" No, I'm shaved," she said.***Andre came over on a Friday. We had dinner -- a meat loaf, which wasbetter than it sounds --- and we retired to the liv...ng room for a drink.Andre sat next to me on the couch, our hips touching. I could smell hiscologne. Jamie was flitting about, pouring drinks, fetching appetizers.She was in her element, a sissy serving the world. Talk aboutstereotypes. Her wrists kept flopping, and she kept blinking. She fawnedover us, curtsying and calling Andre "kind sir' and. "I guess you haven't changed your mind about me while I was gone," I kidded."Never! I have been waiting for this for two weeks. I'm going to love you to death," she threatened."It was only ten days and don't say that. I plan to live for a long, long time. Especially if I'm going to be with you." You make me feel so alive, John. I've never felt like this before." I can say the same thing. I've never felt about anyone the way I feel about you. I'm still trying to understand how I could be so. "'Why?'" he repeated. "I'm wearing a hospital gown that is open down the back, and all I have covering me is a sheet." He hesitated as two women and a man, obviously looking for a patient's room, walked by going in the opposite direction. Art waited as the nurses negotiated a corner with his bed, then, "I feel like everyone we meet is staring at me."Both nurses laughed. "And how many times have you been in a hospital and seen someone pass by on a hospital bed, and ... not thought a thing about. At first she didn’t seem to know where we were, but as we got our bags off the luggage rack she whispered ‘sorry about earlier, I’ll make it up to you’. The expression ‘you’re damned right you will’ went through my mind, but I resisted saying it out loud. At the reception desk we both checked into to our respective rooms, which as it turned out were right next to each other. Walking down the corridor my room was the first we came to, and I thought Julia would follow me in, but she said ‘I need.