"What
do you do, Eve? What's your major?" Pastor Tom asked.
"She's
only a sophomore. She's still too busy getting her requirements out of the
way," Mrs. Carleone said, with a little laugh, as if Pastor Tom had wasted
his breath asking.
"Eve
is majoring in administration," Andy said. "She's been doing summer
camps and kids' crusades and snow camps for Allen Michaels since -- what? --
middle school?"
That
grin on his face made me think he was proud of me. The next astonishing
deduction was that to be proud of me, he had to feel...possessive?
Tonia
and I later discussed the whole weird day. She theorized Mrs. Carleone was
either trying to condition me to brainless slavery or scare me away. Why would
she try to scare me away when I wasn't interested in Andy, and he certainly
hadn't expressed that kind of long-term interest in me?
Back
to lunch: Ginger said it sounded like I had a full-time ministry waiting for me
when I graduated. Mrs. Carleone countered with the old "Not if she gets
married" line. So dummy me, I had to blurt that I had no boyfriend, no
plans for marriage, and all signs indicated God wanted me to stay single.
"I've
never had a date in my whole life," I added.
"What
do you call this?" Pastor Tom gestured at Andy and me on one side of the
table.
"Church
isn't a date. And I thought the whole team was coming today."
Andy
snorted. His face got red. "My fault," he said, when his mother
demanded an explanation. "You should have seen the look on Eve's face when
she came out to my car and saw we were all alone. Sorry -- guess I forgot to
tell you it was just going to be us."
"I
think that's charming." Mrs. Carleone smiled, her first genuine, warm
expression all day. Probably because she realized I had no plans to drag Andy
to the altar.
At
that point, all I wanted was a silent ride back to school. The day couldn't get
any worse.
I
was wrong.
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