A Soul Ensnared

Thirteen

July 23, 2013

Her phone hummed inside the privacy cabinet of her desk. The morning had been spent finalizing the tournament schedule, solidifying gift sponsors for swag bags and prizes, and arranging private tent reservations. There were a few more emails to send out before she could step onto the course and create a map plotting out the tent and concession areas, but she was certain that could happen this afternoon.

The caller was ignored for the moment. She was in the process of staring at the cursor of an open email, watching the slow blink, wondering how to approach Noah later that day. A buzz came from the desk again, insistent in drawing her attention. With a sigh, she reaching down, and pulled out her cell phone. Looking at the screen, she saw the caller was Brent.

"Hey. What's up?" she asked, trying to refocus her mind. It wasn't Brent she wanted to talk to, which made her lips twist in consternation.

"Sonya, glad you finally answered. I just saw an ad for a moving company. They're offering three hours of moving and two men for two hundred dollars. That's a pretty good deal, right?"

She sighed, pushing all thoughts of Noah out of her head. This was her future, and her future was Brent. She looked at the calendar. They had decided on a move-in date for September first. That was still over a month away. "It's a good deal, but how long does the coupon last?"

"I don't see a time frame listed. I'll ask when I call. Do you want me to reserve the movers for you, too?"

The thought of moving, of packing up the apartment she'd been living in for eight years, frightened her more than she was willing to admit. She was still upset that he had twisted her words in such a way that he made the decision to rent the apartment without her final okay. Still, she had filled out the application for approval when they walked back into the leasing office without comment.

She'd made her choice.

Looking back to the blinking cursor, and the blank screen of the email, she sighed. "Can I think about it for a bit? I can let you know later tonight. It's hard to focus when I have so much on my plate at work. I'm swamped right now. You understand, right?"

The cursor mocked her words.

"Sure. I'm going to call and see what's needed to place a reservation, and get back to you. Maybe they can pack up my place first, and then head to your place. It would give you more time to get everything together. That makes more sense than scheduling a move one day, and another move the next, don't you think? Yeah. That makes more sense. I think it'd be better to get everything moved in one day, so that we're not shifting through boxes, trying to find plates to eat on."

"We'll probably be doing that anyway," she muttered, swiveling in her chair to stare out the window. She was ignoring his questions, but he was answering them before she could respond. It didn't seem like she needed to be part of the discussion, not like she was trying to engage in it, anyway.

He laughed. "True, true."

"Was there anything else?" Across the fairway, she saw the familiar form of Noah, standing by the tenth hole. He was speaking with a group of men in hardhats. The memory his eyes, clouded from the weight of her denial, caused a dull ache in her chest. There was a need to seek him out, to explain that—under any other circumstances—she would have accepted his offer. If it weren't for her love for Brent, and the relationship that was a year in the making, they might be the next true love story. He could have been her forever, but she had chosen Brent a year before he'd walked into her life. Brent was the man she envisioned in her future; he was the man she saw chasing their children across the backyard. Brent was the man God had chosen for her to spend her life with, and that was what she wanted.