I Don't Love Her Anymore, She Regrets It

From the back cover

After a hospital endoscopy, David is told he may have stomach cancer. He calls his girlfriend, Vivian Aiken, begging her to come with him, but she coldly dismisses him as dramatic. In the background he hears Howard Conner, the childhood friend she is always with. She blocks him, as she always does after their fights, and he sits alone clutching the diagnosis slip.

He takes leave and travels to a top hospital in Boston, where further tests reveal Portland Hospital made an error: it is only gastritis. On the train home, Vivian unblocks him and invites him to dinner. He accepts without his usual sweetness. She stands him up, and Howard posts a photo of her hand. David feels nothing.

When Vivian returns, she is irritated by his calm, and he stops making her lunch and stops waiting. For the first time, he turns his attention to the work that might actually save him.