Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Just as quickly as he had come, Anatoly was gone again. Maggie stared at the door where he had disappeared, heart in her throat, feeling as though something had shifted between her and the priest.
She almost stood up to go after him, but Desmond had already sat down across from her. He seemed intent on starting their dinner even though he was well over forty minutes late by now.
“I didn’t realize you were Catholic,” Desmond was saying, indicating her necklace by inclining his head. “Weird for a priest to be here though, isn’t it? This is kind of a lover’s dive, it’s why I suggested it. Very romantic.”
Did this guy ever shut up? Maggie gave him a tight smile, her gaze flicking from him to the door again. Could she still catch Anatoly if she left now?
“I’m not,” she corrected, her jaw tightening. “He’s just a friend.” The words came out too defensive, but she didn’t bother apologizing for it.
“Cool, I have loads of priest friends.” Desmond laughed at his own joke and motioned to the waitress.
“I could never understand the whole celibate thing, am I right? Only men I know who don’t have sex with women are gay or have tiny dicks.
” He was still guffawing, an obnoxious, tittering sound, when the waitress arrived.
No doubt she had heard the tail end of his uncouth comment. She and Maggie exchanged a look before she offered a tight smile. “Are you two ready to order?”
Maggie started to shake her head, but he spoke over her without even glancing in her direction. “Well, unless my date has to rush out again, she’ll have—”
“Oh, hell no,” Maggie interrupted him, pushing her chair out so she could stand without knocking it or the table over in her rush to get to her feet.
“Look, this was a mistake. I thought I needed to do this to find myself or some shit, but I’m not going to sit here while you order for me like a child.
I’m a big girl, okay?” She passed a hundred dollar bill to the waitress as she finished saying her piece. “Keep the change, dear.”
Desmond was sputtering in his seat. “You’re leaving again?”
“You were forty minutes late, my guy. I’d have already been gone had I not run into my friend, who is twice the man you could ever hope to become, by the way.” Maggie was not going to take his shit, especially not when it came to the sweet, kind soul that was Anatoly.
“Lose my number,” she threw over her shoulder on the way out.
Maggie hurried outside, but when she got there, Anatoly was long gone.
* * *
In the time Maggie drove from the restaurant back to her apartment, she had received no less than twenty-three text messages from Desmond. She scanned the first couple, determined he had nothing worthwhile to say, and blocked his ass.
Maybe he was a nice guy when you got to know him, heaven’s knew first dates were hard and that could explain some of the awkwardness, but she couldn’t bear the thought of sitting through dinner with him. Not after what had happened with Anatoly.
As she sat in her normal parking space at her apartment, thinking about him, she realized she didn’t want to be here either. She wanted to see him again…
She squeezed the steering wheel, staring at the clock for several minutes as she tried to figure out what to do. It was early enough that if she left now, they could talk before he needed to show up for midnight mass.
“What the shit am I thinking? He’s a priest,” she chastised herself, but that didn’t stop her from backing the car out of place and starting in the direction of the parish.
All the way, she second guessed herself.
More than once she nearly turned around, feeling foolish and presumptuous.
It was easy to convince herself that she had imagined the way he’d looked at her tonight, that the way he’d comforted her hadn’t meant anything.
But there was a voice in her head whispering that this was the right direction, that it was her turn to finally show up for him.
She had seen the expression on his face, the dread and uncertainty, when Desmond had arrived, and she wished more than anything that their impromptu date hadn’t been interrupted. What might she have said to him in that moment? She honestly didn’t know.
On one hand, he was the most genuine, real person she’d ever met, but on the other, she often got the sense there was something he was keeping from her.
It was probably just her cynical instincts working over time, making her think that he was lying when he wasn’t.
Maggie had never met a man she considered perfect and her mind was trying to protect her from something it knew was too good to be true.
She kept telling herself that he was a priest, he hadn’t been flirting with her, and this visit was nothing but foolishness. Just because a man treated her decently didn’t mean he was romantically interested in her.
Was she even interested in him that way? He was becoming a good friend, that was it, and she just wanted to make sure he knew how much she appreciated his presence tonight.
“Yeah, this is just one friend dropping in on another to say thanks,” she lied to herself in the rearview mirror. She had just pulled into the church parking lot, which at this hour was mostly empty.
Against her better judgement, she turned the ignition off and slipped out of her seatbelt.
Then, she froze, unable to bring herself to open the door and step out.
She wanted to, more than anything, but so many thoughts were roving through her mind.
She couldn’t tell anymore what was right and wrong, especially where Anatoly was concerned.
“What the fuck am I doing here?” Maggie leaned forward, resting her forehead on the wheel. Maybe this hadn’t been a good idea after all. Even if he enjoyed her visiting, he was probably busy or upset that she’d let him leave. She should have tried harder to get him to stay, shouldn’t she have?
Conflicted, Maggie reached for the key that was still in the ignition, and made to start the car. She could just drive away and he’d never know how stupid she was for coming down here at this hour of the night. Hadn’t she wanted to be home alone anyway? Why did going home feel so wrong now?
“Fuck, I’m really doing this…” She pulled the key free of the slot, grabbed her purse off the passenger’s seat, and shoved open her door.
Rain still poured down, drenching her in seconds as she hurried for the church entrance. She barely noticed, she was too wrapped up in her own thoughts, hoping she wasn’t about to make another foolish mistake.
Nothing could have prepared her for what she was about to find inside that church.