“It’s on the house,” Ethic replied. He reached the door and looked back, just in time to see her eyes widen in shock and her shoulders slag, slightly, as if he had physically removed a weight from them. Her burden was visible and palpable. He could feel it. The energy she carried left no room for anything but woe, and he understood, but she was infectious. Seeing his actions affect this woman disturbed Ethic.

“I swear on my life I will pay you back. I just need a little time. Thank you,” she said, as she took a step toward him, hands pressed together as if he had answered one of her many prayers. He backed up from her, abruptly pushing the door open with force, as he crossed the parking lot to his car. He had to get away from her, out of her reach, out of her sight. He started his car and pulled away from his business, in haste. He could see her step out of the building to watch him leave, but he wanted nothing but distance between them. She was a reminder of his greatest sin and he knew that the irony of her walking into his shop, on the rare day that he was present, was nothing but God reminding him that he had lost his way.

7

The emotions that dwelled within the chambers of an 18-year-old girl’s heart were so intense. They were like a cosmic force in the universe, spinning, and burning, and building to an immensity so brilliant that its inevitability of explosion couldn’t be avoided. Morgan sat on her bed, her body sinking into the plush mattress so deeply that it muffled her cries. The gloom of the rainy day matched her somber mood, creating the perfect soundtrack to her melancholy, as beads of water slid down the window pane. She felt everything…every emotion…they hit her all at once, simultaneously torturing her weary, young heart. Her need for him attacked her. He hadn’t called. He hadn’t responded to her texts. She had been torturing herself for days, checking her phone every few minutes, only to feel the sting of letdown when his name was never present on her screen. Messiah was MIA and she felt like she was being detoxed off a drug so strong that without it she would die. He had only given her a taste of his attention. A morsel of his affection, and already, she was willing to do anything for more.