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.

My thoughts whirled through my mind as I tried to make sense of it. Sure, Cassandra could be a little dramatic, but she knew the dancers at her studio, and she would be the one who would know what Jenna did there.

“But, I saw her dancing at the benefit,” I said in Jenna’s defense. “She was in the front of the group of dancers at my table.”

“That was supposed to be Elaina,” Cassandra said angrily. “Are you telling me Elaina didn’t show up to the event and Jenna took her spot?”

“I don’t know what’s going on,” I said still trying to figure out what had happened.

“Well, Jenna isn’t a dancer. She has never even tried out to be a dancer. She works for the dance company as our lowest level employee. Literally, she gets my dry cleaning. I’m so sorry she lied to you like that. It doesn’t surprise me, though,” Cassandra said as she looked over at Bruce, the security guard who was still trying to call the rehearsal room for Jenna. “Why don’t you just go get her,” Cassandra ordered him.

Bruce reluctantly got up from his post and made his way down the hallway. With him out of her way, Cassandra leaned in closer as if she had a huge secret she needed to tell me.

“I’m sorry, I should probably get going. Can you just give her this invitation?” I said as I handed Cassandra the envelope.

“She’s done this before, Kevin. I’m sorry you got mixed up with such a troublemaker. I’ll give her the invitation, and if she doesn’t want to come, would it be alright if I came?”

“Sure, whatever,” I said as I turned to leave. “Tell her I tried calling the number she gave, and it didn’t work.”

“Oh, man. She gave you a fake number? That’s horrible,” Cassandra said as I stood at the door ready to leave. “She likes to play with men like you, Kevin. She finds nice guys who have money, and she manipulates them. Don’t worry; it’s not your fault,” she said with a laugh as I left.

I couldn’t stay there another moment and burst through the doors and out into the parking lot. Cassandra’s laugh echoed in my ears as I walked quickly to my vehicle and drove off. I had to get out of there. I had to get as far away from that place as I possibly could.

My blood pressure was through the roof as I pulled into my driveway and dialed up Ed. This was the secret Jenna had been keeping from me? Why even pretend? Why try to trick me into liking her? She had to have been playing some sort of game with me. Maybe trying to see if I would fall for her, or playing with me to get me to buy her things? It didn’t make sense, but it was the only explanation I had for her secrets.

“How did it go?” Ed asked as he answered my call.

“Shitty. It went shitty. Apparently, she’s not even a dancer at all. I can’t believe this. I’ve never had a woman pull this sort of thing on me. Or at least never figured it out before. I actually cared about this girl, and it was all lies. Complete and utter lies!”

“Calm down there, big guy. There is always a second side to everything. What did she have to say? Did you hear this from her?”

“I talked to her boss. Jenna isn’t a dancer there. She’s some kind of assistant or janitor or something. It was all a lie.”

Ed was quiet for a minute, and I took a few deep breaths as I tried to calm myself down. I hadn’t been this worked up over a woman in a really long time. In fact, I couldn’t remember ever being this angry with a woman I’d been seeing. Jenna and I had what I thought was a real connection, and to learn that she’d been lying, and she’d been playing me for a fool. It hurt.

There was no denying that the reason it hurt so bad was because of the feelings I’d started to have for Jenna. I’d let myself get sucked into this attraction, and how I felt around her, and I’d pushed away all the warning signs that something wasn’t right.

“I think you need to cool off, and we can talk about this later. Did you give her the invitation?” Ed asked.

“I gave it to her boss to give to her. After hearing the lies she’s been telling me, I didn’t feel like sticking around to talk to her. I would have just blown up, and that’s not the sort of person I want to be.”

“So she’s coming to the charity event?”

“I’m not sure. She probably won’t bother since apparently, she was playing me and now I’ve found out. I guess the game is over, and she’s moving on to someone else.”

“Kevin. You need to cool down. Bring one of your model friends and have fun at the event. This is supposed to be a fun night. Whatever is going on with this girl can be figured out later.”

“I’m not bringing anyone else. I can’t even think straight right now. I’ll just go alone. Thanks for the talk. I need to get a run in and try and calm down. This has really thrown me for a loop.”

“I’ll talk to you more about this later,” Ed said as he hung up.

There wasn’t much to talk about. Jenna clearly had been lying to me. For whatever reason, I didn’t really care. Any person who was willing to start off a relationship with such a lie had to be out to do something not good. I couldn’t even think of a good reason why she would have lied to me.

I didn’t even care if she was a dancer or an assistant or whatever it was that she did for the dance company. But to straight up lie right to my face like she had been doing, I couldn’t understand that. If Jenna really did this to other guys, wow, it was pretty crappy. I felt played, used, and cheated out of what I thought I had developed for Jenna.

I laced up my tennis shoes and jetted out of my house and down toward the water for a run. My adrenaline was boosted from all the anger and excitement of the morning. A good workout was just what I needed to clear my head.

With my charity event coming up over the weekend, I couldn’t be this distracted. This was a huge weekend for me, and no girl was going to ruin it for me. No matter what had happened with Jenna, no matter what feelings I still had for her, I had to concentrate on my charity event and bringing in some big money so I could assist the organizations I wanted to help.

My feelings for Jenna would just have to wait. I’d deal with them after the event. I’d hurt for what she did to me when my charity was up and running. I’d process the deceit and anger I was having when it was all over.

As I ran faster and faster down the sidewalk, I felt my body zoning out and starting to relax. I cared about Jenna. Even hearing what Cassandra had to say didn’t take those feelings away from me, and when this was all over, I still had to talk to her. I had to hear her side of the story so I could bring this whole thing to a close.