Page 22 of Amadeo
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he told me sincerely. “I mean it is so sad. It must be hell for anyone trapped in a comatose state.”
“Or a heaven?” I suggested. “I’ve been told stories by patients who have woken up from comas. They sometimes talk about seeing loved ones on the other side.” I didn’t want to go on with this discussion at all, so I changed the subject, “This place is so huge.”
“My father built it for my mother. Then…” He paused. “She never lived to see the whole thing completed.”
“Oh wow, that is so sad.”
He looked up at the estate from where we sat and added, “I was only two when she passed.”
“Ohh, that is…I am sorry.”
He shrugged. “I never missed what I never knew. Believe it or not, Max helped to raise us boys. Zia was always there too, and she is like a mother to all of us. My father, on the otherhand… Well, he isn’t all warm and squishy as you already know. But sometimes I think it was from grieving her. It took all his happiness away. He has remained alone for all this time. That we know of.”
“Yeah, that is true love, I suppose?”
“I thought you didn’t believe in that?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “For myself, I don’t.”
He chuckled. “Just for yourself? I mean the world is full of people and onlyyouwill never know true love?”
I couldn’t explain to him why I didn’t believe in it. There were several reasons but one main one that I could never forget. “My sense of it is warped I guess?”
“Warped?” he repeated. “Did someone already break your heart?”
“No, no,” I replied instantly.
“Oh good, so that gives me a chance.”
I turned to stare at him.
He rolled his eyes and clarified what he meant, “Not to break your heart but maybe to date you.”
With a laugh, I shook my head.
“No?” he asked. “Am I too funny to date? You don’t date? Or no, you won’t date me?”
“I…” I bit at my lip. Damn, I needed to tread carefully here. “I need to ask you a few things first.”
Amadeo looked curious as he sat up straighter on the bench. “Ok, I have my shots and I don’t bite. Unless you ask me to.” He jiggled his brows at me. “I’m not a genius like you but I am pretty smart. I would never jump on you unless invited.”
I couldn’t help it, I again burst out laughing. “You sound like you want to be my pet.”
He cocked his head back and forth. “That wouldn’t be so bad. It would mean that you would give me attention. Let me protect you and possibly allow me up onto the bed.”
I was laughing harder now. “Stooopp!”
“I fetch well and I don’t drool.”
“Oh, my God!” I exclaimed while holding my side.
“Otherwise, I would be faithful and loyal,” he stated firmly.
My laughter slowed and then stopped abruptly.
He paused to stare at me.
“No, you wouldn’t be,” I told him flatly.
