Chapter 4 – Chapter 4

I went straight from Stapleton Airport to the hospital, having called his service and found out that he was there with a terminal patient.

I arrived after the patient had died and while Diego was sitting on a bench outside of the door into the hospital room. He looked a little dazed when I sat down beside him.

"Wade," he said, as if maybe I was someone else and he was just conjuring me up because he wanted me to be there. It had been a year. We had exchanged letters—letters that hadn't talked around our feelings but didn't, really, hide them from each other.

"Yes, it's me. Are you—?"

"She's gone," he murmured. "I've lost another patient. Almost a year caring for her."

"A year that both you and she knew would end here, wasn't it?" I asked. "It's OK, Diego, you were there. You provided what she needed. Did she go peacefully, with a smile on her face?"

"Yes," he said, sniffing back a tear. "She was clutching my hand."

"There you go then."

"It's hard," he said. "I'll have to start again . . . knowing . . ."

"You don't have to do this alone, though," I said. "I want you to come with me."

"Yes, of course. I want that. Do you have a hotel room. We can't go to my place . . . I have roommates."

"Yes, I have a room we can go to, and I'm glad you're willing to go there with me—I want to take you there—but that's not what I meant. I want you to come back to Richmond with me. I have a big house and it's within walking distance to a major hospital. We can do this together. Any hospital in the country would be glad to have a nurse who does what you do. We can be together. Will you come home with me?"

"Yes," he said without much hesitation at all.

"There's one thing, though. I have to confess. There's a young man living in the basement apartment—and I've had him in bed. But that's over. But I thought you should know."

"And you are going to let him stay?"

"I'm afraid I have to. You see, he has a dog I've grown very fond of."

"Oh, well, then. I can see why he has to stay."

"I knew that you would be able to," I said. "That's a big reason why I love you."