Page 12 of Wish You Faith

Evan nodded. Said nothing.

“Why are you in Savannah, Evan?” Rosie asked. “Are you really here to work for Christmastown or is this just a pit stop to somewhere else?”

“May I take a raincheck? I will answer your questions when I’m ready. For now, I’ll just say that I’m single and unattached, so I can go anywhere I want. I’m exploring my career options.”

Single and unattached.

He said it himself.

“Sorry for prying.” Rosie could be curious sometimes, but this time, Evan had told her a lot about himself.

“You’re not. I wanted you to ask me that so that I can tell you more about myself. I want you to know me more, but I don’t want you to reject me after you find out all about me.”

“Reject you? What are you talking about?” Rosie’s eyes widened. “Are you saying you’re a convict or something and you’ve served time and you don’t want me to know?”

“If corporate prison can be considered a form of incarceration…”

Rosie raised a hand. “Someday, your psychological mask will come off, and then you can be honest with yourself before God. Remember that God already knows all about you.”

“What do you think I should do to get to that point?”

“After Dad died, I was devastated. He was only in his sixties. It was a workplace accident. They compensated us, but Dad was still dead, you know? I was a junior in college and I could barely attend class. I was crying all the time.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I was angry and hurt. I stopped going to church. I was just upset.” Rosie wondered how to phrase it. “I didn’t stay there. It has been eleven years, and I came out of the funk. I had great friends at church who reached out to me and invited me back to church. They never gave up on me. Some of them have moved out of town, but some of them are still here. You’ll meet them tomorrow.”

“I have no real friends, except for my brother, who is a Christian also. However, we both work at the family business, run by my parents—two non-Christians whose religion is probably work.” He paused, apparently to collect his thoughts. “Their lives revolve around the company and its success. Even at home, my parents were all business. I don’t recall a single family dinner in which we just chatted about life and such. It was always business.”

“You can find Christian friends at church, right?” Rosie asked.

“I attended church back home, but I didn’t go to Sunday school,” Evan said. “My work required me to travel a lot all over the country, and most of the time I ended up live-streaming church from my hotel room on Sunday mornings because I had to catch a flight that afternoon to go to the next place. I spent eighty percent of my time at work.”

“Some people enjoy that, but it can get old for others.”

“It got old for me. I quit last week and left town.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“I don’t know why I was in that job that required so much traveling. When I asked for a change of position, they told me that if we hired another person to do all the work I was doing, then why was I there at all? They said I had to either stay put or quit. I’m a homebody and I prefer to stay at home.”

“Me too.” That was one thing they had in common. “Frankly, I didn’t want to come here tonight. I’d rather be at home right now.”

“Home. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a real home?”

Rosie tapped his shoulder. “If you keep saying that, my mom will end up adopting you.”

“Do I sound like a stray cat?” Evan laughed.

Rosie realized then the reason he had let his guard down and shared about his personal feelings to her was due to the mask he wore on his face. That mask was similar to a virtual shield found on social media online. If they had both taken their masks off, Rosie suspected that Evan wouldn’t be so forthcoming.

A server came to take away their small plates.

“Would you like something to drink?” the same server asked.

“Do you have sparkling water?” Rosie asked.

“Yes, ma’am.” He turned to Evan. “For you, sir?”

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