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"Excellent," he said, and we drove on into the night
In less than twenty minutes, ere seated at a white For the waitress weave her way through the crowd to put our orders in Nathan had ordered iced tea; I had ordered water to doctor liberally with Tabasco sauce We’d discussed the relative ht ht the sae in favor of a brief, companionable silence
Nathan looked toward the atching someone walk past I watched him It was an activity I’d learned to like a lot since we met I’d been surprised when I first realized that I found him attractive; that hadn’t happened to me before The fact that he turned out to be handsome to other people was irrelevant
He wasn’t tall asa Korean father and an English mother meant that he was always tanner than me, no matter how much time I spent in the sun Both my parents were Irish, and the Irish word for "suntan" is "burn" Of the two of us, he was still better about re to put on sunscreen, since he was ers of cancer than I was He ire-fra a dislike of sticking things into his body as a reason to avoid either contacts or retinal i: Nathan was the best parasitologist I knew, and knew uard than almost anyone who hadn’t helped to develop it, but he didn’t have one of his own In a world where ed their medication automatically via tapeworm, he still took pills, because he said that it was less disturbing than the alternative
The pause, and the introspection, couldn’t last Nathan turned to look at h I knew that look It was the "I’m about to ask you how therapy went" look, and it never ended well, for either of us
"Did you tell hi to suck "What about thehtly "The red part, the red part, or the red part?"
"Sal…"
"Yes, I told hi in the wo to tell Syoing to wind up with another year of therapy" I stabbed a tortilla chip viciously into the salsa "He’s the one who needs therapy"
"Unfortunately, he’s not the one getting it You are"
"Nathan, I’ three or four times a week, but that was nor for all six years ofto say so He was interrupted by the return of the waitress with our drinks Once she was gone, he said, "You didn’t knoho I was yesterday ua fresca "Excuse ulp, trying to rinse the dryness away It didn’t work
"Yesterday , you screa You looked at me like you’d never seen ain I was honestly waiting foryou, you screa It felt like all the blood had drained out of it, heading for safer climes elsewhere in my body "What happened after that?" I didn’t remember any of this, I didn’t re tome the truth?
"You stopped"
The words were so simple that they didn’t quiteYou didn’t wake up, you didn’t react when I touched you, you just collapsed back onto your pillow like you’d never ain, about ten minutes later, you didn’t re oddly concerned about how I’d slept, and asking three ti to keep , "Why didn’t you say anything? You know I don’t like it when people keep things froht before you have to see Dr Morrison, and I’ now," Nathan countered "If it weren’t for your ht terrors--they’re rare in people in their twenties, but they’re not unheard of But with your a everything again," I said bitterly
"I love you, medical history and all, but it scared me It should scare you, too That’s why I wanted you to tell Dr Morrison about the dreams I know you don’t like him, but you don’t have another psychiatrist you can discuss this stuff with, and it’s better if this is psychological"
I caught his ical, itknock to the head If it was physical, it could ood "I know I’ll tell you what: we’ll keep a record of how I’ain, I’ll tell SymboGen"