“Well, if you’re into this God thing, and I’m not, then where does that leave us?”

“Well … I was into God when we left this morning, and when we went to the premiere, and I’m assuming you’ve been not into God pretty much all that time, too, so it leaves us where we’ve been all along. Doesn’t it?”

He looked as baffled as I felt. “Well, yeah, but … you don’t think there’s anything wrong with that?”

“With what?” I felt like I was missing half the conversation.

“With us not agreeing on God.”

“N-no.”

“No what?”

“No there’s nothing wrong with it. Why would there be?”

“Well, because you think I’m some heathen or something.”

I laughed. “I do?”

“You don’t?”

“No! You don’t believe in God, and that’s your choice. I don’t think it’s a good choice, but I can’t force you to change your mind, so oh well. That doesn’t make you some evil person in my eyes or anything. Hanging out will give me the chance to show you what my beliefs are about.”

“So now I’m a project?”

I leaned back in my chair and groaned, covering my face with my hands. This was so much more difficult than it needed to be. “No!” I sighed and righted myself, then leaned across the table and said frankly, “Look. You’re cool. I like hanging out with you. I would like to continue hanging out with you, if you also enjoy hanging out with me. I’m a Christian, it’s true. And you’re not. And while I think that’s a shame, it doesn’t mean I can’t be with you, or shouldn’t be with you. It means we’ll disagree on things, and that I’ll pray for you, and that I’ll say things you’ll think are flaky, and I’ll think you’re just misinformed, but it does not mean I’m commanded to stay away from you. Now … is this all clear?”

He stared at me for a moment, then smiled and shrugged. “Crystal.”

JACK

THINGS WERE AWKWARD for a while, but by the time we had returned to our sightseeing tour, things were almost back to normal. Part of me was still annoyed for bringing all this up; the day had been going fine, and there had been no reason to ruin it. But the other half of me was glad it was out in the open and each of us was clear on where the other stood. I didn’t want anything to do with God, but I definitely wanted something to do with Grace. I wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted to do with her—well, I had some ideas, not that I thought she’d go for them—so for now I was content just being with her.