She shook her head and wiped her eyes. “I should have realized what a risk it was in the first place, back when we—” She caught herself, apparently not wanting to voice what had taken place between us. I silently thanked her for it. “What were we thinking?”

“We weren’t, that’s the problem. I had tested clean.”

“I wasn’t even that attracted to you.”

I burst out laughing. Thank God for humor. “Well thanks so much. I’ll have you know I thought you were hot.”

“Oh, whatever. You were too tanked to care.”

I grimaced and threw her a sheepish grin. “Touché.”

She sighed. “Wow. I don’t even know what to do with this.”

“Well, forgive me for being clinical, but go get tested; Craig and the kids, too. Don’t wait till you start presenting, like I did.”

“And how are you?”

I shrugged. “Still here. More synthetic material in my bloodstream than natural by now, I should think, given what all I’m on. But overall I feel all right.”

“Going public?”

“Kinda figure I’ve gotta. After talking to, ah, everyone that needs to know, I figure it’ll get leaked eventually. I’d rather be the one to say it first than have the press find out and come to me.”

She bit her lip, staring past me for a moment before speaking again. “Don’t do it, Jack,” she finally said. “Keep it quiet. No one is going to tell, trust me. If they leak it, the press will do their homework and figure out they’d been linked with you at some point, then people will think they’ve got it too, whether they do or not, and they won’t want that. I know I don’t. If you tell, you’re outing all of us as possible carriers, whoever ‘us’ is.” A momentary look of disgust crossed her face, and though she tried to disguise it with a quick sip of water, I caught it. She set down her glass and reached across the table to take my hand in hers. Her face was kind. “We’ve both done things we wish we could erase. Let’s not let the whole world know.”

I could see her point. I thanked her and paid for our meal, barely touched, and walked her to her car. She said she’d pray for me, and I told her the same, relieved that the last of my meetings had gone so well.