Happily Ever After

by Jenn Faulk

~David~

  He’d walked her back to the Botha house much later that evening.

  Much, much later, after more meaningful words, sincere looks, and joyful laughter between them, as David reminded his heart, again and again, that this was Cammie Evans.

  Camille Evans.

  And he was David Connor. The geeky younger brother of her best friends.

  Yeah. Perspective.

  He’d walked her the mile there, her clean laundry in a bag he wore over his shoulder, and she’d turned from him at the door... and couldn’t get in.

  “Locked,” she murmured. “Kait turns in so early.” She looked over at him and bit her lip. “And she’s a light sleeper. I’m totally going to wake her up just as soon as I unlock the door and walk in. Even though she sleeps way down the hall.”

  “How’s it been going, having a roommate?” he asked.

  “It’s like having a roommate,” she said, smiling softly. “Haven’t had one since college. Eons ago, you know.”

  He hadn’t thought of how this might be a change for her, how it might be anything less than ideal.

  “Kait keeps strange hours,” she continued, searching through her pockets for her key. “And she’s really loud when she’s at home. I like going over to your house. It’s nice and quiet with you.”

  She’d had more than a few opportunities to do that. They’d practice the songs they were going to do for the worship sets there in his living room. They’d go over the lessons they were going to be teaching sitting there on his back porch. They’d spend hours talking in his kitchen over the meals she’d made for him.

  And there had been more than a few evenings like the one they’d just spent, where she’d do her laundry at his house instead of the laundromat, sitting with him for hours, them keeping one another company.

  He could remember every detail from the evening they’d just spent together after they’d eaten, when she’d pulled out a deck of cards and thoroughly whipped his butt at every game he could name, laughing behind her hands at him when he’d tell her he wanted yet another rematch.

  She’d granted it to him every time, and he’d been so thankful, not for another chance to be beaten by her but because it meant she stayed with him a little longer.

  He loved having Cammie at home with him. He hadn’t realized just how lonely he was until she came along.

  “You were going to be my roommate, you know,” he said, thinking on how wonderful this would have been.

  She narrowed her eyes just slightly at this. “What?”

  Realizing how she had taken what he’d said, he laughed. “Well, when we thought you were a guy. Which you’re not. Obviously.”

  Obviously, David. Keep right on helping yourself out by thinking about how Camille Evans is so clearly NOT a guy.

  “Oh,” she said, sighing. “That explains why you all had to change up plans when I came here. You were expecting me to live at the cottage with you.”

  The very thought. Cammie there in the mornings, in the afternoons, at night...

  “Well, that would have been fun,” she said. “We could have had a pajama party every night, just like in the old days.”

  This wasn’t helping him, imagining this. Cammie, smiling at him from behind a hand of cards, wearing something very cute and tiny, throwing down the cards, crawling over to him, and –

  “Although that would have been weird for two guys,” she said thoughtfully.

  And now, he was having trouble thinking clearly at all. That’s how messed up he was around Cammie Evans.

  “Oh, well,” she said, oblivious to all that was running around his mind. “Still thankful for a place to stay. Even if it’s with Kait and not you.”

  “Hey,” he said, trying to distance himself from all the thoughts running through his mind. “There’s another mission house, you know. Here in Swakop.”

  “Really?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” he nodded. “Piet owns them all, technically. But he still calls them mission houses, still has them set aside for ministry. I didn’t take it when I moved here because it’s so big. But it belonged to the missionaries who were here before me. A real home. I mean, it needs a woman’s touch. Totally undecorated now and left really bare, but...”

  She watched him with great interest, tears pooling in her eyes.

  “Camille,” he said, “are you okay?”

  “I could decorate it,” she said. “I could make it into a real home again.”

  “Would you like to do that?” he asked.

  “More than you can possibly imagine,” she smiled. “Yes. This place, it’s...” She looked over to the beach, biting her lip.

  “It’s what?” he asked.

  “I mean, I know there’s not a career position for me to even work myself into,” she said. “Just the temporary one. But this feels like it could be long-term. Like I could finally go long-term. Those students, what’s going on here, the possibilities –”

  “Incredible,” they said together.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  And he thought it as well, how incredible the work was, how incredible it would be if she would covenant herself to it for the long-term.

  Incredible.

  “And I’ve felt like... like a guest, staying here,” she said. “Like I can’t make a home on my own. And I know it’s just in my head, the need to do that –”

  “I get it,” he said. “It’s something we should’ve thought about.”

  “No, David,” she said softly. “You’ve been so good to me. Everything has been perfect.”

  He was thankful to hear this, so glad to know that she was happy here. And that he could make her happier by giving her a place to call her own.

  “I’m glad, Cammie.”

  “So, yes,” she sighed, smiling at this. “Yes, I would love to set up a home here.”

  “Then we’ll make it happen,” he said, resolving then that he would take care of it as soon as possible.