Smiling and still catching her breath, Flavia took off her earplugs, waved to her admirers, and got off the platform, determined to leave that environment behind once and for all.

Pulling along a trail of glances, she went back to her guest. «So...»

Flavio gasped and gestured and fidgeted. He couldn't shape what he wanted to express. «You... I wouldn't have imagined... incredible, you were spectacular.»

«I'm glad you liked it» Flavia said satisfied, «I want you to try it too, it's fun.»

«Flavia...»

«Yes? Tell me...»

«Sometimes you looked like... did you put some steps that were somewhat masculine in your choreography?»

«I didn't have a real choreography,» she shouted to make herself heard. «But yes, I wanted to give you some ideas, show you something that you can apply too.»

«What do you mean?»

Flavia took him by the arms and tried to make him sway to the rhythm. But Flavio was stiff, as if he was trying to resist. It would have been easier to lead a dead weight, at least it wouldn't have fought against her.

«I brought you here to make you dance... and you promised me to give it a try!» she scolded him. «Come on, loosen up a bit!»

«I'm trying, for real!»

Flavia grew frustrated because she knew it was true. She wanted to bring out more from him, but his posture alone posed a tough challenge to any hope of ever getting to something decent, passable, to present to Cristina. She grimaced as she noticed how he tried to make himself small, hunched over in an attempt not to attract attention, not to disturb others.

Flavia understood, she could remember very well what was wrong. «You don't need to try to lower yourself, I don't mind your height.»

«Really? Am I not too tall? I mean... It looks like I'm overshadowing you.»

Flavia had a strong feeling of déjà-vu, and decided to say something to Flavio that she had heard from Claudia in that same disco, something that she only fully appreciated at that moment.

«Sometimes I feel insecure because I'm short; those who have an average height feel mediocre, ordinary... don't envy my lightness or the normality of others. You should be proud, rather than being self-conscious about your height. You can't imagine how many people envy it. In the end, if you know how to use what you have, even your flaws can be strengths.»

Flavio smiled and straightened up, while he still struggled to follow the movements that Flavia was trying to lead him into.

«It's too difficult» he gave up then. He decided that he couldn't fight any longer against his clumsiness.

«I assure you that there's nothing difficult about dancing.»

«For many maybe it's like that, for me it's different.»

«And why?»

«If you were in my shoes, you would understand. It's something that's just not in my nature. Someone like you can't even imagine how it feels.»

Flavia shook her head. She had just heard a gigantic nonsense. Yet she had no way of making Flavio realize just how much he had missed the mark. «I can, way more than I can tell you» she contradicted him, «I've been through it too, even if it seems strange to you.»

«It doesn't seem strange to me» Flavio laughed, «it seems impossible to me.»

«Trust me!» Flavia insisted again. «You just have to relax and enjoy the music, the rest comes by itself.»

«I highly doubt I can do that.»

Flavia knew all too well what Flavio was feeling, she could almost feel his shoes still on her feet. She snorted in frustration.

«The only reason you can't do it is because you doubt!» she replied while, at that moment, she was being Flavio more than she was herself.

Flavia's determination didn't last much longer on the dance floor and, when it ran out, she went to the bar to have a drink with Flavio before leaving Reflections.

«Damn, this kind of things is really not for you...» she commented as they cut through the parking lot outside the club.

«I'm sorry, I don't...»

«Hold on...» Flavia interrupted him.

She had frozen, alarmed, planting her feet on the floor. Flavio noticed her face, tense with worry, and then followed her gaze, fixed on two guys who were coming towards them with a grin on their faces.

«Those guys are targeting us...» she whispered, biting her words. «Back, this way!» she yanked him as she turned around. But she stopped again with a start as she found herself in front of another guy in a sports jacket.

«Hey, don't leave, we wanted to meet you» he said ignoring Flavio. In the meantime the other two had reached them, leaving them with no way out and with their backs against a car.

Flavia smiled and a spark of mad resignation crossed her eyes. «It's inevitable, I suppose, that's how it must go» she murmured.

«How it must go what?» Flavio asked, tensing up.

«Leave that lanky droopy guy, come with us...» the pack leader snarled.

Although the three were not giants, such arrogance made them seem threatening more than enough to twist Flavio's stomach in knots; Flavia realized that in recent years she had come a long way in terms of self-confidence. The one who had approached them from behind had hair greasy with something that looked sticky and was slightly taller than her. Even though they were shorter than Flavio, the other two were still well-built. The one who had insulted him was rather massive and had a dark tank top that covered too little of his shoulders and chest dense with hair. The other, slimmer, had a shaved head and a T-shirt sprayed with a liquid that smelled of alcohol.

Flavio began to gasp for hear as his legs started to tremble from adrenaline. Scared, he unconsciously took half a step back trying to bring Flavia with him. Flavia, on the other hand, let go of his hand and consciously took half a step forward, measuring with her mind the space that separated her from the car behind her. It wasn't much.

«No, thanks. I prefer my friend» she replied, locking eyes with the one who had spoken to her.

«Just look at him... what use is he?» the other two laughed. «He can barely stand!»

Flavia boiled with anger. When they talked about Flavio they also talked about her. Six years earlier she had already experienced that humiliation and, alongside Claudia, had to watch powerless. But now she knew she had the means to stand her ground. She didn't find it hard to keep smiling. Flavio, on the contrary, was falling into an ever deeper pallor.

«Sure, he's a faggot, you can tell what he likes...» mocked again the one in tank top and sweater of hair. «But you» he added turning to Flavio, «you can't do anything with us, uh? You better look somewhere else.»

Flavia put one foot forward. By now it was clear to her, there was only one way to get out of there unharmed, so she stared determined at him. «Come on...» she said, making the sarcasm in her voice clear «first you act all tough, and now it turns out that you have empty balls?»

In a fit of nervousness, Flavio let out an involuntary laugh.

«What are you looking at, four-eyes? Get out of here before you get hurt!» the others threatened him.

«Flavia...» Flavio gasped, his voice trembling. He regretted going out with her that night. He wanted to run away from that place and never go back, terror was gnawing at every nerve in his body and pressing him towards the threshold of panic. But Flavia's presence kept him nailed and rather than moving an inch he stayed there, frightened, defying with his gaze the guy with the tank top.

«You're not leaving, uh?» shouted the leader of the pack with a hard face. Then he went towards him with a fist in the air. «Let me change your...»

"It's inevitable..." Flavia thought as she leaped towards the other two.

Flavio was opening his mouth to scream the "h" of help when he heard Flavia's chilling cry echo through the parking lot, distracting his assailant.

Flavia had brought her open hand to the face of the guy with the dirty shirt, blocking his vision, and then struck him directly on the nose, driving her other arm into his snout like a battering ram. Without giving him time to realize he had been hit once, Flavia made his knee joint creak with a downward kick.

What now echoed through the parking lot was a masculine scream of pain.

"It's inevitable..." Flavia thought again. Eight-tenths of a second had passed since the first time.

The sidekick with greasy hair, caught off guard, only then had the reflex to throw a hook at her. He was too slow for Flavia, who stepped back to parry with her left hand and, emptying her lungs with another piercing scream, sprung forward like a coiled spring in a fencer's lunge to unleash a gyaku-tsuki to his ribs, left foot on the outside and right fist thrust forward, with all her weight in it.

"It's inevitable..."

A second and a half had passed.

The one in the tank top gave up on Flavio and turned with a backhand towards Flavia, who anticipated him by whipping her foot at his groin. Holding his outstretched arm, Flavia rotated her torso to strike his ear with the palm of her hand, then quickly forced his arm first with an elbow lock and then his legs with a heel strike.

"It's inevitable..."

Three seconds.

She turned back to the one with greasy hair, who she knew would catch his breath despite his cracked ribs. He was now too close for her to take advantage of a quick strike from a distance, but she managed to grab the fist he had thrown at her and found the space to elbow him in the throat. As he staggered back, gasping for air, she tripped him and pushed him to the ground, not letting go of his wrist. Flavia let out a third scream and, leveraging with a knee strike, bent his elbow in the wrong direction as she lowered herself to punch him in the face.

"...inevitable" Flavia said to herself before the fifth second ran out. She remembered the resuscitation lessons from the gym.

«Who wants mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?» she railed with the anger that was just beginning to subside. She was panting almost out of breath. «No one? Perfect...»

Flavio hadn't even had time to close his mouth and was watching, stunned, the three mugs that whimpered and howled on the asphalt. At that moment there were shouts coming from Reflections.

«Leave her alone! Go away!»

Then came the sound of footsteps approaching in a rush.

«Flavia! Are you okay?» shouted the bouncer Chicco who was arriving with a colleague.

«Yes...» Flavia took Flavio by the arm. «I am» she added dryly, looking at her attackers who muttered curses on the ground, in the dark.

When the two security guards reached them ready to defend her, they found themselves in front of a broken nose, shattered knees, dislocated shoulders and fractured arms.

«Good Lord...» said Chicco's colleague. «How do you put these ones back together?»

«How should I know...» replied Chicco disoriented. «Ask them if they come with an assembly manual.»

The bouncers looked at Flavio and saw his distraught face.

«Hey... your friend looks skinny, but he hit like a blacksmith. Hold onto him tight!» said Chicco.

«Yes» Flavia smiled as she clung to Flavio's arm to hide her skinned hands, «I have no intention of letting him go!»

She looked at him.

Skinny, she reflected, and if he really hit like a blacksmith it would at least be something. But like that, things were not good at all, she thought. In a few months, if everything went well, she would find herself in his body again and Cristina would be a perfect stranger. And what was worse, she would still be caught in Franco's clutches.

Taking Flavio to Valdaora to introduce them was out of the question. The worst thing she could imagine was to get him close to that lake.

She had to come up with something, and fast.