Years later, as if by chance, a friend reappeared — “the Fox” — who, quite unexpectedly, awakened a new interest in the Hare.
He was clever, calculating, and planned every move until, finally, with refined tact, he made the Hare his own.
It was a brief and unexpected encounter, both for how it happened and for the stir it caused — defying people… and fate.
One Christmas night, I was calling friends to wish them happy holidays, and among so many voices, I came across an old friend.
We spoke for a few minutes, wishing each other a happy new year.
As we said goodbye, he told me kindly:
— If you’d like to go out for a coffee, call me. I’d really enjoy that. I’ll come pick you up.
— What a good idea, I’ll call you — I answered, surprised and, I must admit, flattered.
I thought a lot about that short conversation.
He had never attracted me before, but something in his voice — perhaps its calmness, its maturity — made me see him differently.
A few days later, having learned that he was alone after a seven-year relationship, I accepted his invitation.
We arranged to meet for a show.
When he arrived to pick me up, I felt that strange vibration that sometimes warns of the inevitable.
“The fox is hiding something,” I thought. But I brushed the thought aside.
He was impeccable: his car clean, his scent discreet, his manners those of a gentleman.
He offered me his arm to cross the street — a nearly forgotten gesture that can still touch the heart.
I felt comfortable, safe.
We went to listen to a music group and shared a sangria. He insisted on paying.
— You’re not used to going out, are you? — he asked, with a smile that unsettled me.
I didn’t know what to answer.
At the end of the evening, he suggested going somewhere else.
His voice was so sincere that I felt I could trust him.
He was a strong man, with deep eyes, a low voice, and a serene presence.
“A friend, the Fox,” yes… but no longer the same as before.
— Would you like to go for a drive? — he asked.
It was winter, so I suggested seeing the lights at the Old Port.
But when we got there, the place was closed, the lights off.
— Take me home, it’s late — I said.
— As you wish — he replied.
He walked me to the door and kissed me on the cheek.
— Would you like me to walk you to the door?
— No, that’s fine. Thank you. See you soon.
— See you soon — he repeated, and the Fox left.
That night, I couldn’t sleep. His image lingered in my mind.
I sent him a message:
“Thank you for the evening. I didn’t know you had such a charming side.”
He replied immediately:
“I enjoyed it too. I didn’t know your company was so lovely.”
How curious, I thought — he answered with my own words.
During the week, I replayed that evening over and over again.
He had been attentive, polite, charming.
He hadn’t let me pay and had said, with a smile,
“It seems you’re not used to being invited.”
I didn’t know what to say. It was true.
And silently, I admitted that his words had touched me.
Two weeks later, it was I who suggested going out for a drink and some music at a bar in the Old Port.
He agreed but warned he would arrive late — and so he did.
When he came, the place was packed, full of laughter and noise.
We ordered drinks, danced, and laughed.
Amid the music, he caught me off guard: the Fox kissed me.
— Hey! — I exclaimed, pulling back.
— Didn’t you like it? — he asked, his eyes tender.
— Are you single? — I asked.
He looked at me intently, shrugged slightly, and kissed me again without saying a word.
No words were needed. I understood everything.
And still, the Hare accepted.
The Hare had fallen into the trap of infatuation.
I fell in love with the Fox.
I thought I knew him, that he was free, that I was safe. But I wasn’t.
I surrendered at the first touch that reached my soul.
It was the warrior’s defeat.
The more secure I felt, the more I abandoned myself to that passion — fierce and wild — like a lioness gripping her prey and refusing to let go.
“He’s mine, only mine,” I kept telling myself.
But in the animal world, the lioness always ends up sharing her prey.
Something like that happened to me.
Falling into love’s trap is dreadful.
It was a devastating relationship that might have destroyed me if I hadn’t found the strength to leave, to free myself, to let go.
One day, I decided never to return.
I loved him with dependence and deliberate blindness.
It lasted almost four years.
It was irregular, unstable.
No alcohol, no drugs, no third parties — just him and me.
His way of loving was to surround, to envelop, to trap…
and mine, to fall without a net.
Poisoned love is one of the deadliest drugs.
His way of loving was to encircle his conquest, to capture her in his web like a spider that paralyzes the fly with a mere touch of its legs.
That’s how I felt: paralyzed, fascinated, and without escape.
He gave an excessive amount of physical love — fleeting, ephemeral — and then vanished emotionally, as if nothing had happened.
There is nothing more cruel than someone who touches your soul and then pretends they never did.
Before all this, we were simple friends, distant.
I thought I knew his story.
But his real story was a secret shared among men — a world forbidden to women.
And that, in time, I came to understand.
Today, with the distance that years provide, I look back at that time and hardly recognize myself.
I was deeply blind. I’m ashamed to tell it, but at first, I was like a fifteen-year-old girl:
I sent him videos of me singing love songs, drew his face on bits of cardboard.
I felt happy, innocently alive.
Then everything changed.
I began to feel isolated: he no longer took me out, no longer invited me anywhere.
Disillusion struck suddenly.
I went from love to anger, from tenderness to a thirst for revenge.
I wanted only one thing: to destroy him — with the same intensity with which I had felt betrayed.
He had a magnificent smile.
His mischievous eyes radiated a false innocence that inspired trust — and that’s why women fell at his feet.
He was a womanizer, but not a liar.
When he knew you knew, he simply made you understand that’s just how he was — or you left.
I think he surrounded himself with men without hearts.
Later, I heard several people say he was a true Don Juan —
that he destroyed his conquests before they even realized it.
He was addicted to sex, and he offered it on a silver platter you couldn’t turn away from.
I then understood that loving without return is to brush against damnation.
Perhaps love is that sweet disease one is better off never catching.
I, who thought I was immune to those artists of love,
ended up being one of their victims.
My insecurity grew each day.
I began to suspect it was all part of a calculated strategy:
no one could ever confirm that he was with me.
And I… had to keep silent.
That was what he demanded.
What was a playful game to him
was, to me, a silent threat:
“Either you stay… or you drown.”
Over time, I managed to resign myself and, finally, to end it.
Years later, life — which always has a strange sense of irony — made our paths cross again.
It happened at a friends’ gathering.
When I heard his voice, I felt the ground move beneath my feet.
My body trembled, the color drained from my face.
Valeria, my friend who was chatting cheerfully, suddenly looked at me and asked,
— Are you okay?
— I think I need to go to the bathroom — I mumbled, wishing I could vanish.
His voice still echoed in the room, getting closer.
— Yes, Valeria… no, Valeria… — I replied aimlessly, pretending to be calm.
Then, a kind man approached our group.
It was Roberto.
He started a light conversation — just as the Fox appeared with his new victim.
I was still in shock.
— Want to go to the bathroom? — insisted Valeria.
— No, I think I’m better now, thank you — I said, though I could barely stand.
The Fox came near, as calm as ever, and kissed me on the cheek.
— Hi! — he said naturally.
— Hi — I replied.
He introduced me to his new victim.
— Hello — she said.
— Hello — I answered, discreetly observing her.
She was taller than me, strong, with a large nose. Not beautiful,
but I knew instantly she was another Hare —
one more in the artist of love’s collection of souls touched and then forgotten.
I gathered all my strength.
I stayed chatting with kind people — Valeria and Roberto — who had no idea what was happening inside me,
while a wave of pride slowly rose within.
I had passed the test the demon had placed before me that night.
As I said goodbye, I greeted everyone politely,
even the Fox and his new victim.
I stepped out into the cold night air.
In my hands, I held a white rose — a symbol of friendship given to each guest.
I walked back to my fortress with a calm stride.
I poured myself a glass of red wine, prepared a small plate of food, and toasted silently,
thanking life for having returned my soul to me.
And I told myself:
“This Hare is still alive… and will be far more cautious along her path.”
Chasa