When the New Year gets off to a rocky start, our narrator begins to wonder just where things are headed. Surely he and Bobby, his mate of ten years, are standing on solid ground. Or are they? Can they continue to live and love as they've been doing? As the AIDS epidemic swirls all around them, and loss becomes the new normal, will their comfortable life survive? Will their friends survive? Will they survive? LOVE AND THE EPIDEMIC , Volume II of Bruce K Beck's Love Trilogy, is set in New York City in 1986 amid the turmoil of a public health crisis. It is tender, funny, erotic, probing, questioning, moving-an exploration of love, obsession, passion, duty, friendship, loss, grief, and healing the wounds of the past. Watch for Volume III, AND LOVE ENDURES, coming later this year.