What I Got Out of Being in a Carefully Crafted Harem

Normally, I’m difficult to phase emotionally. To a casual observer, I often come across as either a sweetie pie or a tongue-tied spaz case; but behind that cover, my snark stays undefeated.

Try treating me like I’m stupid, my opinion isn’t valid, or I’m just your next piece of you-know-what. It doesn’t affect me. Because you’ve already displayed how little I should care about your opinion.

Not to say I don’t get angry, sad, irritated or bewildered. I’m not a drone, after all. But off the top of my head, I can honestly think of just two men who got past those defenses to make me feel like trash: my creepy ex-coworker, Robert K., and my manipulative ex-friend, Damon W.

I already turned the former into a character in Maiden America, uncreatively naming him Lieutenant Robert Caverish. I also gave him the same disconcerting blue eyes, long lashes and bad habit of staring at his desired object until she wanted to disappear into the floor.

Ew. Yet as much as I can’t say the experience was worth it, I did enjoy getting back at him through my storyline.

These days, I’m getting the chance to do the same to Damon in the so-far unnamed and unfinished Faerietales Book #4. And yes, I'm loving it.

You see, I met Damon at college, where I quickly came to consider him as the big brother I’d never had but always wanted. He teased me, made me laugh, taught me drinking games and naughty words, but still gave a completely convincing impression that he cared about me.

Until the day he found out I fell for someone. My British boy, to be exact.

Unbeknownst to me, I had become part of Damon’s carefully crafted harem of women he used to make himself feel better about life. I belonged to him; and as such, I wasn’t allowed to date anyone else. Which he let me know by trying to seduce me.

He never did. Never even got a kiss. I take great pride in the fact that I'm one of the few women on this planet Damon tried and failed with. But he did manage to make me feel helpless and small and uncertain… for months on end.

If you asked me why I didn't dump him as a friend right on the spot, I'd have to tell you that he got into my head enough that I made excuses for him. I concluded that he was more damaged than I'd originally realized, that it was a one-time screw-up on his part, that he wasn't really "like that." So I have plenty more Damon stories to tell after that low point in life, not that they fit into Sabrina's faerietale at all.

What does fit in, however, is the larger theme of him being one of the greatest emotional con-artists you’ve never heard of.

Until you read Book #4, of course.

Can’t wait ‘til it’s done!