Ramona cleared her throat loudly, and then asked, “Are you ready to go back to our seats?”
“No,” Isaiah said as he grabbed Ramona’s arm and began walking away from his brother. “Let’s get out of here.”
“But I thought you wanted to speak with the president of the WMU organization at the end of this event.”
He threw daggers at his brother as he looked over his shoulder and then said, “Shawn’s going to donate. He has a habit of turning women into single mothers so it’s only fitting that he should pay up.”
Shawn yelled after Isaiah, “Not a problem, big bro. I’ll donate to this organization. But I want you to remember that we are still brothers and you need to deal with that.”
“With brothers like you, who needs siblings,” Isaiah said as he opened the door and allowed Ramona to walk out of the banquet hall before him.
Chapter Five
“I’m sorry about what happened back there. My brother and I just don’t mix well together anymore.”
Ramona didn’t know if she should pretend that she hadn’t heard much of the conversation that anyone with ears could hear or if she should come right out and admit every bit of what she heard had broken her heart for the humble, God fearing man that Isaiah Morrison was.
“I’m embarrassed to have lost control like that,” Isaiah continued when Ramona didn’t readily respond.
“I’d say you had good reason to be upset.”
He pulled up in front of Ramona’s house, let out a long suffering sigh and then asked, “So, you know about what happened to my family?”
She told him truthfully, “I’d heard bits and pieces of why you and your ex-wife divorced, but I had no idea that your brother had anything to do with it.”
“I want to forgive him, I really do. But every time I see him, it just reminds me of how he betrayed me.” Isaiah poked out his chest as he added, “And I’m the guy who always had his back, no matter what crazy thing he’d gotten himself into.”
Shaking her head, Ramona tried to bring some hope into the conversation. “What happened to you is pretty bad, but I believe that forgiveness is a choice. You have to make a conscious choice to forgive the person who wronged you and then you’ll begin to see a change in the way you feel.” She shyly added, “That’s what I believe, anyway.”
“That’s easy for you to say, you’ve never been married.”
Ramona opened her mouth to tell Isaiah that she had been married and was in fact divorced, just like he was. But then she remembered that the day she filled out her application for the position at Isaiah’s church, she’d been so furious with her ex-husband that she wanted to wipe the memory of his existence from her life. So, when she came to the spot on the application that asked if she were married, single or divorced, Ramona checked the box in front of ‘single’.
So, even though she dearly wanted to tell him the truth, she couldn’t afford to lose her job… not when she was finally getting her life back in order after that loser of an ex-husband tried to rip everything apart. She decided to keep the secret to herself, and prayed that one day she would find the courage to tell Isaiah why she’d lied on her application. “You may have the best job in the world, being that you’ve got a hotline to heaven… but I read my Bible and pray also. And whether you believe it or not, I do know a little something about forgiveness,” she said.
The corners of Isaiah’s lips curved upward as he smiled at the comment. He then admitted, “I don’t know if I have the best job in the world. Sometimes being a preacher is stifling.”
“I’m surprised to hear you say that. The way you preach, I can’t imagine you doing anything else.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do. I wouldn’t choose any other career – it’s just that… I’m not as free to do certain things.”
“Like what?”
He turned and looked at her. It was at that moment that she saw the heat in his eyes… a fire was raging in those dark eyes of his and it was raging for her.
“Before I became a pastor, when I couldn’t get a woman off my mind, I would tell her.
“And when the lingering scent of her perfume was so intoxicating that the fragrance stayed with me hours after I’ve left her presence, I would let her know that too.”
Stunned by Isaiah’s admission, all she could say was, “Oh.”
He held up his hands as if backing off. “I’m not trying to make a move on you. It’s just… I’d like to get to know you better. But this stuff is all new to me. I haven’t dated since the new millennium and now I’m a divorced preacher. So, I don’t know the rules yet.”
“Well, I think that if a single man is interested in a single woman then he should ask her out… whether he’s a preacher, businessman or whatever.”
He leaned back on the headrest. “You speak your mind. I like that about you.”
“Life is too short to play games. I believe that people should say what they mean and mean what they say.”
He looked down, and then pointed at an area on the front of her dress. “You didn’t get the spot out.”
“I got most of it out.”
“This dress looks so nice on you – I’m sorry that I messed it up. But don’t worry; I’ll make it up to you.”
She giggled as she said, “There’s nothing to make up. I told you earlier the dress only cost me four dollars.”
“We’ll see.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “What are you doing tomorrow?”
She had to catch her breath before she could speak. Never in her life had a simple kiss on the cheek been so electrifying. And now he was asking what she had going on for tomorrow. Was he going to ask her out? Would she accept? It would be nice to have someone to share the day with… she’d spent so many days alone and tomorrow was certainly a day that she didn’t want to be alone. “N-nothing much, just hanging around the house,” she responded with hope illuminating her sparkling brown eyes.
He got out of his car and walked around to the passenger door, opened it and held out his hand to Ramona. She took his hand and stepped out of the car. As Isaiah closed the passenger door he said, “Thanks for attending this event with me.”
“Thanks for inviting me, I had a good time.”
Sheepishly grinning, he said, “Liar.”
“No, I’m serious. I really did enjoy the event.”
“Until I spilled my iced tea on you and then rushed you to the car as if the building was about to blow up.”
“There was that,” she said with laughter in her voice.
Isaiah put his hands in his pocket as they walked to her door. He waited for her to pull the key out of her purse and put it in the lock. Ramona looked back at him. She saw something in his eyes – thought he wanted to say something to her. But when nothing came out of his mouth, she waved and said, “Well, see ya.”
He pulled his self out of the trance, took his hands out of his pockets and waved back. “Yeah, okay.”
The next morning Ramona got out of bed, jumped in the shower, put on a pair of peach colored pajamas and then sat down at the dining room table with a bowl of Apple Jacks cereal and orange juice.
Her cousin Mallory walked into the kitchen, filled a bowl with Apple Jacks and then sat down at the table across from Ramona. She took a couple spoonfuls of her cereal and then asked, “So, do you have anything fun planned for today?”
“Same old fun I have every Saturday… paying bills and reviewing my debt to income ratio.”
Frowning, Mallory said, “Come on, Ramona, you do that depressing stuff every Saturday. Don’t you think you should do something special for yourself today?”
“I don’t have money to do anything special. I don’t even have enough money to do something ordinary.”
Mallory ate her last spoonful of cereal, took the bowl to the sink and poured the milk out. She then leaned against the sink as she turned back to face Ramona. “I don’t know how you do it.”
“Do what?”
“Dwayn
e stole everything from you and then you lost your job and your house, and you’re digging yourself out of a mound of debt, but you don’t seem bitter – I just don’t get it.”
Ramona took her bowl to the sink and rinsed it out. She stood next to her cousin as she tried to explain. “Life’s too short for bitterness, Mal. Sure, some bad things have happened to me, and some days I am truly ticked off about it. But when I read my Bible or listen to Pastor Isaiah preach about God’s goodness, I’m reminded that I’m not in this alone. God’s got this… I’m just along for the ride.”
“If you say so.” Mallory put her hand in the oversized pocket of her house coat and pulled out a card and handed it to Ramona. “Happy birthday, cuz.”
Ramona smiled as she took the card from Mallory’s hand and then hugged her cousin. “Thanks girl, at least somebody remembered that I was born today.”
“Well, I’ll see you later; I’ve got a bunch of errands to run. If you’re not doing anything later I can take you to dinner to celebrate your birthday.”
After her cousin left, Ramona sat down in the living room with a handful of envelopes, a calculator, her check book and a note pad. She’d been at her new job for about for three weeks and had managed to pay one of her past due bills already. Mallory hadn’t charged her rent last month because she’d moved in after the rent had already been paid. But she now needed to write out a check for her portion of the rent and utilities. Adding rent to the mix would ensure that she had less to pay off the bills that she and Dwayne had acquired, but she needed a place to lay her head and nobody but her mama would allow her to stay for free. But her mama lived three hundred miles away.
Ramona was grateful that her cousin was willing to share her home with her and she wouldn’t dream of taking advantage of Mallory’s kindness.
She opened a few envelopes and pulled the bills out, laid them on the table and then picked up her note pad. Once a month, Ramona wrote down how much she owed on each of her past due bills, then she figured out how much money she had coming in that month and how much was going towards her current bills. The amount that was left went towards paying off a past due bill. If she kept her system going, Ramona figured she’d be debt free within eighteen months.
The doorbell rang. Ramona was so consumed by her bill paying process that she hadn’t heard it, and then it rang again. Putting her pen down, she got up and went to the door. She looked through the peephole and saw a twenty-something, blond haired woman, holding a garment bag and wearing a huge smile.
“Can I help you?” Ramona asked from behind the locked door. She was a firm believer in leaving sales people and strangers on the porch and keeping the door locked – never know when one of them would try to get in the house so they could tie her up and steal everything in sight.
“I’m looking for Ramona Verse,” the woman said.
“What can I do for you,” Ramona asked, still standing behind the locked door.
“Pastor Isaiah asked me to bring this stuff to you.”
At the mention of Isaiah’s name, Ramona’s eyes lit up and she flung the door open. “Pastor Isaiah? What did he send me?”
The woman held out her hand to Ramona. “My name is Vicki Dole. I’m a personal shopper.”
Ramona shook the woman’s hand.
“Can I come in so I can show you the items that were purchased for you?”
With a quizzical expression on her face, Ramona opened the door wider. As the woman walked into the living room, Ramona said, “I’m not sure I understand.”
Vicki handed an envelope to Ramona. “This might clear things up. You read that while I open this garment bag and then we can get down to business.”
She opened the envelope and pulled the card out. The words ‘Happy Birthday’ were sprawled in big bold letters on the front of the card. She would say this for Pastor Isaiah; he sure knew how to read an application. He’d gotten her single status off of the application and now she knew he’d even paid attention to her birth date.
Vicki was saying, “Pastor Isaiah thought that you were about a size six. Is that correct?”
“What?”
“You’re a size six, right?”
“Oh yeah, right.”
Vickie laid four breathtaking evening gowns on the sofa. Each one a different color and style, but all were equally stunning. She turned questioning eyes toward Vicki. Vicki hunched her shoulders. “I’m just the delivery girl.”
Ramona remembered the card in her hand. She opened it and read:
Ramona, a beautiful woman like you should have dozens of gowns at your disposal. So, to replace the one I ruined, I’ve purchased four more. I would be ever so grateful if you wore one of them tonight, because I’d love to take you to dinner to celebrate your birthday.”
Oh my God, he just asked her out. Ramona wanted to scream for joy. She’d thought that he was going to ask her out when he dropped her off last night, but when he didn’t say anything, Ramona assumed that she’d been engaging in wishful thinking. But she had been right. He did want to go out with her. She had a date… on her birthday. Ramona wanted to dance around the room, but she had company. She turned back to Vicki and asked, “Which one of these dresses should I wear for a dinner date?”
Chapter Six
It was her birthday and she was going on a date. She had four dresses to choose from. Two flowed all the way to the floor and the other two were knee length. They weren’t going to the opera or some other formal affair, so the floor length dresses were out. Of the other two dresses Isaiah sent to her, Ramona thought the lime green one would look sensational on her with its halter-top neckline. The dress was pleated at the waist with a rhinestone buckle. The swingly style of the dress was well suited for her figure. Ramona felt like Prince William’s woman as she slipped on the gorgeous gown.
Part of her wanted to pack all of the shoes and dresses and accessories up and give them back to Isaiah. She wasn’t in a relationship with this man, and didn’t feel that it was right to accept these things from him. But as she noticed how the dress swayed on her as she stood in front of her full length mirror, she reminded herself that today was in fact her birthday. It had been years since she received a birthday present from anyone. Her ex-husband never remembered the month of her birthday, let alone the day. So why shouldn’t she just enjoy this one act of kindness bestowed on her?
Before she had time to ponder her dilemma any further, the doorbell rang. She glanced at herself a final time in the mirror, put a strand of hair back in place and then walked out of her bedroom.
Ramona opened the door and stepped back so Isaiah could walk in.
He took one look at her and said, “Beautiful.”
Ramona assumed he was referring to the dress. She put her hands on the hemline and twirled around. “You like.”
Nodding. He gulped down the saliva that had just accumulated in his mouth and said in a whispered tone, “I like it all.”
Ramona stumbled as she tried to right herself from the twirling she’d just done. But the look in Isaiah’s eyes put her off balance. She couldn’t remember a time that Dwayne had looked at her like that… like she was water in a desert land.
“I tried to avoid you – act like you didn’t matter,” Isaiah continued.
Now on firm footing, Ramona pointed at him, her eyes lit up as if she’d just experienced an ‘ah-ha’ moment. “I knew you had been avoiding me. But I thought you were thinking about firing me or something.”
Isaiah laughed. “If I had fired you, I’d have to do all the work for my father’s foundation myself. And although I believe what he’s asked us to do is a worthy cause, I’d much rather spend my time on my ministry.”
She was without words. This fine man was standing in her cousin’s living room admitting that he had feelings for her… on her birthday. The dresses and accessories had been nice, but this right here, was the real present.
Isaiah held up a hand. “I’m not trying to make a move on you.”
Why
not, she wanted to ask.
“I’ve been divorced now for about a year and I’m still healing from all the drama my ex-wife took me through. But I want you to know that I’m tired of trying to avoid you. I want to be a part of your life. And if you can give me some time to work out the things I’m dealing with, I would then be able to tell you all that is in my heart. Can you give me some time, Ramona?”
Since the day she met Pastor Isaiah, Ramona had been drawn to him. There was just something about the bruised and battered, humble man of God that she found attractive. It wasn’t just his looks either – although the man was fine. Ramona found herself attracted to the quiet strength of this man and the respectful way he treated others. In fact, until yesterday, she’d never heard him raise his voice at anyone. She didn’t need to think long about whether or not she wanted to wait on Isaiah to come to her, she knew already. “Yeah, I think I can do that.”
As if he had been holding his breath in anticipation of her answer, Isaiah exhaled. “Thank you,” he said as he held out his hand for her. When she took his hand, he added, “And now, I’d like to take a pretty lady out to celebrate her birthday.”
***
It hadn’t been such a good idea to take Ramona out to dinner for her birthday. Isaiah was now left with the memory of her smiling face… the sound of her laughter and the look in her eyes as she accepted his interest in her. The evening had been wonderful, but when it was over, he’d left her at her front door without so much as a good night kiss.
Isaiah wanted desperately to touch his lips to Ramona’s soft welcoming lips. But he couldn’t do that to her… not when he wasn’t ready to commit to a relationship. Not when he had so many issues that needed to be resolved.
Ramona had knocked him off focus. He had worked all week on a message about God’s ability to forgive and bring the sinner man back into right standing with him. But by the time he stood in the pulpit and began preaching the Sunday after he’d taken Ramona out, everything got turned upside down. Ramona normally sat in the balcony. Before reading his scriptures, he stole a quick glance in the balcony and that was all it took. Instead of talking to his congregation about God bringing the sinner man back into the fold, he turned his Bible to the fifth chapter of Matthew and began reading at verse 27:
The Preacher's Choice Page 3
