by Laura Domino
“So you’re going to chicken out and tell me your idea tomorrow?”
Oh, yeah. His idea. “Yes. I think that’s a good way to do this.”
“Fine. Get some sleep. See you tomorrow.”
When he had ended his call, he realized he could really make this a special moment. If he hurried and planned well, he could take advantage of the opportunity to let her see how romantic he could be. But not too much. He didn’t want her to be overwhelmed.
Chapter 19
Benita had been focused on her work all morning. It was tough slogging through emails and meetings. She’d responded to six emails from coworkers who needed help. Their email signature line now included Go Astros! It was understood all over town that since Houston’s Major League Baseball team was now in the World Series, most of the population, including her coworkers, were probably not focused on their workday. At some point throughout the day, she expected every phone in the building would hear Astros or see it texted.
After that she participated in a brief meeting in which the mood was tense, not because they were trying to do a good job for the client, but because the Astros lost the game last night.
When her phone rang, she almost didn’t hear it.
“Hello? Adam? What happened? Are you okay?”
“Sure. I’m fine. I just thought I’d check on how your day was moving along. I mean… same time for the meeting tonight, right?”
She exhaled. “Good. Scared me. You never call at this time of day. I thought something happened. I mean, it’s the middle of the morning, Adam.” She looked at the clock on her computer. “It’s almost eleven o’clock. Wow. I guess I was really immersed in the workday drudgery.” She palmed her forehead. That sounded bad. “Sorry. The workday excitement. Don’t want anyone to overhear and misunderstand. I love my job.” With a little more volume in her voice, she repeated, “I love my job.”
“Good to hear. You sound busy. And happy.”
“You know…” She sighed. “Anything else?”
“I was thinking about not going to see Dan today. Does that sound awful?”
“No. I’m sure it’s okay. If he needs something from you, he would call, wouldn’t he?”
“Of course. Yeah. It’s probably okay. I’m going to stay home and work through some things.”
Work through some things? What things? “Okay.”
“Yeah. It’s better this way.”
“Sure.” Was he going to fill her in on the details later?
Someone knocked on her door frame and came into her office. She turned to see Mr. Casey standing there.
Smiling, she hurried but tried to keep her composure, hoping to end her call without letting Mr. Casey know it was a personal call. “Okay. Thanks for letting me know. I’ll call back if anything comes up.” She ended the call and put her phone in a drawer.
“Benita, I just got off the phone with Spain. You wouldn’t believe the fiasco going on there. Bottom line is you have to work on this and get it straightened out for them.”
“Okay. Consider it done.”
Her confident tone made her boss laugh. “No. You don’t get it. It’s a mess.”
“I got it. I’ll start on it, then eat lunch, then spend five hours on it and zip it off to you, then home for dinner.”
He crossed his arms over his chest with a grin. “You really don’t get it.” He looked at the ceiling, then down to her. After taking a breath, he leaned on her door frame. “I’m about to email you my notes from the phone call. You’re going to work through lunch, get the mess figured out and looking the way it should, and have pizza in your office for dinner. I want the finished documents in my hands before 10 o’clock. I’m back on the phone with them at 11 o’clock tonight. You’ll be on the call with me.”
“Right. I got it now.” She wasn’t leaving her office until after midnight.
“Can you do this and all the other work you were about to do?”
She swallowed. The man lived and breathed for the excitement and pressures inherent in his job. He was loving it. Probably because she was doing the work for him. “You know I can.”
“Great. That’s what I like to hear.”
“Just one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Is Robert working on this with me or is this all me?” She couldn’t wait to see how much freedom she had in this surprise project.
His voice lowered in both tone and volume. “This is all you. This is your time to shine. Robert’s doing the presentation for Friday. This one is yours. Shine like the stars.” He smiled and, on his way out, fist-bumped the door frame in his excitement.
Benita sat in her chair and took a moment to sort through the changes he’d just made to her day. She could get it all done. This was just one more reason to expect she was getting the promotion. This was how she would prove she was ready for the promotion.
She pulled out the drawer, picked up her phone, and tapped a couple of times to get Adam on the phone.
“Calling back? What’s the matter? Is the work drudgery too boring for you?”
She laughed. She needed to laugh. It was going to be the high point of her day. “No. Just the opposite. I won’t be at our meeting later. Something came up, and now I’m working late.”
“You usually work late.”
“Later than usual. Really late.
“Like how late? Eight o’clock?”
“No. Later.”
“Nine?”
“No.”
He laughed like there wasn’t anything he enjoyed more than their conversation. “Are we really doing this?”
“Yes. We are.”
“Ten?”
“Later.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. This is insane.”
“Yes. It is. But I’m dealing with it.” She was working through lunch and dinner today. Not the sort of thing she wanted to do now that Adam had become a part of her evenings. It was insane. And so was her boss. And so was she when she had been just like him. She was trying to have a close friendship with Adam while pushing through all the work shoved at her by her insane boss. And dealing with it by listening to her friend agreeing with her about how insane it was.
“Midnight.”
“Bingo.”
“Are you kidding? You walk to work. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s kind of late to be walking back home.” Was that concern she heard in his voice? She liked it.
“No. I’m fine. Yes, I walk the four blocks by myself. I’m a big girl.”
“You’re going to ask a coworker to give you a ride home tonight, right?”
“Hmm. I hadn’t really thought about it until this moment. I’ll get home just fine. Obviously, if I’m not worried about it, Adam, it’s also nothing for you to worry about.” Of course, he would anyway. She was sure she’d given him all the information he needed to handle the opportunity the way she wanted him to. He will be there at midnight when she came out of the building.
“Okay. Then I won’t worry.”
“Okay then.”
“Fine.”
“Fine. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.”
Yes. He’ll be there.
XOXO
Adam put his phone on the coffee table in the living room. He circled the room twice before he could calm down enough to pick it up again and set an alarm to remind him that he would be at the Chaymer Building at ten minutes until midnight when Benita finally left her office for the day. Squinting and leaning his head back to think, he decided to change the alarm to twenty minutes before midnight. That should do it.
What if she got off work before 11:40? Would she call him to say she needed a ride? Of course not. He could be there waiting all morning if he wasn’t there to see her exit the building. Most likely, he wouldn’t call her, and she wouldn’t call him. Midnight was too late. She’d be tired.
A drink of water was just what he needed. That should cool him down. He put his phone down again and strode off to the kitchen.<
br />
That woman intended for him to be there. Why couldn’t she just ask him like a normal human being? She was so frustrating. And exhilarating. And infuriating.
His stomach growled. Cooking was not a good idea. He was too upset to figure out what he could pull together from his refrigerator for a decent lunch. Grabbing his keys, he went to the car for a ride.
After a few miles of decision-making, Adam pulled into the parking lot of Jose’s Beans. He found his way to the bar and sat down.
“Adam?” Jose’s voice came from behind him.
“Jose. My friend. Good to see you.” He shook his hand.
“You look different. No red eyes. No slurred speech? Have you stopped drinking?”
“Yes.”
“No. Can’t be. You’re human again. Congratulations!”
“I’m just hungry for lunch. No beer.”
“I prayed for you, my friend. God spared your life for a reason.”
“Jose, did God tell you that reason? Because I could really use some good news. I’m juggling a couple of difficulties and a little direction from God would feel really good right about now.
“No. But sometimes, he lets us figure things out. You sound frustrated. Tonight, just eat and enjoy.”
The bartender stood waiting for him to order.
“Two chicken enchiladas, please. And water.” Adam turned back to Jose. “I have girlfriend trouble.”
“Let me guess. You have no girlfriend. And that is the trouble?”
“Ha ha. So right.”
The bartender delivered his glass of water.
“What’s the real trouble? You have a friend, and you want her to be a girlfriend?”
“Jose, why can’t I just ask her out? That’s what I should be doing, but it has been impossible to do.”
“Does she want you to ask her out?”
“Hard to say.” He sipped his water and put the glass down, wanting to laugh at how alike he and Benita were. Did they belong together? Communication problems probably rank high on the list of things that drive couples apart. What if they were doomed to be together in their sad lack of communication skills, forever forcing the other to do some mind reading?
“Women are beautiful, but tricky.”
“I’m teaching her Spanish.” They didn’t usually have such a hard time understanding each other. The Spanish lessons were going well.
“You mean you’re speaking a romantic, beautiful language, watching her lips moving close to yours, and you can’t ask her out?” Jose laughed. “Wow. Either you’re an idiot or self-control is your superpower. Man, just ask her out.”
“I can’t just ask her out. There are a lot of factors.” It might just be the emotional bomb his mother dropped on him. That had to be what had thrown him off. It was affecting his relationship with not just his mom but with everyone.
“Okay. Well, if you need my help, I’ll be around. Enjoy your dinner.” Jose left to greet a group being seated.
He didn’t feel good about avoiding Dan, but how could he go into the hospital and see him when he was still so confused about the whole situation?
Why did Dan need to tell him? Why didn’t Dan say it himself when they were there together in the hospital, visiting about almost everything except that?
His poor mom. She didn’t want to drop the bomb. She’d held it securely for decades and probably would’ve carried it with her to the grave. It seemed as though Dan wanted to clear his conscience whether it burdened her or not. He didn’t seem to care about her as much as he’d wanted to honor the one she had married.
That didn’t seem right.
Why would a man refuse to marry the widow who bore his children? Obviously, it was very awkward for them when his dad was alive, but in the wake of his death, she could have remarried. Dan should have married her.
When his meal arrived, he ate and continued thinking about how Dan just showed up suddenly in his life and changed their whole relationship.
After he finished eating, he drove home and sat down in his recliner, waiting on Benita to get out of work. His thoughts alternated between her and Dan.
He scratched his head and got up to pace through the living room. Thinking things through wasn’t making it any more understandable. There wasn’t a single thing about his mom and Dan that made sense.
On the coffee table, his Bible, still where he left it when he unboxed it, seemed to be tugging at his heart. He’d read enough of it to know that God was full of boundless love. God was about freedom. His mom had made sure he knew some of God’s promises. He knew who God was and what he expected of his followers.
Everyone who claimed to be a child of God had to follow one very important rule. Everyone had to love. Because God is love. Verses he memorized long ago started to push through to the front of his mind. Lessons he’d learned flushed his heart with freshness. In his church youth group, he learned to memorize paragraphs of wisdom. He spoke aloud what he remembered, “If God gave us part of himself to help us find our way back to him, we should use what God gave us.” He couldn’t remember the next part, but the third sentence came to him easily. “If God gave us part of himself to allow us to share in what makes his heart beat, we should let our hearts beat in the heartbeat of God.”
Adam didn’t have to pick up the Bible to know what God gave us to use. It was love. The thing that makes God so well known as Almighty God was his love.
The past two weeks had proven God’s love was stronger than any weapon. He was drawn in by it. It was what God put in him to help him share in the heartbeat of God.
He picked up his Bible anyway, stood by the recliner, and opened it. Flipping page after page, he landed on a verse his mom had made him memorize one summer to keep his brain active. She intended the boys to use their brains during school and during summer break. Each boy had a Bible and a journal to write down memory verses. One of his was in the fifth chapter of Galatians. He couldn’t remember the first part of it, but what he could remember was very clear. “Serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” The other verse that popped into his mind was from the book of First John. “Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” That book of the Bible clearly stated twice, “God is love.”
Love. God’s love had stirred something in Adam to help him find his way back. That love filled him and warmed him and helped Adam hear his heart.
His mom couldn’t have known when she taught these things to her two boys that one of them would need to refresh his memory and use it to get some perspective about his relationship with her. Or did she hope that one day these very verses would come in handy?
Was she intentionally layering these verses in his heart because she knew her secrets would someday come out into the open?
As a child, he was taught to love God and love people. A simple rule to follow that included all the other rules in the Bible. It’s the greatest commandment. Everything came down to one simple four-letter word.
How often he’d forgotten. How often he’d let selfishness get in the way.
Why was it easier to judge people like his mom and Dan, rather than to love them? Why was it easier to hide and protect himself than to be bold and speak love with confidence?
Adam knelt in front of the recliner and laid the Bible on the cushion in front of him. He prayed for God to forgive his lack of love. In his confusion and pain, he had chosen to be a judge, ruling over what should and shouldn’t have happened in his mother’s life. What had happened in the past was not the issue for him now. The right or wrong of it wasn’t so important after all. The important thing that stood out to him at this point was that Dan had reached out to him.
Dan needed God’s love. And his. Not judgment.
His mom needed kindness and mercy more than she needed him to understand all that took place.
Adam took his shoes off like Moses did in the presence of God.
His he
art pulsed in a sad, heavy beat. It made him feel like he would be there a while.
XOXO
Slowly strolling up to the Chaymer Building, Adam glanced both ways on the sidewalk for movement. The stillness meant Benita was still working late. Or was there a meeting going on? Either way, he didn’t see her walking home. Tonight, he was her protector.
His pace slowed in the silence as he got closer to the building. He didn’t want to wait in the bright light of the lobby, but waiting outside wasn’t any better.
Movement inside caught his attention. He moved closer to the door.
Benita walked between two rows of elevators, heading right for him.
Adam sped up to open the door for her. “Good morning.”
“It’s almost morning, isn’t it?” Her voice strained for a pleasant tone. “Thanks for being here. You’re too awesome.” She kept walking, her muscles probably on autopilot.
“My pleasure. I couldn’t have my top student walking home alone at this hour.” Adam kept her pace, but he put his arm around her to guide her direction. “I’ve spent a lot of time helping you. In order to protect my teacher ratings, I had to drive you home.”
“You shouldn’t have. I can’t thank you enough.” Her eyelids hung low. She stood staring into the dark night when he took his arm off her shoulders to open the car door.
“Your ride awaits, milady.” He took her backpack, and then he waited for her to sit. After closing her door, he went around the car, got in, and started it. “Just relax. I’ll take you home.”
“Thanks.”
Chapter 20
After breakfast, Adam picked up the list he’d made two nights earlier after his late-night phone call to Benita. He had a first date to plan.
He was certain this was the right thing to do, especially since Benita had practically asked him to give her a ride home last night. The look of appreciation in her tired eyes last night made it worth the effort. Her grateful “Thanks” was still ringing in his ears.
The only thing that would’ve made last night better was if he’d had the courage to ask her out on this date he was planning. It wouldn’t have been fair to take advantage of her while she was in such an exhausted state. He could call her later today and ask her out. Of course, she would say yes.