Free Bashert by Gale Stanley

Chapter One
     
    T HE MAN ’ S image in the mirror, framed by small twinkling lights and swags of spruce and holly, appeared to be just the sort of ornament Jonah Stern had been looking for all his life—or at least the part of his life that spanned the years since puberty. The phrase objects in the mirror are closer than they appear came to mind, making him smile. He should be so lucky. The object of his desire had the sun-kissed good looks of a surfer dude—blond, blue-eyed, and cherub-cheeked—a nice contrast to Jonah’s halo of untamable dark-brown hair, hazel eyes, and stubbled jaw. The blond appeared tall, and he had a square chin bisected with a noticeable cleft. Jonah shifted to the left, inching his image closer to the blond’s. Yes, he was exactly the type of man Jonah could see himself with. Too bad more than the width of the room separated them.
    So near, and so agonizingly far.
    Jonah had planned to celebrate his first Christmas, and his freshman year at Penn State, by losing his virginity to the perfect man, but he had yet to act on his decision. He blamed it on his studies, but in reality he didn’t know how to break out of his shell to meet a like-minded goy. Making the decision had been easy; finding the man, not so much. Being a little shy and short on friends didn’t help. A bar seemed the best option, but Jonah didn’t have one ounce of gaydar in his body, and unfortunately for him, gay guys did not go around wearing sexual ID tags. Jonah looked around—discreetly of course—for a gay bar, a place where a guy could go by himself and not feel left out.
    On one of his forays around campus, he’d spotted the one and only gay watering hole. The first time Jonah saw the rainbow flag flying out front, he’d taken off like a scared rabbit. He’d known coming out wouldn’t be easy, but he never imagined it would be this hard. Telling his parents had been rough. Jonah thought it would be easier to bare all to a stranger, but now that he’d found the right bar, he couldn’t force himself to show his true colors, even in a place that was user friendly.
    Now, months later, he’d finally worked up the courage to hit happy hour. And now that he was here, he wondered why he’d waited so long. The Rainbow Room—could the name be any more gay?—felt like a neighborhood type of bar, a place where a guy could have a conversation without screaming over loud dance music. Actually, there was no dance floor, and that was all good too. Jonah Stern didn’t dance, especially with other men.
    Other than the lights around the bar, there wasn’t much in the way of Christmas decorations, but the scrubbed tables and wood paneling gave the place a cozy feel. Really cozy. In fact, the small room gave Jonah a trapped in the closet kind of feeling. Maybe a few drinks would make it go away. You can’t go wrong with a well-poured Guinness. Jonah took a swallow of his and scanned the mirror for his dream man. Yep, still there, and alone by all appearances. But a good-looking guy like that would not be alone long.
    Hooking up with the man in the mirror didn’t seem likely. Jonah would not, could not, make the first move, and he didn’t expect the blond to hit on him, because he was a man who didn’t stand out in a crowd, unless it was for all the wrong reasons. After a lifetime of doing stupid shit, Jonah had become an expert at sabotaging himself. Too bad Penn State didn’t offer a course in How Not to Embarrass Yourself.
    All first-year students were required to live on campus in a coed residence hall. The small room he shared with another guy didn’t lend itself to holiday decorating, and that was okay because Jonah Stern had been born and raised Jewish, and a man assimilated a lot of attitudes and beliefs in nineteen years. Ridding himself of them would take another nineteen. At least. Still, his ancestry hadn’t prevented Jonah from shopping for one of those silly Christmas sweaters decorated with trees and