"Philippians 4:6, 'Don't be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with Thanksgiving, present your request to God.'"
The congregation nods as Pastor James continues his sermon.
"Now I know everybody in here got somethin' to worry about. Bills being paid, your children, what you're going to wear tomorrow."
The congregation shares a little laugh.
"If you got something on your back, give it to God. If it's got your life in a chokehold, that's a sign to give it to God. But don't give to Him in any ol' kind of way. It says, 'with thanksgiving'. This means, give it to God, and thank Him for all He has done for you so far. Then give all of your worries, all of your cares, all of it! Give it all to God! Don't hold anything back, and give it all to Him! Amen?"
"Amen!" The congregation responds.
I can't shake it, it's still stuck in my head. Even after I pray, it still stays in my brain. I mean, Ma'Kayla, she doesn't even remember me! It hurts, we used to be so close. Now, we're like strangers. Then, on top of that, Jaime. How did he get my phone number, and why has he been sending me those threatening messages. Not only is it annoying, it's making me worry. What if he decides to come to New York and ruin my life all over again? Thinking of that makes my stomach drop.
I take a deep breath. "Chill out, man." I tell myself. "This is another season that you're going through, you just have to trust Him." I gotta calm down.
Lola jumps on the couch and lays down on my lap. She purrs and rubs her head in my hand, as a means to get me to pet her. She's adorable, but I'm way too stressed about this when I shouldn't be. Plus, I moved on from the situation, why am I still thinking about it?
I let out a long sigh. I remember the pastor telling me, 'If it's bothering you, that's a sign to give it to God.
"Blessed are You, Lord our God, king of the universe. Thank you for bringing me this far. Why is this happening In my life? How did Jaime get my phone number and why doesn't Ma'Kayla remember me? I mean, we've been through so much, and You know we've been through so much together.And now, she's acting like she doesn't know me. Please open my eyes to the truth. In Your son Jesus' name, Amen."
I take a deep breath in and out. I'm glad I got that out.
My phone starts ringing. I grab my phone from the coffee table and answer the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hakeem! How you been?"
It's my mother, Keisha.
"I'm good, how about you?"
"I'm good. What are you doing right now?"
"Just chillin."
The phone goes silent for a moment. "You don't sound right."
"What do you mean?"
"Your voice don't sound right, what's going on?"
"Nothing is going on momma."
"Now you and I both know that you telling a fib right now. I'm not Bobo the fool. Tell me what's going on."
I sigh. This lady knows me better than I do myself. "Well, I saw someone I used to know at work the other day."
"Who and how?"
"I was walking into an available elevator and a woman walked in with me. We had a short little conversation, and she looked familiar to me. So I asked her what her name was and it turns out, she's Ma'Kayla."
"Ma'Kayla? Ma'Kayla Wilson? The tramp?"
"Ma! That's not nice, and you know that."
"She let it happen."
"No, she didn't, and you know that. Now stop it."
She sighs. "Alright fine, but don't talk to her, leave her alone."
"Why?"
"She'll just ruin your life again! Ma'Kayla sent you to jail, it was all her. Plus, she comes from a pack of-"
"Ma, stop! You know she had nothing to do with that, and you know it!"
"She ruined your life!"
"She didn't ruin anything, it was Jaime."
She huffs. "That boy didn't do anything, he was such a nice young man! Why would he do that to his friend?"
I huff in disgust. "I'm gonna call you later."
"But, Hakeem-"
"Bye ma, love you." I hang up.
I set my phone down. As much as I love my mom, she can get on my nerves. Since the incident, she's been blaming Ma'Kayla for what happened. None of it was her fault, but she always wants Ma'Kayla to take the blame. She knows Jaime was a part of this, and that he's the one who got me sent to jail. But she always pins it on the girl. Although I love my mother, she's pretty annoying. I hate that she keeps
I'm thinking about this way too hard, I need to stop.
"What do I do?" I ask myself. "This is making my head hurt."
My phone buzzes. I unlock it, and it's an email from Ma'Kayla. It must be the flier she was working on. I open the email and look at the flier. Wow, she outdid herself. It looks beautiful. As I scroll down, I see a little message at the bottom.
"Sorry I made you upset yesterday. Hope you feel better."
Upset? When did she upset me? She could never upset me. What made her believe that she made me sad? I should apologize to her. Maybe she'll be at that cafe from yesterday. Hopefully she will.
I get up from the couch and grab my coat from the hanger. I quickly put my shoes on and grab my keys from the key rack.
After speeding down the streets of New York, I arrive at the cafe Ma'Kayla and I were at. I walk into the cafe, expecting to see the woman, but I meet another one instead.
"Hakeem, what a pleasant surprise!"
Margarita Gomez, the CEO of Common Grounds, and my boss. What would she be doing here, of all days? I'd never expect her to be here, especially of how rich she is.
"Ms. Gomez-"
"Call me Margarita, we're outside of work."
"Alright, Margarita. How are you?"
"I'm fine. It's funny to see you. What are you doing here?"
"I was just going to get some coffee."
"I'm glad I caught you here, I need to discuss something with you."
She invites me to sit at her table and I accept. I take my coat off and sit down.
"So, what do you want to talk to me about?" I ask Ms. Gomez.
"Firstly, I wanted to discuss the progress on the flier and what the meeting was like."
"The meeting was...interesting, to say the least. We agreed that the color scheme should be the Christmas colors, and we decided that we should hold the venue in the main lobby. It can fit a good amount of people, and we don't have to spend any unnecessary money. Also, Ma'Kayla finished the flier yesterday, and she just sent it to me."
She nods. "That's good. I think the next meeting will be discussing what decorations they should put up and what companies to call. I'm going to need you to create a budget of how much money the company should spend on this gala. I also would like you to research the companies we should contact to set up all of the arrangements."
I nod. "Alright, I'll start working on it tonight. Is that everything?"
She shakes her head. "No, I'm not finished."
Dang it. "Is there something else?"
She nods. "Yes. For the past week, a random phone number has been texting my personal phone about you and your 'incident'. Do you know this person?"
A ball of sweat rolls down the side of my face. I feel my armpits get sweaty and my hands begin to shake. This better not be who I think it is. He's already been texting my phone, and now he's targeting other people? Especially my boss, of all the people he could've picked.
"I-I don't know who he is."
She pauses for a moment. She can tell I'm saying nonsense. "You can't tell me the reason, can you?"
I nod. What Jaime has done to be already has been enough, I don't want to let him happen to anyone else. He can't hurt anybody else. I don't want him to get back at me. I can't start over, not again. God has brought me too far to mess it up now.
"If I tell you who that person is, it might bring you harm. I don't want that to happen to you."
"I understand. But, should I get the authorities involved? If this turns into a situation, I will get legals involved."
"No, I can deal with it. I promise."
"Are you sure? I can help you."
"No, this is my problem, so I have to deal with it. Thanks for offering, though."
She gets up from the table and takes her things to leave. "Well, it was nice talking to you, Hakeem. I will see you at the meeting on Wednesday. Goodbye."
I bid her farewell. She turns to leave, but she looks back at me.
"By the way, Ma'Kayla doesn't remember."
"Excuse me?" What do you mean?"
"She can't remember." Ms Gomez reaches the door and exits the shop.
What does she mean by this? I'm confused, but I can't worry about what she said. I have to worry about Jaime. Why would he go for my boss? It's like he's trying to get back at me. I can't have him going after other people, I have to do something about this.
"Wait on me."
I look around to see who told me that, but there's no one there. I wonder what that was. But it doesn't matter, I have to start working on this budget.
The company shouldn't spend too much money on this event. We already have the Christmas ads to worry about, which I still have to create the budget for, which also depends on what and how much money we're going to spend. Then, I have to send it to the people in auditing to get it checked out. There's so much I have to do in such a short amount of time. Although this gets on my nerves, it's alright. I can handle it.
I turn on my desktop computer and create a spreadsheet. I label the title, "Christmas Gala Budgeting". Now it's time to get to work. Given that we're going to hold the gala in the office building, the maximum amount of money we should spend is about $40,000. It wouldn't make sense to spend too much money, then we wouldn't have any for the Christmas ads that we need to make. I type out 'Maximum spending: $40,000'. Now that I have the maximum, what are we going to spend it on? Definitely catering, drinks, and decor. But I feel as if there needs to be something extra. I mean, since we would only be spending $40,000, it would need to be only the little things. Although we could spend less and save the money for later. But I'm pretty sure Ms. Gomez wouldn't let it happen.
I let out a long sigh. I can't do this, I'm gonna burn myself out. I already have Jaime making my nerves bad with all these text messages, then I have the volunteer stuff to work out, and on top of that, I have my regular job. Even when I pray, I still don't feel relief from my problems. This is still weighing on me. A memory comes back to me. Whenever I would fail at something, my father would tell me to keep going at it. In anything, keep going at it. Don't stop. I guess I can apply this in my prayer life.
I clasp my hands together and take a deep breath. "Blessed are You, Lord our God, king of the universe. Thank You for waking me up this morning. I give all of my problems to You, Lord. I pray that Jaime doesn't come to New York, and also, what did Ms. Gomez mean when she said 'Ma'Kayla doesn't remember'? I'm confused about that part. And why is Jaime trying to get to me through other people, that's stupid. Is he trying to ruin my life for a second time, or is he doing this for kicks and giggles? What do You think? Maybe he's trying to get a rise out of me, either way it doesn't make sense to me. But thank You for everything, and please let this gala event go well. In Your Son Jesus name' I pray, Amen."
I feel a little bit better now. Now that I've prayed, I can see what Pastor James means when he said that. A little confidence seeps into my body. I feel confident now, as if I can conquer anything. With Him, of course.
Stretch out my arms and immediately get to work.
I look at the time on my computer. 8:42pm, it says. I've been working on this for a hot minute. I stare in awe at my work. I've done a pretty good job, but there's more to be done. I still have to research a catering company that doesn't cost too much, and then I have to give the spreadsheet out to the rest of the volunteer team members. I'll probably print it out and pass it out to the rest of them.
I take a deep breath in, and out. I can't believe I did all of this. Glory be to God.
My phone buzzes with a notification. I glance at it, and it's an unknown number. This better not be Jaime again.
I open the text message, and it's not Jaime. It's Ma'Kayla.
Unknown Sender: Hi! It's me, Ma'Kayla. I wanted to apologize for upsetting you at the office the other day, I didn't mean to. I hope you're having a good Sunday, and again, sorry!
I immediately start typing.
Me: Hey! What do you mean? You never made me upset.
I save her phone number in my phone. I can't lose this number.
Ma'Kayla: At the office yesterday. You left in a hurry and you looked sad.
Now I remember. I was upset because she didn't remember. But it was just me being angry with myself.
Me: Oh, that was nothing. I was just tired. You didn't upset me, don't worry.
Ma'Kayla: Alright, I was kinda worried about that. I'm glad that you're ok.
Me: Thank you. I hope you're doing ok, yourself.
Ma'Kayla: I'm feeling pretty good, now that I know that you don't hate me lol.
Me: I never hated you lol.
Ma'Kayla: What are you doing right now?
Me: I'm working on the gala budget. I finished it, so now all I have to do is give it to the rest of the volunteer team.
Ma'Kayla: That's good. You got the email I sent, right?
Me: Yes I did. I gave all of the details to Gomez and she's pretty impressed with it.
Ma'Kayla: That's good. Well, I'm about to head to bed. I'll see you Wednesday, good night!
Me: Good night!
I turn off my phone and set it down on my desk. I take a deep breath in and out. I have her number. I can't really believe that just happened. God really is good. He always has my back for everything. I gave it to Him, and now I feel better. I guess Pastor James was right. Worry about nothing, but pray about everything.