"Hey," Justin answered his cell phone Wednesday afternoon.

"Hey, where are you?"

"Working at my studio. Where are you?"

"About a half an hour a way. I hope you brought a change of clothes, I'm not taking you out to eat with paint all over your clothes."

"Yeah, but I need to shower, can we stop by your hotel first?"

"Yeah, sure."

"So why are you in town? A conference? A client?"

"No. Just for you."

"Me? You flew all the way here just to take me to dinner?"

"Actually I flew into Baltimore. I drove from there to take you to dinner."

"Baltimore? What's there?"

"Johns Hopkins."

Justin's stomach hit the floor. "Brian?"

"Just an annual check up, Sunshine."

"And?"

"I won't know for sure until next week when the labs come back, but the doctor said everything looks fine. He said he saw no reason to expect anything."

Justin let out his breath. "Oh good."

"Listen, I'm getting into some heavy traffic. I'll see you in a while."

"Okay, later."

"Later."

Three and a half hours later after a shower and hot sex in the hotel room, Justin and Brian sat at one of Brian's favorite restaurants.

"Brian?" Justin asked over their entrée. "I want you to promise me something."

Brian's eyebrow went up.

"I want you to promise me, if the cancer ever does return, you'll tell me."

Brian shook his head. "No."

Justin sat his fork down. "No? What do you mean, no?"

"I mean no. I won't promise you that." Brian continued eating.

"Why not?"

"Because if the cancer does come back who knows where you'll be, where I'll be. There are too many other factors. You may be with some one else. Who knows? So, no, I can't promise."

"But Brian, no matter where I am or who I'm with, I'll always love you. You and I will always be at least friends no matter what."

"That's sweet, Sunshine, but no."

"Why?"

"Because, you would drop everything and run back to take care of me."

"So?"

"I couldn't have you do that. I couldn't have you sacrifice everything for me."

Justin sat watching Brian as he continued with his meal.

"And pouting about it isn't going to change anything so just pick up your fork and eat."

Justin grinned "It doesn't matter, Debbie and Michael have never been able to keep a secret so I'll find out anyway."

"Whatever."