It would be bordering on pathetic for Calvin to leave another message. Two weeks after the concert, it was clearly time for him to accept that Zoie was ignoring him and wouldn’t return his calls. If he was a bigger hockey fan, it would be easier to stay home on a Saturday night, but this routine was starting to wear thin. He was about to leave early for his evening walk when the phone rang. “Hello,” answered Calvin.
“Calvin? Hi. It’s Kerry.” Her voice seemed hopeful and apologetic at the same time.
“Hi Kerry. Good to hear from you again.” He had tried calling her number once too, but he didn’t expect her to call him back. He got the vibe that he wasn’t ‘saved’ enough to be worth her time. Calvin knew that John was still in town, and the girls had given him their numbers as well. There was no way that they would have waited this long to call John back. Calvin couldn’t help but be suspicious of why she was calling, but he did mean what he said, it was good to hear back from her.
“Good to hear from you again too,” she said. In a somewhat hesitant tone, she added, “we got your messages. Sorry for not calling you back earlier.” Calvin had gotten the brush-off before but something seemed different this time. Was there a quiver in her voice? Was there something else she wanted to say? It felt like another one of those times where there was something he was supposed to have picked up. Rather than guess what it was, he figured it was safer to remain clueless.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Hey, I remember hearing John say that he was going to be in town for a few weeks. Have you been able to meet up with him?”
“Yeah,” she began slowly, “yeah, we got together a few times.” She paused. Compared to her excitement at the concert and the coffee shop afterwards, Kerry’s ambivalence about John didn’t seem to fit. She realized that she had just admitted to responding to John’s calls, and ignoring Calvin’s. “They were kinda spur-of-the-moment things,” she added, hoping to comfort Calvin’s ego. “We thought about calling you.”
Calvin didn’t need to be comforted. He didn’t blame her for choosing to spend time with an attractive professional musician over him-any woman would-but why did she seem so apologetic? Suddenly he understood what was going on, why she was upset and why she had called him of all people.
“Kerry did you want to talk in person?” Usually he avoided saying things like this for fear that it would be viewed as a romantic advance. In fact, she figured it probably was, but there were some things that she really wanted to talk to him about.
“It’s late,” she began. “I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you.”
“Not at all. In fact, I was about to head out for my evening walk anyway. Can you meet me at the entrance to Laurier park in ten minutes?”
“Yeah, I can do that.” It wasn’t an area she would walk through alone, but with someone else she’d feel safer. “I’ll see you in a bit Calvin.”
“Yup, bye.” He hung up the phone feeling an unfamiliar rush. It would be insensitive to consider this a date, but he still thought it’d be best to brush his teeth again.
Leaning on the gate at the entrance to the park, Calvin couldn’t help but notice that Kerry looked significantly less glamourous than he remembered. Her loose fitting jeans and hoodie outfit complimented her much less than what she was wearing the first time Calvin saw her. She also seemed to be a lot less comfortable in the park, than she had at the church.
“Hi Calvin,” she said as she met him at the gate. “Thanks for meeting me like this. I really need someone to talk to.”
“No problem,” he shrugged as they turned to walk into the park. Looking at her up close, Calvin could also tell that she had been crying on her way over.
“I haven’t been in this area for a while,” Kerry said, looking around. “This park looks kind of shady. Are you sure this place is safe?”
“Don’t be fooled by appearance Kerry,” Calvin answered confidently. “I go for walks here all the time.”
“If you say so,” Kerry responded carefully. Still she decided that she would walk a little closer to him, making Calvin wonder if that strategy would work with other girls as well.
They had walked a little while before he finally asked, “so what’s on your mind Kerry? I’m guessing it has something to do with John.”
“Yeah,” she started. “You’re going to think I’m a pathetic little girl with the way I’m over-reacting to this. You used to be friends with John. I was hoping maybe you could help me understand what’s going on with that guy.”
Calvin wanted to be cautious, but this situation was frustratingly similar to other conversations he’d had. “Well, I think I have a pretty good idea of what happened, but it’s probably best if I just stick to my general observances of John.”
Surprised by his confidence, Kerry responded, “I’m curious as to what you think happened.”
“I don’t think I want say it,” said Calvin, even more cautious than before, “and I’m quite sure you don’t want to hear me say it.”
“No really,” she insisted. “I want you to tell me.” She was quite sure that he wouldn’t know, and was curious where he was getting this confidence from.
“Okay,” he began. “Well, it’s just a guess, but I’m thinking you went out together, and he got you naked on your first date.”
“Wow,” she exclaimed, surprised by his frankness and accuracy. “That’s pretty much it.”
“And now you’re having a crisis of faith wondering why he, as an upstanding Christian guy would do that, and why you, as a decent Christian girl, would let him.”
Kerry took a moment to let his assessment soak in. “I guess you know me better than I thought.”
“I’ve never pretended to understand how Christian girls work,” said Calvin, “but when you know John as well as I do, this kind of thing is frighteningly routine.”
