Flavio returned to his accommodation exhausted. His mind was filled with doubts about the path he was embarking upon. He remembered Clelia's warning: "stay close," she had told him, referring to those who mattered to him. He should have stayed close to Flavia. Ever since she had saved his life, and after she had taken care of him during his pneumonia, he had neglected her to an extent he deemed unacceptable, indecent. The last time they had seen each other was just two evenings ago, but it felt like an eternity. They had hardly spoken at all.

Lying on his back on the bed, he also remembered that, in that same position, he was dying submerged in the lake's waters. The thoughts he had then were still etched in his mind with dazzling intensity. He had wanted to turn back for another chance. At that moment, he would have left everything, given up everything just to be with her and change.

He had regretted never learning either to swim or to dance. He had wanted, more than he had ever done, to do those things with Flavia. He still didn't know how to swim or dance. He felt he truly deserved to die by drowning for not keeping faith. He had resolved to love Flavia until his last thought and, instead, was letting himself drift farther and farther away from her. Quitting his job with Aziz to have more time for her would now be completely futile since he had taken on even more demanding responsibilities at IUPITER. In the darkness, he was pressing his palms against his eyes, hoping to erase the color of shame from his own mind.

Just then, his cellphone rang. It was Flavia. She told him that she wanted to see him and talk to him, that she had many things to tell him and that, especially in recent times, with both of their busy schedules, they had grown apart. Flavio's heart had gone crazy and had already clouded his mind for quite a while when Flavia asked him if he was available to see her that Friday.

«Can you make it at six in the evening?» she proposed.

Flavio should have said no. Even without considering his usual commitments at IUPITER, he had already been notified that on Fridays, the project commission met with the research management for a weekly report. Missing his first meeting with the commissioners would be more undisciplined behavior than he had ever dreamt of taking on.

He didn't hesitate for a moment, and accepted the invitation.

Flavia made it clear that she already had something planned. «I would like to give you two books you've never read,» she said.

Flavio wondered how Flavia could possibly know what he had read and what he hadn't, then smiled, convinced that she had spoken with her usual naivety.

«Are you sure it won't cause you any trouble?» Flavia continued. «I'm sorry, but it's the only free time I have this week.»

«Don't worry, no problem. Friday afternoon is fine,» he reassured, without a doubt in his mind. «Should I come to your place?»

At the end of the workday on Friday, Clelia was not willing to let Flavio leave for his "personal commitment", no matter how important he said it was. Resolute, Flavio faced his colleague, firm in denying her endless requests for him to stay. The discussion frazzled him and held him up, while Flavia was already heading to meet him at the faculty. Clelia didn't stop until she had exhausted a variety of attempts, ranging from pleas to threats, through a series of explanations about the criticality of their situation at IUPITER and orders issued in her capacity as his superior on the hierarchical scale.

Finally freeing himself from Clelia, Flavio informed Lieutenant Ruffini and Cristina of his absence due to a force majeure, at least obtaining permission to leave his workplace. Flavia began to worry about his delay when Flavio, his heart pounding due to the late hour, exited onto Viale dell'Università in search of a means of transport to cross much of Rome.

The sight of the evening traffic that was beginning to cluster finished overwhelming his nerves just before his phone rang. He told Flavia to be as patient as she could and that he would try to reach her as quickly as possible.

Regretting not having left Clelia much earlier, Flavio realized that he would not make it to meet Flavia using the public transport he was accustomed to. On the brink of panic, for the first time in his life, he hailed a taxi. He had always considered the high fare charged by Rome's taxi drivers a luxury that would never suit his budget. Nevertheless, as soon as he got into the car, he offered the driver triple the meter fare if he could get him to Valle Giulia before seven.

The placid taxi driver was instantly jolted out of his languid torpor and, sharpening his gaze like a predator camouflaged in the jungle, he let out a roar from the engine and screeched the brakes in a heroic attempt to navigate through the vines of traffic jams. Meanwhile, Flavia waited, frazzled by the anxiety of the passing minutes without seeing Flavio.

The sun set over the trees of Piazzale Simon Bolivar, and her appointment time arrived. Frustrated after having waited in vain for an entire hour, she reluctantly entered the faculty building, reached the door of Serena Pinzini's office, and sat down in the waiting room, ready to enter as soon as the student before her left.

With the expression of a king of the jungle, the taxi driver collected a sum that would have been enough to pay for a first-class train ticket to cross the whole length of Italy, and dropped the passenger off in front of the Valle Giulia architecture faculty.

Flavio called Flavia on the phone and got directions to find her. Holding the phone to his ear, he ran into the building with Flavia not knowing whether to be happy that he had made it or disappointed that she no longer had time for him. When she saw him arrive, she barely had time to greet him, as if he were the most precious thing in her existence, and right then the door to the professor's office opened. A student came out, freeing up the professor for the next appointment on the agenda.

«Flavia, I have to tell you something... important,» Flavio began, out of breath. With his nerves still frayed, he struggled to string together a coherent speech. «If I am here, it's because what I feel for you is... I was told that I should stay close to the people I care about, and you are the person I care about the most. To me, you're more than a friend, what I'm trying to say is...»

Flavia held a computer in hand, and two important books were on her mind to take out of her bag. While keeping an eye on the professor's door, Flavio's unfinished speech completely exhausted her patience.

«Wait, listen to me,» she interrupted, already knowing precisely what he was trying to tell her. She then set aside any interest in the meeting with the professor and took a deep breath.

She suggested to Flavio that they sit down and talk calmly. Once seated, she handed him the books Invisible Cities and The Grammar of Fantasy. «There's something about me that I need to tell you... there are things, real things, that you wouldn't be able to imagine as possible, which is why you haven't yet been able to complete the theories in the purple notebook.»

Flavio reacted with a look of perplexity and confusion. «Did Cristina tell you about it?»

«No. I've known about that notebook for a long time. I could tell you it's been around ten years.»

«That's not possible; I started that notebook...»

«...less than four years ago, I know,» Flavia interrupted. «What did I just tell you about what you can imagine as possible? Flavio, I can help you with the military project. I want to be part of it. I'm as expert in social predictability as you are.»

Flavio stared at her, furrowing his brow, unable to hide the incredulity which widened his eyes.

«I know you think I'm crazy, but I can prove what I'm saying. In your equation on the conservation of social initiative, a factor is missing... as it is now, its derivative with respect to social initiative should not be zero, as there's a coefficient that's a function of the density of available equivalent resources, and something else you've always ignored,» said Flavia, pointing to the two books.

For the first time in Flavio's life, he heard someone speak in the very words he used. At that moment, he listened to Flavia communicate with him in what he had always considered the language of his own mind, a language that no one, except perhaps Clelia, had shown the ability to understand.

Almost breathless, he voiced the doubt that had been troubling his thoughts. «Up until six months ago, you didn't even know what a derivative was. I was the one who taught you..»

Flavia looked at him seriously and replied with stony calm: «I was always pretending.»

Now, she could see that Flavio was completely breathless, his lips frozen in an open-mouthed expression, a throbbing wound on his pale face. Flavia also became nervous about what she was about to reveal, but she was determined to move forward and reclaim a life that had been on hold for over six years.

«Okay... let's start from the beginning. Perhaps I should have explained all of this to you a long time ago.»

Before launching into a conversation she had always feared, rejected, yet at the same time wished to have, she took a deep and heavy sigh.

«It all started in Valdaora... actually, before that. Remember when I took you home after the tutoring session and invited you to Valdaora? I didn't really want you to come with us because I knew you were at risk of falling into the lake. I knew about the meteorite. But I wanted you to meet Cristina. I am not who you think I am, the truth is I am...»

As sudden and impetuous as the thunder of a summer storm, the door next to them opened again, and the sharp heels of Serena Pinzini loudly clacked on the corridor floor.

«Miss Felicetta,» screeched the professor, «I don't find your behavior appropriate; you should take certain commitments more seriously!»

Flavia shuddered. Serena's icy voice struck her like a whip to her back. Before turning around, she was already thinking of telling her that she would no longer honor such commitments, with half a mind to tell her off for reprimanding her in such a lofty tone.

As soon as she looked into her eyes, Serena spoke to her again, this time in her usual honeyed voice. «I thought we had managed to build a certain relationship of... respect, between us. The prospect of damaging it is very unpleasant, don't you think?»

Hypnotized by the blue of the teacher's feline eyes, Flavia reconsidered, concluding that there was no need to rush things, and nodded meekly.

«We'll talk about it tomorrow at Teddy Pair,» she said as she took her leave from Flavio. «Read them!» she added, pointing again to the books she had given him.

Before leaving, Flavio stared at the striking professor, who returned a curious and piercing gaze.

«Don't worry about her,» she said with a syrupy smile. «I know how to take care of my students.»