Your on-off significant other, Ryan, also known as Dr Reilly — vascular surgeon at VA Hospital, Manhattan — had never desired to get tested for the genetic disease his father had encountered. His older brother, Nick, had discovered to be carrying the horrendous condition — Huntington’s Chorea — and with a 50% chance of having it himself, Ryan had firmly decided he’d rather never know.

He’d been in the clear of any symptoms for the last eight years; in which you’d been together for the majority of.

Symptoms which consisted mainly of abrupt, uncontrolled movements and cognitive deterioration. He’d had none, which had been like a balm to the stifling possibility he very well could have the illness festering beneath the surface.

But now, as the pair of you sat opposite one another within a bustling high-tier restaurant, something particularly gut wrenching occurred.

Ryan was laughing at something you’d said, reaching forward to lift his wine from the table, when his hand flinched forward abruptly, nearly knocking the glass over. He froze completely, his blue eyes lingering on his hand for a moment. And then, as though attempting to conceal the jerky movement, he managed to grab the wine.

Plastering a smile onto his face, he took a quick sip, before settling it back down. And there it was again — an uncontrolled jolt of his hand.

"I must be nervous," Ryan confidently assured, denial coasting through him.