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Produced by the Island at WBUR Boston.

From The New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

The New York Times

Stories of Love, Laws, and Redemption.

I'm your host, Megna Chacrabardi.

Getting undressed in front of your partner can be really hard.

And for Jameson Rich, it was even more complicated.

He writes about it in his piece, The Shirt stays on.

It's read by Finn Whitrock, who's been nominated for two Emmy Awards and is starring now in the movie Right When You Get Work.

Aren't you going to take your clothes off? She asked.

Her finger is pulling at the edges of my t-shirt.

It wasn't sexy the way she said it. No rise, smile, or soft coup came with the words, just frustration.

The ceiling lights were off, but I knew the narrow light spilling from the lamp on my bureau would be enough for her to see the pale red marks in my chest,

which had been fading for so long that they had gone back to being shiny again.

No one had ever put that question to me so directly.

When I came to keep it my shirt on, I'd always gotten away with playing dumb or chucking it up to the hastiness of passion.

I have scars I managed to say as bluntly as I could.

I was born with a rare heart defect for which there is no cure, only a series of stopgaps and half measures.

I had undergone four full open heart operations by the time I was 15, as well as dozens of less invasive procedures.

I'm 23 now and I'm on my fourth pacemaker.

I spent nearly 20,000 hours of my young life inside hospital walls.

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