Toasty Forgiveness

Tired and worn out ... burned out ... I tie the lases on my running shoes when the phone rings at 7:00 in the morning.

"I want to meet you for breakfast," he says.

"I've already left the Breakfast Club," I reply with a sigh.

"It's not open yet," he snarls.

"Yeah, well, I've already been."

After an eternal moment of silence he snaps, "We need to meet. What time can you be there? I'm already coming out to the island for this."

"I'll see you in an hour," I say hanging up, petting Goddess and go for a run on the beach.

I'm off but the Chairman of the Board doesn't care ... he wants what he wants when he wants it ... and I'm heading out of town to meet my kids in Athens and the last thing I want is more work ... with him.

Strolling inside the Club wearing black running shorts, a UGA tee shirt and flip flops ... he's impatiently waiting ... wearing a blue suit, white shirt and orange tie ... everyone who works there yells "REV!" as I slide into the booth across from him.

"I'm ready to order," he says.

"Go for it," I reply.

"What are you having?"

Caroline slides water with lemon in front of me and explains, "He's already had coffee."

"You're not going to eat," he asks.

"No."

He orders bacon and eggs, grits and toast and more coffee.

"I need to know ..." he begins when a piece of toast hits the side of his head.

"What the ..." he begins surprised.

"You're being a little aggressive," I explain. "These are my friends. They will not stand for that."

Sitting back he stares at Val who is working toast and has another piece in her hand ready to fling it with Ninja precession should he get too aggressive again.

"You  have crazy friends," he says wiping the crumbs from his suit with a napkin.

"I do," I confess.

He proceeds to rip me a new one.

After a quarter-of-a-century of doing everything right, it's all suddenly wrong.

When he raises his voice ... another piece of toast hits the side of his head.

"You shouldn't be so loud," I tell him.

Angrily, he looks at Val who's holding another piece of toast while grinning as though to say, "Do it again Blue Suit."

"You wanted to come here," I shrug.

"I want to meet you on your turf," he snaps.

Caroline misses his cup as she refills his coffee and it spills in his lap.

"Ooops," she says walking away.

He stares at me with eyes full of hate.

"You know," I say, "I look inside to make sense of the world. It doesn't make sense if you look at it any other way."

"What?' he shoots.

"You are here to embarrass me on my home turf," I reply. "You want to show your dominion over the world ... beginning with me."

"I am doing my job," he says slapping his hand on the table.

A piece of toast hits the side of his head and he cusses out loud.

"You picked the wrong spot," I shrug.

"I want you gone," he says standing to leave.

"I've gotta go anyway," I say standing but before I can walk out before him ... Caroline and Val leave what they're doing and hug me ... blocking his exit ... while everybody else working yells "REV!"

As funny as it is ... it's not a pleasant memory.

Well ... Val throwing toast and Caroline missing his c
up is pretty funny ... but it was a horrible time and I'm thankful it's over.

This morning I stayed in bed with Sarah rather than go to the Breakfast Club when I normally go because ... it's Sarah.

I'm perilously close to forgiving the former Board Chair but ... not quite yet ... because he's a mean SOB and we've all got too many of those in our lives.

Making it worse, he hurt Sarah too.

But to this day, I can't have a piece of toast without enjoying the Hell out of it.