I am -- [He rolls the glass in his hand, watching the deep liquid shift and tremble with that movement] -- grateful that you would welcome my company, much less my presence in your bed. That is a silly, self-conscious response on my part, the endearments of someone much younger and less certain of themselves than I am. As I told you, it had been long for me. Very long. [He takes another sip.] That you were concerned in my passing is -- warming, to say the least. I write about monsters, predators, beasts in fine clothing. I do not write about loneliness.