First Class to Portland Read Free

bench and
slid down burying her face in her hands. This is how it had been the last
several days: fine one minute and totally depressed the next.
    How can I feel like this? I only spent two weeks with him! The tiny taste of happiness she felt with Matt had been ripped from her
when she left New York and instead of slowly healing, she was only becoming
more despondent.
    After several minutes, something was placed next to her on
the bench. Startled, Janie looked up to see a box of tissues and the kind face
of a priest.
    “May I sit with you?” he asked.
    Janie nodded and grabbed a couple of tissues from the box
and blew her nose. She took a deep breath and thanked the priest.
    “I’m Father Brian,” he smiled.
    “Janie,” she whispered.
    “Hello Janie. Maybe you’d like to talk?”
    Janie shook her head, “I don’t think talking will help, but
thank you.”
    “Well then maybe I could just sit here with you.” His eyes
were kind and his presence actually made Janie feel a little better.
    Sitting in silence for a few minutes gave Janie an
opportunity to blow her nose again and wipe her eyes. She hadn’t cried that
hard since the night she arrived back from her vacation. Since then she had
tried to keep busy, keep her mind and body focused on tasks, any diversion
available.
    “I met someone and I fell in love with him but he isn’t
interested in any form of commitment and so there isn’t a future and he lives
in New York and I live here so it wouldn’t work anyway, but I didn’t think I
could fall in love with him but I did and now I’m here and alone again and it’s
just hard,” she sobbed. Janie took another deep breath and tried to stop the
tears.
    “Sometimes a good cry is needed,” Father Brian smiled.
    “I’m sorry,” Janie said. “I’m not even Catholic.”
    Father Brian chuckled and patted her hand, “That’s more than
alright. All God’s children are welcome here.”
    “I went to a Catholic service in New York a couple of weeks
ago,” she added. “I guess that’s maybe why I came in here.”
    “You attended mass with this man you are talking about?”
    Janie nodded, “And his family.”
    Father Brian tilted his head. “Janie, tell me about this
man?”
    “His name’s Matt. I met him on my way to New York and we
spent the two weeks I was there together, but he said right up front that he
didn’t do commitment, just sex.”
    Janie immediately blushed at her uncensored statement. “Oh,
I’m sorry.”
    He chuckled again, “That’s quite alright. I understand.”
    Janie continued, “I didn’t think I was going to fall in love
with him. It was all so fast, but I do love him, but it doesn’t matter.”
    “Did you tell him how you feel?”
    “Oh heavens, no! He made it very clear that he wasn’t
interested in anything more than the two weeks I was there!”
    “Well I don’t have any experience in these matters
personally. But I do know that we should listen to our hearts. Let yours tell
you what you should do.”
    *****
    As Janie walked back down her street to her house, feeling
better after her talk with Father Brian, she saw her realtor, Amanda, hammering
the ‘For Sale’ sign in the front yard.
    It’s really happening! I am selling the house!
    Amanda greeted her warmly and handed her a flyer to look
over.
    “Wow! This makes my house sound wonderful,” Janie laughed.
    “It is wonderful! This is a very desirable neighborhood. You
are in a great school district and have a low crime rate. I am confident it
will sell very quickly, even at the asking price.” Amanda sounded very optimistic.
“And we are going to have the Open House on Saturday, like we had talked about.
Let’s hit the ground running, shall we? And don’t forget the realtor’s tour is
tomorrow at nine. You probably don’t want to be home for that.”
    “Right,” Janie remembered. “I’ll be gone by the time you get
here. And on Saturday? Should I be gone for that too?”
    “Oh, yes, definitely.