“Lexie, whom you will be voting for?”

“Voting?… Aren’t the elections more than a year away?”

All women exploded in laughter.

“The company best man, you goofy.”

“Sorry?”

“We just talked about it. Didn’t you listen?”

“No, I was modifying this script…”

Women rolled their eyes as one.

“Every year, the company votes for best employees,” Mommy explained. “Women vote for best male employee and men for best female employee. The Boss is not eligible to vote for. The previous year, Lu and Filippo won.”

“Isn’t a separate voting a discrimination? Why not just for a best employee, regardless of sex?”

“Oh, you feminists!… That is how The Boss arranged it. He says there is a bias against women, hence separate votes. And to reduce toxicity, only the opposite sex votes for a candidate… So, whom you will be voting for? Not that I have any doubt…” She smiled.

“Well, every one of the men has contributed a lot—”

“Come on, will you be voting for anyone other than Carlo? I don’t believe it”.

“If you do, you will be the only one,” Lu added. “Girls, wanna hear if the men by chance talk about the same too? Not that I have doubts…” Without waiting for a confirmation, she quickly assembled her eavesdropping device and turned it on.

“– for her too,” Nicola Petruccio was saying. “Filippo might be biased, but I am not. She is indeed the best worker here. Of both men and women.”

“Had you said you will vote for Grace, I wouldn’t believe you.” This was the voice of Tony. Snickering and mutters of agreement joined him.

How often we consider the sufferers to be deplorable, I thought. And how easily… Could it be that Carla’s landlady was also a sufferer? Somewhere deep, not seen by occasional people like Carla and me? Twisted by something I would never know?…

“– for Vinnie instead,” Gab was saying. “She is quiet and shy, but is a hard and very useful worker.”

Vinnie was smiling the happiest smile I had even seen on her face. And delicately brushed a tear.

There was a knock on the door. Lu instantly hid her device under the table, but it turned out to be Fabricia.

“Girls, please be welcome to vote!”

The voting booth turned out to be the room of the marketing manager, who had left the company couple of weeks ago. Without this making any difference, Fabricia had noted… Inside the room, there was a table with a small urn and a pen on it.

I looked at the piece of paper in my hand. The names of the men in the company were printed on it, with a checkbox against each one. All except The Boss.

And me. I would be on the women’s list. As Alexandra Manzoni. Would even likely win the vote, judging by what I just heard…

Carlo was right. With each day, our alter egos were becoming more and more real. Replacing us with themselves.

And it was so tempting to just accept that. As Lexie I was so much more than as Damiano… And this had won me for being her, at least sometimes. Something than I wouldn’t believe initially.

Even the sex as her was so much better, despite feeling unusual, I thought and felt my face burning. Liking sex as woman more than sex as man!… This indeed had to stop. Or it would eventually take me where I still didn’t want to be. Despite how great it felt.

Well, the voting itself was easy. Carla was more a man than everyone in the company. Despite looking like a teenage girl. Definitely more than me… She deserved my vote for a best man. As Carlo or not. Despite not being a man. Or exactly because of even not being a man…

I came out of the room, deep in thoughts. Turned towards the Boudoir, but Mommy touched my shoulder:

“Wait a moment.”

“For the announcement of the winners?”

She just looked at me like if I was an idiot.

What to wait for?… Had I missed something other from the talk, too?… Okay, let’s see.

The men entered the room one by one, and after coming out waited in the corridor too. Gab, who was the last, came out looking really uncomfortable.

Tony stepped next to him, slightly nudged him and whispered at him:

“Come on, Gab! It is a quest! You’ve got to win the princess!”

Gab looked at him, then at the other men, blushed a bit, took a deep breath and tried to kneel before Vinnie. Knocking a lamp off Fabricia’s desk in the process. He grabbed it and put it back on the desk, knocking down this time her phone set. And when trying to put that back too, he dropped a small box and had to fish it out of under the desk. After that all, he knelt again, almost stepping on the foot of Nicola Petruccio, who pulled aside with surprising agility.

“Vinnie, will you…” He wondered for a second, then tried to open the box and dropped it too. A ring rolled out of it, stopping at Filippo’s shoe. Gab grabbed it and continued:

“Vinnie, will you be my princess? In… ahm, good and bad? For as long as the sun shines? And the knights carry… ugh…” His brows came together. “Okay, for as long as we live?”

Vinnie had blushed charmingly. The other women were smiling. A bit to my surprise, I felt smiling too. Not laughing at Gab – being happy for them both.

“I-I-I will… my p-prince.”

We all started clapping hands. Gab tried to put the ring on Vinnie’s finger. Managed it on the third attempt. Somewhere in the back of my mind I noted that usually at such a sight I would be rolling on the floor with laughter – but now didn’t. I was swimming in happiness for them.

And apparently everyone else was, too. For a moment I noticed Carlo’s eyes – they were dreamy. Maybe I should do the same soon. While being Damiano. Before Carlo does it to me while I am Lexie… And even if that came first, I would welcome it too.

Even Tony was smiling in a way so different from his usual smirk. I realized that in this short moment, he was his real self, not the twisted mask that he always wore, that was his pain. He was what he would be, had he been born with a normal heart… I couldn’t help but hoped in this moment that he will find a cure as soon as possible. He deserved it.

“A-a-actually we plan a m-marriage,” Vinnie was explaining in our room ten minutes later.

“Why hurry?” There was a bit of worry on Mommy’s face. “I mean, give yourself a few months. Gab is a strange guy, you can expect surprises with one like him.”

“I k-know what to expect from him and what not. Yes, he is not perfect. Neither am I. We will be fixing our problems together.”

Vinnie continued to impress me. She indeed was much more than what we had seen through her shell of shyness.

“And I am pregnant. I learned it this morning.”

“What?! Wow! That’s great!”

“Hoorray, Vinnie!”

“Make a good father out of him. Men are sometimes afraid of that—”

“Congratulations, Vinnie,” I joined the chorus. “Gab might not be perfect, but nobody is. And if he wants to fix his problems together with you, I think you will be happy together.”

“We will be!… And what about you and C-Carlo? Won’t you be t-tying the knot soon?”

“Oh, ummmm, we still haven’t thought of this… Sure, it is a good idea, but we still… Ummm, we…” No good answer was coming to my head.

All faces around immediately became worried.

“Lexie, is everything between you okay?”

“Absolutely! It is, ummmmm, just that we still haven’t considered this. Ummmm—”

“Why? It is not natural to be so good a match and not consider it!”

“Is there something we don’t know?”

“Lexie, if you need help, you can always tell us.”

“Ummmm, no, there is nothing like that. We just are, ummmm, so happy like this that hadn’t thought of going further… Ummmm, we surely will, things are going this way, just… ummm… just not as quickly…”

The expressions of all women were screaming that they don’t trust me on that. I knew that I am a bad liar, but in this case the lie was not about that! It actually was not a lie; I certainly was dreaming of being with Carla forever!… Just…

“I made the same mistake,” said Carlo around a mouthful of food. “Men are not as inquisitive and observant as women, but around them I had become less proficient at lying with the time, too. One of the downsides of the bodysuit – you need to lie less than if you are a woman… Or of its upsides, depending on the case.”

“We just have to drop the masks. Whatever that means. No matter what it costs us. I just can’t continue like this anymore.”

Carlo looked at me carefully:

“You can’t continue anymore, or you are afraid of it? Because you can?”

“Hm… Yes, I can, but at a cost. And it is this cost that I can’t accept… If I continue, I will have to accept being Lexie. More than being Damiano… Yes, she is also eventually me, but somehow I cannot force myself to this.”

Carlo thought for a couple of seconds, then sighed:

“I get the same feeling about myself too… But we still are financially not secure in long term.”

“Weren’t you saying that they will have to eventually introduce a good universal income?”

“They will, but this might not be very soon. We should best have enough money to sustain a couple of years on. Not having to pay rent gives us some leeway, but still not enough.” He got up, collected the plates and carried them towards the kitchen.

“Maybe The Boss will keep us? He needs our work, and we are both good at what we do.” I continued after he returned.

“I hope so too, but am not sure. Nicola Petruccio says that he really hates being lied to. And we both did, about who we are.”

“I have heard the same… But I want out of that bodysuit from the hell. No matter what.”

Carlo sighed.

“Okay, we will. I see that you are on the verge of panic… No, I understand you very well, I am almost there too, keeping on top of it by a lot of effort. Maybe it is indeed time to jump and see where we will land.”

“Then we switch the bodysuits off now before going to sleep?”

“Yes.”