"The Miracle Cure"
He didn't go home. Instead he came here. A random bar on a random street.
He took the last sip of his beer and emptied it. A thousand things crossed his mind and it was safe to say that he was utterly confused.
The bartender put another bottle in front of him and cut his train of thoughts short. Micah looked up. "I didn't order that," he said.
The barman smiled. "You look like you can use it, man."
Micah hesitated briefly before he took the offer and drank. "Thanks."
Still smiling, the barkeeper started to polish glasses.
"So what's your problem?"
Micah sighed and drank again.
"Say," he began, "you're together with a woman. She's a really nice girl - sweet and intelligent with great humour. She has the looks and everything else."
The barman stopped polishing and waited, but Micah was silent again, trapped in his own thoughts.
"And?" the bartender tried to continue the conversation.
"And," Micah answered, "she's the kind of woman you consider yourself lucky to get. She deserves the best."
"But?"
"But you know you aren't the best."
Micah sighed, the beer bottle on his lips.
"Why aren't you the best for her?" the bartender asked curiously.
"Because I don't love her like she loves me. Because I love someone else." He looked up at the stranger he was talking to. "And the funny thing is, I didn't even know myself until she asked me about it."
"Just wait a minute," the barkeeper leant forward, "you didn't recognize that you were in love with another woman until your girlfriend asked if you were?"
Micah nodded miserably while the barman started to polish a second glass.
"I mean… it had to be kind of obvious. Even my mom thought I and Emily were dating."
The bartender sucked air through his teeth. "Sounds like a complicated situation."
Micah's fingers wrapped around the bottle.
"You don't know half of it."
"So this Emily… how does your girlfriend know about her?"
"She works in the same hospital."
"And?" He took up another glass.
"And I'm her superior."
The barman knit his eyebrows together. "So your girlfriend, you, and the girl you're in love with work at the same place? And you're the boss of the girl you're in love with."
Micah nodded.
"And does this Emily know that you love her?"
"No."
"Will you tell her?"
"I can't." Micah gulped down the rest of the beer. "I'm her superior. I can't compromise my position like that. Besides that she's still in love with Will."
"Who's Will?" the barkeeper asked expectantantly.
"He's her best friend. And another one of my students."
"So I take it that this Will isn't in love with Emily?"
Micah shook his head, his fingers still around the glass bottle.
"Will's together with Cassandra. She's a student of mine, too. Plus she and Emily don't get along very well."
The barman chuckled. "I bet they don't. So let me summarize: You're together with your girlfriend but actually in love with Emily who is in love with her best friend who is together with a girl Emily can't stand. And all of them are your students?"
Micah nodded silently.
The bartender whistled, impressed. Smoothly he took out two glasses and placed them in front of Micah.
The young doctor looked at him surprised.
"That's no situation you can solve with beer, my friend," the barkeeper said and put a bottle on the counter. "That requires Tequila!"