Authors: Monique Miller
The Marrying Kind (10 page)
At the end of the night he delivered her back home. At her home she thanked him for accompanying her to the dinner party and failed to invite him in her house when he walked her to the front door. There she gave him a peck on the cheek and said good-bye.
Upon pulling the BMW back into the garage, Travis breathed a sigh of relief. He was never going to do that again. Borrowing a few pieces of clothing was one thing, but taking his friend's expensive sports car was a whole different story. And again he'd dished out way more money than he'd had to dish out and needed to spend. If he kept on putting up the false pretense of being Wayne, he was going to be broke again, real soon.
Chapter 14
The next Sunday morning, Travis kept his vow and arose bright and early to make it back to New Hope Church to attend the 8:00 service. This time he cooked himself a breakfast of scrambled eggs, grits, and country ham. The meal didn't taste like his mother's, but it would do. Once he finished eating his stomach was full and satisfied.
Just before leaving he grabbed his Bible, a pen, and his notebook. He also grabbed the woman's Bible he'd picked up a few Sundays before with hopes that he would see her again and would be able to return it to her. If he remembered right her name was Marla.
The regular pastor had returned from his vacation so he preached that morning instead of Phillip. Travis still hoped he would get the opportunity to talk to Phillip and Shelby after one of the services to at least say hi to them. In retrospect, he now wished he had exchanged numbers with the couple at the end of the marriage retreat, but he had let Beryl handle the matter of getting contact information for them.
Travis sat through and enjoyed the first service, then stayed for the second service. As he had done a few Sundays before, he moved up closer to the front of the church and placed his notebook and the Bibles in the seat next to him, saving the seat just in case he saw the woman.
A few minutes later he saw the woman walk down the aisle, also toward the front as she looked for a seat. He made eye contact. She smiled and joined him.
“Good morning, Marla,” Travis said.
“Good morning,” the woman replied.
Travis moved the books from the seat so she could sit down; then he handed her her Bible. “Here you are.”
“Thank you. I've been looking all over for this. I thought I might have left it here but couldn't remember.”
“You're welcome. You got out of here so fast that Sunday that I couldn't find you to give it back, so I just figured that maybe I would get the pleasure of seeing you again and would be able to return it to you.”
As she had done a few Sundays ago, she blushed. “Thank you.” Marla's voice was soft-spoken and had a wholesome quality to it that Travis liked. She was also shorter than him even with her high heels on. Her hair was short with full-bodied tight curls and she reminded Travis a great deal of his older sister.
“I had to go over to the nursing home to see my great aunt. She looks forward to my Sunday visits.”
“That is sweet. How old is your aunt?” Travis asked.
“She's ninety-six,” Marla said.
“Wow, I hope we can all make it to that age,” Travis said.
“Me too. She is completely in her right mind, and if her legs and hips would work a little better for her, she'd still be at home taking care of herself.”
“That is so nice that you go and visit her at the nursing home.”
“Yeah, she likes my company, but she also likes sweets. I had to go to the store to pick up a few of her favorite candies before heading over to the home,” Marla said.
The worship and praise music for the second service began playing. People started standing up and clapping their hands.
“I am so very sorry,” Marla said. “Please tell me your name again.”
“Travis.”
“I'm sorry. I thought that was it but just wanted to make sure.”
They both stood and joined the congregation in clapping their hands and singing with the musicians and the choir. When the pastor preached his sermon on accountability, Travis did just as he had the first Sunday he had attended. He jotted down scriptures and notes, while mouthing out many of them as he wrote and the pastor spoke. The message from the second service was almost a carbon copy of the first service.
Again Travis could see that Marla was impressed with what she thought was the spiritual gift of knowledge that he had. And to Travis it felt nice to have someone admire him for a change. At the end of service Travis walked with Marla to the foyer of the church.
With both services being over, it was time for them to part ways, although Travis wished he didn't have to. He enjoyed talking to Marla.
“Well, I guess I'll see you next Sunday,” Travis said.
“Oh, okay. Are you not going to the fellowship hall?” Marla asked.
“To the fellowship hall? For what?”
“Dinner. They have plates in there.”
“Oh, I didn't know. Sure.”
They walked to the fellowship hall, and each got a plate. They found two seats at a table and ate together and talked. Travis was pleased to have been able to spend more time with Marla and to also get a meal on top of everything else.
Throughout the next couple of weeks Travis ended up getting a job with a cab company. He figured that with driving a cab he'd be able to make money and would also be able to get around without having to wait for the bus. But his stint there was short-lived. He had been given the graveyard shift to drive, and on his third night working, one of his new coworkers had been robbed at gunpoint.
Travis realized that he didn't want to put himself in a situation like that and turned his keys back in to his new boss. He had also found that it wasn't easy to just take the cab anywhere he wanted to go, which defeated one of his original purposes for wanting to drive the cab in the first place.
It had been over three weeks since he'd seen Beryl and the boys. And he still had not made contact with her. At first he called her hoping she would answer the phone so he could talk with her. Then he finally decided to go ahead and leave her a few quick cryptic messagesâmessages that wouldn't hint that he knew anything about her new friend and job loss.
But he still hadn't heard from her. He was starting to get a bit worried and had even contemplated calling one of her family members but knew that his calls and questions would fall on deaf ears. Her family didn't have too much to do with him ever since they had separated and finally divorced.
He was sure that her family had probably gotten an earful the last couple of months that he hadn't had contact with her. They wouldn't be forthcoming with any information about their loved one.
He'd gone out on a few more fun dates with Tory and had also gone out on a date with Jade, taking her to a touring play. Travis had enjoyed the comedy throughout the play; Jade, on the other hand, acted as if she was bored and had somewhere else to be. Travis didn't know why he was trying so hard to impress a woman who obviously wasn't that in to him. But every time he looked at her body, he figured that had something to do with it.
He figured that at the rate they were going, he'd never get a chance to spend any real quality time with her. He'd told himself that after that night he was going to let Jade go on her merry little way. He hoped she'd find whatever she was looking for because he'd come to the realization that whatever she was looking for obviously wasn't him.
In keeping with his vow to attend church more, he had attended back-to-back services each Sunday. And he and Marla attended the second service together. He had even started leaving the first service to stand in the foyer to greet her so that they could find a seat together.
Travis was starting to find that much of what he was being taught in service he was retaining. He had even found himself reading through the Bible at home. What he found was that he was finding what he was learning by rote interesting. He was especially interested in the series the pastor was preaching on accountability.
The sermons on accountability were touching him deeply. He was learning that there was not only a worldly accountability, but a spiritual accountability as well. One couldn't be accountable in one area and not be accountable in another area. Through the teachings he was able to see and understand ways in which he wasn't being accountable when it came to his life and especially when it came to his family and taking care of his boys. He also realized he hadn't been accountable during his marriage to his wife.
Each Sunday he'd hoped to get a chance to see and talk with Phillip, but was unable to because of the number of people vying for the man's attention after each service. Travis had started to think that he was going to have to see about just contacting him thorough the church to say hello.
Travis had just about given up hope of talking to Phillip, but one Sunday, Travis ended up running into Phillip and two other gentlemen as he came from the bathroom. Phillip immediately recognized him.
“Travis?” Phillip said.
“Hey, Phillip,” Travis greeted him.
Travis extended his hand for Phillip to shake in greeting. But Phillip gave him a hug instead. “It's good to see you. What in the world? What are you doing here in Silvermont ?” Phillip asked.
“Well, I've been here for the past few months, and started coming to New Hope a couple of months ago. I came that Sunday you preached.”
“Oh really? You should have told me you were here,” Phillip said.
“I did try a couple of times, but you run with an entourage the size of the president's.”
Phillip looked at the two guys who were accompanying him and smiled. “Not that big.”
Travis was just glad to finally be able to talk to him. “So I see you preach sometimes too.”
“Yeah, normally I work with the youth ministry, mainly the teens,” Phillip said. Then he went on to say, “So how are you all doing? How are Beryl and your boys?” Phillip looked around as if looking for Travis's family.
Travis hung his head for a brief second and took a breath before saying, “Beryl and I are no longer together.” He waited for Phillip to rub in an “I told you so.”
Phillip placed his hand on Travis's shoulder. “Man, I am sorry to hear that. I really am.”
Then, as he had done so many times at the marriage retreat, Phillip paused to allow Travis to talk. He stood there ready to listen.
Travis trusted Phillip and knew he could confide in him. “Phillip, I should have listened to you. You tried to talk to me at the retreat, and all I could think about was going back to bed and getting some more sleep.” He took another deep breath.
“I should have been paying attention to what Beryl was trying to tell me all along. I was all talk and no show. When she needed me to be a man of my word I wasn't. When we got back she showed me that she wasn't playing. That retreat was my last chance and I blew it.” Travis paused again as he thought about the fact that it looked like Beryl was swiftly moving on with her life and all he seemed to be doing was playing games with women, while not having a pot to cook in or a window to throw the leftovers out of.
As if knowing just what Travis needed to hear, Phillip said, “Travis, don't be so hard on yourself. We all have lessons to learn, and sometimes we learn lessons the easy way and other times we learn them the hard way.”
Travis nodded, fully understanding what Phillip meant.
“What I've learned in life is that we have to pay attention to the lessons we have learned so we don't make the same or similar mistakes over and over again. Then we also have to look at any good that may have come from what we deem as a loss in our lives,” Phillip said.
“I can assure you I don't want anything like this to happen again. If I am ever blessed to be able to find another woman, then I will not make these same mistakes again.” Travis shook his head. “But I can't for the life of me see any good that has come from all of this. I am still struggling with that part.”
One of the guys with Phillip tapped him on his shoulder. “Okay,” Phillip said to the guy.
Travis understood this to mean that Phillip needed to get going wherever he was already headed to when Travis saw him.
“Travis, I encourage you to pray about your current situation and the Lord will lead you in the direction you should go in. Just trust in Him. He will not lead you astray.”
“Thank you, Phillip. I really appreciate what you've told me, and this time I will take heed.”
Phillip pulled a card out of his pocket and handed it to Travis. “Call me.”
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