Later in the day, Francesco found Alfonso at the Akash wine bar on Via Vittorio Emmanuele. His friend was sitting alone and staring at his wine glass, as if looking for answers to life"s questions.
“What do you think you"ll find in there?” he asked Alfonso.
Looking up, Alfonso shrugged his shoulders and just said, “Nothing,” and looked down again.
Francesco sat down, still without drawing much of a reaction from Alfonso.
“Girlfriend problems, Alfie? She seems very nice. What"s the problem?”
“It"s not Lidia. I"m just worried about the truffles. They"re gone, you know.”
At this Francesco leaned in closer to his friend and pressed him for more information.
“You remember that bet we had a couple months ago, about the computer program?”
“Yeah,” Francesco nodded.
“Well,” Alfonso paused
