Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 199(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 199(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
As soon as Micah, the man who’d basically become Christopher’s father, had heard the news, he’d been on his feet and pulling Christopher into his arms. Micah’s unwavering strength despite his obvious fear and confusion had made it impossible for Christopher to keep his composure, especially once Micah had assured the young man that everything would be okay.
There had been a lot of tears, a lot of questions, and a hell of a lot of rage when the four men had learned how Christopher had been exposed. It was at that point that I’d been forced to step in to make sure the focus remained on Christopher and getting him through the following days as we waited to hear if the treatment was working.
We’d gotten the call less than twenty minutes after Christopher and I had urged everyone to go home several hours later. The small group had agreed that there was no need to tell any additional remaining family members until we knew what Christopher’s status was.
While we’d been fortunate enough to get an appointment with Dr. Kleinman the very next morning, it had been a sleepless night for both of us and likely the other two couples as well. It was that same night that Christopher had told me he loved me for the first time. We’d spent the rest of the evening talking about our plans for the future. The issue of Christopher’s health hadn’t even been a part of the discussion because our future together would be the same whether it lasted days, weeks, months, or years. The reality was that no one, not a single person on the planet, was guaranteed a tomorrow. It was something most took for granted, but not us.
When the time for the appointment had rolled around, Christopher had asked his family to wait at a café near his doctor’s office with the excuse that not everyone would fit into Dr. Kleinman’s exam room. That part had been true, though the kindly doctor probably could have figured something out. The truth was that Christopher had wanted the two of us to have a few minutes to process the results and what it would mean. When Dr. Kleinman had come into the room and smiled at Christopher, ensuring she had good news, he’d let out this half sob before covering his face with his hands. Although I’d been seated next to him, I’d immediately moved so I could wrap my arms around him, and once he’d composed himself, I’d moved my chair closer to his so there was virtually no space between us.
While his numbers hadn’t miraculously dropped to the point that his viral count was undetectable, the fact was that they had dropped. Enough so that Dr. Kleinman kept Christopher on the same regimen. A month later, the numbers had gone down again, then again. While Christopher wouldn’t allow himself to get his hopes up in the beginning, as each month had gone by and the number had continued to decrease, there was no denying that he’d begun to feel safe enough to hope.
Within six months, Christopher had taken the RN exam and enrolled in the nurse practitioner program at Duke. I’d moved in long before that, and life had become relatively normal and even somewhat anticlimactic. Christopher quit his insurance job and began working part-time for Dr. Kleinman with the intent of staying on staff after he became a nurse practitioner. He spent the rest of the time evenly split between studying and spending time with his family, all of whom knew about his diagnosis by then.
Whenever possible, Christopher and I spent our evenings together, usually exploring some aspect of making love that Christopher was certain wouldn’t put me in any kind of danger. Despite having been on PrEP, a drug that prevented HIV, from nearly the beginning of my relationship with Christopher, we hadn’t had actual sex until the day he’d gotten the all clear from Dr. Kleinman that his viral load had become undetectable.
When we weren’t exploring each other’s bodies, we were working our way through his most favorite romance novels, reading sections to each other. Not surprisingly, the hotter parts of the stories were always a considerable distraction, though not an unwelcome one. Once our bodies were sated, it wasn’t unusual for one rabbit after another along with a slowly but steadily growing Pip to end up in bed with us, thanks to the little set of steps I’d built the critters that allowed them to get up on and down from the bed with ease.
In between the normal stuff, we focused on remodeling the house, hosting and joining in on neighborhood parties that usually included one of Theresa’s famous cakes, or just sitting on our bench overlooking the backyard.
I was doing exactly that as I tried not to think about how many hours I still had before I’d get to video chat with Christopher.