Imperfect Love

By Melissa Lopes

Amy was born with a facial "flaw". She has a large purple birthmark on one side of her face and has spent her whole life being on the receiving end of stares and ridicule. She resigns herself to a lifetime of loneliness until a handsome blind man arrives at her church...and sees the beauty she has on the inside.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trellis Publishing
• Release date: Jul 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201370046

Book preview

IMPERFECT LOVE

MELISSA LOPES

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIFT ME UP

IMPERFECT

LIFT ME UP 

Maggie referred to her split with James as The Break-Up.  He had been the star football player on the varsity team. She had known him all throughout junior high and high school where he had always been the star athlete.

The guy every girl wanted and she got him.

Their relationship had been tumultuous from the start. She blamed herself at first. Her own feelings of inadequacy and insecurity led her to believe that he had all the answers.

It did seem like he had all the answers. The star quarterback on the team that always made the right decisions. Always come through in the clutch and never let his team down.

Only this did not spill over into his personal relationships. James had that mantel of you're going places labeled on him since junior high school. His own parents never accepted Maggie, particularly his father.

Maggie never forgot the conversation she had once with James. She should have been able to read the tea leaves.

Is your Dad always that quiet? Maggie asked one day after she had dinner over at James' house.

He doesn't want me to date, James said. Thinks that all women are users and that you are only with me because I am going to the pros. He told me when I was young, 'If you get a girl pregnant, you're marrying the bitch.'

Maggie could only shake her head. Creep.

You don't have to talk to him if you don't want to.

I won't.

He just doesn't want me to date anyone.

So what , you're just going to do what your Dad says?

No, of course not, James said. I love you. Absolutely adore you. Why would I follow the lead of someone who has had failed relationships their whole life?

A week after that conversation, James broke up with Maggie.

Maggie cursed her poverty as she stood washing her hands in the soiled kitchen. Roaches huddled in the gap between the back splash and the flaking plaster wall. She took out her pesticide and sprayed them but the liquid just sputtered out, all used up.

Maggie had always taken the bus to school. The long yellow beast of a machine had carried her through childhood; red vinyl seats had cradled her through new friendships, a broken heart, and life changing decisions.

She walked faster when she saw the line of anxious teens waiting for their ride. Her chapped hands smoothed the brilliant blue shirt that declared her an employee of Sam’s Sushi, and caressed the rounding bump of her stomach. Only a few months ago, she would have been standing in that line, worrying about a math test or holding hands with her boyfriend, or making plans to go shopping that weekend. Nobody looked at her as she pushed through the queue of children; they were all focused on their phones (a luxury that she could no longer afford) or were chattering to each other about whatever regular high-schoolers thought about.

The baby was due in five months, one week, and four days. That made it almost three months since the Break Up, and