A Chance at Love (8 page)

Mike tipped his chin and asked, “Is there such thing as a dishonest question?”

I laughed. “I don’t know.”

“Go ahead. What’s your question?”

Glancing over my shoulder toward the front where Jessica was, I asked, “How come you stay here?”

He stopped and looked at me. “I like the time I have driving around. Gives me time with the Lord.”

“I don’t want to offend you by asking you something.”

He started folding boxes and stacking them. “Pretty hard to offend me. Go for it.”

“Don’t you want to do more with your life than . . . delivering pizzas?”

“I do more than this,” he replied.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I run a men’s ministry full-time out of my home church. It’s to empower men to be more godly.”

“Why do you stay here?” I asked as I folded boxes along with him.

“The ministry is rather small . . . I don’t make a whole lot from it.”

“You’re okay with that?”

“Of course. I’m not concerned about living comfortably here on earth, man. I’m investing in my future.”

“Future?”

He nodded. “Eternity. Our life on earth is so small in the grand scheme of things. I’m more focused on the beyond. Glory. That’s what I’m working for, and I’m fulfilled.”

“I’d love to come check it out sometime.”

“We meet at the abandoned grocery store off Francis on Thursday nights at seven. We’d love to have you.”

“Toss & Save?”

“Yep.”

“I thought that burned down in that crazy fire a few years back.”

“It did for the most part, but there was part of the structure that stayed intact. We were able to get an electrician to sign off on it, and it’s rent-free since the owner is part of the group and volunteered the space. Before that, we were in a school’s gymnasium.”

“Wow.”

He smiled. “God’s doing a great work with those men there.”

“That’s really neat.”

Mike’s perspective on life was like nothing I had ever come across before. He was fully invested in the afterlife, not this earthly life. Mike made me realize that an eternal perspective was more important.

“Hey, man,” Mike said, stopping again.

“Yeah?”

“I know you’re all worried about school, work and so on. But if you just commit that stuff to the Lord, He will provide. You won’t be slinging pizzas forever. I know that. You gotta trust that God will provide.”

I nodded.

“Stick that nose of yours in the Bible and keep praying. God will lead your steps.”

T
he next morning, I spent a half hour playing video games, but I kept thinking about what Mike had said the night before. Shutting off the TV, I went over and pulled my grandpa’s Bible down from my bookshelf and opened it up.

Sitting on the end of my bed, I began flipping through the pages and came to the book of Proverbs. Mike mentioned it last night, and he said it was the book of wisdom in the Bible. Starting in chapter one, I began to read through the highlighted verses and jumped all around. My grandfather had highlighted much and written notes on every page.

A verse spoke to my soul and caused me to stop and dwell. Proverbs 16: 3.

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”

Praying over it, I lifted my head and read it quietly to myself. This is a promise, I reminded myself. This isn’t just something that sounds nice; this is the Creator of the universe making a promise to me. A quiet peace came rushing through me. God’s truly going to take care of me. A smile grew as I lifted my eyes to the ceiling. “Thank you, Lord.”

Finding peace and being satisfied with my reading, I took a loose piece of paper and marked the spot in Proverbs, then returned to playing video games.

My mind began to drift to Emily. Every five minutes, I’d think about her and pick up my phone to text her, but then I’d decide against it and toss my phone back to the floor a few feet away from me. I didn’t want to come off as clingy with her, but without hearing from her last night, I felt worried that something could be wrong. What kept me from texting her was the fact that there was no set in stone schedule on when we’d talk.

I’m just going to call her
, I thought to myself as I took off my headset and set down my controller. Picking up my phone, I went over and sat on my bed to dial her, but I was startled when a knock came from my bedroom door, followed by an open. It was Joanie.

“Jeez! What’s the point of knocking if you just walk in?” I snapped at her as I set my phone down beside me on the bed.

She smiled wryly and replied, “What’s the point of living here if you don’t even tell me you’re home?”

“What?” I asked. “I thought you were in school today.”

“I had a doctor’s appointment this morning so Mom let me skip. You would know that if we ever talked anymore.” She came and sat down next to me on the bed. “You got home yesterday and left immediately. I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Okay, let’s talk now,” I replied, looking over at her.

She fell backward onto the bed and brought her hands to her forehead. “You know I wouldn’t come to you about this if we weren’t close, Kyle.”

“Okay . . . I know that.”

She sat back up on the bed and jumped up. “Forget it. I can’t talk about this with you.”

“Wait, Joanie!” I said. Leaping from the bed, I grabbed the door before she could leave. “Spill it.”

Her lip tightened as her eyes watered. Coming back into the room, she walked past me and sat down on the bed. My heart ached as I saw the tears welling in her eyes. “I tried talking to Christina and Ella about this, but they don’t get it. They think I should just
get with the times
and
be normal
. But if that’s normal, I don’t want—”

“What are we talking about?” I asked, returning to the bed to sit beside her.

The tears that were welling in her eyes began to escape, trickling down her cheeks. “You know that Tony guy I’ve been dating?”

I nodded.

“He keeps hinting at wanting to
take things to the next level
or whatever, but I don’t want that.” She shook her head as more tears came running down her cheeks. “I just want to be loved.”

I put my arm around her shoulder and gave her a hug. “You are loved, Joanie. You have a family that loves you, and Tony probably loves you too. Maybe he’s just not thinking clearly. Have you talked to him?”

She shook her head and looked at the floor. “No . . . I don’t know how.”

“Just tell him that you really like him—”

“I love him.”

“Okay. Tell him you really
love
him and that you want to be together, but that’s not going to happen until later.”

“I want to wait for marriage.”

My eyebrows rose. “I thought you weren’t into God?”

She furrowed her eyebrows and pressed her hand against her chest. “I want this for me, Kyle. Not God.”

I raised my hands, “Okay, okay. He needs to respect your wishes.”

“What if he gets upset and dumps me?”

I shrugged. “Was he worth it if that’s all that matters?”

“You’re right. He’s not.” She smiled and wiped the last of the tears that had fallen onto her cheeks. “Thanks for being such a good older brother.”

I smiled and gave her another hug. “You’re welcome, Sissy.”

“How was Grandma? Still nice?”

Thinking about my conversion up at Grandma’s house, I felt a twinge of fear come over me. I knew Joanie wasn’t going to be thrilled about the change. “I’m a Christian now.”

She nodded lightly. “Cool.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Cool?”

“Yeah. Honestly, it fits you.”

“I thought you hated Grandma’s beliefs?”

She shrugged. “I did . . .”

“But?”

“Well, she taught me to value myself and warned me about guys like Tony. I thought she was nuts for thinking guys were like that—but she was right. Now I’m wondering what else she might have been right about. I’m not going to be a Christian anytime soon, but she got my mind wondering.”

“She’s a wise old woman, Joanie.”

She nodded. “Thanks for the talk.” Standing up with a smile on her face, Joanie headed toward the door.

“Hey. Question for you . . .” I said.

She stopped and looked back at me.

“I’ve been talking to this girl, and we usually talk every night . . .”

“The one from the church or whatever?”

I smiled and replied, “Yeah. She didn’t call last night like she usually does. Is that a problem, you think?”

Joanie laughed. “She probably has a life outside of talking to you. I wouldn’t be too worried about it.”

“That makes sense. What about this? She won’t hang out with me. She has some secret that she doesn’t want to share with me right now.”

“Eek! Sounds sketch, brother. Do you think she has a boyfriend?”

I shook my head. “I thought that same thing, but she said she didn’t have one. I think it’s something else.”

Joanie came and sat next to me. “You know what you gotta do?”

“What?”

Raising her hands, she did air quotes and said, “Run into her.”

“That seems deceptive.”

“It is. But so is her not telling you what’s going on! There’s got to be something holding her back. It’s not normal . . . unless she’s just not into you.”

“We like each other. I know that much.”

Joanie nodded. “Run into her and see if you can figure it out.”

“Okay. Thanks, Sis.”

Later that day, I decided to go ahead and call Emily. My heart raced as I waited for her to answer.

“Wondered when you were going to call me.”

“Really?” I replied. “I’ve been waiting for you to call. You’re the one who usually calls
me
every night.”

“I left the ball in your court, Kyle.”

“Ahh . . . is that what you were doing?” I laughed.

“Yep.”

“What are your plans today?” I asked.

“Well, this afternoon we’re practicing for a Valentine’s Day skit that will be coming up next month.”

“Valentine’s Day skit?”

“Yeah. The skit I wrote is basically a love story between God and humanity and a boy and a girl. It’s cute.”

“Sounds neat. When’s the big show?”

“It’ll be Valentine’s Day evening.” She paused for a moment. “I want you to come. I’m in it.”

“Awesome!” I replied. “So next month I can see you?”

She laughed. “Yep.”

“All right,” I replied sighing.

“That a problem?”

“I don’t get why we have to wait . . . I like you, Emily.”

She went silent.

“I
feel
like I’m falling for you. All the time we’ve spent talking . . . I feel like I know your soul.”

Silence again.

“What are you thinking? What are you feeling? Can you give me something? I probably sound like an idiot right now, but I don’t care. I’m an idiot for you.”

She sniffled and sighed. “I like you too, Kyle. And I want to meet you. I do. I just . . . can’t.”

“But
why
?” I asked, straining my words.

I could hear her crying as she said, “I’m sorry. I can’t keep talking right now. I gotta go.”

My chest felt like a tightly tangled up knot of rope, and someone was yanking on it, making it more and more painful with each moment. My throat felt like it was being choked in the moment. Painfully, I said, “Okay.”

After I hung up with Emily, I thought about what Joanie had said about doing a run-in. I knew she was going to be at the church that evening. It seemed like a bit of a dirty tactic, but I couldn’t stand not knowing anymore. Something within me was pressing Emily onto my mind more than ever. Church was only a few days away, but I didn’t want to wait until then. I wanted to go now.