by Gail Sattler
Ken shifted positions, trying to get used to the weight of the cast resting on his stomach. He’d been having trouble sleeping and suspected that tonight would be worse, but for different reasons.
He closed his eyes, but it didn’t help. Still he could see visions of Molly.
At church, the second she’d seen his aunt and uncle, she’d changed from being in awe over the magnificent surroundings to an awkwardness he couldn’t immediately define. At first he’d thought it was because of the employer/employee issue, but when she said she didn’t know his uncle was a Christian, he was absolutely floored.
Alone in the quiet darkness, it gave him time to reflect on why this bothered him so much.
All his life, he’d been raised that it was God’s will to spread the gospel and that a Christian was to let his light shine before men. Uncle Walter was not shining if Molly couldn’t tell that the man who was her boss for five years was a Christian. He knew Molly thought Uncle Walter was an honest man, honorable, and fair in his dealings, but plenty of non-Christians were good men. If there was nothing to set his uncle apart as a Christian, then he wasn’t doing what God wanted.
In a lot of ways, he was very much like his uncle, which made him take a good hard look at his own Christian walk. Ken didn’t like what he saw.
By witnessing to Janice, who was clearly an unbeliever, Molly had already once reminded him that he didn’t go out of his way to talk to people about Jesus. Those Ken talked to were either already believers, usually in a Bible study setting, or, if not, they were close to making a decision from someone else’s evangelistic outreach and the prodding and discipling had not been instituted by him.
Would people he saw every day be able to set him apart as a Christian? Would they recognize his faith by his words and actions? If he honestly had to think about it, the answer was probably not.
Molly, on the other hand, while she didn’t deliberately show off that she was a Christian, made no effort to hide it. From the first day he met her, when she awkwardly but obviously started to pause to say grace before their first meal together, he could tell beyond a shadow of a doubt where her heart was, and that was with Jesus.
Ken wanted the same. He didn’t want to be simply a nice guy. He wanted not only for the world to know he was a Christian, but he wanted to be able to share his faith. There was no better place to do so than to walk side by side with a new believer. As a new believer, he planned to be there for Molly when she had questions and to challenge her when she needed it. And likewise, she would no doubt be a challenge to him.
He smiled to himself, lying on his back in the dark, empty room. The decision brought a spark of joy to his heart. That was what he was going to do.
His uncle’s church was a fine old congregation. From what he’d seen, most were well settled in their faith and continuing to grow in their own way, but he could tell Molly wasn’t comfortable there.
He closed his eyes and smiled again. God was guiding his steps already, before he’d even consciously made his decision. Next week he was going to be in a church setting with people more his age. If Molly’s enthusiasm and expectations for the normal order of a church service were any indication, he was going to the perfect place.
Next week their plans had already been confirmed. He was going to Molly’s church.
Molly pulled into her assigned parking spot, but before she got out of her car, she rubbed her sleepy eyes then checked to make sure she hadn’t smeared her makeup.
She was dog-tired, and it was Ken’s fault.
He’d left in plenty of time for her to catch a good night’s sleep, but she’d spent half the night staring up at the ceiling.
Up ‘til now, she had to admit that she had been fooling herself. He’d made his intentions perfectly clear by kissing her, and she’d been stupid enough to kiss him back. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t going to work, and she had to stop it before it went any further. The man wasn’t exactly her boss, but at some point, he might be. So far no one knew what the long-range plans were, but Ken wasn’t there to be regular office staff. When plans were announced, they were going to be big.
Above all, she couldn’t forget what happened to her best friend. Robbie had started dating her boss’s son, who had claimed to be a Christian then gradually started missing services until they’d barely attended anymore. After they got engaged, Mike started an affair. Molly was positive it hadn’t been the first and told Robbie exactly that. In the end, when Robbie found out, instead of begging for forgiveness and trying to make it up to her, Mike had Robbie fired. Robbie lost her fiancé and the job she’d held for five years within the space of an hour. Not that Mike had been a loss, but Robbie’s job was. She’d since found another job, but she’d struggled at the time.
Molly had now just passed her fifth anniversary with Quinlan Enterprises, and she had no intention of letting the same thing happen to her. Not that Ken could possibly fake being a Christian, but Robbie’s experience only emphasized the fact that it was not a good idea for anyone to date their boss. Not only that, Ken came from a background of money and privilege. He grew up rich, his family could afford to give him a university education, and he didn’t appear to be doing without anything he wanted. Molly, on the other hand, had grown up in a rather seedy neighborhood, something she hoped he would never find out. She couldn’t allow anything to develop between them, no matter how nice he was or how much she liked him. It was too dangerous, both personally and professionally.
As she entered the building, a strange emotion gripped her when she walked past the reception area and past her desk. Correction, her old desk. As much as she desired a promotion, she missed her duties as receptionist. She liked meeting people and talking on the phone. It gave her a great deal of satisfaction to know that as soon as Ken’s arm healed, he would no longer be needing her as his assistant and she could return to her regular duties.
She hustled into the lunchroom to get her first cup of coffee for the day, but instead of hanging around to chat, she immediately went to her desk.
Ken and Mr. Quinlan arrived a few minutes later. Mr. Quinlan merely nodded at her on his way past, as he did every morning when he walked by her at her usual station in the reception area. Ken, on the other hand, smiled and slowed his pace, just to make sure she acknowledged him with a returning smile.
Instead of going to his desk beside her, Ken continued on to talk to the office manager and shut the door. Molly worked by herself for nearly an hour until Ken returned.
“Molly, can you please come into the boardroom with me?”
Molly cringed. Her first thought was that she was in trouble over something she might have done wrong. After all, the things she had been given were far from the usual duties given to a receptionist. She’d taken a few business courses at night school, but she didn’t have any actual practical experience. She was just getting that now—the hard way.
She remembered on Friday she had struggled for hours with a task that should have taken only fifteen minutes. She didn’t want to receive a reprimand for poor work. If she were returned to her regular job now, it would be an obvious demotion, something she didn’t want to happen. Her next thought was even more frightening. After he’d kissed her last night, once they were in the boardroom and the door was closed, would he kiss her again? Part of her was terrified he would, yet part of her wanted exactly that.
Molly mentally kicked herself. The man was her boss. Last night when he left, they were both too tired to think clearly, and the entire incident had been a mistake. It wouldn’t happen again.
She followed him into the boardroom in silence. When he closed the door behind them, her heartbeat quickened.
“I thought we’d best do this in private.”
Molly’s knees started trembling. Her feet remained glued to the floor as she watched Ken walk to the computer and pull out the chair in front of it. He then dragged another chair beside the one he’d already moved and sat in that one.
When she
didn’t move, he turned to look at her, eyebrows raised. “I need this done right away, and I can’t take the chance that it will be overheard while I dictate it. We don’t have much time.”
“Dictate?”
“Unfortunately, this is the unpleasant part of management. I have a meeting in ten minutes, but first I need to do up a disciplinary letter to one of the production supervisors. I don’t have time to type this with one hand. I know you have other work to do, but you type faster than I do.”
She struggled to hide the relief that the letter wasn’t directed at herself, because after her performance Friday, she probably deserved it. She tried to be accurate as Ken stood behind her and read the text on the monitor as she typed. In only a few minutes, the letter was done, and printed. Ken picked up the pen with his right hand, held it over the paper, and froze. He switched hands, lowered himself into the chair, then lifted his casted arm to align the pen to the paper. Again, he hesitated.
Once again, he put the pen in his right hand, and this time he touched the pen to the paper; however, he still didn’t sign his name.
“I can’t do this,” he mumbled.
“Then do your best to initial it.”
Ken gritted his teeth and slowly and sloppily forged out his initials.
“Do you want me to find a signature of yours on file, and get a stamp made up? That would save you having to sign things.”
“I’m afraid that’s not legal. The doctor told me that it would take a couple of weeks, and my fingers would be more mobile. He said I’d be able to write awkwardly, but enough to get by. Until then, this will have to do.” Ken checked his watch. “I don’t need you to take notes at this meeting, I just have to give some instruction to the production staff, then discuss this letter with Frank. But I need you to be ready at two-thirty, because I have to go over the quarterly totals with the western regional manager.”
Molly nodded as Ken dashed out the door, leaving her alone in the large and empty boardroom. She pushed the chairs back into position, tidied up the computer, and returned to her desk.
Ken’s behavior had been nothing less than professional, exactly what she thought she wanted.
She didn’t know why she felt slighted.
Molly raced in the door after the Bible study at Robbie’s house just in time to catch the phone before the answering machine clicked on. Strangely, it was no surprise to hear Ken’s voice.
“Good, you’re home. How did it go?”
Molly smiled as she shuffled out of her jacket. “Great! Too bad you couldn’t come. Everything went just like you said it would, with the way some people prayed with prayer requests and praise items, and someone really did write everything down in a prayer journal, and we talked about all sorts of things, and I got to meet some more people from my new church, and we had cake and coffee afterwards, and well, it was great.”
She paused to breathe, kicking herself for running off at the mouth after Ken’s simple question.
After a short pause where neither of them spoke, Ken’s voice came out low and husky. “Did you miss me?”
“Yes, I …” She cut herself off. She had missed him. Of course a lot of her prayer concerns had to do with him, and since the Bible study was at her best friend’s house, it was easy to share. Molly cleared her throat. “Yes, it was too bad you had to work late. Robbie’s husband also became a Christian at a young age. You would have enjoyed talking to him.”
She could hear the smile in his voice. “Maybe next time.”
For once, she didn’t comment.
“Another reason I’m calling is that Uncle Walter is going out of town tomorrow. I have to take his place at a Chamber of Commerce function tomorrow night. I was wondering if you’d like to come with me. I’ll need help keeping track of who’s who since I’ve never met any of these people before, except for Trevor Chapman.”
She didn’t know whether to be relieved that he was calling about business or not. She also didn’t want to know why it would matter. “Sure, I can go. I guess I can take some kind of notes.”
He laughed. “It’s true that it’s a business function, but I don’t want anyone to think you’re my secretary, Molly. What I need is for everyone to think you’re my date.”
Chapter 8
Molly lifted one arm to carefully snip the price tag off her new dress, stood on her tiptoes, and tried to get the best view she could using the bathroom mirror. She’d never attended a Chamber dinner before. She’d never attended any kind of business function. Receptionists didn’t exactly get engraved invitations to those kind of events. Therefore, she had no idea what to do, what to say, and especially no idea what to wear. Ken had given her a few guidelines. With his suggestions in mind, Molly had run off to buy a new dress on her way home from work.
The lady at the store had helped a lot. When Molly told her what she needed the dress for, the woman squealed some comment about her red hair and ran off to get what she called the perfect selection. The woman was right, the dress was perfect … except for the price.
Molly had never before bought such a dress as an impulse purchase. Buying a new dress was an all-day excursion, requiring at least six trips into the changing room to make up her mind. However, today she didn’t have the luxury of time.
She picked the price tag out of the sink where it had fallen, and shuddered. If she had impulses like this too often, it would bankrupt her. She hoped she would have occasion to wear it again before it went out of style.
The buzzer for the entrance sounded, signaling Ken’s arrival.
Molly checked her watch. He was early, and that was bad, because she wasn’t ready. She ran to push the button for the door, then ran into the bathroom, hoping she could apply her face before he made his way up the elevator. She had meant to put her hair up, even though she knew the unruly mass would never stay that way. Instead, all she had time to do was hastily apply her lipstick and brush on some eye shadow and a couple flicks of mascara before she heard the bell of the elevator in the hall.
Ken raised his hand to knock on Molly’s apartment door, but before his fist made contact, the door opened wide. Molly appeared in the doorway. “Is this okay?” she asked as she twirled around.
She stopped suddenly and faced him dead on, her arms slightly spread, not giving him time to cover his initial reaction.
Ken tried not to let his mouth hang open. He thought she’d looked nice and presentable on Sunday, but today, she looked … different. The cream-colored dress she wore was perfect for the occasion, a combination of silky fabric with a bit of lace to make it extremely feminine yet still suitable for a business function. At the same time, the dress presented an undertone of what he could only call sass. A little voice in the back of his mind reminded him that she had purchased this dashing little number just for him, for tonight. While it showed nothing indecent, she looked ravishing. She was every man’s dream come true—a gorgeous and classy woman, wanting to look her best just for him, yet still maintaining her innocence. For the evening, she was his.
All he could do was stare. This was Molly.
“You don’t like it,” she mumbled and looked down to the floor.
“Oh, but I do!” he exclaimed. Ken cleared his throat and lowered both the pitch and volume of his voice, trying to recapture a bit of dignity. “You look …” Words failed him. He wanted to show her how much he liked it. He wanted to touch her, to hold her, to run his hands down the smooth fabric. He wanted to kiss her, and not to stop like he had on Sunday. He wanted to kiss her well and good.
He tried not to blush. He’d told himself he was going to stick to business or church-related activities, yet he couldn’t stop himself from asking her to be his date for tonight.
Ken cleared his throat and smiled politely. “You look nice.”
Her unsure little smile made him stand straighter.
“I just have to go comb my hair and I’ll be ready to go. Please come in.”
Rather than be snoopy, when Molly disappear
ed into the bathroom Ken closed the apartment door behind him, but remained in the foyer. A pretty pair of shoes the same color as her dress sat on a small rubber mat. They were sleek and snazzy, and had killer heels.
“Okay, let’s go.” She leaned her hand against the wall and slipped a foot into one of the ridiculous shoes.
“You’re not really going to wear those, are you?”
She wiggled her foot until it was all the way in, then bent over and picked up the other shoe. She leaned back against the wall for balance, then slid the shoe on her other foot. “I’m not even going to answer that.”
“How are you going to walk?”
As she straightened, a taller than usual Molly stood in front of him. She snorted in a manner Ken thought quite unfeminine, greatly contrasting with the intriguing combination of the dress and high shoes along with a matching purse he hadn’t seen before. In direct defiance of his question, she stalked past him, stood outside the door, and jingled her keys in the air.
Ken couldn’t help himself. He laughed. He was still laughing as he walked into the hallway and waited for her to lock up. “Sorry,” he said, knowing that by laughing he was showing her he really wasn’t, “but far be it from me to understand women’s shoes.”
“You’re just jealous because your shoes are boring.”
He’d never considered shoes to have a personality. They kept his feet warm and dry. He thought the smartest thing to do would be to not reply.
“Do you know for sure where we’re going?”
Ken nodded. “Uncle Walter said it’s close to the Stevens Building.”
“Yes, but do you know exactly where it is?”
“I have the address.”
Molly snorted again. This time Ken didn’t laugh.
