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She looked up at him. “Does it?”
“Well, being told you only have ten years to live sucks more when you’re thirty-six than when you’re older, yeah.”
She shook her head. “You’re misunderstanding me. The people who are diagnosed later in life don’t have that prognosis. Your doctor gave you ten years because you’re young and fit. Most people would face a much worse outcome. Believe me, you’re lucky.”
It was hard for Adriano to see himself as lucky, under the circumstances. Still, anything about his case that intrigued her was good news for him.
She shut the folder and handed it back to him. “This is interesting stuff, Mr. Canali, but given the way things started between us—”
He cut her off quickly. “I know,” he said. “I know that was a mistake. And I really am sorry. But you did enjoy last night, right? It’s not like you wish we hadn’t done it. You just wish it hadn’t beenme.”
“I’m not sure that’s such an important distinction,” she said.
“I think it is,” he insisted. “I mean, if you’d known who I was, do you think it would have stopped you from wanting to go through with things?”
“It absolutely would. I’m a professional. I don’t sleep with my patients.”
He held up his hands in self-defense. “I’m not saying you do.”
“Well, what are you saying?”
“I’m just saying we had a good time last night,” he said. “I did. I thought you did too. What you’re upset about is the fact that it turned out to be me, not anything that happened between us. Right?”
“Okay, that’s true,” she said grudgingly.
“Will you please consider still having me as a patient?”
She shook her head. “I can’t do that.”
He couldn’t let her jerk him around like this. He had tried being polite. “You and I both know you’re going to do it,” he told her.
“Is that what you think?”
“You said it yourself—I’m an unusual case. You want to see what you can find out, and I’m the perfect person for you to study. And it’s like you told me—you’re a professional. You’re not going to let your feelings get in the way of a really good opportunity. You’re smarterthan that.”
That really seemed to send her into a rage. “What do you mean, I’m smarter than that? You don’t know how smart I am.”
How had that been offensive? “You’re a doctor,” he pointed out. “And you’re one of the leaders in your field. Of course you’re smart.”
“I’m also the idiot who hooked up with you.”
“That makes you an idiot?”
“Under the circumstances? Yeah, I would say so.”
Adriano sighed. “Can we not stand out on the street yelling at each other about this? Let’s go back inside, at least, and have a civilized conversation.”
“I don’t owe you that.” But she was looking at the folder in his hands. There was no way she was going to be able to walk away from what he was offering her. He knew that.
So he decided to take a risk.
He turned around and walked back toward the coffee shop, not bothering to look over his shoulder to see whether she was following him.
When he got to the door—still not looking back—he stood to one side and held it open. Sure enough, Dr. Daniels marched through, looking as if she would rather have been almost anywhere else in the world.
But she was here.
That was what mattered.
