On the tatami mat, Flavia and Cristina were sitting in a split, facing each other. The training was almost over and, as they lowered their torsos in stretching exercises, Flavia's eye tried to sneak a peak beneath her partner's karategi, loosened by the movement.

Cristina, in turn, couldn't stop staring at Flavia's peeled knuckles.

«What a way to end the evening with your friend...» she commented.

«If only it had ended there, we had to give statement at the police station. In the end Flavio went home with the carabinieri...»

Sensei Fabriani whistled to decree the end of the lesson, the students lined up for the salute and then they all headed to the showers.

«Mancini... Mancini...» Cristina pondered for a moment. «No, it doesn't ring a bell. Can't you tell me anything else about this mysterious Flavio?»

Her wet hair, just washed, fell scattered on her bathrobe as she sat on the bench drying her legs. The elegance of her discreet and measured gestures had the extraordinary quality of giving her a delicate and light grace despite her extraordinary height. «Maybe I've crossed him who knows how many times at university and I don't know...»

«I bet you'd recognize him right away.»

«Would I? And why is that?»

«Well, he doesn't go unnoticed, he's thin and very tall.»

«Interesting...» Cristina laughed. «How tall?»

Flavia was glad that her friend didn't take her relationship with Franco that seriously. But when she saw Cristina's enviable figure and remembered Flavio's awkward one, she couldn't help but fight back her irritation..

«Even taller than he looks» she muttered. « He tends to hunch over like a stack of bones, thinking who knows what...»

«I can't believe it...» Cristina exclaimed amused as she fastened her bra. «Look at you, acting all indifferent! Ice-hearted Flavia is head over heels in love!»

«Right» Flavia shook her head, «head over heels in love, you caught me.»

Cristina was laughing at her, far from being able to understand what was going through her mind. Yet, her smile was kind and warm. Flavia wondered if she smiled like that to everyone, when all of a sudden Cristina approached her to whisper in her ear: «Don't worry, it's not that strange» she consoled her, «it must be because opposites attract.»

«Sure, opposites without a doubt...»

Flavia felt her skin being brushed by the lace of Cristina's bra, that gathered a prominent bosom despite her flat and sculpted abdomen. Cristina was so close that she could feel the warmth radiating from her.

With her eyes fixed on her friend's body, Flavia brought her hands to her own chest. There was quite a difference.

«Hey,» Cristina whispered to her again, «don't feel insecure. I wish I had a breast like yours. These here weigh quite a bit.»

Flavia smiled and was taken aback by Cristina's embrace and by the soft touch of her body pressing against her.

«Even if you fall in love,» her friend murmured in her ear, «I will still love you, understand?»

«Cristina...» Flavia sighed. "Will you still love me when I become Flavio again?" was the thought she couldn't bring herself to utter.

Cristina continued to bring Franco to the Drunk Teddy Pair on weekends, and Flavia thought that if she ever brought Flavio with her, there would be a social carnage. He would cling to her and Franco would have made him look horrible. Cristina would have realized how in love and desperate he was for her and would have laughed at him, or felt sorry for him or, most likely, both.

When the university classes started, Flavia had Flavio tutor her in calculus. She could keep an eye on him, give him some tips, and, most importantly, she hoped to take him shopping with the money she had worked so hard to convince him to accept. Of course, for a whole month she had been forced to smoke a couple of cigarettes a week, but she had no choice, time was running out.

So, in mid-autumn, she took him with her to shop for his winter wardrobe. She knew that Flavio could not afford to spend as much as she was used to by then. A couple of decent outfits was the most he could afford. Compared to everything that Flavio lacked, it was as little as a drop in an empty glass, but it was a drop on the lips of a thirsty person in the middle of the desert. Although it wouldn't be enough to teach him how to dress, at least it would have shown him how to take the first step.

When she returned home, Flavia tried to make peace with herself.

«Your mother called today» Fabrizio told her, lifting his gaze from his laptop screen. «She's coming back to Italy with her company in early December.»

«Oh» Flavia replied uninterested.

«Claudia...» Fabrizio called her, going back to his emails, «you should plan to spend Christmas with her this year, don't you think?»

«Yes, it's just that it's still more than a month away...»

«I'm telling you now, so you can start thinking about it.»

«Okay, thanks. For the rest of the holidays, though, I have to stay in Rome.»

Fabrizio stopped abruptly and looked at Flavia with a big smile.

«By the way! How about helping me furnish the house in Valdaora after classes are over? Between exams, of course.»

«Hey! Have they finished the construction work already?» Flavia rejoiced.

«That's what they told me» Fabrizio confirmed satisfied. «Next week I'm going to check it out in person, and when I get back we'll have to go back and forth for a while, are you up for that?»

«Of course!»

«How are you doing with your studies?»

«No problem, I'm ready for the exams.»

«Your mother will be happy» Fabrizio commented, «she wanted to know if you could stay a bit in Florence with her...»

«I suppose so» Flavia agreed, suspicious.

«I could pick you up and drop you off every time I go to Valdaora, so you save a piece of the trip...»

Flavia chuckled and shook her head.

«You could have said it right away that you wanted the flat to yourself to be with Sandra.»

«And what do you know about me and Sandra?» Fabrizio smiled embarrassed.

«Dad...» Flavia emphasized, suggestive, «come on!»

«Okay, okay» Fabrizio chuckled. «One more thing. Between Christmas and New Year's Eve you should join me in Valdaora with someone.»

«With someone? What do you mean?»

«I have to go to Slovenia with a municipal official from Valdaora to negotiate some tenders. From there I won't go back to Valdaora and I have planned a small winter vacation. I'll be out for about ten days...»

«...with Sandra» Flavia guessed.

«Yes... with Sandra» Fabrizio admitted. «But listen, it's important. I can't leave the car there. You should bring it back for me before I return to Rome.»

«No problem, I can do it by myself.»

« No, no, no. That's out of the question. I want you to travel with someone. I can't even imagine having you travel alone from the Alps to Rome in winter.»

«Okay, as you wish.»

«And then you can take the opportunity of it to enjoy the mountain too without getting bored of being alone. Do you have anyone in mind?»

Flavia thought for a moment. As long as it wasn't Flavio, any of her many friends would do. But there was one person in particular with whom she would have liked to spend some time before saying goodbye to her life as Claudia.

«Cristina» she said.

«Great,» Fabrizio agreed, «if you traveled with her, I would feel really reassured about you.»

When Flavia proposed it to Cristina, her face lit up with enthusiasm.

It was a bit early, she replied, to plan in detail. She was busy with military assignments, but she would do everything to take a few days after Christmas and go to the mountains with her. She confessed that she hoped it would be just the first of many times they could take a vacation together. Just the two of them.

«What's wrong? What's that sad face?» Cristina asked. «I promise we'll find the time, okay?»

Flavia swallowed a knot of bitterness. And guilt. She couldn't tell her that it would be the last time, that it was somehow the farewell she wanted to give her before going back to being a man. A man who, most likely, Cristina would never approach.

«It's nothing...» Flavia forced herself to smile, «I hope we'll find the time too.»