Until Then (Cornerstone Book 2) (22 page)

“She needs you, Michelle,” Patty implored.

“She does?”

“Of course. She needs her best friend with her right now.”

At that moment, Michelle knew. Ben had broken up with Maggie, but he hadn’t come clean with her about their night together. She assumed Ben would spin it in a way that made her the one to blame.
Why would he not tell her?
Maybe he was afraid confessing would bring up questions about other girls he had cheated with. Maybe he was just too much of a coward. She knew she would probably never understand.

“Can I ask? What was Ben’s reason for breaking up with her?”

“He’s not ready to settle down,” Patty replied sadly. “Better now than after the wedding.”

“Yeah.”

Michelle now found herself in a bit of a conundrum. She had to tell Maggie the truth, but should she wait until Maggie got through the shock of the breakup or tell her now? It would cause more pain at first, but better to hurt all at once than to let her heal and rip the wound open again.

Her decision was made, and she was a trembling mess for the entire drive to Maggie’s parents’ home.
Lord, please help me do this.

When she arrived, there were several cars in the driveway. The men of the family were seated in the living room with their close friend, Dave, whom she recognized from Maggie’s engagement party.

“Hey, Michelle.” Maggie’s brother was normally a cheerful guy, but the tone of his greeting was dismal.

“Hey, Tom. How is she?”

“It’s not good, I’m afraid.”

“They’re upstairs in Maggie’s old room,” Ron informed her. “Go on up.”

“OK. Thanks, Mr. James.”

Michelle could hear weeping sounds as she ascended the stairs. She stepped slowly, afraid of what she would find. Maggie had cried in front of her many times before, but this was different. These were gut-wrenching, agonizing cries. She tried to hold back tears of her own to put on a strong face for her friend.

Patty lay on the bed, holding her sobbing daughter. Dave’s wife, Vi, sat on the other side of the bed, running her fingers softly through Maggie’s hair. They both glanced over at Michelle with sorrowful looks as she entered the room.

Michelle had never heard anything like Maggie’s cries in her life. They were from the depths of her soul, and with each grief-stricken cry, Michelle’s resolve to confess the truth weakened. She couldn’t do it. Not now. She couldn’t subject her friend to more pain than she was already feeling. She would just have to live with what she had done and do her best to support Maggie through this difficult time.

As much as she hurt for Maggie, she knew she had done the right thing making Ben end the relationship. Maggie needed someone who would be faithful to her, someone who would adore her, someone worthy of her love. She was a child of God, a daughter of the King of Kings, and she deserved to be treated as such.

14

The apartment was quiet and lonely for weeks, while Maggie stayed with her parents. The week that would have been the wedding and honeymoon, they took her away to a cabin on Lake Michigan to keep her mind off of it. Michelle understood Maggie’s need to be close to family after the breakup, but she missed her roommate. And she couldn’t shake the feeling that things would never be the same again.

When Maggie finally returned to the apartment, she arrived with a moving van.

“I found an apartment in Hastings,” Maggie announced. “I’m so sorry to desert you, Chelle, but I have to get out of Grand Rapids. I can’t be here any more. I just need to follow through with my plans to move closer to the shop and focus on my work right now.”

Michelle was surprised, but she had been right. Everything was changing.

As the James family packed Maggie’s belongings and loaded the moving van, Michelle felt a nudge deep inside to come clean to Maggie. It was strong, but she fought hard to ignore it. Seeing Maggie in such excruciating pain had been more terrible than she could have imagined, and she never wanted to see her friend suffer like that again. She thought through the possible outcomes and convinced herself that telling Maggie now, all these weeks later, would only set back the healing process.

Her true hesitation, though she would never admit it — not even to herself — was that she was afraid. Afraid Maggie would never forgive her. Afraid she would lose one of the best friends she had ever had in her life. Afraid that what she had believed about herself for so long might be true. She wasn’t worthy — of friendship, of happiness, of love.

When the final boxes had been loaded, Maggie and Michelle stood in their apartment together for the final time.

Maggie sighed and looked over at Michelle. “I’m so thankful God brought you to Cornerstone against your will.”

Michelle laughed at that. “Me, too.”

“Your friendship has been so important to me, Michelle. I hope you know that.”

There were no words to tell Maggie just how much she meant to her. She chewed the inside of her cheek, fighting back tears, and once again, fighting the urge to tell her everything.

“I’m gonna miss you.” Maggie stepped to her then and hugged her. “I love you, Chelle.”

“I love you, too. I can’t believe I’m not gonna see you every day.”

“I know.” Maggie sucked in a deep breath as she stepped back, clearly fighting tears herself. “We’ll talk all the time, though, OK? It will be all good.”

“Yeah. All good.”

Maggie retrieved her keys from her purse and removed the apartment key from the ring. She laid it on the counter and stared at it.

“You were my first
girl
friend,” Michelle said.

Maggie turned to look at her.

“Before you and Emma, I never had any friends that were girls.”

“Really? You never told me that before.”

Michelle shrugged. “I couldn’t have asked for a better friend than you.” She only wished she had been a better friend to Maggie.

Maggie’s tears fell now, which caused a few to slide down Michelle’s cheeks as well. This was much harder than Michelle thought it would be.

“OK. I gotta go, or I’ll change my mind.” Maggie hugged Michelle one last time and walked to the door.

“See ya’, Mags.”

Maggie looked back over her shoulder. “See ya’, Chelle.”

In that moment, Michelle wished they could go back to their college days and start all over together in the dorm. Life seemed to get more difficult as the years went by, and this growing up thing kind of sucked.

For the first time in her life, Michelle lived alone.

15

“Do you have plans on Saturday?” Simon asked on the phone one night.

“Saturday is Valentine’s Day,” Michelle replied.

“Yes, I know. I wanna take my best girl out to dinner.”

She grinned into the phone. “I’d like that.”

She missed Simon. Had it really been three months since she last saw him?

Things had definitely changed in the past five years. Simon was a busy, in-demand wedding photographer now, and the days of hanging out every week were long gone. She was looking forward to catching up with him at dinner.

“I’ll be working with my uncle all day. Can you meet me in Hastings?” Simon asked.

“Sure. Maybe at the coffee shop there.”

“Sounds good. We can get dinner, and I can show you the new studio.”

Simon had been working hard for the past two months, helping his Uncle Pete revive the photography studio he had owned in the eighties. It just so happened the new studio was only blocks away from Maggie’s photography shop. Michelle wasn’t sure how Maggie felt about that, but given her dislike for Simon, she probably wasn’t too thrilled.

She and Maggie rarely saw each other any more — a few times a year maybe. Maggie was a busy wedding photographer, just like Simon, and her work took up most of her free time. It saddened Michelle that they had drifted apart after Maggie’s move, but time and distance had a way of changing things.

On Valentine’s evening, Michelle traveled to the small town of Hastings and parked in front of the local coffee shop, State Grounds. Just across the street sat Maggie’s shop, Magnolia Photography. She had hoped to pop by for a quick visit, but the shop was dark.

Michelle checked her reflection in the rearview mirror and ran her fingers through her freshly-cut, shoulder-length hair. She applied a little extra lip gloss, squeezed her cheeks to add some color, and sighed. It was all for Simon, but would he even notice?

When she opened the door to the quaint coffee shop, she was hit with the wonderful aroma of coffee beans. She was elated to find Maggie sitting on a cozy leather couch just inside the door.

“Maggieee!” she cried.

Maggie was startled. “Michelle?” She jumped up as soon as she realized who it was. “Oh my goodness! What are you doing in Hastings?”

“Can’t I just stop by and visit my roomie?”

They sat together on the couch.

“Of course. It’s been way too long.” Maggie tucked her legs up under her.

“It’s good to see you,” Michelle said. Maggie looked beautiful, as usual, but her eyes appeared tired.

“You, too. You look great.” She grinned. “How’s Jeremy? Any big plans tonight?”

Michelle shrugged. “I have no idea how he is. We aren’t seeing each other any more.”

Two years was a long time to stay in a relationship that was going nowhere, but that’s exactly what Michelle had done. Jeremy was nice and treated her well. He was respectful and loved God. He had filled a void left in her life when Simon became too busy to spend time with her.

Their relationship began at a singles party at church, which Janice had convinced her to attend. Those parties were usually so awkward, but Michelle was happy to see a familiar face — Janice’s cousin, Jeremy. They had met briefly years before and had seen each other at church on occasion. They spent the entire party shooting hoops and talking about basketball.

Things progressed slowly from there, with coffee every once in a while, a movie now and then, sometimes dinner. This went on for about six months, before he asked her to officially be his girlfriend.

If Michelle had been completely honest with herself, she would have admitted that the real reason she was attracted to him was how much he reminded her of Sean. It was a lame reason to go out with someone. They had absolutely nothing in common besides basketball, and she never felt the same kind of connection she had with Sean.

Jeremy was an accountant — a numbers guy, at least that’s how he always described himself. She could barely keep her checkbook balanced. He didn’t care for television much, especially The X-Files reruns she loved to watch. And when they kissed, there was no spark. None whatsoever.

Yet she stayed with him. Partly because she was lonely, and partly because she panicked when she hit the big 3-0. She became anxious to find someone and settle down, afraid she never would.

Not the best reasons to stay in a relationship.

When their second anniversary approached and he began to talk about their future together, she knew it wasn’t right. She didn’t love him like he loved her, so she ended it.

“Oh, Chelle,” Maggie said sadly. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s no big deal, Mags.” She dismissed it casually. “We’ve been broken up for a few months now.”