WE MET AT work. I thought he was unattainable and I mostly felt like a young girl when I was around him. One day we were standing by the fax machine and it was beeping and I made a joke about how maybe the message would come out in reverse and he laughed.

When we found out he was dying we didn’t know what we should do but we knew it had to be something special. Our relationship had developed this particular style – sexy and funny and ironic, just like in the movies. We did things like drive in his big old car and play Dean Martin on the tape deck and drink vodka. We were relentless piss-takers. Our fucking was everywhere and rude and other people wanted to be us.