the phone and smiled at his laugh. Damn, he had a sexy laugh.

“Sure,” I jokingly replied again.

“Alright, I’m going to let you go. I’m sure you’re very busy. It was nice connecting with you, and I look forward to seeing you on Friday.”

“It was nice talking with you too, Merrick,” I said.

My heart was beating out of my chest as I hung up with Merrick and quickly dialed Beth to tell her all about what had just happened. In the span of ten minutes, I had insulted one of the sexiest men in New York and accepted a date from him. It was beyond unbelievable. I couldn’t even wrap my brain around it, and I knew Beth was going to totally freak out.

“So I have a date with Merrick Stanley this Friday night,” I yelled excitedly into Beth’s ear the second she answered the phone.

“Who’s that?”

“What? You don’t know who that is?”

“I’m joking! Who doesn’t know who Merrick is? He’s slept with every woman in the city. He’s deliciously handsome, and from what I hear, he’s really good in the sac.”

My heart sank at the visualization. I knew that any guy I dated was going to have a past, but I didn’t think I could get over a guy with a past like that. It scared me, right away. It was also a realization that I probably wasn’t the right girl for this guy. If he was used to dating models and socialites, I was going to be a huge disappointment for him.

“Oh.”

“No, I’m joking,” Beth said as she tried to cover her tracks. “I’ve actually met him before. He’s very handsome and extremely nice. He’s a tall drink of water and I guarantee you’re going to want to drink from him.”

“Did you sleep with him?” I ventured to ask as I laughed at her visualization of the man.

“No, I’m not really his type.”

“What kind of girl is his type?”

“I’m not sure. It’s been a year or so, but he notoriously dated …” she trailed off and then stopped talking. The phone was silent but I could hear her rustling around in the background.

“Who? What? Who did he date?”

“Okay, don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not sure. Maybe I just saw him with this type of girl, and there are many other women he dated. In fact, I’m sure he’s dated other women and not just redheads,” she said, and I practically heard her flinch through the phone.

“Redheads? Oh, come on? Is he a redhead fetish guy?”

“I don’t know for sure. He might just like all women, and I’ve only seen him with redheads? It’s possible I happened to see him only on the nights he had a redhead with him.”

“How many?”

“How many redheads have I seen him with?”

“Yeah. I mean one or two could just be a coincidence, but more than that is probably a fetish,” I flung my head into my hands and rested it on the table while I waited for her answer.

“Stop calling it a fetish. You like guys with brown hair; it’s not a fetish for you.”

“I don’t care what color hair a guy has. It just happens that most of the guys I actually date have brown hair.”

“My point exactly. It doesn’t matter what color hair anyone has. I mean even if I’ve seen him out with six or seven women with red hair. That doesn’t mean he has a fetish.”

“Seven women? Oh, Beth! That is a fetish for sure. Plus, I insulted him the first time I talked to him. This just isn’t looking good for me at all.”

“You insulted him?”

I couldn’t stop laughing as I thought about how badly this date was going to go. When he asked me where I worked, I’d have to give myself away, and he’d know I was the person who had called him a jerk, a self-absorbed jerk to be exact. He’d probably think I arranged the date somehow, and that I was playing some sort of trick on him. This was not looking good at all.

“In my defense, I didn’t know it was him when I insulted him. I actually called around and got the direct number to Mr. Stanley and was going to get him on our newsletter list so we could work on increasing our donations. Anyways, he was rude to me, and I was even ruder, but then he agreed to give me five minutes next Tuesday. It actually ended just fine.”

“Then he asked you out?”

“No, he didn’t know it was me when I called, and I didn’t know it was him. He ended up calling me just a few minutes ago after September showed me a picture of him, and I realized who he was.”

“Wow, you’re dating life is getting more confusing than my life for sure. Anyways, are you going out with him then?”

“Yeah, I agreed to go out on Friday. I’m not sure it will last long once he realizes who I am. It’s just a drink.”

I could barely pull my head off my desk as I looked around my bare office and thought about what fun it would have been to date a guy like Merrick. He probably traveled everywhere in the world. But he certainly wasn’t going to go for me after he realized I was the woman who had been rude to him on the phone.

“Don’t tell him!”

“Beth, I can’t just keep this to myself. I’m not going to lie to him. Eventually, he’s going to ask what I do for a living.”

“Okay, I don’t mean that you need to lie to him. Just use some creative truth telling. Like if he asks you what you do, tell him you work for a charity, and that’s it. Most guys won’t even bother asking you more. They never really care what we do for work, I should know.”

That was true. Beth was a cashier at a clothing store and still seemed to date perfectly respectable men. I had to agree that I didn’t think guys really cared what their ladies did for work. She had me feeling optimistic that I could get through at least the first date without a disaster and possibly without lying.