by Gail Sattler
Mike was lying on the couch, and he was snoring.
Out of curiosity, she picked up his cell phone that he had left on the coffee table. The battery was dead.
Very gently, she shook him. He opened one eye, then the other, and smiled lazily. “Huh?” he mumbled, “Did I fall asleep?”
“Yes. Now wake up. Supper is almost ready.”
Slowly, he sat up, stretched, then rose and walked to the washroom, still barefoot, because the only footwear he had with him were his inline skates.
Patricia stared at the closed door. She’d spent the afternoon cleaning the house while Mike had washed the car. She had made supper while he made himself at home and had a nap.
It felt almost domestic, and she wasn’t sure she liked it.
Mike sat in his study at his desk. A few weeks ago they had done step six. “Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” He’d found that step to be easy. After the time he’d spent with Patty at the aquarium talking about some of the things that made him tick, the good and the bad, he found it to be a real eye-opener to look at himself that way. Once he’d figured out the honest reasons why he had behaved so pathetically, he was more than ready to ask God to help him get rid of the garbage in his life.
Likewise, when the group had gone over step seven, “Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.” That wasn’t difficult either. Not only was God the Creator of the universe, which included himself, God was also his heavenly Father, who wanted to help him. All Mike had to do was pray honestly and seriously about it, and he knew that God would help him work on removing those shortcomings.
However, what they were doing this week was getting harder. Step eight said, “Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.”
Mike held the pen in the air, but he wasn’t quite ready to write any names yet. Making a list would be easy, but the caveat of the step was that for everyone he wrote down, he also had to be prepared to make amends to them.
He thought carefully of the people in his life whom he had harmed enough that he needed to make amends.
At first he was pleased with his completed list. It had only three names. For now, it was enough that he had made the list and was willing. He didn’t want to think of next week when he would actually have to do it.
He folded the paper and tucked it into his Bible just as the doorbell rang.
It has been a long time since someone unexpectedly showed up at his door.
When he opened it, he made no effort to hide his smile.
Chapter 12
Patty! Not that it isn’t great to see you, but what are you doing here?”
Patricia smiled. It was almost word for word what she’d said so often lately that she’d lost count.
“I was just on my way home, and since it’s payday, I don’t feel like cooking. Would you like to join me at Sir Henry’s?”
Mike groaned out loud, but Patricia could tell he was only fooling around. They’d been to Sir Henry’s a number of times, and every time, Mike had enjoyed himself. It was close, the food was cheap, and despite Sir Henry’s unusual decor, they enjoyed the atmosphere of the place. Most of all, they appreciated the privacy, because most of the times they’d been there, they were the only patrons eating inside.
“Sure. Just let me lock up.”
Again, they were the only people inside while the line-up at the drive-thru window was consistently five cars long. They waited patiently while Henry finished taking an order at the window.
“What do you think Henry would do if one day we came through the drive-thru instead of coming inside?”
“Shhh!” she whispered. “Don’t talk like that. It might be too hard on poor Henry’s heart.”
Mike laughed, which Patricia thought a lovely sound. He didn’t laugh often enough, and she wondered how she could get him to laugh more often. Of course, going through the AA program with all its soul-searching intensity, and the fact that his court date was looming closer, might have had something to do with it.
They gave Henry their orders and were about to choose a table when Patricia pointed to the display on the wall beside the cash register.
“Look. Henry has some new pictures.”
Mike harumphed. “They’re not new. He just moves them around on the wall so you think they’re new.”
“They’re new.”
Mike shook his head. “No, they’re not. I’ve caught him switching.”
“He was putting new ones up while he rearranged some old ones, that’s all.” Patricia pointed to what she thought was new since the last time they were there. It was a picture of all the pictures on the wall of the restaurant. “See? We would have remembered this one if we’d seen it before.”
Mike’s eyebrows raised. “He must be getting desperate.”
“Either that, or he takes his camera everywhere.”
While they waited, instead of sitting at a table, they walked around checking out all the pictures, something they’d never done before. They shared comments on many of them, especially the ones taken in various travel spots around the world.
Mike pointed to a photo of the Eiffel Tower. “What do you think of Paris as a honeymoon spot?”
Patricia opened her mouth, but no words came out. Up until recently, she’d never entertained the thought of a honeymoon, because she hadn’t met a man she would have wanted to honeymoon with.
Mike smiled, and her heart went into overdrive. She wasn’t supposed to be thinking of travel and honeymoon with Mike. She had started seeing him only as a ministry favor to Bruce, and somewhere along the way, something very wrong had happened to her plan.
Fortunately, Henry called their number. She deliberately chose the table farthest away from the pictures of Paris, she changed the subject, and they ate in peace.
Mike leaned his bike against the church wall and swiped some of the wetness out of his hair. The dismal gray of the rainy day suited his mood.
Today was the day he had to start step nine. “Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.”
Since Patty wasn’t sitting on the bench in the rain, he walked inside the building to join her at her desk.
She fumbled with the phone as she was hanging up with a call. “Mike! What a surprise! I didn’t expect you today when it started raining.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I was halfway here when it started, so I figured I might as well come all the way. I was going to get wet anyway, no matter which direction I headed.”
She smiled. “You’re in luck. Since it wasn’t raining when I was getting ready, I brought two sandwiches, and I just made fresh coffee.”
For once, her cheeriness didn’t affect him. “That’s nice,” he mumbled.
Her smile dropped. “What’s wrong?”
He stared out the window at the rain, which was now coming down heavier. “I started to try making amends to the people I’ve hurt. I’ve already done what I can for Darryl. In the past few days, I’ve called my dad at least a half a dozen times and left messages for him to call me, and he hasn’t. So I guess it’s up to him now. The last one left is my ex-fiancée, but the number I have is out of service, and she’s not listed in the phone book.”
“Do you think she moved to another city? Or what if she got married and changed her name?”
“Don’t know.”
“I guess you don’t know where she works?”
“Nope.”
“What about a mutual friend?”
“Didn’t have any.”
“You mean you didn’t know each other’s friends?”
“Nope. Think about us. Except for the last little while, we wouldn’t have had any mutual friends either. Your friends are all nice Christian people, and they hang around mostly with other nice Christian people. My friends are all party-hardy drunks like I was. There wouldn’t be any mutual friends because you don’t have a thing in common wi
th a single one of them. I’m not sure I have anything in common with them anymore.”
“I’m sure that’s not true.”
Mike turned to her. “It is true. Did you know that I recently phoned the cops on my best friend? The night of the car show, my friends spent most of the night in the beer garden, and I went home. I phoned the cops because Wayne was going to drive after drinking all night. After I called, the cops were waiting for Wayne in the parking lot. Since he hadn’t actually got in the car yet, they told him to take a cab home and pick up the car the next day, which he did. He hasn’t talked to me since. First it was just my dad, now there’s another person who won’t talk to me. I’m trying to make things right. I really am.”
“Sometimes when we ask people for forgiveness, it doesn’t happen, and there’s not much you can do about it. Whether or not it was received on earth, it was received in heaven.”
“Yeah. That’s what Claude said too.”
“Surely there’s someone you can call to get her number.”
He stared blankly into the rain again. “There is someone. Her best friend, Molly. I can’t remember her last name, but I know where she works—if she still works there.”
Patty’s desk drawer squeaked open, and he heard a thump on the desktop. “There’s one way to find out. Phone and ask.”
Mike stared at the phone book. He could put it off, but the only person he would be hurting by not following through would be himself. He didn’t know if Robbie could forgive him, but he wouldn’t know if he didn’t ask. In a way, if she refused to see him, it would make the whole thing easier.
He paged through and found the number for where Molly used to work and dialed. He noticed that Patty was shuffling papers, but her exaggerated motions indicated she was trying too hard to look busy.
“Good morning, Quinlan Enterprises,” the receptionist chirped.
Mike cleared his throat. “May I speak to Molly?”
“Molly? Sorry, she quit before the wedding.”
“Do you have any idea how I can contact her?”
“Oh. Is this personal? She’s here. One moment.”
The phone clicked, and some music came on the line. Strangely, instead of the usual horrible canned music that businesses typically used for people on hold, it was a Christian artist he recognized. He was beginning to enjoy the song when a male voice answered.
“Ken Quinlan.”
“Sorry, I must have the wrong extension. I’m looking for Molly.”
“Just a minute. She’s right here.” He heard the phone being shuffled. “Honey? It’s for you. I don’t know who it is.”
Mike sucked in a deep breath.
Molly’s voice came on the line. “Hello?”
“Hello, Molly. I don’t know if you remember me. This is Mike Flannigan. I’m looking for Robbie, and I was wondering if you could give me her number.”
Silence hung on the line, but it didn’t last. “She’s happily married! You leave her alone!” The phone shuffled again as it passed hands, but he could still hear Molly’s voice. “Quick. Hang up.”
The man didn’t hang up, and Mike could hear him talking to Molly. “What are you doing? Who is it?”
“Remember I told you that before Robbie and Garrett got married, she was engaged to someone else, and the guy was a real creep? It’s the creep.”
Mike cringed, but it was nothing less than he deserved. Molly had never liked him from the first time they met.
Ken spoke again. “Still, what does he want?”
Whoever was holding the phone covered the mouthpiece with his hand. Mike waited while the two of them argued, and although he heard the differences between the male and female voices, he considered it a blessing in disguise that he couldn’t hear what was actually being said.
Ken’s voice came back on the line. “Molly doesn’t want to talk to you, Mike, but maybe you can tell me why you want to talk to Robbie.”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, and I wanted to tell her I’m sorry and wish her the best.”
Mike’s heart pounded while more silence hung over the line.
Finally, Ken spoke. “For some reason, I trust you. Tell you what. I’ll do better than her phone number. I’ll give you the address so you can do it in person. Just so you know, Robbie and Garrett are now the proud parents of one-month-old twins.”
His hand shook, but Mike wrote down the address and directions to get there. In the background, he could hear Molly nattering her disbelief that Ken, who was apparently her husband, was going along with him.
Mike hung up.
“Well? How did it go?” Patty asked.
“I need to ask you a favor. Instead of sitting here for lunch, can we go to the mall? I need your help picking out a couple of baby gifts.”
Mike knocked on the door. He didn’t have to recheck the address that Molly’s husband had given him. He recognized Robbie’s car in the driveway.
The door opened. A very big man holding a small baby stood in the doorway. “Mike.” He nodded. “Molly told us you called.”
Mike extended his hand, then pulled it back because Robbie’s husband needed both hands to hold the baby. Mike wasn’t sure that Garrett wanted to shake hands anyway. After all, he could only guess what Robbie might have told her husband about him. He forced himself to smile. “You must be Garrett.”
“Yes. We’ve met before.”
Garrett stepped aside, allowing him to enter. Not too many men stood taller than Mike at six feet tall, but Garrett towered above him by a couple of inches. He had a husky build and a rugged complexion which hinted he worked outside. He appeared to be a man one would remember, but Mike didn’t.
Thinking back during the time following the breakup with Robbie, he had fallen into a pit of heavy drug and alcohol abuse. Only recently could he admit to himself that he had suffered blackouts during that period of his life, and it bothered him. If that were the case, he didn’t want to think of what he could have said or done, especially since Garrett wasn’t exactly welcoming him with open arms.
The door closed behind him, and Mike suddenly felt very alone. Instead of just dropping him off, Patty had insisted on waiting for him in the car. He had found it comforting that even if she wasn’t with him, she was watching. But now that the door was closed, the connection was broken, and he felt the loss.
“Robbie!” Garrett called. “You have a visitor.”
Mike’s stomach contorted as he laid the two gifts he’d brought on the coffee table and waited.
He had prayed about this moment more times than he could count, asking God to help him get proper closure to his relationship with Robbie, to give him strength and wisdom, and to help him be understanding of how much he’d hurt her if she didn’t forgive him.
The more he thought about it, he also had prayed for Robbie, as he recognized this wasn’t going to be easy for her either, but it was something they both probably needed to do.
Robbie appeared from around the corner, carrying another small baby. Robbie was exactly as he remembered her, except her hair was a little shorter.
He cleared his throat, but his words still came out gravelly. “Hi. Congratulations on the twins. I brought a little something for them.”
Both Mike and Robbie glanced at the gifts he’d already set out on the coffee table.
Robbie cuddled the baby in her arms. “This is Tyler, and that’s Sarah. Thank you.”
Mike turned to see Garrett, still standing near the door, the baby in his arms, watching them.
Mike turned back to Robbie and cleared his throat again. “They’re really cute. And you look good too. How have you been?”
“Fine. And you?”
“Fine.”
They stood staring at each other.
Mike rammed his hands into his pockets. “I know there’s no way I can ever make it up to you, but after all this time, I want to say I’m sorry for the way I treated you. You didn’t deserve that. I’m really sorry.”
&nb
sp; She didn’t say anything for awhile. Her eyes widened, and he could tell her mind was racing. “That’s what you came here for? To say you’re sorry?”
“Yes.”
Silence hung in the air.
Robbie’s eyes glistened, but she blinked it away. “I don’t know what to say. Every once in awhile, I’ve prayed for you.”
His throat clogged. “I think it worked. I got myself into a couple of big messes, but God has really blessed me through it all, helping me as I try to pick up the pieces.”
They stared at each other for awhile.
Robbie shuffled the baby. “I don’t know where my manners are. Please, sit down. Would you like a cup of coffee?”
All the tension drained from him, and he gave her a shaky smile. “Don’t make coffee for me. I’m hyper enough right now without adding caffeine.”
Robbie smiled and sat on the couch, and Garrett sat beside her. Mike took the single armchair across from them.
At first glance, Mike thought that Robbie and Garrett were very different from each other, but at the same time, a good match. He was not only relieved that things were working out for her, but more than that, he was genuinely happy for her.
“I won’t stay long. I know this is awkward for you, but it’s something I needed to do, for a lot of reasons. Thanks for taking the time to see me like this.”
“Actually, I never thought I would ever say this, but it’s nice to see you again.”
She actually smiled at him, and Mike knew that he had done the right thing. It released a bond he hadn’t known had been weighing him down all this time.
“I know I handled myself badly, but we weren’t right for each other. You two look so happy together, and now you’ve been blessed with two beautiful children.”
Robbie nodded. “I think we both knew it at the time. It’s amazing how God can make things work, even when we can’t see it at the time.”
“Yes.”
“Are you married now, Mike?”
“No. There are a number of things I still have to work out before I can allow myself the privilege.” He stood. “Speaking of that, I really should be going. I have a friend waiting for me outside in the car.”