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Malachi
Busy is good. Tell him I say hello.
Maggie
Will do. Have to go. Must prep for a meeting in half an hour.
After she put away her phone, Maggie wondered why Malachi asked about Levi. It must have been months ago when Malachi had asked about Levi.
Mrs. Kim came in through the door, dressed in a goose down coat. “Good morning! I knew you’d be here early.”
“Good morning.”Am I that predictable?
Mrs. Kim hung up her long coat in her office. Then she went to get a cup of coffee at the coffeemaker. “You make the best coffee. But this is not why I’m going to miss you if you move to Florida.”
If?
What?
“It’s a quarter ’til nine. Let’s go to the conference room,” Mrs. Kim said. “We’ll be early and impress everyone.”
“Is that where the meeting is?” Maggie asked. She glanced down at her attire. It was casual Friday, and she wore a multi-colored chenille Christmas sweater and a pair of black stretch pants. Her clogs were black.
“You’re fine. Friday, remember?” Mrs. Kim walked ahead of Maggie. “Lock the doors. I left my purse inside.”
“Mine too.” Maggie picked up her tablet computer and slid it into her crossbody purse. Then she locked up the main door to the women’s ministry office.
Keeping up with Mrs. Kim required good walking shoes. If Maggie had exercised half as much as Mrs. Kim, she’d be healthier now and have more energy. Packing up the house had shown Maggie how unfit she had been.
Levi too. Both of them needed to join a gym or something?—
Oh. But I’m moving.
She blinked away another tear.What is wrong with me?
She still couldn’t bank on Levi not finding someone else to crush on, even though he seemed to be done with that. Hehad said that his focus now was to give Maggie the best last Christmas ever before she moved out of state for good.
A finality.
“How’s your packing coming along?” Mrs. Kim asked at the elevator. She pressed the up button to go to the main floor.
The staff offices were all in the basement, but the conference room was down the hallway from the Sunday school classes. In fact, on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, the conference room became an additional meeting or classroom.
“Levi is helping me pack some of my parents’ stuff. Forty years worth of treasures. They collected a lot of souvenirs from the mission field.”
“Levi is helping you?”
Maggie nodded. “I have a small house, so the two of us are enough. Besides, Tally’s grandma, who owns the Lakeside Resort, decided to donate money to pay for movers to come next week to get my parents’ stuff.”
“Only your parents’ things?”
“Mine, I have to pay for my own move, so to save money, Levi and I are going to drive a U-Haul to Florida. He’s recruiting some big guys from the Village and the warehouse to help load the truck. Actually I don’t have much because this is my parents’ house so all the furniture is theirs to begin with.”
The elevator door opened.
Some women Maggie didn’t recognize greeted Mrs. Kim. When they entered the conference room, Maggie waved to quite a few people who had spoken at previous women’s conferences at the church.
Mrs. Kim found two empty seats side by side and placed her mug on one. It was Maggie’s cue to take the other seat. She sat down with her tablet and waited.
