A Year to Remember(83)
We found seats toward the front of the room and talked before the service began. It also gave me the opportunity to remember how much I’d enjoyed going to services as a child. I always felt comfortable and loved in my synagogue. I felt like I belonged. I missed that feeling.
The service began with the Rabbi strumming his guitar and the Cantor singing a song I recognized from my youth. Throughout the service, memories of happy times spent inside these walls passed through my mind as though I watched a movie. The Rabbi talked about asking God for renewal of body and spirit. I felt like the Rabbi talked directly to me.
I’d received the sign I asked from God. God was talking to me. I just had to listen.
I believed in my Higher Power, ready to immerse myself in the Twelve Steps.
CHAPTER 32
JULY 30, 2012
DETROIT, MICHIGAN
WEIGHT: ?
STATUS: SINGLE
“I don’t understand how you can have so much energy this early in the morning,” I said to Nate without opening my eyes.
Nate arrived to pick me up from my condo at five in the morning to take me to my office for my interview with the Morning show.
“I go to sleep by ten and I do stretches before my feet even touch the floor in the morning. It gets the circulation moving and then I’m good to go,” he explained matter-of-factly.
“I hate you,” I muttered.
Nate just laughed. “No you don’t. You love me and you know it.”
He was right. In the ten days we’d started hanging out together, he had become an important fixture in my life. I did love him, in a platonic manner, of course.
“Yes, I love you. I just envy the amount of energy you have. I don’t have any energy until I get my caffeine fix.”
“Well, we can solve that dilemma right now,” Nate announced, pulling into my favorite coffee shop.
Fifteen minutes and half a cup of coffee later, I paced the floors of my office waiting for the media to arrive. Just before six, five people appeared to prepare me for my interview. Nate sat in the chairs usually reserved for my clients and watched with fascination.
“This is really cool. Those wires will allow Bethany to see us and us to see Bethany?” Nate asked the cameraman, who appeared rather annoyed by the question.
“Satellite,” he responded, nodding his head. Not a man of many words for someone who makes his living in the media.
“Cool,” said Nate, mocking the cameraman with his own nodding of his head.
I giggled, not because Nate was funny but because of nerves.
As someone placed a mike on my shirt, Nate got up from the chair and crossed the room to take my hands. “How you doing, sweetie?”
“I’m a little nervous,” I confessed, starting to hyperventilate. I shook with anxiety in the same intensity as I did on an airplane.
“You’ll be great, Sara. Do you know what you’re going to say?”
Before I could answer, they gave me a one-minute warning and placed me on my chair. Nate stood in the back of the room and gave me two thumbs up. Meanwhile, I felt like I was going to throw up.
“Five, four, three, two ...” The camera indicated the live feed, and I spotted Bethany behind a screen several feet away.
I sat with a frozen smile on my face as she introduced the segment. I had only one goal in this interview. I needed to clear up the confusion over my alleged engagement to Caleb.
“Tell us, Sara, how has your search for your soul mate been going?”
“Great.” Terrible. “I’m optimistic I will meet my deadline.” No way in hell am I getting married by my thirtieth birthday.
“I understand you got engaged at the beginning of the month.”
“I did, but it didn’t work out. Caleb and I care for each other very much, but in the end, we both decided we weren’t right for each other.” I agonized over the way I would explain how Caleb and I broke our engagement. I wanted Adam to know the truth about why I said “yes” to the proposal, but I couldn’t hurt Caleb. Describing our parting as mutual seemed best for all parties involved. It wasn’t exactly a lie. After I turned down Caleb’s proposal, he didn’t want to marry me either.
“I’m sorry to hear that. What do you think was missing from your relationship with Caleb?”
“I don’t know if I could give you specifics ...” Great sex. Romance. Passion. “I guess we anticipated the difference in our religions would one day cause us a problem. Really, it was just something we both knew in our hearts. We still care for one another and we remained friends.” Friends who haven’t spoken since the breakup and probably never would.
“Does this mean you’re back on the market?” Bethany asked.