Happily Ever After

"Hey, Kitty?" I tried to speak over her sobbing, "you know I resolved to tell you how much I appreciate you last night." My voice was trembling and my eyes grew damp, "So... as weird as the timing is, I'm gonna try to do that now.

I took another deep breath to steel myself, "I love having you around all the time. These past few weeks during those times you haven't been around have felt so lonely to me. I have missed you terribly, but I didn't realize it till you weren't there."

She was still whimpering, but it was clear she was making her best effort to listen to me carefully. Under normal circumstances this would have been the most embarrassing thing imaginable, but the cheesy words came to me naturally.

"I am so sorry it took me this long to realize, Kitty. I really appreciate you and all you do for me. Seriously, you're awesome! You're like a real princess!" I tried to dial back some of the tension while hopefully not undermining my sincerity.

"Kevin?" she said with a sniffle as she wiped her nose.

"That's not all, Kitty. If this is out of line or inappropriate right now, I apologize... but I have to say it. I love you, Kitty!" she let out one lengthy wail upon hearing those words.

I continued despite her, "I love you and nothin's gonna change that, okay!? Honestly, if you're worried about how I feel about sex work..." she winced as if in pain as I spelled out what we had been beating around the bush about. "I am honestly amazed. I can't believe you would go so far for me. I do wish you had talked to me so we could have made other arrangements and avoided it, but I'm not mad at you. I will never, ever hit you or abandon you. It's not gonna happen, okay? Besides, I'm sure there are many respectable people out there doing sex work, right? It's not like it's some awful taboo. So really, don't sweat that stuff!"

Kitty attempted to respond to my feelings by mouthing the words, "I love you too!" but it came out more as, "I wuh yuh tah" and became incoherent crying toward the middle. I pulled Kitty into an embrace and we sat with her crying into my chest for a long while. I knew there would be no more conversation this night. That could all wait for tomorrow.

Chapter 4: Where do we go from here

I woke up the next day with a headache and something warm nuzzled up to me. Oh right, that was Kitty. She and I had gone to bed (seriously we just slept!) after crying our eyes out together. Crying always gives me a headache. Kitty had elected to sleep in the same bed as me that night. I figured it would be fine since neither of us was in the mood to do anything naughty, and we had made our feelings clear to one another. Besides, we had shared a bed for half of our formative years!

Kitty was still sleeping peacefully on my arm. It was hard to believe looking at her now that she had been an emotional wreck only around 7 hours earlier. I lay there looking at her cute sleeping face for a moment until I finally tried to caress the hair that was resting over her face. I must have accidentally woken her, because I heard a slight groan before she slowly opened her eyes.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," I whispered as gently as I could.

"Good morning, prince charming," she responded with a grin.

It was certainly nice seeing a smile on her face. I was worried she would wake up and become unstable again.

"How 'bout some breakfast?" I suggested. She nodded.

We talked about various casual topics while both being too afraid to broach the elephant in the room. Finally I mustered enough courage.

"Hey, Kitty, I know you may not wanna talk about this so soon after but..."

"It's okay," she assured me, "we can talk about it now."

"Well then, let's address your finances first. Exactly how bad off are you? And please be honest even if it's uncomfortable, okay?"

She sighed, "I have enough saved up for about two weeks I would estimate. Give or take."

I had to fight the urge to say yikes out loud, but I'm sure it still showed on my face.

"So, what's the plan then. How are you planning to go about getting more?" I pressed her for an answer.

"Well..." she looked crestfallen.

"Kitty, you are not going back to, ehem, that, right? Not least of all because we are officially dating now, riiight?" I asked with an elongated upward inflection.

She looked around nervously trying to come up with a response. Ultimately she threw up her hands in defeat and said, "I'm thinking of dropping out. Quit while I'm behind so to speak."

I thought for a moment and responded with a knowing, "I see." This legitimately surprised me. I figured she would adamantly demand to stay by my side, but it seemed she realized how impractical that would actually be at this point.

"And what do you plan to do after you've dropped out?" I followed up.

"I haven't gotten that far yet! But this isn't sustainable with no income, and I don't think they'll let me keep my dorm if I do end up dropping out of course."

"Have you thought about going back to live with my parents? Or maybe with your dad?" that last one seemed to make her shudder a bit.

"In either case I'd end up with or very close to one of my parents..." she replied.

I didn't need her to spell out why either option would be uncomfortable for her. Still it didn't seem possible to have her stay here. Her grades were not doing so hot. If she could keep her grades up and find a small part time job it could be possible, but that didn't seem remotely likely. She didn't want to be here for the right reasons, and even if she did... She never would have turned to something as extreme as sex work if she thought she could handle a standard job.

This brought a question to my mind, "Hey, Kitty? Why did you choose sex work anyway? Isn't that like way more stressful than say working a service job after school or on weekends?"

"Well," she said, "a part time job would take a lot more time overall, right? That's time I couldn't spend with you or studying. I thought maybe both my grades and mental health would decline in that case. Not to mention dealing with the public for prolonged periods of time all alone... Sex work seemed like a better fit in a sense. I could spend just a little bit of time here and there all at once and make way more money for the time investment."

Her logic made sense in a terrifying way. Still, it wasn't an acceptable solution by any means. It would be better for her to go home like she said.

Spending time in my room while still having her own room under her name at the university was one thing. If she ever got caught, they would probably just crack down on her and make her go back to her own room. Having her stay with me after vacating her own room absolutely wouldn't fly. They'd surely catch on eventually. We were unfortunately not studying at a university with gender neutral dorms. It was nothing short of a miracle someone hadn't already put a stop to her visits.

"I'll reach out to my dad," she finally said. "I'd really rather stay with you, but that's not possible for at least a few years, right? So he would be the lesser of two evils I think."

I was astounded by her courage. Honestly, I was proud of her. Having resolved herself to reach out to Roger, we set to work tracking him or his family back in Indiana. As you can imagine, this is how we eventually determined what actually happened to Roger. Kitty didn't want to stay with a grandmother with whom she had had no contact over the course of her life. She was still distrustful of most people aside from myself. This left her with no real choice other than to move in with my parents back home.

I knew there would be no issues on that front. My parents viewed Kitty as their second child. They were overjoyed to have their "daughter" back. My university was also only about a two hour drive from home. I made a promise to come see Kitty as often as I could. Usually every weekend if I got the chance.

We video called every night as well. Most nights Kitty made me stay on the line the whole time while we slept. It did make us feel connected. It was nice to wake up to her still on the line and have her wish me a good morning before school every day. You can Imagine my surprise after a couple months when I found out that Kitty was pregnant!

Chapter 5: Family

It turned out that Kitty conceived a child from one of her "clients" a few shortly before moving in with my parents. Naturally, I had informed my parents about Kitty's situation including all of the information we received from Roger's mother surrounding Kitty's conception via sex work and Roger's death. They were, as usual, understanding and sympathetic.

Kitty on the other hand was distraught. After recently learning how Karina came to feel about her, she began to worry she was becoming a clone of Karina. She had turned to sex work, gotten pregnant, and now would be giving birth to a man's child she didn't know or love. The parallels were too striking for her to ignore.

I raced back home the second I heard the news, school be damned. I arrived to find Kitty once again crying her eyes out while my mother desperately tried to console her. I was sure Karina was laughing her rear end off somewhere relishing the chaos she had sewn in her daughter's life, but I wasn't about to go see her. For now, I had to help Kitty.

Kitty bolted up from her seat at the dining room table and into my arms the moment I arrived. She was trying her best to convey her fears to me through her tears. I could gather she was concerned she would end up like her mother; she feared she would try to make her child's life miserable like her own mother had done to her.

"You would never do that Kitty! You are so kind and sweet... you are not your mother! You never will be! We will raise 'our' child together, right?!" I did my best to allay her fears.

Everyone in the room knew the child growing inside Kitty wasn't mine. For better or for worse, I was still a goody two shoes. I.e., a virgin. But I had every intention of raising this child as mine. I would never abandon Kitty over something like this. If anything it galvanized my resolve to stand by her even more.

My mother picked up my slack adding, "there's a big difference between your situation and your mother's. From everything we've been told, you conceived this child in pursuit of your love for Kevin. Everything you did, you did for him. Obviously, this wasn't what anyone would call an optimal outcome, but you can't debate that this set of circumstances is at the very least completely different from your mother's situation at the time or your conception.

My father and I nodded along to what my mother was saying. I desperately hoped she was getting through to Kitty.

"She conceived you during time of hatred and self-loathing. I'm a mother too, so I would know! The circumstances surrounding conception really do matter. You are going to love this child of yours because you have a loving home and family to fall back on! You and your child... Both of you are going to be happy together, and I'll see to it that Kevin makes sure of that! You're gonna take responsibility, right Kevin?" she turned to look at me sternly for that last part.

Take responsibility? The way she said it made it sound like I was the one who messed around with Kitty and got her pregnant... but hey, I was innocent here! Still, she was right. I am absolutely going to take responsibility for Kitty and her, I mean, our child. After all, Kitty did get pregnant trying so desperately to stay by my side. I couldn't say I was entirely innocent I guess.

Kitty softly replied with, "Mom..." and my mother burst into tears. This was the first time Kitty had ever called her that. They both cried their eyes out hugging one another while my dad and I nodded at each other both wiping our moist eyes from time to time. The men in this house have allergies!

Chapter 6: A princess always lives happily ever after

I decided to stay the night and head back to my university sometime after noon the next day. It was nostalgic for us to sleep in our old beds sharing our room. After getting up and eating a nice family breakfast, Kitty and I went outside. We walked hand in hand toward our special tree on our property we used to play under when we were kids. We saw the old carving of our names with the Caroline still marked out in favor of Kitty. We couldn't help but smile awkwardly at one another as our eyes met.

"Guess it shoulda been pretty obvious we'd end up together after all, huh?" I teased.

Kitty giggled and nodded her head.

"We, and especially you, have been through a lot haven't we? I suppose we should be thankful though. If all of these crazy things hadn't happened the way they did, would we have been able to come together? If your mom, no, if Karina hadn't turned to sex work, you wouldn't have been born, and that means I would never have come to love you or be loved by you. And that's honestly terrifying to think about." I thought aloud.

Kitty look lost in thought for a moment and started speaking, "Yeah, it actually makes me feel a little better about giving birth myself. Even if our child is coming out of such a crazy situation, he or she will still be able to find happiness and make someone else happy too. I'm so excited to start a family with you, Kevin. It's like the stories I've always loved. Here I am getting to live out my fantasy as a princess being swept off her feet by her loyal knight..."

I chuckled and gave her my best heroic pose. It dawned on me that "taking responsibility" generally meant marriage. I told her that I loved her, and she had reciprocated my feelings. I had definitely not explicitly stated my intention to marry her though. I figured now was as good a time as any.

"This may be kinda tacky to suddenly ask right now given what all has happened, but I should probably go ahead and get this formally taken care of if I'm gonna be 'taking responsibility' and all that..." I dropped to one knee.

"Will you marry me, Kitty? Or should I say fair lady, or maybe you would prefer princess?" my heart was pounding so fast I was floundering trying to fill the awkward silence while Kitty gazed at me with her eyes wide.

She didn't deign to respond. She started crying and nodded emphatically. How very like Kitty. I was pretty sure my attempt at roleplaying prince charming had ended horrifically, but she seemed happy nonetheless.

When she finally calmed down a bit she chuckled happily and said, "You know I'm not really a good princess. The princesses in all the stories I have read were always beautiful and composed. All I ever seem to do is cry. I used to think everyone likes princesses, right? So maybe if I act like a proper lady, people will treat me more like one too. By extension, maybe if I acted prim and proper and took good care of you, then you wouldn't hurt me or abandon me."

It did sting a little to know that much of her behavior including how she acted around me was manufactured specifically as a defense mechanism against being abused. Given her circumstances, I could understand however.

She paused for a moment. I noticed her expression shift to become a little more serious, "Hearing how you feel has given me some kind of newfound confidence to say all this now, but I am sure you're disappointed to hear how I was always so scared that you would turn out to treat me like my parents did. Or I guess in my dad's case how I thought he did. I still can't believe what actually happened with my dad."

She looked a little sad, but a smile quickly returned to her face, "All that is to say, I know I don't need to act like a princess to make you act like my prince charming in return. I know you're not going to abandon me, and you would never harm me."

At this I flashed her the best smile I could muster, "Hey, I liked you back when you were a rowdy little tomboy, and I liked you when you're a prim and proper princess. I'll like you no matter what. So just be yourself and do what's comfortable, okay?"

"Okay, I'll do my best!" she said with a smile and a nod.

"Haha, no, don't go out of your way to be or not to be a certain way,simply exist as you are." I laughed. "Ya know what? I think you may have missed the whole point actually! Anyway, are you going to want a royal wedding full of horses and carriages and all that? 'Cause that may be a bit outside our budget if you plan to be a housewife..."

"I'm sure my prince won't disappoint me whatever he decides to do," she replied with a wink.

We joined hands and laughed together at our cheesiness as we walked back to the home where our parents were waiting. We didn't spare a single thought of the woman in the house next door. Personally, I was too busy thinking about how I couldn't wait to see mom's face when she found out I had proposed. I hope she doesn't go too crazy trying to plan our wedding...

And so they lived happily ever after.