... It Ended with a Handshake

After Katrina begins exploring Christianity, Eugene tries to convince himself that his feelings for her are foolish. He records a private computer journal declaring that they should remain only friends. He is relieved that he has never revealed the depth of his affection, because rejection would be unbearable.

Katrina has indeed become a Christian after a long conversation with Connie. Connie urges Eugene to join them, but he refuses. He treats Katrina’s decision as the end of any possibility for romance, though he never explains why her new faith should require that ending. Instead, he goes to help Bernard Walton learn a new computer.

Whit has already searched for a better solution to Katrina’s employment problem. He sends Friedrich Holstein, the enthusiastic German owner of a nearby bookstore, to meet her. Friedrich’s English expressions are wonderfully tangled, but his purpose is clear: he needs a shop assistant, and Whit has recommended Katrina. The interview goes well, and she receives a job that suits her love of books and allows her to stay in college.

At Bernard’s workshop, Eugene repairs several computer problems while thinking about Katrina. Bernard notices his distraction and asks whether he has a girlfriend. Eugene denies it and launches into a bitter argument that relationships create misunderstanding and painful vulnerability. His emotion becomes so intense that he damages Bernard’s computer. Needing to leave for college, Eugene lends Bernard his laptop so the invoices can still be prepared.

Katrina later tells Connie that she has accepted the bookstore position. When she wishes for luck, Connie corrects her gently and offers God’s blessing instead, reflecting the faith Katrina has just embraced.

Bernard carries Eugene’s laptop to Whit’s End after a disk error prevents it from starting. Connie discovers a disk still in the drive marked with Katrina’s name and other personal material. She is intensely curious but decides that reading it would be wrong. Bernard keeps the disk with the computer while he works in Whit’s office.

Katrina enters looking for Whit and introduces herself to Bernard. When he notices that her name matches the label, he assumes the disk has been left for her. Katrina takes it home without examining it. Neither understands that it contains Eugene’s journal, poems, and letters he wrote to Katrina but never intended to send.

At the college, Eugene suddenly remembers where he left the disk. He races back to Whit’s End, where Connie assures him that she did not pry. A call to Bernard reveals the mix-up. Connie reluctantly tells Eugene that Katrina has taken the disk. His private thoughts are now in the hands of the very person from whom he hoped to hide them.

Eugene visits Katrina’s room and tries to explain before learning whether she has read anything. He tells her that he treasures their conversations and appreciates everything about her, but then fear takes over. Assuming her Christian decision has closed one chapter of his life, he calls his feelings an adolescent crush and retracts every romantic word on the disk. He asks that they remain friends - no more and no less - and seals the arrangement with an awkward handshake.

Only then does Katrina reveal that she never opened the disk. She had put it in her coat pocket and forgotten about it. Nevertheless, she respects Eugene’s apparently honest request and agrees to friendship alone. She gives back the disk, while Eugene leaves relieved that his secrets are safe but unaware of what his retreat has cost.

That night their separate writings reveal the misunderstanding. Eugene wonders why it feels as though he has undone something special when Katrina never saw the poems or letters. He suspects that he did not give her a chance to speak.

Katrina writes to her parents that she has thought she might be falling in love with Eugene as their friendship deepened. Now he has made it clear that he wants only friendship, and she is determined to honor his wish rather than force herself upon him. With tears in her eyes, she writes that she feels she has lost him. On the same day she has discovered Christian faith, love, and heartbreak.