An Exchange

Chapter Sixty-Four - Fireside

Penny

I rushed down the street to the payphone at the service station where I called Zoe. She was there within minutes, picking me up to head over to the fireside. She stared at me as I climbed in.

"I wasn't supposed to pick you up for another fifteen minutes. Is everything okay?"

I turned to her, her look of concern catching me off guard. My emotions finally spilled over and I cried. She touched my arm and waited patiently for me to speak. "Ryan proposed to me."

She gasped. "What?"

"But I couldn't. It was all wrong. He wanted different things to me, and all the while all I could think of was Giles and how he wanted everything I did, how he could give me everything Ryan couldn't."

"Oh, Penny," she whispered.

"But I've blown it. Giles won't listen to me anymore. I hurt him so much because I'm such an idiot and I didn't know what I wanted until it was too late. I'll never be able to get Giles back; I don't even know if I should try. He's probably moving on right now, and he needs to focus on his mission anyway-"

"Stop right there." Zoe's jaw tightened as she stared me dead in the eyes. "Giles will be there tonight, and you're going to talk to him. If you two aren't together in the end, it's not going to be because you missed your chance to win him back."

I fought back my tears at the determined hardness in her eyes. "After all that I've done, you still want me to be with him?"

"Penny!" She gasped, throwing her hands in the air. "You know I love Giles, but I love you, too. I've always been rooting for you two, so has just about everyone else."

I felt as if a light had lit up inside me. "But how can we do this? He won't talk to me."

"Oh yes he will." She dropped her car into gear. "I'll make sure of it."

We drove far too quickly to the fireside. I gripped at my seat on every corner. At least I knew she had my back.

As she pulled in, we scanned the car park for Giles' car but couldn't see it anywhere.

"Don't worry. We're a little early," Zoe mumbled.

We went inside and searched the crowd for him, but soon had to be seated for the meeting to begin. We sat close to the back with some of the other girls from our ward, and we all kept an eye out for him. Then one of the girls tapped Zoe's arm and pointed up head. Zoe grabbed my hand and nodded in the same direction.

Giles sat seven rows ahead of us at the far end. I tried to get his attention by staring at him. As a result I didn't absorb much of the meeting, but Zoe would fill me in on the best parts later.

At one point, his head turned slightly and I thought he'd seen me, but he turned back without acknowledgment.

The closing prayer was finally said. With the amen, I rush over to him, but the crowd beat me and blocked me in. The girls and I tried to push our way as politely as possible through to him, while his head disappeared and reappeared ahead of us.

Zoe called out. He glanced back at us, but turned around quickly, making his way out to the foyer with the crowd.

Zoe swung to me. "We'll all split up."

She sent us in different directions to catch him.

I moved through the crowded building asking people I knew if they'd seen him, growing more and more frantic that I'd missed him. He wouldn't let me in at home, he'd shut himself in his room to avoid me, so I needed to catch him.