Both Lomita and Manita appeared to have agreed not to let Ever out of their sight. They now sat in the same configuration as when they had first met on their drive in the black Suburban. It turned left down the slope into the underground parking off Bedford Drive and instead of valet parking, as was custom, Lomita stayed in the car, but like a guardian angel, or maybe just a guardian, Manita followed him to the third floor and into the lobby of the doctor’s office, where they both sat. After the joys of reunion with two familiar faces, he was then called in, by a younger face he didn’t recognise.

*

The man dedicated to curing humanity of its ills greeted him with the usual hug.

He competed with Lomita on the fragility scale. Super thin, with a long beard, as full of energy as always.

‘Well, what is it Ever? How are your folks?’

He broke the news of his father’s death, accidental, about which Dr Aran was profoundly shocked and saddened. It was his father, not his mother, he had known. At least the best.

‘I need an STI test, the full works; I slept with someone and they were ill, I don’t know, stupid, I know, but I want an HIV test as well.’

‘Well, options: I can send you to a clinic for an oral swab test, the quickest result to see if antibodies have developed, proteins that the body makes against the virus, not testing for the virus itself. But it can take three to twelve weeks for those antibodies to develop, so I should probably do your bloods and send them to the lab. I would have to do that as a follow-up anyway. Or I can do a combination test, looking for antibodies and antigens. They can test for everything but the blood HIV test is a little more reliable. But the best is the NAT test, nucleic acid testing, actually looking for the presence of the virus in the blood. What is the timeframe? I mean when did intercourse take place?’

Dr Aran always spoke with the confidence of someone giving a lecture, in a thin voice, with many downward strokes of his beard, and although he always offered options for any scenario, Ever always knew he would make his own choice.

‘Three weeks ago.’

‘OK. Repeated?’

No judgement at all, one of the amazing things about doctors. They deal with life and death, and the imparting of the good and bad to patients all the time, with a consistent equilibrium.

‘No, just once.’

‘A thousand to one. If luck lies in the bed with you.’

If luck goes with the fuck, Ever reinterpreted silently.

Dr Aran’s was an unusual response. Ever smiled at the attempt, though, to lighten the situation.