Free Someone to Love by Lucy Scala

I passed next to her. “Ooookaaay. What do you mean, Diego?”
    â€œYes, Diego.”
    â€œOh, God. That Diego? Come on, tell me…” Fiamma caught my eye and was prepared to ask further questions. “Why did he bring you here, and why are you so angry?”
    I shrugged, trying to answer silently. Fiamma brought both hands to her mouth in horror. “You had sex!”
    â€œNo, no!” I replied firmly.
    Fiamma enthusiasm faded. “As I imagined…”
    â€œI’m ignoring you,” I said, shaking my head.
    â€œAre you thirteen or what? You’re too fussy…”
    â€œAfter what happened to me, I really don’t think so. He made me look like a fool with my neighbour, who I will never be able to look in the eye again, and saw me with my ass up in the air while trying to break into my own house. Then he gave me a lift to the clinic to get my spare keys and he even had the cheek to come on to me…”
    â€œThat’s not so bad.”
    â€œI still can’t believe he did it, we’re not even friends, damn it!” I snapped, “Fiamma, this conversation will remain between us.”
    Fiamma was stubbornly disillusioned with the concepts of eternal love and lasting relationships in her own life, but when it came to others, she turned into a champion of ‘romance’.
    â€œI don’t want to justify his behaviour, but maybe you gave him the wrong impression. Or he just wanted to be nice.”
    â€œFiamma, you know I’m a girl who knows how to take a joke, and Diego did not have the attitude of someone who wanted to be funny.” I said defensively.
    â€œI can’t believe you’re so… so boring.” A moment of silence, then she became more serious. “Seriously, I don’t know him. I hope you were able to manage the situation without jumping on him, because I see no other choice. Because you’re adamant in continuing with your abstinence, right?”
    â€œYou always exaggerate. I do what I want, including sex.”
    â€œSex? You’re having sex? Anyway, you should relax and concentrate on the pleasant things in life. You have two men, choose one and dive in. What have you got to lose? If it goes wrong with one, you have the other. Look, even your horoscope says so,” she waved her hand to emphasize the concept.
    â€œRight. So you think I should be more polite and available, and with ‘dive in’ you mean explore new horizons?” Fiamma tilted her head to one side and looked at me. “Really amusing, but said like that they seem like swear words. Anyway, tell me about the evening with Alberto? Is he to be deleted from the list of potential suitors as well?”
    â€œIt wasn’t so bad.”
    â€œCome on, you can do better than that.”
    â€œNo big deal. We chatted and went for a walk.”
    â€œA walk?”
    â€œYes, a walk. Isn’t that sweet?”
    â€œOh, give me a bag I’m about to throw up. If you’re twelve years old, and Mum and Dad only let you out in the afternoon—” she said with a smirk. “But perhaps all this is positive: you can get to know… Alberto better.”
    â€œYes, and among other things, he also invited us to go out one of these nights.”
    â€œThat’s what we need. It’s a clear sign of destiny. This year’s mission is finding you a man, and all you have to do is let yourself go.”
    I wasn’t lacking proposals, but I still hadn’t met anyone who deserved the time and effort required for a relationship.
    â€œLet’s hear it, what do you suggest?”
    â€œYou will go back to re-discovering certain pleasures in life you had forgotten,” she reached into her purse and pulled out a coloured envelope. “Meanwhile, take this.”
    I caught it. “You just gave me a—”
    â€œCondom, call it by its name.”
    â€œI have a condom. In my