Micki and The Firefighter

Christmas morning was very different this time around, it had been a year ago that Steve and I had started to make amends and Ben had moved in, hiring a management company to take care of his house. I had had a few surgeries, my adams apple was gone, as were my testicles, my penis little more than an ornament, and the hormones were doing a good job of making my forms redundant. Little Mike was cruising around the living room and crawling under the tree while Steve and Emily tried to keep him out of the presents, Mike thought it was a game and I'm pretty sure his parents did too.

Chris and Eric were still upstairs doing what newlyweds do and Ben and I were in the kitchen making breakfast for everyone.

Liz, her new husband Jerry, and his two kids were staying in Bens old house, it was the first time I had seen Liz since the divorce hearing, Liz and I had done our best when they arrived, but cordial was about as good as it got. Liz and Jerry came in followed by their kids, I almost fainted when Liz came up and gave me a big hug," you look very happy and I'm happy for you," I hugged her back.

"Thank you, Liz, that means a lot especially coming from you after all we've been through," she smiled at me and squeezed my hands like a mother does to her grown child.

Breakfast was fun, everybody talking at once, laughing and joking and competing for who got to hold Mike next, I could have sworn that Liz kept looking at me and smiling, and Jerry was grinning like a Cheshire Cat, even Steve and Emily, Chris and Eric were doing their best to not get caught looking at me; something was up, and I was the only one that didn't know what it was, again.

Santa had gone overboard, and the carnage was impressive, Little Mike, of course was the big winner as we had all tried to outdo each other seeing who could spoil him the most. Ben had played Santa, doling out gifts with booming 'HO HO HO's', Mike just wanted to play with the wrapping paper.

"Oh, wait, there's one left," I saw the glint in Ben's eyes and the small box he pulled out of his pocket, looking around the room, they all knew, every one of them, I'd try to remember to hate them all later, all I could think about now was saying yes.

PS.

That book I started to distract myself from Ben, my publisher decided that twelve hundred pages was a bit too much, so I'm working on splitting It into another trilogy, Look for 'LifeSpring Reborn: The Demons Curse' sometime this spring.