No Expectations

Excerpt from Chapter 29- Stand At The Cross Roads: A moment later, Mary introduced us, and I learned that Pat was her boss. She was his assistant. His office was the first one on the right, which I passed every time I visited her after that.

            He had an impressive roll-top desk, his walls were covered with geological and seismic data charts, and he was always wheeling and dealing on the phone. And when he was on the phone, he was usually pacing. He’d look up, say "Hi," and go back to work. The energy generating from that office was palpable.

            Pat was married back then, so to me he was just Mary’s boss, but he seemed to be an interesting person, a smart businessman, and above all, highly competent. Friendly, easy going, he never minded that I’d come by to visit. And he occasionally popped over to Mary’s office to say hello.

            That was in the early days of Cross Roads, late 1996. By the time Pat asked me out to lunch in September of 2001, he was in the process of divorce and I was recovering from a broken back. After the charity dance I invited him to in February, we started dating again and continued throughout that spring. One day, out of the blue, he said, "When are you going to ask me to go to church with you?"

            Panicked by the thought of what people would think if I showed up in church with a man and remembering our former conversation on this subject, when he’d asked me about the importance of faith in my life - I froze.  Once again, I had been challenged to put my money where my mouth was.