Page 39 of Let Me Hold You

“Maggie and me. Our friendship.” Levi had chatted with Cyrus enough times this year after his breakup with Soline that Cyrus knew about Maggie.

“Friendship?”

“Maggie is leaving me,” Levi said.

“Interesting choice of words, considering you’re not together.”

“I mean she’s moving away to Florida to be closer to her parents and only brother.”

“Okay.”

“In Florida, she might find someone. Should I be okay with that?”

“Are you asking me that question because you have a mind fog?” Cyrus leaned into his phone.

“She and I are best friends. She was okay with me pursuing my erstwhile dream date. Therefore it follows that I should also feel fine for her to move on with her life, find a boyfriend, marry a husband, have kids.”

“Is that a statement or a question, Cousin?”

“That’s the problem. I’m not okay with all of the above.”

“You can’t do that, Levi. It’s not fair to Maggie.”

“I want her to be with me and only me.”

“Oh.” Cyrus drank from a mug. There was a tea tag hanging off the side of the mug. “Let me ask you this. How did your date night go?”

Levi shook his head. “It was a mistake, and yet it wasn’t. A mistake because I focused all my attention on the wrong person.Not a mistake because tonight I learned that maybe I’ve moved beyond friends with Mags.”

“Didn’t you see this or were you in denial about her?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you.”

“So tonight you received advice from your non-date and now you’re asking me for advice.”

Levi nodded. “Before I called you, I prayed to God.”

“That’s what I was getting at. Let me suggest that before you ask anyone else for suggestions and solutions, that you spend time in God’s Word. Your Heavenly Father sees all that’s going on between you and Maggie—if there’s anything at all.”

Levi drew a deep breath. Cyrus was right.

Forgive me, Lord.

“At my church service on Sunday, Pastor Flores spoke about Jeremiah 33:3,” Cyrus said.

Levi knew the verse by heart.

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.

“We have both talked about this verse before, haven’t we?” Cyrus asked.

“Yes. In the matters of work and career, we have.”

“Now in the matters of the heart, I remind myself to recognize that God can show me things I do not know, like how to deal with my lovely wife and our kids.”

“I need to know ‘great and mighty things’ about Maggie and me.”

“Call to God, spend time in His Word, and let Him show you what you don’t know about your relationship or non-relationship with Maggie.”

---