“Elena… that’s beautiful,” Raffaelo said earnestly. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
Raffaelo looked over at Caterina. “So… I heard you were the best cook in all of Tuscany. Any chance I could taste one of your creations?”
Caterina laughed. “With flattery like that, I’ll cook you an entire meal! Breakfast or lunch?”
“Dealer’s choice.”
“Alright – I’ll do a brunch, then! Giorgio, you hungry?”
“Foryourcooking?” I said. “Always.”
“Two flatterers! Alright, give me a few minutes and I’ll whip something up.”
Raffaelo gestured at the chair next to Alessandra. “You mind?”
“Please.”
We both sat down as Caterina poured us glasses of fresh-squeezed orange juice.
“Thank you,” Raffaelo said, then took a sip. “Mmm.”
“So, you said you usedto be a doctor?” Alessandra asked.
“Yes. I worked in the ER. Saw a lot of gunshot wounds, stabbings, bad car accidents – that sort of thing. Other doctors would pass along the worst stuff to me because I was good at it.
“I loved my job, but it was incredibly stressful. Lots of long hours and double shifts, irregular sleep… after several years, it began to wear me down, and I started taking pills to stay sharp. Before too long, I became addicted.
“It’s an occupational hazard. Doctors have one of the highest addiction rates of any profession in the world. After all, we can get almost any prescription medication we want, like that,” he said, snapping his fingers. “In my case, it proved to be too great a temptation.”
Raffaelo told the rest without self-pity or excuses. I’d heard it before, but it was a riveting story.
As he spoke, Cat stopped working, and both she and Alessandra listened intently. Even the other members of the kitchen staff paused to listen in.
“At first, it was just uppers – Adderall and Ritalin to stay alert. But I had to take a little bit more to get the same effect… then a little bit more. Eventually, I couldn’t function without it. Before long, I was a full-blown addict.
“I had a hard time falling asleep because of the uppers, so I’d take Valium after I got off work and wash it down with some vodka. Then I had a hard time waking up, so I took even more uppers. Pills to wake me up, pills to stay alert, booze and pills to go to sleep.
“I was a mess, but I was still able to function at my job – until I wasn’t. It all came to a head when I screwed up. A sixteen-year-old girl who’d been in a car crash. She died right there in the emergency room because I was high and made a stupid mistake. By the time the other doctors in the ER got there, she was gone.
“Seven years later, I still think about her every single day,” Raffaelo said quietly. “Some days, it’s every single hour. Abouthow she could be at university right now. Or married. Or maybe she’d have her first child if it wasn’t for me.”
Both Alessandra’s and Caterina’s eyes misted up.
Raffaelo shook off his melancholy and continued. “The hospital investigated and fired me on the spot. I lost my license a couple of weeks later when the medical board reviewed the case.
“Not only did I deserve it, but it was the best possible thing they could have done for me. I hit rock bottom. I knew I was going to wind up dead if I kept going the way I was, so I checked into rehab. I’ve been clean ever since… although not without some struggles along the way.
“Getting sober was hard, but not being a doctor was worse. That was all I’d ever wanted to do since I was 10 years old, and now – because of my own terrible mistakes – I never would be again.
“That is, until one of your husband’s men got shot,” Raffaelo said to Alessandra.
“It happened six years ago. I was walking around Florence at night, deeply depressed, trying to talk myself out of going into a bar and getting blackout drunk, when I heard a gunshot.
“A man screamed in an alleyway, and a strung-out junkie rushed into the street with a gun in his hand. He took one look at me and went the other way.
“I ran inside the alley and found a guy wearing a suit like this joker right here.” Raffaelo smiled as he gestured towards me.
