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 this,” 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.”

“It will fit you. There might be a little more cleavage than you like to show, but hey … maybe it will get you some extra donations.”

It was too late for me to argue with her; I was just going to have to suffer through whatever I looked like. I didn’t have the luxury of being demure about it; I had to be on stage in fifteen minutes.

I quickly slipped into the dress, and Beth did some magic on my hair and face with no time to spare. As I walked down the hallway toward the stage, I couldn’t stop looking at my cleavage and hoping my boobs were going to behave themselves while I was on stage. The thin white fabric barely covered all the necessary areas and plunged deep down my back as well. It was nothing that I would have picked out for myself, and I couldn’t even imagine that Beth had picked it out for herself.

“Where were you going to wear this dress?” I laughed as I prepared to go on stage.

“I was going to embellish it and wear it for a wedding dress some day.”

“Oh, my gosh, Beth. This is not a wedding dress.” I laughed. “Please promise me you won’t wear it on your wedding day.”

“Why? Because you want to wear it?” She laughed too.

“Yes, exactly; I really want to wear it when I get married.” We both laughed as I waited for the announcement and time for me to head to the stage. “Thanks for getting me this, though. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Me either.”

“Without further ado, I’d like to welcome the woman behind all of this, Miss Kristina Masters!” Maxine said, and the crowd cheered like they knew who I was.

As I walked out onto the stage, I instantly felt all the eyes in the room staring at my breasts. There wasn’t a thing I could do about it, though, so I tried to harness all the pretend actress energy I could.

“That’s a smoking hot dress,” Maxine said softly in my ear as we hugged.

I had to laugh. Only a celebrity like her would think this dress was appropriate for a charity event. I would have even turned heads at the Oscars with how low cut the dress was. I said a little thank you for all my workouts and being too busy to eat junk food the last few weeks as I prepared for the event. I certainly didn’t look horrible in the dress and even had to admit I looked pretty damn good.

“Hello everyone, I’m so happy to have you here for our annual Girls Tech gala. Tonight, I hope you enjoy all the entertainment, food, and make sure to bid on the silent auction items. At the end of the evening, we will have some very special items up for auction that I know you’ll want to break those checkbooks out for. Now let’s watch a little glimpse into some of the amazing programs we put together this year.”

I stepped to the side while the video played and looked out at the audience to see who all had come to our event. If just a few celebrities and bigwig New Yorkers showed up, there was a chance we’d be able to get the donation money we needed.

For the next hour, I took turns talking to the crowd and mingling among them. We had a comedian and local band, as well as a headliner band, play a few songs. We had plenty of people bidding on the silent auction items and even a few people who seemed very interested in the main auction that was coming later in the night.

“Kristina,” Beth said as she pulled me aside behind the main curtain to the stage. “I need to talk to you.”

“I can’t right now; I’ve got to lead the main auction. Let’s talk when it’s done,” I said as I started to walk away.

“But, Kristina …”

“Beth, when I’m done.”

Whatever she had to tell me could certainly wait until after our big finale. I had five large ticket items that we were auctioning off, and they were going to mean the difference between hitting our goals or not. I had to give the auction my full attention.

“Alright everyone, are you ready for the big event?” I asked as I stood at center stage and addressed the audience. “We have a few really amazing items up for auction, and I want to see you giving as much as you can. The first item we have is a genuine signed print of The Weeping Woman by Pablo Picasso. That’s right, the real thing here. This is from the private collection of Maxine’s good friend, Dean Morrison. I don’t even want to start this bidding out with a number smaller than seven hundred thousand dollars.”

“Seven hundred thousand dollars,” I heard a woman yell out.

“We have seven hundred; do I hear seven hundred and fifty thousand?”

“Yes, seven fifty,” another woman yelled.

The bidding went on and on until it had reached a a million dollars before it finally sold. My heart pounded with the excitement of it all. I couldn’t believe how much it had gone for, and I couldn’t wait to see what our next item was going to sell for.

“Next, we have a trip anywhere in the United States on a private jet; this is a round trip experience, and you can bring up to ten people with you.”

The bidding for the private plane went over and ended at nearly one hundred thousand dollars. I continued with the evening of auction items that included a red Ferrari donated by a professional baseball player, a dinner with a famous musician, and our final item was a photo shoot with Maxine.

“Okay, now that’s what I call an auction,” I announced as we closed out the bidding and I glanced at my dress to make sure it was still covering all my important parts.

“Wait, we have one more item,” Maxine said as she slipped through the back curtain and onto the stage with me.

I was confused, and I probably looked really confused. I just stared at her as she grabbed the mic and took over the auction from me.

“I had a last minute addition to the auction, and I just couldn’t turn it down. In fact, we managed to get it here in the building for you all, and I think it will really amaze you. Our last item up for bid is a 2017 royal blue Lexus GS F convertible!”

The crowd went crazy as the large red curtains of our stage were pulled back, and the blue convertible drove out to the center of the stage. I knew that car, it was the same one Merrick and I had ridden in through Sonoma for the wine tasting. It was a beautiful car, and I could only hope that it would bring in some seriously large donation.

“Kristina, I’ll hand this back over to you so you can bring in our final donations of the night. Let’s make sure we are giving everything we can for the girls of our communities,” Maxine said as she handed me back the microphone.

“Oh, um. Yes, well as you can see we have a very beautiful new convertible. 2017, yes, and it’s got tan leather, and um … okay, let’s just start the bidding at one hundred thousand,” I said as I tried to pull myself together.

I walked around the convertible, and it looked exactly like the one Merrick and I had been in. The leather was identical, the smell so familiar to me. I could have sworn it had been delivered right from California to our stage.

“One hundred thousand,” a man’s voice said from the back of the crowd.

“Okay, we have one hundred; do I hear one fifty?” I asked.

“One fifty,” a woman near the front yelled.

“Two hundred,” the man in the back countered again.

“Three hundred,” the woman in the front yelled again.

“Okay, now we have some action. Do I hear three fifty from the gentleman in the back?”

There was no answer, and I couldn’t see the man, but I heard a bit of a commotion going on toward the back of the room. I tried to move out of the spotlight so I could get a better look, and just as I finally got my eyes to focus, I realized who it was.

“Four million dollars,” Merrick said as his bright blue eyes smiled up at me from the middle of the room. His impeccable black tuxedo fit in well with the crowd, but he still stood out as he looked up at me.

I swallowed hard and looked at the woman who had been bidding against him. She just shrugged her shoulders in defeat. It was obvious she wasn’t willing to go against Merrick’s gigantic number.

“Okay, well we have four million going once …”

“Wait, I have one requirement,” Merrick yelled as he continued walking toward the stage. “You have to go out with me too.”

The crowd erupted in laughs and clapping at his suggestion. I looked back at Maxine who seemed utterly amused by the whole situation, but I was still really confused. I hadn’t heard from Merrick at all since our fight. What the heck was he doing showing up at my fundraiser and willingly giving so much money to my cause?

“Um, that’s not really part of the deal.”

“Oh, well then I take my bid back. You can have the lovely automobile,” he said to the woman who had been bidding against him.

The crowd groaned at my refusal of him and his withdrawal of his bid. There was nothing I could do. I had to accept his offer.

“Fine, I’ll go out with you,” I said reluctantly.

“Okay then.” He laughed and turned toward the crowd who cheered him on. “There’s one other think that I’d like to add to my bid. And you’re going to have to accept it if you want my money for this car.”

“Well, that’s all we have for tonight. Everyone, please stick around and enjoy the entertainment, desserts, and drinks. We appreciate you all and thank you for your support.”

After a moment of applause, I hustled behind the stage where Beth, September, and Maxine were all standing there with huge smiles on their faces. It was clear they had known about what was happening long before I had.

“What the heck is going on here?”

“Well, I think you just met your fundraising goal,” September said as she shrugged her shoulders like she had no idea what I was talking about.

“Yep, I think she did,” Maxine repeated.

“Yeah, it sounded like she hit her goal to me,” Beth added.

“What the heck are you three up to?” I asked as I looked at the guilty expressions on all of their faces.

“I think they are just being good friends,” I heard Merrick say from behind me. “You’re a lucky lady to have women like this willing to stick up for you.”

As I turned around, I saw Merrick standing there in a perfectly pressed black tuxedo and a white pocket square. He was holding two dozen white roses and smiling from ear to ear.

“Wait, you were all in on this?” I asked as I turned back to the three women, but they had all disappeared and left me standing there alone with Merrick behind the curtain.