The next morning they all woke up late. The sky was overcast and the snowy wind kept whistling stubbornly. The lethargic winter darkness discouraged them from getting out of bed until hunger compelled them to have breakfast.

The weather continued to worsen until late afternoon, forcing them to stay indoors for the whole day. However, they had plenty to catch up on regarding the last few weeks, conversation topics were not lacking and the hours passed unnoticed.

While Michela and Alessia prepared dinner to pamper her, Flavia received a call from Cristina and, immediately, Gianluca showed curiosity about the excitement that lit up her face.

«They're about to arrive!» she announced aloud once the call ended.

Gianluca, sitting at the table with her, leaned in to speak to her in a low voice.

«So, now you like Cristina instead of Michela? You can tell me... man to man.»

Flavia widened her eyes, but a moment later she saw him laugh under his breath.

Gianluca, while still smiling, became serious again. «Don't you think it's time for you to make a decision and choose?»

«I have nothing to decide!» she hissed annoyed. «I can't... choose anything.»

«You need to come out of the closet. You deserve to be with someone too.»

«Forget about this, Gianluca... soon I'll sort it out my way.»

Flavia thought about Claudia, hoping she hadn't messed up her life too much, hoping that things would really get sorted out for both of them, in a little more than twenty-four hours. She was bursting with anticipation, and the effort she made to control her nerves required more and more of her energy.

When they heard a car approaching and saw its headlights through the windows, they were finishing setting the table and the aroma of the ragù and roast had prevailed over the resinous fragrances exhaled by the fireplace.

Flavia heard the car doors and headed to the front door with impatience. Outside the threshold, the cold air was calm and dark. The clouds, black and invisible in the sky, hid the light of the moon and stars behind an impenetrable cloak of pitch.

In front of her, Flavia observed the layer of fresh snow disappearing into the darkness until the glows of the nearby town. She turned to look at the stairs that went down to the parking spot and saw Flavio climb them in long strides.

«Hey!» She went over to hug him.

She struggled to hold back the emotion of having, finally there, the incarnation of her last days lived as a man. Now that she could decide to change things, she was determined to take care of him and correct the brutal fate that had brought him to his knees in those final moments.

Putting aside her discomfort, she greeted Cristina and Franco and then took everyone inside to eat. As they settled at the table she introduced Flavio to the friends who were already there, sure that they would treat him well as he deserved. With pleasure, Flavia also noticed that Franco had been put in line by Cristina.

They stayed up talking late into the night after dinner, in a conversation that Flavia was only half-heartedly following. She was restless. Not only because a couple of times she had to go to the bathroom to inhale a few puffs of smoke. Having Flavio right in front of her, her mind was preoccupied with thoughts of the lake and its frozen surface, obscured from view by the blackness of the night outside the window.

She realized that she would not be at ease until she showed it to the others, especially to Flavio, but not only to him. Just for safety, so they would know well what it was and avoid accidents. Besides her own life, there were many others that she cared about close to her.

So she proposed a trip for the next morning and recommended everyone to be up early if they wanted to visit the lake.

«Why, does it go somewhere else in the afternoon?» Franco joked.

Flavia didn't find anything funny about it, she had already heard that joke.

«In the afternoon we have things to do, we have to receive the others who are coming and prepare the house if we want to have a party» she explained. With a sigh she turned to look at the darkness beyond the window. «Too bad it's cloudy tonight, otherwise you can see it well with the moon from here.»

«Let's hope tomorrow there's good weather, then» Alessia wished.

«Yes» Flavia guaranteed with her gaze still on the window. She remembered perfectly the sun that would light up the day and the moon that would brighten up the late evening, the last light she had seen with her own eyes. «Tomorrow there should be sun.»

She smiled again, satisfied with how things were going and optimistic about how they would continue to go. «But now it's really late» she added, «better go to bed.»

She accepted Cristina's help, who had insisted on lending her a hand with the dishes, and refused instead Flavio's, whose proximity would have forced her to smoke again.

Without saying a word, they cleared the table while upstairs everyone else settled down to sleep. The silence they kept was the result of an awkwardness they were not used to. Flavia sensed without difficulty that they were both thinking about Franco.

They had already started to soap the dishes when Flavia could no longer hold back. She had to confess to her what she knew and what she had done. She regretted having waited until that point. She dried her hands quickly and turned to her friend.

«I have to tell you something...»

«I don't know how to apologize!» Cristina interrupted her. Her eyes were teary.

Flavia hugged her.

«No... calm down!» she reassured her. «You don't have to.»

«It's been more than a year since you warned me to be careful with Franco, and now you got caught up in it too.»

Flavia discerned in Cristina's voice a need to vent much graver than her own, and this struck her as an intolerable injustice, so much so that she felt remorse.

«You couldn't have know. And besides... it's not your fault» she tried to explain.

«Until yesterday it seemed like the right decision to me, he convinced me. We even made a commitment, and now... what a fool I was!» Cristina was letting out everything she had inside and Flavia let her talk. «Today he went back to his usual behavior and I regret staying in Rome with him instead of coming to you. You deserved it more...»

«That's not true...» Flavia denied convinced.

Cristina smiled perplexed.

At the cost of complicating things between Cristina and Claudia, Flavia felt determined to clear up how things had gone with Franco and why he had decided to reschedule the dinner he had planned with Cristina. Flavia couldn't bear to be the cause of her guilt. She had a little over twenty-four hours before her to reveal the truth.

«I know why last week he postponed dinner with you and his parents at his place.»

Flavia confessed that she had sought Cristina's attention for herself and for Flavio, that she had desired to make the trip together with both of them so they could get to know each other. She told her that she had called Franco to dissuade him from coming and that he had agreed to remain in Rome on the condition of spending the evening of the twenty-seventh alone with her.

With her gaze lowered on Cristina's crossed arms, she apologized for interfering in her relationship and for letting herself go that far. «You and Flavio... you are both so important to me! Just for these days, I would have preferred not having to share you with Franco. I suppose I shouldn't be so jealous of him. Please, forgive me.»

She raised her eyes and saw Cristina, with clenched lips and chin lifted, trying to suppress a lump of anger and disappointment.

«Fool!» she said letting a tear escape.

Flavia was stiff, paralyzed. Her legs and arms were blocks of marble and in her chest, oppressed by anguish, the air flowed with difficulty.

Cristina looked at her, with a face contorted by resentment, but in no time she approached Flavia to hug her in a tight embrace.

«Fool... I've been such a fool! Forgive me» she vented. Like a frightened child, she clung to Flavia's clothes. «I should have listened to you.»

After a brief moment of uncertainty, Flavia returned the hug and held onto it until she felt that her friend had calmed down. She stroked her hair and reassured her by telling her that everything was fine.

«Now we're here, right? Relax» Flavia smiled. «Everything will be fine.»

They finished washing the dishes, tidied up the kitchen and then said goodnight. They were there, and Flavia had twenty-four hours left to make sure things would truly be fine.