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“I’m single, live alone, have no hobbies.”
“Your hobby has been to take care of me.” Levi came around and sat down in a chair next to Maggie.
“You’re such a joker, Levi.”
“Obviously you need a joke or two. You seem sad to leave town, and I recall you loved your job. It was the only thing you ever wanted to do, you said. And now you’ve quit. Something doesn’t add up.”
He leaned toward her. His bright brown eyes stared at her under the ceiling light.
Every time he sat closer to her, she felt her hands sweating and her heart thumping hard. It had been like that since Levi came to her after Soline left him. At first they were friends talking about life in general. Then they were talking about their own lives.
And Maggie fell in love.
It had to stop somewhere since it seemed to be a dead end with Levi. She felt that leaving Atlanta was the best thing she could do to regain her sanity.
One-sided love could never go anywhere. It felt like a cruel joke.
The last time she had chatted with Tally, Tally asked if Maggie saw it as a love triangle between her and Levi and Forsythia. Technically, it wasn’t because Maggie wasn’t pursuing Levi at all. She simply sat there with her secret love and a broken heart, waiting for Levi to notice her. At the same time, Levi would have dated someone else had it not been Forsythia. The fact that Levi, the supposedly shining knight, couldn’t get an audience with Forsythia, the queen, was what had made Levi press the issue. Had to get face time with the queen!
However, Maggie—and now Alden—were going to help him. Was it good or bad? Maggie couldn’t tell in the midst of the fog in her own heart.
Still, if Levi wanted to date Forsythia, Maggie would do everything she could to help him. As long as he was happy, then Maggie could be happy. She felt like Cyrano de Bergerac in that play she watched in college. Cyrano and his friend loved the same woman, and Cyrano did everything he could to help his friend get the woman, at his own expense.
What if whom Levi wanted wasn’t whom God wanted for him? Then that would be Levi’s own problem.
Maggie dared not pray for an alternative outcome. She could only pray for God’s perfect will to prevail in Levi’s life.
And mine too.
“Are you running away from something?” Levi finally asked. “Someone?”
“Am I?”
“Are you running away from me, perhaps?”
That came out of the blue. What was he thinking?
“Why would you say that?” Why would Levi think that she was running away from him? Had he sensed anything?
Tell him already.
Tally’s words came to her mind. In a way, Tally was right. Maybe Levi should choose between Maggie and Forsythia.
No. Forsythia was this amazing award-winning chef de cuisine. Camera-ready pretty to boot, with a lovely tall figure. She should’ve been on television with Chef Stephanos, someone Forsythia admired.
Chef Stephanos, formerly of St. Augustine, Florida, had moved to Atlanta to host a cooking show in which he met with local Southern chefs to cook with them. In the metro city, he moved around in RYUCP circles, hosting charitable events for the architecture company.
That had been how Alden, the ministry assistant to the top brass at RYUCP, met Chef Stephanos.
And it was enough to make the blind date on Tuesday happen. It was a blind date to Forsythia, but Levi knew he was having dinner with her.
The only thing Maggie did was talk to Alden on Saturday morning about Forsythia. Maggie had no idea what ropes Alden had pulled to get someone to give up their dinner reservation on Tuesday night so that Forsythia and Levi could get to know each other. Unfortunately, it was a table for two, not four.
Alden suggested that he and Maggie go elsewhere, but she turned him down.
She had succeeded in getting Levi a date with Forsythia. But she felt numb. In a way she was happy that Levi got what he wanted, but she was sad that it was at her own expense.
Levi looked like he wanted to say something else, but Maggie had already forgotten her question or what they were talking about. She finished the last roll of sushi.
