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“I want to know about Salena. She’s way too beautiful, she lives with you, but she’s not your assistant and yet she hired a housekeeper.”
“And she’s seen me naked. A lot. Just making sure you know everything.”
“I really hope there’s a good explanation for that.” Remi wasn’t the jealous type but she was quickly getting used to the idea of being the only woman got to see Julien naked.
“There is. And it has everything to do with why, I’m, you know…”
“Undefiled?”
“That’s a diplomatic word for a guy who’s never gotten laid.”
“I’m trying to be diplomatic. It’s better than ripping your clothes off,” Remi said, and sat on her hands to remind herself to let him talk before the clothes-ripping began.
“I think I’d rather you just rip my clothes off.”
“Talk,” she ordered.
“Okay, I’m talking. It’s just…I don’t talk about this often. It sort of changes everything when I bring it up.”
“Bring what up? What is it?”
“The reason I’m a virgin and the reason Salena lives with me and the reason I have a housekeeper who keeps everything spotless and disinfected and the reason I lived with my parents until last year until I finally couldn’t stand it anymore and the reason I didn’t send you all the letters I wrote you...”
“What’s the reason?”
Julien took a deep breath. He seemed to be steeling himself.
“Salena’s not my assistant, but she does work for us.”
“What does she do?”
“She’s my doctor. Dr. Salena Kar—internist.”
Remi’s mouth fell open. She quickly closed it. Her desire for Julien turned instantly to pity, compassion, and fear.
“You have a live-in doctor?” she whispered.
“I do.”
“What do you have?”
Julien sighed again.
“It’s not what I have. It’s what I had.”
“Which was?”
“Leukemia, Remi. Two weeks after you and I almost had sex, I was diagnosed with leukemia.”
No Last Names
“Leukemia,” Remi repeated. Her mouth formed the word but her tongue wanted to spit it back out, reject the word, the truth, the suffering Julien had experienced.
“Acute myeloid leukemia, if you want to be specific.”
“That sounds…bad.”
Julien laughed a little. “There’s no good leukemia.”
