More fascinating, though, was the way they listened to each other’s side of the story, as if they’d never heard it before. Watching them together became an education in intimacy: their undivided attention to each other, their respect for each other’s version of events, her unobtrusive actions to make him more comfortable as the illness wore him down over the following months, and his tender gestures of unabashed love for her and Bree … I worked hard to keep myself from falling in love with these people, but it didn’t take long to realize it was impossible.

I didn’t know it at the time, and I don’t always like to admit it now, but this job eventually changed me—my views, my beliefs, my life.

GRACE

THERE IS ONE particular morning that seems like a good place to start my side of the story. I was awakened by keys being fumbled into the lock on the front door of my apartment. Still half asleep, I rolled to face the nightstand, where the clock glowed some way-too-early time. The front door creaked as it was finally opened, and I jumped when it slammed a second later. The drunken shuffle of Dylan’s feet through the living room was all the warning I needed; in a heartbeat I had the shower running and the bathroom door locked safely behind me. I watched the second hand on my Seiko make its rotational trip—once, twice, three times, four times, five—before I finally opened the door to find Dylan sprawled on the bed—shoes, clothes, and all—passed out cold.

Dylan was my boyfriend at the time. We’d been friends in college and settled in the same area after graduation, which is when we really hooked up. After a few months of serious dating he moved in with me, not because our relationship was so deep, but because rent was killing me and I was lonely without a roommate. Our relationship progressed down a weird road where we were comfortable together but not really in love: a relationship of convenience. There were occasional times of mushy affection, and they were nice while they lasted, but even so they seemed a bit contrived, like we needed to indulge in them now and then to make it seem as though our relationship was really going somewhere.