Page 15 of Let Me Hold You

Maggie turned around and stared at him. No words.

Levi knew not to press further. It wasn’t like they were an item. Maggie didn’t have to tell him everything. No reason for her to. They were best friends, yes, but sometimes Levi didn’t need to know what she didn’t want to talk about.

Lately, Maggie had been pensive and quiet. Maybe in the last month or so. Sure, Levi had talked to her, and Maggie sounded normal. She smiled and chatted with him as per usual.

However, she seemed to have better and brighter conversations with Alden, for example, rather than with him. Levi recalled the workday at the Village community center on Saturday when Maggie and Alden worked well together.

Other than telling Levi about Alden’s idea for a double date night, Maggie had said little else. She had somehow given Levi the impression that she was holding something back.

What, precisely?

Maybe the pressure of work had gotten to her. Maybe it was the fact that Midtown Chapel had split up her job into two, andhired a new ministry assistant for Midtown Village with a new manager and all. That had left her with half her usual plate of work, concentrating her focus on simply being the ministry assistant at the women’s ministry. Perhaps being in the office at the church basement all day was not something Maggie wanted to do anymore.

“Wow.” Maggie walked around Levi. “This works. Good idea to wear jeans with this. You won’t look overdressed.”

“Thanks. Glad you like it. You helped out a lot.”

“Mmm. A new shirt too.” Maggie pointed. “Don’t you have enough shirts at home?”

“I just wanted everything to be new… Well, except the socks and boxers.”

“TMI, Levi.” Maggie covered her face with her hands. “Even best friends don’t have to talk about certain things.”

Levi realized that too. Maybe he considered Maggie like one of his buddies, someone with whom he wasn’t shy.

Maggie glanced at her watch. “You might want to change out of all that and go pay for the clothes because we have to go. We have half an hour to eat if we want to make it back to church in downtown traffic.”

“One sec. If you want this skirt, I’ll buy it.” Levi said. “Consider it my Christmas gift for you.”

“That’s sweet.” Maggie pointed to the price tag. “You might want to see the price before you decide to buy me things.”

“I’m not going to look at it. I want you to have it. You deserve all the love.” Levi didn’t earn much as the warehouse manager, but he’d saved up a lot, thanks to a small inheritance from Uncle Melvin and Aunt Marie after they had passed away within months of each other.

“If you want to give me a Christmas present…” Maggie started to say.

“Say it.”

“Then you might consider donating the equivalent amount to mission work.”

That was the Maggie that Levi knew. Always putting others ahead of herself. Perhaps she had learned it while growing up as a missionary kid, although her parents did mission work stateside, though in the last few years they had traveled from country to country.

After college, Maggie’s brother had followed their parents’ footsteps to become a missionary overseas, while Maggie worked in a church to this day. It seemed to Levi that she would always be a woman in ministry.

“I’m not surprised you said that, Mags.” Levi put all his clothes over one arm. He reached for the price tag of the imported wool skirt that Maggie had liked minutes ago.

Unbelievable.

Yeah, he was too quick to give, but this was Maggie, whom he considered to be the best among all his friends. If he could give the world to Maggie, he would.

Levi was a man of his word, so there goes nineteen hundred dollars plus a few cents.

“I’ll round up this amount and give it to the mission agency of your choice,” Levi said.

“You’re so generous. You can always take back your word, you know. I won’t hold it against you.”

“No, no.” Pride had spoken.

“Then how about giving it to our church mission fund? It will be equally shared among all the missionaries.”

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