Page 109 of Brides and Brothers
“I’m sorry!” Amy grimaced. “I shouldn’t have brought Aiden up. I can tell I’m making you sad.”
Camille waved her hand. “I’m fine, really.”
Amy leaned forward. “How is Aiden, anyway?”
Camille shrugged. “He’s working for the same company for a few weeks longer. They’re interested in his advertising ideas and offered him this big salary job.” What Camille didn’t say was that it had been an entire week and Aiden hadn’t so much as called her from California. Everything she knew about him was through information Benson had volunteered at breakfast the day before. She was crushed.
“He’s not going to take it, is he?” Amy shoved another chip into her mouth. “I mean”—she chewed quickly—“you don’t want to live in California, do you?”
Camille bit her tongue. She was not going to cry. How could she tell her sister that if Aiden accepted this job, it would feel like he was giving up on their relationship? She absently put her hand on her belly. She’d had an early ultrasound yesterday. Everything looked great, and she was already eleven weeks and a couple of days into her pregnancy. It was a honeymoon baby. She should feel like she was on top of the world, but instead, her feet were firmly planted on the ground. Her heart was in pieces, and she had no concept of how to puzzle it back together. Thoughts of the future overwhelmed her.
“So I never heard how things resolved between you and Grant,” she said, desperate to change the subject back to Amy’s relationship before her own emotions broke past her tenuous dam.
Amy launched into an explanation about how she’d thought their relationship was keeping Grant from reaching his full potential. “I got my first letter yesterday after a full month of nothing. Things are better now. His letter was factual, though, without any sort of inside jokes or flirty comments. There was noI love youat the end, but I think he’ll thank me when this is all over. That is, if he still wants me.”
Humbled by her sister’s confession, Camille felt a little less alone in the world of trials. Amy’s life wasn’t as perfect as she had imagined moments before. Her sister hadn’t been to a lot of their girls’ nights, had studied diligently instead of socializing, and had nearly broken ties with the man she loved. Her motivation in school and her devotion to Grant’s safety and purpose had come with sacrifices. Camille wasn’t the only one struggling.
“I’m sorry you had to deal with all of this. You’re a tough woman,” she said.
“Grant’s service is more important than both of us. If we’re supposed to be together, then when he gets home, we can try again.”
The last sentence rang in Camille’s head:we can try again. There was always hope, even if she couldn’t feel it. “You’re acting very mature about this. I promise to never throw the freshman insult ever again.”
“Good, because I already endured that year, and I have the freshman fifteen to prove it.”
Camille chuckled. “Thanks for doing this today. I needed it.”
“You’re paying, so I’m the one who should be saying thank you.”
“No matter how good the food is, chatting with you is the best part. Love you, Sis.”
Relationships suddenly felt so precarious. They didn’t stay put like a book on a shelf. They were living stories with words and events constantly affecting them. Camille and Amy had been in a good place before her marriage, but she could’ve nurtured their relationship more. What other relationships had she neglected? Two came to mind, and they were the two that, next to her relationship with God, mattered more than any other.
