Neviah, the name sent a warmth throughout his body that he could not explain. Micheal was certain that he had never seen her before, but there was something hauntingly familiar to him all the same. He shook his head slightly to clear the cobwebs that had suddenly fogged his thoughts when he realized that she had offered for him to join her there. His blue-grey gaze trailed its way over her as he sat down with a nod of consent. She had the look of some exotic flower, something so strange but beautiful in its rarity with those piercing eyes that seemed to bore into his very soul. It wasn't a horrible feeling in the least, rather it gave him comfort. He had this aching suspicion that she knew him better than he knew himself, but that had to be impossible.<br/><br/>"I don't normally ask beautiful women out in my line of work." The sentence left his lips before he could catch it and a gentle flush overtook his slightly rounded cheeks. "Not to say that you are beautiful, well I mean of course you are. What I'm trying to say is..." He trailed off into a nonsensical rambling for at least another minute before placing both of his hands upon the table and closing his eyes. He breathed in to a count of five and out to the same count over and over again. It was one of his therapy techniques that had stuck with him to that day, and as he finished the exercise he opened his eyes only to realize that he had just had an episode in front of a women he had just now met.<br/><br/>Clearing his throat to try and regain some of his composure he looked down at the table as he spoke. "I'm sorry, unfortunately God has not seen fit to free me of certain burdens. I suppose my anxiety is yet another one of His tests of my faithfulness."<br/><br/>The waitress who had recently served him stepped up to the new table he occupied and grinned knowingly as she observed Neviah sitting across from the collared priest. "So Father, what can I get ya' this time?"<br/><br/>Micheal looked up at her, a bit embarrassed as he ordered just a glass of water. The waitress mumbled beneath her breath, probably hoping to get even more of a gratuity from the priest, but went off to retrieve what was ordered. Looking back across the table at his company Micheal swallowed hard before trying to speak again. "Forgive my ramblings Neviah, what I meant to say was that I do not often get the opportunity to take a woman out on a date. Of course, this isn't necessarily a date, but it is definitely the closest I have been in quite a long time." He controlled his speech carefully, making certain to time the words out to a count he kept in his head as he spoke. He truly wished that the Almighty would rid him of his afflictions, but deep in the recesses of his heart he knew that it was only up to him to fight the inner demons that plagued him. His fate was in his own hands, or so he thought.<br/><br/>When the waitress returned with his water Micheal drank deeply of the glass for a moment and upon setting it down he felt more in control of himself than before. He lightly scratched at the short-cut blonde hair that sat atop his scalp and seemed to search for what to say next. The question that escaped his lips was unconventional to say the least, but something tickling the back of his mind told him it was an important one in this instant. "Tell me Neviah, do you believe in angels?"<br/><br/>He couldn't understand why that particular subject was the one that came up until he looked down at his side of the table after asking it. His bible sat there atop the leather journal he had been pouring through. A few minutes ago he was revisiting his shattered past for answers as he often did, the next he was sitting across from a woman that had seemed too good to be true. It was in that instant, running his fingers across the cracked binding and slightly burnt edges that a memory flooded into his mind. The memory of an angel pushing aside the flames to release him from his own personal inferno. The view he had of her was distorted by the waves of heat coming off the house and his own lack of oxygen, but one thing stood out. She had dark tresses much like the woman that sat before him now. He had only seen her for a moment in an instant of panic, but it just had to be her didn't it? If it was her, did that mean that another tragedy was about to befall him? The angel always did seem to show up when he was staring death itself in the face, but if that was the case would someone nearby get hurt instead? Panic started to rise up in his chest, but he did his best to beat it down until he had his answer.