YUKI WAS WORKING OUT with her video trainer when the intercom buzzed and her doorman’s voice crackled over the box on the wall, saying, “Dr. Chesney is here to see you.”
Elation shot through her.
Doc was early! The doorbell rang, and Yuki opened the door wide — and Doc kissed her. And Yuki made the most of it, putting her hands all through Doc’s blond Ricky Schroder hair, wriggling and moaning in the doorway.
He grinned at her, said, “Glad to see me?”
She nodded, smiled, said, “Uh- huh,” and they kissed again, Doc kicking the door shut behind him.
This was the thing that was priceless: how these kisses were even theirs.
Only she and Doc kissed this way.
“Hi, honey. How was your day?” Yuki said, coming up for air, laughing at the idea of making a “couple” joke.
When was the last time she’d done that?
Ever?
“Not too bad, sweetie,” Doc said, scooping her up and walking her backward to the couch, where he dropped her gently into the overstuffed cushions, but she said “oof” anyway, and he settled down beside her.
“Bee sting, broken collarbone, and a baby halfway delivered in the waiting area,” Doc said, touching her hair, stroking the half-inch- high stand-up buzz cut that he’d started with his clippers weeks ago and liked so much.
She was starting to like it, too.
“Any day I don’t get stabbed by a syringe from an HIV-positive patient is a good day for me,” he said.
“I second that,” said Yuki. “So are you gassed up, packed up, ready to go?”
Because she was. As soon as she zipped up her bag, they’d be off for their Memorial Day weekend in Napa, the long, romantic drive, the beautiful hotel, the huge bed with a view.
“I am. But there’s something I have to tell you first.”
Yuki searched his eyes. Thinking back a couple of minutes, she remembered that Doc had looked a little jittery when she’d first opened the door, and since she’d been feeling a little nervy herself, she’d chalked it up to their upcoming big weekend. That soon they’d be making love for the first time.
Now his smile was tentative, and that alarmed her.
Was their weekend going to be cut short?
Or was it worse than that?
“John, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“Depends on how you look at it,” he said. “This is going to be rough, Yuki.” He was holding her hand, but he kept lowering his eyes.
“The problem is, you tell someone too soon, and it’s presumptuous. You tell them too late, and you’ve messed with their minds. In our case it’s both: too early and too late —”
“You’re scaring me, John. Spit it out.”
“A few days ago when you said that you hadn’t had sex in a couple of years —”
“That was stupid of me. It’s true, but I was nervous. My brain… just overflowed.”
Doc fixed his slate-blue eyes on her. “I haven’t had sex in a couple of years either.”
“You? Come on. I don’t believe you.”
Yuki’s brain was on rewind, thinking how she’d gone to the hospital to see Doc after the car accident. She’d agreed to show him the city. After their first soft kiss, she’d dived in for a longer, sexier one — like she’d done just now.