Micah's Miracle: A Christmas Love Story

Chapter 6 (Revised)

Five minutes into the blind date, it became undeniably evident that this was not the one. Nevertheless, Micah Rose was a man of his word and, last Christmas, he had promised Wendy and Nick he would agree to a fix-up—if he was still single and unattached come the following holiday season.

One year later...he remained single and unattached. Hence, his evening out with Mark Stein, a perfectly pleasant man of twenty-eight. He possessed all the right stuff that qualified him as a candidate for "the one"—Nick and Wendy had chosen well—yet the spark didn't crackle.

Nothing.

Nada.

Well, maybe not nada. Mark Stein was incredibly attractive and sexually desirable. It had been some time since Micah was on a date that ended in the bedroom. He wasn't a fan of one-night stands and felt a little cheap when he succumbed. Mark seemed like a very nice man and even reminded Micah of himself. Had he agreed to the blind date because he, too, was hoping to meet the one?

Twenty minutes in, and Mark Stein became as equally enlightened as Micah that theirs' was not a fated union. It all came to point in the Italian restaurant over a dinner of Chicken Cache Torie.

"You knew the moment you laid eyes on me, didn't you?" Mark asked in a quiet, unoffended tone as he sipped Merlot and gazed at Micah over the rim of his wine glass, his warm caramel eyes partially squinted. They were very fetching eyes and affected Micah in a very sexual way. There was a promise behind that liquid sweet gaze that Micah felt most vapidly in his loins. But though he didn't experience that destined bond with Mark—there was something special about him and Micah didn't want to reduce the date to little more than a torrid sexual encounter. Something in the man's lovely eyes revealed to Micah that he harbored a quiet anguish in his heart. A lost love?

"What did I know?" Micah replied, matching his date's tone. He had no wish to run him off. Neither did he wish to mislead him about where he saw this going—or not going. The understanding in Mark Stein's eyes assured Micah that they were on the same page.

"You won't be calling me for another date after tonight." It wasn't a question, but a simple statement of fact.

Micah sighed and fingered the flute of his wine glass. "I should be calling." A small smile rested on his lips, his response sincere. "You are the whole package. You should be exactly what I'm looking for."

"I guess that's the one thing God didn't grant us free will over," Mark murmured. "Who we fall in love with." He lowered his gaze to his glass. "Sometimes, it doesn't seem like fate is very good at its job."

That was a loaded statement if Micah ever heard one. "Sounds like you're speaking from personal experience."

Mark looked up. "You know what they say about it being better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all?" He shook his head slowly. "Don't believe it."

"Who did you love and lose?" Micah faltered as soon as the question was out. "If you don't want to talk about it..."

Mark absently waved off Micah's hesitation and took a drink of wine. "His name was Jeff. We went to high school together. We were both in the closet at the time—him a little deeper than me. We had this secret relationship going, but Jeff was very adamant that no one could find out." Mark cleared his throat. "His father literally held his future in his hands. He was paying for Jeff's college and for medical school. If he learned his son was gay, he would disown him and destroy Jeff's hope of fulfilling his dream to become a doctor."

This story didn't have a "fairytale" sense about it. When a person tried to hide who they were, be someone they weren't...it never ended well—especially for the one who loved them.