“I see now that I can be the guy you fell in love with. I can give you the good you saw in me.” Mark removed his hand from Dan’s face—he had been gently stroking his cheek as he spoke.
Mark quieted and Dan knew he was waiting for a response. And Dan, surprising even himself, was torn. Here before him was not a strange Mark, but the Mark he had fallen in love with way back when. Here was the Mark he knew, he always knew, hid inside the user and abuser, damaged by pain inflicted by a mother who didn’t care and a society who had never really seen his worth, not as Dan had. Here was the decent Mark, the whole Mark, the one who was capable of giving and receiving love.
Dan closed his eyes and let his head loll back on the couch, unable to speak. Oh my God. The thought hit him with the force o
