Falling hard

Samantha walked timidly into the college classroom.  It was her first day at Calvary Christian College, and she was more nervous than even she had expected.  It wasn’t her first college experience, however. She had attended a secular college for two years, but it hadn’t met her needs. Or her main need, anyway: companionship.  At her last school, Sam had felt like an outsider.  She sat in the classrooms listening to the stories of the previous weekend’s events from the students around her.  All of the activities her peers seemed to enjoy so much, she morally opposed.

How was she ever supposed to find someone to be with and love in this type of society?  She needed a place where she could meet like-minded people, who shared her values, standards, and beliefs.  This is why Sam had chosen to transfer to a Christian college.  The fact that her transfer was not for strictly scholastic reasons and was mainly based upon her desire to find a mate made this change all the scarier.  But she took a deep breath and prayed to God for strength as she took a seat next to the cutest guy in the class by far, in her opinion anyway.

Sam had always been a cute girl.  She had strawberry blonde hair that was sometimes straight and sometimes curly, depending on which it decided that day.  Her eyes were blue and her skin pale and dotted with freckles.  She never saw herself as pretty and assumed the world didn’t either, but there was something special about her.  Her cheeks were usually rosy and her lips red without lipstick. Her eyes had a glint behind them that made people wonder what she was thinking, And when she laughed, it was infectious.  But Samantha was oblivious to the appeal all of these attributes, which kept her modest.

She hadn’t chosen that particular seat because of the guy occupying its neighbor.  It was the only seat left.  The fact that she was now forced to sit next to such a handsome person on the first day of her “man-hunt” increased the size of the butterflies in her stomach to something resembling pterodactyls.  But he only glanced up when she sat and flashed her a quick smile but then went back to his book.

What was he reading anyway, she wondered?  Sam had a passion for books.  If there was one thing about herself she was slightly prideful about, it was the fact that she was rather intelligent.  She glanced back in his direction, trying to read the title of the book he was reading and not to stare at his clear tan complexion.  It was during one of the staring moments that he looked up and caught her eyes.

“So are you staring at me or at my book?” He asked with a mischievous smile playing on his lips.

His smile was disarming and the pterodactyls reduced themselves back to butterflies.  Maybe this won’t be so hard after all, Sam thought.  She laughed authentically and let out an alarmingly bold answer for her usually shy demeanor. “Both,” she smiled, her eyes twinkling.  She had just shocked herself with that answer! Maybe this was the strength God was giving her?

At this, he closed his book, held out his hand, and told her his name was Martin.  The conversation flowed easily from that moment until the teacher came in and a hush fell over the room.

After all her classes that day, Sam went home to the small house she had bought on the edge of campus.  Both of Sam’s parents had passed away when she was 17, leaving her completely alone, but with a large sum of money to take care of herself.  It was this money that gave her the freedom to switch universities and buy this home.  The day had exhausted her.  She walked in and collapsed onto the couch, quickly falling asleep.

The next morning, Sam awoke in her bedroom and assumed she had walked groggily during the middle of the night to collapse again on a more comfortable piece of furniture.  She had the feeling that most of her dreams had been reenactments of her first conversation with Martin.  With an empty class schedule today, tomorrow would be the soonest Sam would get to see him again.  So she made herself leave her dreams behind and got up to set up house, as much of her stuff was still in boxes.

The next day she arrived in class just in time to see a tall, thin, brunette poised to take a seat next to Martin.  He glanced up at the doorway, saw her, and smiled.  She couldn’t hear what he told the girl, but she quickly picked another seat, and Sam sat down next to Martin.  Again the conversation flowed, more easily than it ever had with any other person.  And it continued this way three days a week for more than a month.  But much to Sam’s disappointment, the relationship remained a classroom ritual of conversation and flirtation in the minutes before the professor arrived.

One Wednesday morning during their conversation, Sam was laughing about the fact that she was running low on toothpaste and food.  She hadn’t been shopping anywhere but the convenience store on the corner since she moved it because she didn’t know where to find a Wal-Mart.

Martin laughed at this and grabbed her cell phone, which had been lying on the table.  He programmed his number in and told her to call him that night, and he would take her to Wal-Mart.  Yes! Just what she had been waiting for!

That night when she reached her home, she bathed and dressed in jeans and a sweet, baby blue shirt that enhanced her eyes.  Her hair had lightened in the sun recently and looked more blonde than it ever had, but the sun had also darkened her freckles.  Her hair lay in ringlets around her neck and shoulders, and as she looked in the mirror, she decided it was as good as it would get.  She picked up her cell phone, found Martin’s number, and dialed.

“So are we going shopping or not, mister?” she playfully asked when he answered the phone.

“Of course! Where do you want me to pick you up?”  Sam gave him directions to her house, and within minutes he was on her doorstep.

They didn’t dawdle at her house, but jumped into his car and set out for the store.  They never stopped talking and laughing all during the shopping trip, and when he dropped her back at her house, he helped her bring in the bags full of groceries.  As she was walking him back to the door, he stopped her and said, “Hey, wait.  You have my number, but I don’t have yours.”

Sam smiled at him and wrote both her home and cell phone numbers down and gave them to Martin.  As the door closed behind him, she felt her heart rise.  How was it possible to have that much fun grocery shopping? As she turned to go to her room and change, the phone rang.

“Hello,” Sam answered cheerfully, due to her present mood.

“Hi. I got lonely on the ride back to my dorm.” It was Martin.

They talked for hours that night.  There wasn’t as much laughing as usual; their conversation was more serious.  She told him about her parents, her loneliness, her fears, and dreams.  She woke the next morning with the phone still lying next to her ear.  When she picked it up, she could hear him breathing rhythmically into the phone.  They had both fallen asleep.

The next morning in class, Martin and Sam were silent together for the first time since they’d met.  Each smiled sweetly at the other as they sat down, and it was enough.

That day as Sam was leaving the classroom, the tall, thin, brunette that had tried to take her seat the second day of class walked up to her and smiled.  She held out a wallet, and said, “Hey, your boyfriend dropped this.”

“My boyfriend?” Sam asked incredulously.

“Yeah. Well, at least he told me you were his girlfriend one day when I was going to sit in your seat.”

“Oh, yeah, my boyfriend. I’m sorry; I’ll give it to him. Thank you,” replied Sam, a smile twitching at her lips. So that’s how he’d gotten her to move.  She tracked him down on the way to his next lecture and gave it back without mentioning what the other girl had said.

Martin called her that afternoon after classes were over. He asked if he could come over and talk, instead of only talking on the phone.  Sam agreed, and he was soon there.  After talking and laughing for a while, they put on a movie and sat on the couch to watch it.  The space between them started out rather wide.  But as the film progressed, the gap narrowed.  When he was finally only an inch away from her, she looked up at him and smiled.

“So, you told that girl I was your girlfriend, huh?”

Martin’s face reddened as he smiled.  “Uh, yeah. I did that.”  Then he laughed.  “I didn’t want to sit next to her; I wanted to sit next to you. And anyway, would it be so bad of a thing? To be my girlfriend?”

The question shocked Sam somewhat, but she smiled at him as he held her gaze.  “No, I don’t think that would be a bad thing to be at all.”

The inch between them was gone now, and his arm was moving around her.  “Good, I’m glad you don’t. Because, well, I’d like you to be. My girlfriend.  I’d like that a lot.  I’ve never met anyone like you: your laughter, your eyes, your sweet spirit.  I feel like God put you in that seat next to me for a reason. We complete each other somehow.  I feel it every time I’m near you. I hope you feel it too.” Martin said it all in one breath, as though he might lose his courage if he went slowly.

“I do.  You make me feel like my life isn’t sad anymore.  Like there is no reason to pity me, but to look at me and see how happy I am.  I’d love to be your girlfriend,” she almost whispered.

The scene may have seemed juvenile from an outside view; but to Sam and Martin, it was pure and simple love.  He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers and held her close for a moment.  It wasn’t a passionate kiss, but it was heartfelt.  When he let her go there were tears in her eyes.  Sam thanked God silently for this blessing.  She wasn’t alone anymore.

From that moment on Martin and Sam were inseparable.  When they weren’t in class, he was at her house. But their relationship stayed on the path God had laid out for them.  It was pure and beautiful.  They held each other often and kissed each other sweetly, but it stopped there.  They both believed that sex was a gift God gave to married people and they wouldn’t deprive him of his right to present it to them.

About a year after they first met, while sitting on the couch where they’d shared their first kiss and many subsequent kisses, Martin pulled a small box out of his pocket and asked her to marry him.  The answer flowed from her lips before she even thought about it.  She’d been waiting so long to hear those words.  That night, after slipping the ring on her finger and holding her close for a long time, Martin carried Sam to her bedroom.  He pulled back the covers with one hand and laid her in the bed, wrapping the blankets back around her.  He bent to kiss her goodbye.

“Don’t leave me yet,” she whispered. “Stay, just a while longer.”

Martin crossed to the other side of the bed and lay down beside her on top of the blankets.  He wrapped his arms around her, and she relaxed in his arms.  She awoke the next morning with his arms still around her and realized that he’d stayed all night.  It couldn’t have been wrong to fall asleep next to him; it felt so right.  She turned over and kissed him lightly, and his eyes blinked open.

“Good morning,” Sam said, her eyes smiling into his.

He smiled back and said, “I can’t wait until I can wake up next to you every morning.  But maybe then I’ll get to be under the blankets.”

Neither of them had much family, so the wedding plans were simple and quick.  Martin wed Samantha in the campus church, and they honeymooned in the house that was now theirs.  They didn’t need a fancy vacation spot.  All they needed was each other.  That night was the most beautiful night of their lives.  God blessed their marriage and made it whole as they held each other close with nothing separating them at all.

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3 replies
  1. CMLove says:

    I can’t believe i just now found this story! God is so good with His Incredible timing! I needed a beautifully romantic “pick-me-up” tonight! Thank you so much, Marriage Heat! It was such a blessing!!

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