Regardless, he didn’t see any point in keeping her waiting, even though it was four minutes until midnight.
He moved out of the shadows, skirting around the edge of the square, until he was at the closest route so he would walk through the least amount of open area to the gazebo.
She saw him coming, because she moved, turning toward him, and her head moved with his movements.
“Good evening,” he said as he reached the gazebo entrance.
“Good evening. I didn’t realize the square was as well lit as it is.”
“The gazebo is nice and dark though. We should be able to talk here without anyone seeing us. It’s just coming and going.”
“Yeah. If we…meet again, we’ll have to pick a different spot.”
He already had something in mind, but he just nodded for now.
“Thank you for coming. I wasn’t sure you would.”
“I wasn’t sure I would either. But I’m intrigued. Partnership?”
“Yes,” she said, and while he thought she had disguised her voice just a bit, it was obviously a woman’s voice. He didn’t try to pretend to be anything but a man, but he did try to disguise his voice, just slightly, in case this was someone he ran into in town. It would make things a lot less awkward if their identities stayed a secret.
“But I have a few conditions I would like to impose.” She paused for a moment. “And I assume that you probably do too.”
“That’s correct. I definitely do not want anyone to find out my identity, including you. I just think that will keep things much less complicated.”
“I agree. That was one of my conditions, so we’re good there.”
“That’s great. I like it when we agree.” He paused and figured they might as well continue with the conditions, although he had a bunch of questions swirling in his head. “What else?”
“That’s probably the biggest one. I don’t really have anything else. Other than…if we’re going to communicate, we need to do it some way other than meeting here. And…we have to promise not to try to find out each other’s identity. So, for example, if we’re going to use an abandoned mailbox to exchange letters, you can’t put a letter in and then sit and watch it for me to come get it.”
“Agreed. I actually don’t really want to know your identity, although I did wonder a little bit about you. Who exactly would I be working with? What kind of person?”
She laughed a bit. “I’m curious too, but I just wonder how many details we can exchange before we start to know each other too well, you know?”
“Exactly. I guess I’ll tell you that I’m thirty. And I’ve lived in Mistletoe Meadows all my life. Doing the Secret Saint has enriched my life, caused me to think of others more than myself, and given me an awareness that I didn’t have before. It also brings a joy to my life that I wasn’t expecting. A sense of satisfaction and contentment that I didn’t know was possible. Yes, I think God sees and rewards our works done in secret, but more than that, it makes me feel good, and I know I’m pleasing the Lord as well, which is a goal of my life.”
“You couldn’t have said that any better for me too. I’m exactly the same way. It’s so much fun to see needs and to meet them, to sacrifice my time and money and sleep in order to make other people smile. I… I have to admit that sometimes I stick around after I’ve done something if I think there’s an opportunity for me to see people’s happiness. That gives me a high that drugs—well, I’ve never done drugs, so I don’t really know what kind of a high they give you—but it feels like it’s better than any kind of narcotics you could possibly take. And I want to praise the Lord. That’s a goal of my life as well.” She laughed for a moment, and then she said, “And you’re not supposed to ask a woman’s age or weight, but…I’m thirty.”
So she was his age. He had been hoping she would say that, just so he would have an idea. He…didn’t want to admit to himself that he might already have feelings for this person and he wanted to know that she wasn’t a grandmother, at least, or a freshman in high school. He could tell from the way she talked that she wasn’t that young, but he would have pegged her more at early twenties than thirty.
“Thank you for the information. I admit to being curious.”
“Did I satisfy your curiosity?” she asked, like it was important to her for him to be content.
“You did. I hoped that we were both doing this for the Lord, not for ourselves, and I did kind of wonder what your age was. I suppose other than that, we don’t really need to know anything else.”
“No. I guess we don’t.”
“Other than where to meet, and how we’re going to partner together.”
“Of course. I was thinking personal things. The rest of this is just business.”
“So let’s get down to business,” he said, wanting to talk to her more, but there was a warning in his brain that said that if he got too personal, it would be hard to keep his identity hidden, and that was something that was very important to him—to stay anonymous.
“Well, I’ve been thinking about this, and I’m certainly open to suggestions, but I have kind of a rough framework that I can present.”
“Sounds good. I have a few ideas of my own, but you’re the one who took the first step and suggested that we meet, so you lay out what you’re thinking.” He moved slightly, and she turned as well, sitting down on the bench so that she faced him.
