AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t know what might happen later,” she said. “It’s possible I’ll need to ask for something that hasn’t occurred to me yet. But let’s move on to what you wanted to talk about. Your treatment plan.”
She placed a folder that he hadn’t noticed she was carrying on the desk between them. “I’ve got the information about the medical research organizations I work most closely with,” she said. “I figured you would want to see this. I have suggestions about how you should allocate your investment to get the most probable good outcome, but it’s up to you, of course.”
Adriano picked up the folder and flipped through the papers she’d put together. “I’d like to take some time with these,” he said.
“Of course you should. In the meantime, I do have a health and fitness regime I’d like you to follow. It’s the sheet of paper on the left-hand side—yes, that’s the one.”
He looked it over. The fitness part wasn’t going to be any trouble, given that he’d run marathons before his diagnosis. She was asking him to do things like go for three-mile walks daily. He could do that without breaking a sweat, even now that his body was failing him the way it was.
The diet plan was a different thing.
“Why can’t I put salt on my food?” he asked.
“To be honest, maybe you can,” she said. “There isn’t a lot of research into what exacerbates Barks-Howard’s symptoms, unfortunately, so this is mostly based on the kind of things that have worked for patients with other conditions. The salt may or may not be a direct factor. But what wedoknow is that eating according to the diet I’ve laid out for you there is very healthygenerally, and we know that the better shape your body is in, the better equipped you’ll be to fight the disease. And that’s what you want, right?”
He nodded. “That’s what I want.”
“Let’s try this plan, then, and see how your symptoms are impacted.” She pulled out a notebook and handed it to him. “I’d like you to keep a journal on how you’re feeling every day.”
“You’re giving me homework?” He raised his eyebrows.
“Yeah, that’s right,” she said. “I need you to write down what your symptoms are each day, and be as detailed as possible, please. That will allow me to assess your progress over time, and it’ll be a lot more accurate than if you and I just wait a month and then try to think back and decide whether things have improved for you or not.”
It made sense. “All right,” he told her. “I’ll write in the book.”
“Good,” she said. “I have to say, you’re a better patient than I expected you to be.”
He smirked. “What were you expecting?”
“I thought you’d be the type who assumes you know better than your doctors.”
“We’ll see how things go,” he said. “But I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. For now, at least.”
If her plan didn’t bear fruit, he would definitely have to reconsider whether he did, in fact, know best. But for now, at least, he was willing to try things her way.
“That’s all,” he said. “You can go. I’ll call you when I’ve made a decision about the research money allocation.”
CHAPTER10
AMY
After their meeting on her first full day in Lake Como, Amy didn’t see Adriano for three whole days.
She found herself lurking beside the guest cottage phone, expecting that he would call her to let her know he was ready to see her, to discuss the research money. But nothing happened.
A couple of times, she wondered if there wasn’t going to be any research money, if maybe he had brought her here under false pretenses. Maybe he had intended to trick her into helping him without actually contributing to Barks-Howard’s research at all?
But every time she had that thought, she was forced to concede that it didn’t make any sense. Adriano wanted the cure. He knew that the research was necessary to find it. This wasn’t a trick. Whatever was going on, it had nothing to do with that.
But by the third day, she was going a little stir crazy.
Had he brought her all the way to Lake Como just to meet with her one time? That could have been done on a video call. Why was shehere?
She had decided that she was going to march over to the main house and confront him directly, demand to know what his plan for the upcoming days was and what part in it she had. She was a little intimidated—he’d been angry when he’d seen her in the kitchen, so he probably wasn’t going to react too well to her coming into his office uninvited.
But that wasn’t going to stop her. She hadn’t flown all the way over here to sit around and wait for him to decide he was interested in including her in things. She had taken a sabbatical from her job for this. She had put her whole life on hold to be here for Adriano, and he wasn’t even communicating with her.
But when she opened the door to go over to the main house, she was shocked to find him standing on her doorstep, his hand up as if he had been about to knock.
