“You want me to use emojis to answer the question of how I’m feeling?”
“No, not exactly. As I got older, she moved from smiley faces to a system using one to ten, with one being a horrible day and ten being a great day.”
Amelia didn’t look convinced. “How would that work for me?”
“I was thinking maybe, instead of answering if you were fine or not, you could give me a rating of your symptoms. Like, what are your two most impacting symptoms? The ones that have the biggest effect on you.”
“Pain and fatigue,” she answered without hesitation.
“So, how about you give me two numbers whenever I ask how you are? One for your pain level and one for fatigue.”
She still looked skeptical. “So if it’s a bad day for pain but fatigue is only moderately bad, I would say ten five?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“If I have to give a number response, then I think you should too.”
Ben nodded. “I can do that. I’ll respond on a scale of one to ten for how my day is going. Like today, it was about a four until I saw you.”
Amelia stared at him. “Uh, why was your day a four?”
“One of the proposals I recommended that the Burke Industries Committee accept was declined.”
“How does that work?”
“I’m one of three people who read through the initial submissions, then we send the ones we think have potential for being supported, on to the committee, which then makes the final decision.”
“And these are people who want grants and such?”
“Yes. This division of Burke Industries was set up to help people with valid business proposals get their ideas off the ground.”
“And this committee didn’t like one of the proposals?”
Ben nodded, recalling the frustration he’d felt. At first with the committee, but then with himself. Their reasons for rejecting it were valid, but he’d thought they were rather heartless.
He knew that sometimes he made decisions less on whether the proposal had potential and more on the passion of the person submitting it.
“Do you enjoy what you do?” she asked.
“Most of the time. It’s fun to read the ideas people have. But probably the reason I like the job so much is that I can do it pretty much anywhere. I enjoy not being tied to New York City.”
Though he would have liked to continue the conversation, the arrival of the first of the teens for the next clinic arrived. Ben jumped to his feet and greeted those he recognized.
It seemed there were a few of the teens who planned to participate in several weeks of the clinic. That week there had been a middle school-aged clinic again in the morning. He’d used the break between the two clinics to grab coffee for Amelia.
There wouldn’t be any clinics the following week as Cole had said not enough people were available to run them, so it would just be downtime for him and Ben. Originally, Ben had plannedto leave Serenity for that week, but now he thought maybe he’d stick around.
Giving Amelia a light touch on her shoulder, he headed for the gym.
The week progressed in much the same way as previous ones. Days at the clinic, with a trip to the café to grab coffee for Amelia during their lunch break.
Though he’d wanted to invite Amelia out for dinner each day, he also knew she was trying to take it easy in anticipation of the busy weekend that lay ahead. Instead, he’d taken to having dinner delivered to her, so she didn’t have to worry about cooking after working at the church.
She’d told him that he didn’t have to do that. She didn’t seem to understand that he wasn’t doing it because hehadto. He was doing it because hewantedto. And because he could.
Each night, when she'd texted him to thank him for the food, he'd felt a rush of pleasure knowing he'd helped make her day a little better.
The night before they were due to leave, Ben sat in his room at the estate, going over the details for their trip. Julian had arranged for a car to pick up Amelia at her apartment once she was done with work for the day.
