Behind the bar, a slightly older young woman caught her attention. Her Bellini was ready. Babi gave her the yellow ticket. The young woman handed her the glass, and the Bellini was consumed just as quickly as it had arrived. Without letting herself be seen, Babi went around the dance floor from behind, going over directly beneath them.
She felt strangely euphoric. The Bellini was starting to take effect. The music took hold of her and she let herself be swept away. She shut her eyes and very slowly, dancing, she crossed the dance floor. She moved her head to the beat, happy and slightly drunk, surrounded on all sides by strangers. Her hair was whipping around.
She climbed onto one of the higher walls on the side of the dance floor. She clenched her hands and started dancing with her shoulders, mouth shut, dreamily, and then she opened her eyes and looked up. Through the glass, their eyes met. Step was there, staring at her. For a moment, he didn’t recognize her. Pallina saw her too. Step turned to Pallina and asked her something. From down there, Babi couldn’t hear, but she easily guessed at the question. Pallina nodded. Step looked down again. Babi smiled at him and then looked down and went back to dancing, caught up in the music.
Step moved away fast, indifferent to everything and everyone. Pollo shook his head. Pallina leaped onto her man, gleefully embracing him and kissing him on the lips like any woman in love.
The bouncer at the stairs let Step pass without paying. He greeted him respectfully and went back to necking with the young woman whose cap was on sideways. Life at Vetrine went on.
Step stopped. Babi was face-to-face with him. A lunkhead with long hair in a pageboy cut was dancing around her, interested in a potential hookup. Once he saw Step, he turned to go just as he had arrived, acting all casual now. Babi continued dancing, looking Step in the eyes, and in that instant, he lost himself in that sea of blue, in that inviting music. Slowly, his body came to life. He stepped up onto the raised side of the dance floor next to her, and silent and smiling, they danced side by side. Joining their gazes, their hearts.
Babi moved, swaying. Step leaned in closer until he could smell her perfume. She raised her hands, putting them in front of her face, and she danced behind them, smiling. She had surrendered.
He looked at her, captivated. She was beautiful. He’d never seen such a naive, innocent pair of eyes. That soft mouth, in a pastel hue, that velvety skin. Everything about her seemed fragile but perfect. Her hair hung free under the headband. They were dancing enthusiastically, shifting from side to side, as he admired her smile. With her forehead, smooth and high, and that petite, narrow nose, and those rosy cheeks, she seemed like a baby doll. Step took her by the hand, pulled her close to him, and caressed her face. Babi looked at him, and for a moment…he trembled at the idea that, if he did anything more, she, fragile dream of china that she was, would vanish into a thousand shattered pieces.
Then he smiled at her and took her away with him. Carrying her off from that confusion, that frantic crowd. Everyone seemed to spin out of control as they went by. Step led her through that forest of flailing arms, protecting her from sharp human edges, holding her tight, warding off dangerous elbows pointed by the rhythm and pounding footsteps of human joy.
Farther up, Step carried her behind the glass. Pallina watched Babi vanish with him, her friend finally following her heart.
Maddalena watched him go, Step guilty only of not having loved her or of ever letting her think that he did. And while the couple, freshly in love, went out onto the street, Maddalena let herself collapse onto the sofa nearby. Sitting there with an empty glass in her hands and something much more difficult to fill inside her. She, mere fertilizer for that plant that so often blooms upon the grave of a withered love. That rare plant whose name is happiness.
Chapter 14
Youthful and covered in denim, they were better than a real-life commercial. Riding on the midnight-blue motorcycle, Babi and Step melted into the city, laughing all the way. Talking about everything and nothing, smiling at each other in the rearview mirrors. She, leaning on his shoulder, letting herself be carried along like this, buffeted by the wind and by that new power: freedom.
Via Veneto, Piazza Barberini, Via Nazionale. They went to the Angeli Theater. They sat upstairs and watched a movie on the big screen. They were thrilled more by the simple chance contact of their bodies than they were by that music video by an American rock star. They didn’t even recognize him, rapt as they were in the same thoughts. And yet he was rich and famous. But right then and there, they were much more important than he could ever hope to be.
Via delle Quattro Fontane. Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore. Right turn. A small pub. An English guy at the door recognized Step and ushered him in. Babi smiled. With him, she could get in everywhere. He was her key to every door. Her key to happiness.
She was so happy that she didn’t even realize she was ordering a dark ale, she who couldn’t even stand the lightest of blond beers, so dreamy that she shared a bowl of pasta with him, forgetting her diet. With the words rolled out leisurely, she realized that she was telling him about everything, that she had no secrets from him. He seemed intelligent and strong to her, handsome and sweet.
They played darts and she hit the target high. She turned jubilantly to him. “Pretty good, huh?” He smiled at her and nodded his head. Babi tossed another dart, but her blue eyes didn’t notice that she’d already hit the bull’s-eye.
Carried off again. Willingly kidnapped. Via Cavour. The Pyramid of Cestius. Testaccio. Little Vito, dispenser of cheer, was checking the crowd of people waiting at the entrance to Radio Londra. When he saw Step, he waved at him from a distance. He made some of the young people move aside to let him through. Vito raised the rope. Step gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder and then, holding hands with Babi, walked into the club. A few of the girls waiting outside watched enviously as Babi went by, and not just because she’d been allowed in. Frankly, given the guy she was with, they’d have happily waited outside.
Everyone in the club seemed to know Step. They walked past him, saying hello and slapping him on the back or just brushing close. A few young women walked over to him. Babi felt a strange emotion, new to her. One of the women gave Step a kiss on the cheek and tried to strike up a conversation. Now she knew what that feeling was. Jealousy.
But Step didn’t even give her the time to realize it. He put a quick end to the conversation with the young woman and dragged Babi out into the middle of the dance floor. They danced together to the pounding beat of the house music. Then, smiling and sparkling like fancy champagne, they drew close in a small, passing toast.
Later, they exited, sweaty and laughing. They said good night to Vito, as they were once again envied by those who were still waiting outside. They left as they’d arrived, on that roaring motorcycle that they’d parked right in front of the club. They roared uphill in second gear at top speed, savoring the cool breeze of that night in late April.
When they reached the intersection, they turned left and took the main thoroughfare. Step put the bike into third gear and then fourth. The traffic light at the intersection was blinking yellow. Step went through the light. Suddenly, he heard a screech of brakes. The sound of rubber scorching as it dragged across the asphalt. The sound of fine gravel. A Jaguar Sovereign was coming from the left at full speed.