Only Uni (13 page)

She bit the inside of her lip. “You’re okay with this, right? Lex talked to you about my new devotion to God and all that?”

“Yeah. I’m happy for you, Trish.” Still that neutral face. She wanted to grab his cheeks and rattle them back and forth.

“You don’t look happy.”

He raised an eyebrow at her.

“Okay, okay, never mind.” Iceman.

“I really am glad for you.”

His eyes were sincere, even if his face wasn’t animated. Trish could live with that. “Thanks.”

They sliced through the crowd of people chatting outside the doors — what was it with people always congregating to talk in the middle of major pedestrian thoroughfares? — and entered the massive foyer, dominated by a round table and a soaring flower arrangement. The heavy scent from the star asters made Trish sneeze.

“Let’s get a seat before they’re filled up. I’ll introduce you to people later.”

Trish smiled brightly at the scattered people they passed, but no one seemed to notice her. How big was this church anyw —

Oh my garlic, the sanctuary was as big as a concert hall. It was even set up like one, with a semi-circular stage and chairs fanning out in rows around it.

And lots and lots of people in those chairs. How strange to be practically anonymous in the middle of this huge crowd. She wasn’t used to
not
being noticed
.

They sat near the front with a good view of the stage. The worship team was in place, fine-tuning their instruments, doing last minute sound checks. The lead guitarist gave a thumbs-up to someone in the back of the sanctuary. Trish turned and saw an extensive sound system set up on a balcony. A long arm shot up from behind the equipment with a returning thumbs-up.

“Let’s get seated, folks, and start our worship ser vice this morning.” The lead guitarist had a rather plain voice, but his twelve-string guitar rang like liquid music on her ears when he strummed a chord.

Worship music at her old church was fine. Simple, straight to the heart. But this worship resonated in her soul.

It wasn’t the full band with acoustic and electric guitars, bass, keyboard, and drums. It wasn’t the speakers, only a few feet from where they sat, blasting into her so that her bones vibrated with the music.

It was the songs, the atmosphere, the way the leader sang with so much transparency. No one stood to sing, but she felt the energy in her legs, the joy in her heart propelling her from her chair. She wouldn’t block anyone’s view since they were sitting near the edge. She shot up, raising her hands and worshipping with her entire body as well as her voice.

She felt like God had breathed into her.

She sat down after the music ended. The pastor was good. Down to earth. Told a few bad jokes. Used a lot of Bible verses and didn’t raise his voice to get his points across like her other pastor did.

At the end of the ser vice, she sighed deeply. “That was great.”

“Glad you liked it.” Aiden motioned toward the back of the church. “Want to meet the Singles Group?” They headed out the back of the sanctuary, through a door on the right side of the foyer and into a large social hall, with a smaller gathering of twenty- and thirty-somethings.

New friends. New guys. No, she needed to stop thinking like that. Rule number one. Rule number one.

“
Yowza.
” What a hunk! Tall and blonde, Matthew McConaughey in the flesh.

Aiden cleared his throat.

Oops. She winced. She wasn’t doing a good job showing the new, utterly-devoted-to-God Trish. Aiden was going to think she hadn’t changed at all from when she’d embarrassed herself over him.

“That’s Ike.”

Trish’s appreciation factor plummeted. So that’s the creep who came on to Lex — before she started going out with Aiden — and then two-timed her with some other girl. “Where’s what’s-her-name?” She couldn’t quite keep the venom out of her tone.

“Lindsay?” Aiden’s look was faintly amused. “Over there.” He gestured.

Pretty, blonde, skinny. Way too many bangles on her wrists, didn’t she realize she was a walking fashion faux pas? Hair horridly streaked by a very cheap salon. Trish could probably let her know of a better stylist . . . but she wouldn’t. Ha!

Okay, that wasn’t the most Christian attitude, but she intended to stand up for her coz. Lex was worth a million Lindsays.

Lindsay glanced their way and caught sight of Trish. She abruptly left off chatting with her girlfriends and sashayed up to Ike, twining an arm through his as he stood with his hands in his jeans pockets. Gee, could ya be more possessive?

Trish nudged Aiden. “You don’t have to introduce me to them, but I’d like to meet everybody else.”

They approached a group of women — a spunky brunette, a cute redhead, a willowy blonde. “Hi, I’m Trish.”

Their smiles didn’t quite meet their eyes. Trish’s smile faltered, but she reasserted it with determination. Most people were uncomfortable with strangers.

“Katy.” “Kaitlyn.” “Kassie.”

“So, what — ”

“Aiden.” Ike came up. The three girls immediately perked up, but Ike focused on Aiden. “They need you up in the sound booth.”

“Oh, okay.” Aiden turned to Trish. “I’ll be right back.”

“Oh, sure. I’ll introduce myself to people.”

“I figured you would.” His half-smile told her he didn’t intend it in a mean way. She was glad he appreciated her ability to take care of herself in a crowd.

“So what do you guys do?” She glanced at the tricolored trio of friends and tried to look non-threatening but friendly.

Brunette flickered her gaze away, then back to Trish. “I’m an administrative assistant for a law firm in downtown San Jose.”

“Oh, that’s neat. My cousin Lex loves the admin at her company. She’s a quarter Japanese and — ”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I need to catch my friend before she goes. It was nice meeting you.” Brunette nipped away.

“Nice meeting you,” Trish told the empty space where she’d stood. She straightened her faltering smile and turned to Redhead and Blondie. “So what do you guys do?”

Redhead looked at Blondie before answering. “I’m an elementary school teacher.”

“I’m a software engineer.” Blondie inserted her answer as if she didn’t want Trish to have to directly address her.

“That’s neat.” The uncomfortable silence grated on her like a rake down her back. “I have a cousin — ”

“Do you always worship with so much . . . uh . . . energy?” Blondie’s smile was friendly — marginally — but her cool gaze seemed faintly disapproving.

Trish’s back slammed straight as a rod. She bared her teeth. “Oh, yes. It’s very freeing.” Music was the one part of her faith where she felt closest to God. Who was this chick to criticize how she worshipped?

“I’m sure.” Blondie shared a secret, amused look with Redhead. “It’s just very unusual.”

“Well, I would never want to be a lemming.” Trish blinked innocently at her.

Blondie’s smile disappeared entirely. “It was nice meeting you. Come on, Kaitlyn.” They disappeared faster than hot dog
musubi
at a church picnic.

Trish looked around. There was a group of guys nearby — one tall and skinny with a shock of red hair, one Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and one small and dark like a mole. The latter two had glasses and pocket protectors, and the redhead kept his eyes glued to his feet.

Another group of guys nearby were at the very least weekend warriors — trim, carrying themselves well. Dressed in Dockers, Polo, Structure.

One of them — the one in a dark green Hilfiger shirt — happened to glance at her. He paused and made eye contact, then deliberately turned away.

The nerve! Was this entire Singles Group full of snobs? She marched over to the cluster of nerds. “Hi, I’m Trish.”

“Jaspar.” The redhead spoke to her Stuart Weitzman slides.

“Willie.” Stay Puft had a wide, sweet smile like in
Ghostbusters.

“Gerard.” Mole Man peered at her through thick glasses.

Jaspar addressed her knees as he mumbled how he was a door-to-door salesman. Stay-Puft — oops, Willie was a manufacturing engineer, and Gerard was a programmer.

Their short answers didn’t faze her. They’d loosen up if she gave them a little more time to get used to her. The shy ones usually did, anyway. “So what do you guys like to do?”

“Jaspar likes the movies.” Willie motioned to his friend.

Jaspar’s gaze suddenly popped up from her knees to her eyes. His vivid green gaze startled her more than the sudden action. “I love
Star Wars
. It changed my life. I liked the light sabers.” He gyrated in a few wild moves. Trish leaned back to avoid getting brained by his fists, held together as if gripping a light saber. What a change from the shoe-talking guy from a minute ago. “I even had a Boba Fett costume, with replicas of all his weapons.” Jaspar’s eyes dropped and he seemed to deflate. “I used to be too into it, but I’ve been learning how to make Jesus my priority and still enjoy movies.”

Trish blinked. Had he really said that? Sounded like something her third grade Sunday school teacher would have made her recite. Still, she wanted him to feel comfortable, not let on that she thought his choice of words was a little weird. “That sounds like me. I’m, uh . . . trying to make Jesus my priority, too.” She loosed a wide smile.

How weird. The three of them had suddenly frozen when she smiled. Jaspar had been about to say something, but his mouth stuck open instead. Willie’s smile was a little dazed. Gerard had erupted into a smile of his own which, although a little dreamy, made his entire face light up.

“Hey Trish.” Aiden showed up. “Hi, guys.”

The trio broke out of their reverie and greeted Aiden with comfortable familiarity. Gerard perked up. “Did you see
BattleBots: the Rematch
last night?”

While they chatted about some type of robot demolition show, Trish caught sight of Blondie as she strolled past with Green Hilfiger Shirt. Trish chewed her inner lip. She’d forgotten Aiden had been sitting next to her during worship.

After it seemed like they were done talking about the complete destruction of radio-controlled robot warriors, she leaned into Aiden. “You know, I’m sorry if I embarrassed you during singing. I always — ”

“You didn’t.”

That was that. Aiden was so cut and dried, it always took her off guard, but the encouraging gleam in his eyes eased the tightness in her chest. He understood the unspoken question in her words.

Trish sighed. She wasn’t attracted to Aiden anymore, but she envied Lex. Aiden was such a nice guy.

“Did you want to meet the worship team?” He motioned toward the open door of the social hall, where the worship team was strolling out with their instruments.

“I’d love to.” She smiled at Jaspar, Willie, and Gerard. “Nice meeting you guys.” She meant it — unlike the Tricolored Trio, they’d wanted to get to know her, and she’d felt free to be herself.

Aiden flagged down one of the guitarists, a dark-skinned woman. “Olivia, this is Trish. Today’s her first time here.”

Olivia’s white teeth were like beacons in her oval face. “How great. Glad you could come today.”

“Olivia’s married to Ed, the worship leader.”

“The guy with the twelve-string acoustic? It sounds so great.”

“Thanks, honey. He loves that guitar.” She adjusted her electric guitar bag on her shoulder, but didn’t seem anxious to leave. “So what do you do?”

“I’m a biologist researcher.”

“That’s fascinating. Our sound guy is also a biologist. I’ll introduce you later.”

“I loved the worship.” A glowy feeling radiated in her chest at the memory of the ser vice. “It was so great.”

“Now I remember you.” Olivia’s eyes crinkled at the edges. “You were the one standing near the front.”

The glowy feeling dimmed a little and instead started squeezing her heart. “I hope I didn’t disrupt — ”

“Oh, no!” She reached out to touch Trish’s arm. “It’s always so encouraging to the team to see someone really getting into worship. I can’t begin to tell you how much joy that gives me.” She eyed Aiden with a mischievous glitter in her dark eyes. “Most people are a bit repressed.”

Aiden gave a half-smile, but it lighted his eyes. “Everyone worships in their own way, Olivia.”

She tapped him with a playful hand. “That may be so, but girls like Trish let me know without a shadow of a doubt that we’re doing our job for God.” She turned to her. “What made you visit our church today?” Friendly curiosity, not suspicion or gossip.

“I’m looking for a new church. I want to find somewhere I can serve.” Suddenly Trish really wanted to serve here, with these people, despite the Tricolored Trio and the Weekend Warriors. Because of people like Olivia and Aiden, Jaspar and Willie and Gerard, who made her feel so comfortable being herself. Well, her new self. Not her old, flirty self.

“That’s wonderful. What ministry have you done before?”

Trish opened her mouth, then had to shut it as the breath stuck in her throat. What had she done before? Helped occasionally to set up for coffee hour after ser vice. Okay, like maybe twice. What else?

“That’s okay.” Olivia laughed. “You can ask our volunteer coordinator and he’ll hook you up with something. Anything you want to do?”

“I’d like to do evangelism. I’m also going to get my MDiv.” Wow, she was running off at the mouth. Olivia made her feel so welcomed, so comfortable — it seemed natural to overshare.

“That’s great. Where are you going?”

“Actually, I’m looking for someplace. I searched on the Internet but I don’t know which schools are good.”

“I can recommend one — Western Seminary in Los Gatos. Several of my friends are in their program.”

Trish felt like she received a free latte from Starbucks. She started rattling on as if she were on a caffeine high, too. “Thanks so much, that helps a lot. I’m really trying to turn my life around — well, Aiden knows because Lex told him but he also knew me before — but now I’m trying to become wholly devoted to God and not look at guys and share the gospel with people and rely on God more.” She paused to take a breath.

Olivia stepped forward and enfolded her in a warm hug that smelled like cinnamon. “Oh honey, I’m so happy for you. I feel like God brought you directly to our church for a wonderful reason. And I’m not just saying that.” She released her.