To Know Him

part six

The following Sunday was the same as all the rest. Routine and mundane. The same seat, on the same pew, saying hello to the same faces. All the while pretending as if she really wanted to be there. As Gloria got older she realized what her father preached every Sunday did not reflect what she read in her bible on her own. She connected to a more gentle and forgiving God. The stories served to her as a guide rather than cautionary tales. When she had mentioned a piece of scripture on mercy one evening, long ago, her father turned a deaf ear. It infuriated her when he acted as if she made it all up. It was then she learned that the strict and sterile God that her father preached about wasn't her God at all.

After service Rita and Marty had trapped her in the small women's bathroom urging her to spill all the details of her date with Bill. Her heart quickened and her palms went sweaty recalling it. She could hardly sleep that night she went home. Even the flashbacks during service made her feel as if she were going to be struck down by God himself.

"So he really kissed you," Rita asked Gloria hardly believing it.

"Yeah..."

"And what else?" Marty said eager to hear something juicy.

"That's it..." Gloria chewed on her bottom lip nervously.

"No tongue," Marty asked.

"Um, well, yeah..." she could feel the heat from her chest rising up her neck.

"Gee," Rita gasped, lightly shaking her head.

"It's was nice. A lot better than I could have imagined... and he was still a gentleman."

"Bear being a gentleman, still shocks me?" Marty shook her head with a smirk on her face. "So what does that mean? Are you two going steady now?"

"Gloria dating a Saint... wild," Rita added.

"I, uh, I don't know if we're dating... I mean I'm going to leave. Would there be any point?"

"So it's just a summer fling then," Rita asked.

"No..." Gloria didn't like the sound of that. "I'm still going to write him and stuff. He's my friend."

"Gloria friends don't go sucking face in a drive in..." Marty said.

"Didn't you make out with Benji Overman at a drive-in last summer?" Gloria pointed out.

"Just a kiss and only 'cause I felt bad! He always let me copy his science homework!" Marty crossed her arms and dramatically rolled her eyes.

Gloria lightly laughed. "Sorry... but I don't know what Billie and I are and I know it's not a fling. At least I don't think..."

"Well if it is Gloria, don't be upset. Sometimes that's just that," Rita said putting her arm around her for a hug.
...

Gloria was sitting in her dads' office the next morning. Her first day at her new job at the church. Her tasks consisted of things she had done here and there before. Nothing new, only now she was getting paid for it. She was filing some old sermon notes away in a cabinet when she glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room. Checking the hours she had left in the day until tomorrow when she could see Bill again. She briefly thought about sneaking off to see him but she knew better of it.

A few hours had passed when she noticed that she hadn't seen her father anywhere around since the morning. She was busy labeling folders in a drawer in his desk when she got to the last one. She opened it to figure what to label the contents inside but there was nothing but notebook papers full of numbers. It took her a minute to realize they were all money statements. Bills maybe, she thought. That assumption came from the receipt tabs from the General Store floating around in the folder. She paused to read the first sheet: