Alex had already contacted three willing groups on Facebook by the next morning. I was still in bed when she called me at the dorm phone at noon.

"Good morning, sunshine." I said, in an ironic, hoarse voice.

I rolled on the sheets to the edge of the bed. I really liked edges. Alex rambled on and on, enthusiastically, about all the people that had signed up in less than an hour on the event she had created. I wasn't listening to her. I was thinking about how much I dangerously liked edges in all aspects of my life. But looking at the floor from the bed made me sick.

"Hold on a sec, Alex. I'm think I'm going to throw up everything I've eaten in the last year..."

"I guess you mean everything you've drunk..."

I got up and quickly made my way to the bathroom. I kneeled in front of the bath.

"Okay, the dorm is safe now."

"Did you and David hook up last night?" she asked, thrilled.

I didn't get why everyone wanted me to get involved with David, except from myself. It wasn't fair. I wanted to fall for him. He was perfect. I had to choose him.

"Almost, but I freaked out just when he was about to kiss me."

"What? Tess! He's so perfect for you!" she exclaimed, and I knew she had forgotten everything about Facebook groups.

I wished she hadn't. I wasn't in the right mood to discuss my love life. Even the fight for a public eternal life guarantee seemed lighter business.

"I know. But I'm still thinking of Luke... Like, every second. I don't know if I should get involved with someone else while I am still so stunned by him."

"You're not in love, Tess. I can tell." It was so strange to have her as my love counselor. "You're just horny for him."

An exclamation of surprise came out of my mouth.

"And how exactly would you know that, Alex?"

"I see the look in your eyes when you talk about him. I perceive the density of your sighs."

I couldn't stop myself from bursting out laughing.

"I'm serious, Tess! And the way you glowed when you were with him..."

"Oh, I thought that was called being in love."

"That's lust, not love."

"I don't think you're right. Many people make that distinction, and I don't get why. They are afraid of desiring too much, they don't feel relaxed or safe..." I thought about how I had felt the same way before I met Luke. "But I believe that every true love must have a high dose of lust. It's the only way it can last. Passionate love is the one that stays real after long years. The other kinds may keep going on... out of routine, or custom, out of a decision to keep pushing on. But there are no sparks left after some years."

"And do you think you and David would be one of those couples?"

"Yeah, a couple that's made a good decision to be together; not a couple that can't forget each other."

"If that's what you think... But Luke is definitely not the one that should be impossible for you to forget, because... because..."

I could tell she was struggling at the other end. I helped her out.

"Because he's already forgotten about me. Go ahead and say it, Alex."

It seemed I wasn't going to throw up after all. After looking so much at it, I decided to have a bath. I started running the water and plugged in the water heater to make myself a cup of green tea. I wanted to get rid of every remnant of the previous night. The toxins that alcohol had deposited on my body. The traces David's touches had left on my skin.

Alex was still on the other end. It felt like she could watch me through the phone.

"Let's get back to the demonstration." I said, to slacken the tense air we exchanged through the phone.

I walked to the windows and opened the curtains. The sunlight blinded me. The leafs of the trees around the lake shined in every bright shade of green I could imagine. The water glistened magically.

"Your sister managed to get the permission of the London city council."

"Oh, that's great! She would be as good a lawyer as she is a doctor."

"Yeah... And, oh, we've already set a date."

My cell phone beeped in my bedside table. I noticed that Africa had left a note telling me she was spending the day painting by the Thames at Christ Church College. I slapped myself for not having wondered about where she might be since I had opened my eyes.

Then I checked my phone. David had sent me a text.

"Tess? Are you listening to me? We are doing the demonstration tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" I asked, as I pressed "Read".

"Oh, I thought you'd be glad to have it as soon as possible."

"Lindsay told me she already got the permission. Everything OK."

"Oh..." I sighed.

I was disappointed. I expected a flirtatious text. But David was not like Luke, and he wouldn't insist or fool around with me after I had basically rejected him. He was so conceited. And, for that, I was angry at him. I was also angry at him because his perfect looks and self-assurement didn't let me truly believe what I had said about him just being an apparently good decision. I wanted to scrub off every remnant of him because they made me crave for him.

"Tess? I'm sorry, but I'm not following you right now."

"Yes, Alex. Mm... Let's meet up at the Christ Church meadow at three. We'll organize everything there. We've already got permission. That was the crucial part."

"Okay... I'll talk to you there, then. By the way, you're acting really weird this morning. Just so you know."

"Yes, Alex. Later."

I had slept in the clothes I was wearing the night before. I got them off in front of the mirror. I contemplated my naked body, to check if alcohol had altered the flawless white tone. I softly run my fingers along my clavicles, and continued downwards, tracing my breasts, and my belly. Did I want David's hands in all those places? I was scared to think about it. I didn't want to admit to myself that someone that wasn't Luke could make me feel like that. Even if it was really stupid, it felt like betraying Luke. Even if he had been with Camille and hadn't told me about it. Even if he wouldn't touch me anymore. It felt as if diminishing my love for Luke just a tiny bit would render our story completely finished.

And there was nothing that scared me as much as that.

The bath was full of steamy water. I drenched my whole body in it, and submerged my head in the water for a few seconds.

David wasn't there when I arrived at Christ Church. Disappointment struck me again. The girls lay on the grass, right by the big Willow. Alex was checking something on her laptop. Lindsay was on the phone. Africa was still painting. No matter how busy and concentrated they seemed, they all looked up when I arrived.

"Oh, please, once and for all: I didn't hook up with him. And I'm not going to."

"Okay." Alex said, and she went back to her computer work.

The rest of them kept staring at me until I sat down.

"I've been reading everything you've done on Facebook. It's amazing."

"Yeah, by now, thirty thousand people have stated they're coming tomorrow."

"Thank you so much, guys."

"Why?" Africa asked, without lifting her eyes from her portrait of the lawns. "This affects us too. I can't pay a million pounds for my life. Not until I overtake Renoir, at least."

My phone rang. My heart skipped a beat. But it wasn't David. It was Professor Abbey.

"Good afternoon, Tessa. Your friend Africa contacted me this morning. I'm so proud of all of you. You surely contradicted what people my age say about young people being lazy and lacking initiative."

"Thank you, Professor. We wanted to prove that to ourselves, actually. That our minds are young and fearless."

"And you certainly succeeded. Even if I don't have a fiery young heart like yours, I want to help you out as much as I can. I gathered some professors from King's that have been made really indignant by all these events. They – we – are willing to speak up at the demonstration. On behalf of the science of Medicine. That is, on your behalf."

Tears accumulated in my eyes when he substituted science of Medicine by me. It made me recognize, fully, the historical weight my discovery had. As nothing had outrageously changed yet, it was hard to become conscious of every implication, every transcendental consequence.

"More than seven thousand people have died, just in Great Britain, in the last week. I'm... scared, and overwhelmed, and... frustrated, Professor."

"Don't worry, Tessa. You can't fix that. It's not your responsibility. We have to stick together. Things will get better after tomorrow, I promise."

I saw David walking towards me. He looked striking in the black coat he was wearing.

"Thank you, Professor."

I hung up.

"Want to go for a walk?" he suggested, and he smiled, softly.

I nodded, feeling shy as ever. I felt bad for having run away from him the previous night. But I didn't even know how to explain myself. We walked down an avenue of naked trees, to the Thames, and we kept walking along the river. I wrapped myself in my red scarf, but I felt even more naked than the trees.

"Do you still believe that people have no power?" David asked, abruptly.

"What do you mean?"

"I said that to Africa at the party, back in London. And you agreed."

I nodded. I remembered, even if it was just a tiny memory in the night that seemed the longest in my life.

"Now over thirty thousand people are coming to complain against the law and your number one enemy, Fleming&Florey. If you think that kind of thing won't change anything, why are you for it?"

"I'm not for it. It's just that I can't think of anything else to do." I stopped walking and faced him. "I'm at a crossroads, David. In every aspect of my life. I'm... floating in purgatory."

He immediately understood that I was no longer talking exclusively about the power of people. He sighed, and then looked at me with an almost amused gaze. He was so serene that I started to find his unexpected composure really intriguing.

"I think I'm waiting for something, even if I know I have – ironically – no time. It's never taken me so long to decide what I should do, but now... I just want to feel I'm moving forward, doing something that might help."

I sighed deeply, and the cold air came down my throat when I breathed in again. David came closer, and his amused, teasing lips developed into a full smile. I was pleasantly disconcerted.

"It's not a sin to be indecisive at times, Tess. Don't be so hard on yourself."

I didn't get why he was being so cool about everything. He was talking as if everything was easy. Mundane. He was so relaxed that I was starting to feel I should be calm too. There was nothing to be worried about. He was definitely going to make a good lawyer. And I wished to be fully persuaded by him. By his startlingly easygoing attitude.

"Do you believe there's a tangible solution for everything?" I asked him.

I didn't even know what I was asking. Illogically, I expected his answer to that question to convince me to forget Luke once and for all, and just be with him. He didn't look bewildered. He just looked like he was thinking hard to give me a proper, accurate answer. I smiled to myself as I thought I was no longer innerved by how precise and perfect he had to sound every time he opened his mouth.

"Probably not. But if that is an indirect, full-of-fear, typical-of-middle-aged-people, way of asking if there's a solution to this, then yes, I think there is."

I smiled at him, defeated by his reminder that I wasn't acting as youthfully as I acclaimed. He smiled back, satisfied.

The trees moved in the wind, and the leaves crisped. We resumed our stroll. I was wrapped in an atmosphere of normality. He took my hand. It felt safe.

We sat on the bank of the river. Many rowing boats passed before us. We kept holding hands, and David nonchalantly caressed my thumb with his. As I relaxed, I started to feel how cold it actually was. I moved closer to David, and he put his strong, hard arm around me. I searched my mind for a reaction of strangeness to feeling alright in the arms of a man who wasn't Luke. I proceeded looking for fear at the thought of eternity without Luke by my side. But the on growing heat in my vessels managed to put every disturbance away.

"Young people shouldn't be quiet and melancholic for so long."

I giggled, but couldn't think of one reflection to share with him right then.

He caressed my hair, and I flashed back to how he had moved my hair and kissed my neck at The Bridge.

I wasn't going to run away this time. But he wasn't Luke, he was too full of himself, and I knew I had to ask for it.

"David." I whispered, and he leaned in.

"What, Tessa?"

The leaves crisped in the wind again.

"Kiss me."

He held my gaze for a few seconds, and he slowly moved his arm lower down my body, and wrapped my waist in it. He moved his other hand to my face, and caressed my cheek, and then my chin. He softly pulled my head closer to his, and finally pressed his lips to mine. I gasped, and instinctively put my hands into his black coat. He had such a strong build. He was the reincarnation of a Greek god. I waited for him to open my mouth with his tongue. He was holding back, torturing me with his slowness. It was a good decision to take it slow, but I didn't want to. He moved his hand from my chin to my hair, and caressed it, gently.

My phone beeped. I pulled back.

"It's Alex."

"Do you think we should get back to them?"

Did I want to?

"Yes, probably. We have only so many hours left before the demonstration. I've been so lazy these last days. They've done all the work. I feel ashamed."

I did feel ashamed. For constantly wanting something else.

What did you think of this chapter? Do you like Tessa and David together? What do you think will happen at the demonstration? Let me know in the comments! I am entering the Wattys 2016, so, if you enjoyed it, please don't forget to vote :)

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