He laughed softly, apparently charmed by her awkwardness. “I don’t know what’s going to become of us. Of this.” He gestured at the space between them. “I can’t promise you we’ll always be together together—it’s impossible to make that kind of prediction this early—but I can promise you that I’ll never leave you high and dry. I’ll always be your friend.”

She felt a sob creeping up, the rare happy sob. His words flowed through her like sweetened chamomile, warming her from the inside. He was so good with words; of course he was, it was his gift. She wanted to kiss him again, wanted to say that three-word phrase again, feel it on her tongue, but she was afraid to move at all, afraid she’d break whatever this fragile thing was between them.

“You know, unless you do something unspeakably shitty.”

A laugh came out through her film of tears. “What qualifies as unspeakably shitty?”

“I don’t know. Killing someone? You haven’t killed anyone, have you?”

He said it like it was an obvious joke, but her smile vanished. That sense of trust was replaced with the memory of a half-conscious Vincent Park in the back of a van and her flipping a gurney onto him. The sound it made when it hit his skull, the way she left him, fled from that vehicle without looking back. She didn’t even know how he died, but what she had done had made that death all but inevitable.

“I’m sorry, bad joke,” said Kaveh. “But I meant it. We need to take care of each other, because no one else in the world understands what we’re going through. So tell me what you need right now, not what you think I want.”

She closed her eyes and for the first time in a long time took stock of her body. Every single time they’d had sex, she’d wanted to let her guard down and just be with him, really be with him, but the more she tried to force it, the more her body fought her. And she still wanted to be with him, wanted to at least give him something, but right now, she felt like she’d been hung out to dry on live electric wire.

“Just to stay here.”

“Happy to oblige.” He kissed her on the forehead. “I’m not going anywhere.”

She rested her cheek against the nape of his neck and closed her eyes, breathed in his now familiar scent, so sweet and sophisticated, and wished she could believe him.

(3/4/2008 10:22 PM PST) Kaveh:

This is my new burner.

(3/4/2008 10:22 PM PST) Kaveh: Respond

if you’re awake.

(3/4/2008 10:29 PM PST) Nils:

Happy Super Tuesday. Looks like the

Republican primary is over. Has this

ever happened before? Is this a literal

first time in American history an

incumbent lost the primary?

(3/4/2008 10:30 PM PST) Kaveh:

Taking into consideration the fact