Chapter 3

Once inside and seated, she said, “That was different. I had never been in a church and had no idea what happened inside one in any way except for a few movies. Thanks. I enjoyed my time and meeting the people including your parents.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Gerald, would you like some coffee, water or a soft drink?”

“No, thanks. I shouldn’t stay late. We have work in the morning.”

“I understand. Gerald, could we have lunch together tomorrow? I would like to talk about our time tonight.” I nodded a little bit cautiously. I think Beth could tell I was a little uncomfortable sitting with her in this house. She stood and I stood with her. “Thanks for an interesting evening.”

“I enjoyed it. I’ll see you in the morning, Beth.”

I left for home. I talked with my parents for a few minutes before going to bed and sleep. I slept peacefully.

In the morning, I came into work at my usual early hour. I grabbed coffee after it dripped through and went to my desk to start work.

Beth came in just before starting time and sat down with her coffee. “Good morning, Gerald. I guess we’re waiting for Jack to show.” There was a question in her voice.

“Yes, though I’ve started tweaking our report already. It gave me something to do. Either that will be necessary or we’ll be starting over.”

Jack came in a few minutes later to find us working at my desk. He said, “Good morning. I read your report. It’s interesting. It’s worth taking higher after you tweak it a bit.” He looked at us.

Beth said, “Yes, sir. We’ve already started that process in hopes that it might be worth further looks.”

“Good. Let’s have it right after lunch.” He was looking at us and we each nodded. He went to do something else and we worked steadily through to lunch. At noon, Beth said, “I want to go to Mabel’s. Do I drive or do you?”

I smiled. “I’ll let you drive. Your car will dress up their lot.”

Beth grinned at me and nodded. “My car makes you look better, too.” We left for Mabel’s with Beth driving.

Once there, Beth asked for a quiet booth. We were seated and gave our orders to our server. Beth looked at me and said, “I think I need to tell you something about me after last night.” I nodded.

“I don’t have any family close. My parents are dead, killed in an airplane accident. I am rich. It’s inherited from them and from the insurance proceeds. I am so jealous of you having your parents. That’s even more true now that I’ve met them. They are wonderful people. You have a great church family, too. I’ve not had any of that. I lived with aunts and uncles until I went off to college. They wanted me with them for the money from the trust. It wasn’t good. I bought the house you saw and lived there while in college and am still there.

“It’s lonely. I don’t party. I’ve met guys who made plays for me knowing I had money. I’ve managed to stave them off. Then, I meet this nice guy who won’t date me because I have money and don’t have his faith. I can work to ignore the money but I’ve seen your faith and life. I want a part of that. If not as a girlfriend, then I want to be a friend. I think you would be a true friend to whoever you befriend. I would like to be one who you befriend.

“Your faith is appealing to me because it gives a basis for who you are. I would like to go to that church. If you don’t want me to go there, I’ll try to find another that appeals to me similarly.”

I was shocked or dumbfounded or something. I felt that it took a lot for Beth to have made that little speech to me. She was waiting. I said, “I would like to think we are friends. Of course, you are welcome at church.

“Beth, I’m sorry to hear about your parents. I think they would be proud of the lovely person you have become.”

Our server brought our food. As I bowed and asked the blessing upon our meal, Beth took my hand. I spoke low but aloud. Upon the amen, she gave my hand a squeeze before releasing it to eat.

She asked, “Gerald, what’s involved in becoming a Christian? I’ve figured out that I don’t have to do anything weird or very strange. However, from what Pastor Ken said last night, there are life style changes that I may need to make.” I gave a tiny nod. She looked at me earnestly and asked, “What about my past?”

“That not a hard one to answer. When you become a Christian, you become a new person to God. The catch is that earthly consequences don’t go away. You will have God and other Christians with you as you face those consequences though.”

She said softly, “It would be nice to have someone have my back. It’s been a lonely life.”

“How old were they when they died?”

“I was six.”

“Gee, that’s tough. I’ve always had my parents and my uncles and aunts and cousins. None of us have any money though.”

“You’re lucky.”

“I know, Beth. We will have to start back in a moment.”

“You’re right, Gerald. I want to talk to you more about being a Christian.”

“Sure.” We finished our meals and returned to the office. Once there, Jack said that we would meet in an hour with Todd Fielding, his boss, to go over the report.

We tweaked just a bit more and ran four copies of the report. We clamped each one and stood at Jack’s desk. He stood and we all walked to Todd Fielding’s office. Once inside it, we sat down. He said, “Jack told me that the two of you have a first draft of your report ready and that I should go over it with you before you spend more time on it.”

Beth said, “Mister Fielding, we found some inconsistencies in data and actual issues from what the outside company reported. Gerald talked to guys on the floor and found some information. He then went to customers and found more demand than was previously expected.” She smiled. “A lot of the raw data developed was by Gerald while the report is the work product of the two of us.”