Gio (5th Street) (4 page)

It hit him just then. She actually did consider herself Felix’s girl. He thought of the girl Felix had just brought to the gym last week and for a second felt a little bad for Bianca.

“Honestly, I don’t know if he has or hasn’t, I was just saying. Based on your looks, that was my first thought.”

“Oh. Well, thank you.”
Now
her face tinged with color but just barely. Apparently, she was too caught up with the mention of Felix and a supermodel the first time he’d said it to notice the compliment. He made note of that and would make sure to be extra careful about his Felix comments from here on.

“How the hell did you and Felix hook up anyway? Did you two stay in touch since high school?”

She walked over to the bar area and Gio followed her. “No, it’s just a small world that’s all. I need water; you want anything to drink?”

“I’ll take a water.”

She walked behind the giant wooden hand carved bar and opened another door that was also covered in carved wood, but was actually steel—a giant refrigerator. She pulled out two waters, handed him one then opened hers but began talking before taking a drink.

“My grandmother owns a rental shop up here, downtown. I work there and he happened to come in one day, with a girl mind you. They were just shopping for souvenirs and just like you, I told him I remembered him from high school. It took him a moment but he actually remembered—said my name before I even told him what it was.” She paused to take a drink.

Gio drank some of his, fascinated by how much she’d changed physically. Yet she still seemed as down to earth as he remembered her.

“We talked for a little bit,” she continued. “About school and the old neighborhood and stuff. Then he left. A week later, he comes back and asks if I’d like to grab a coffee with him. We went out for coffee and the rest is well… what it is. This was last summer, so it’s been a few months now.”

Of course Felix would go back. He’d be nuts not to. Gio wondered if this was who he’d meant when he said he’d met someone that actually made him consider settling down.

“That’s crazy. Did you two know each other in high school?”

“No,” she smiled. “But I remember having a crush on him even back then. I knew him like I knew you. We had a few of the same classes every year but that was the extent of it.” She pointed at his jacket. “Were you going out?”

Gio looked down at himself. He’d forgotten he’d piled on the snow gear. “Just outside. I wanted to check out the rest of the compound.”

She put her jacket, gloves and beanie back on. They stepped out onto the porch together. It was freezing but beautiful outside. Living in Los Angeles his whole life and having only seen the snow a handful of times Gio still felt awestruck by it.

“So, you moved up here?” he asked as they carefully walked down the front stairs of the cabin.

“Temporarily, and before you ask, I have no idea how long I’ll be here. My grandparents bought a place up here when they retired. Odd, I know. Why would an older couple want to move to such a cold climate? Long story short, until my grandfather met my grandmother, he traveled all over. He actually lived in Alaska for a while. He’d hoped to move back when he retired but my grandmother wasn’t having it. So they compromised and moved up here instead. He died early last summer. Me and my mom decided to stay with my grandmother for a few weeks after he died and now months later I’m still here.”

“I’m sorry to hear about your grandfather.”

Bianca nodded looking up at him. “Heart disease—it ran in his family. His father passed of the same thing. So did his brother.”

Gio couldn’t help being distracted by her eyes. They were so big, so perfect like something out of magazine. Then it hit him. That’s why she’d seemed so familiar. He remembered now. Even back in high school he’d been taken by her eyes. He never even considered asking her out
because
of those eyes. They were so big and innocent looking. He steered clear of the innocent ones. With three younger sisters, he knew what kind of innocence there was behind those often doe-eyed expressions of hers.

Too young and too scared to commit to anything serious back in those days, Gio stuck with more experienced, wilder girls that he knew could deal with his noncommittal tendency. He wasn’t about to break any fragile hearts. Bianca’s eyes had fragile written all over them.

“Okay,” she said as they walked up the stairs of the gym. “Prepare yourself to be amazed.”

They walked in. Amazing wasn’t grand enough a word to describe the place. It had everything 5
^th
Street had only a hundred times better. Giant black and white stills of some of boxing’s greats adorned the wall—Joe Frazier, Sugar Ray, Mohammad Ali, Tyson and, very notably, two of East LA’s finest, Cesar Chavez and the Golden Boy himself, De La Hoya. It was a gym fit for a king, no doubt. Felix’s picture would soon fit right up there. Gio was suddenly overwhelmed with pride.

“And this is just a gym. Isn’t this crazy?”

“Crazy.” Gio chuckled. “Yeah, maybe that’s the word I’m looking for.”

Her phone buzzed and she excused herself saying it was Felix before walking away. Gio barely glanced at her; he was still taking in everything. The guys were going to fucking flip when they saw this.

A door slammed, jolting him out of his thoughts. He turned and Bianca was gone.

Bianca struggled to hold it together but the disappointment was too much. She’d looked forward to today all week—counted the days—the hours. God, she felt pathetic. She prayed her voice wouldn’t give. The last thing she wanted was to sound needy. “When will you know?”

“All I know is they just announced we’re snowed in for tonight.” Felix spoke quickly. “I’ve been waiting for hours just to get confirmation of that.”

“Why did you take so long to get there?”

“Same reason—the weather. Traffic was horrendous. We still got here on time but all flights were being grounded because of the blizzard.”

It was just as he said the word blizzard that she noticed his words were slightly slurred. Immediate thoughts of him actually partying instead of sitting at an airport like he was claiming assaulted her. “Have you been drinking?”

The most she would manage was not to frown; a smile was out of the question. She’d been looking forward to seeing him so much, she could almost feel his arms around her. “You think tomorrow for sure?”

“I can’t promise,” he said. She felt the warm tears fill her eyes again. “But I’ll do my best. The storm is pretty bad. The good thing is private jets get first dibs as soon as they open things up again. So I’ll be the first one out, okay?”

Bianca nodded, squeezing her eyes, holding her fist to her mouth. She didn’t want to speak, afraid her voice would betray her and give away how anxious she was to see him again.

“Hey,” he said when she didn’t respond. “I love you.”

Her eyes jerked opened. Even though they’d been going out for several months and were sleeping together already this was the first time he’d told her this. “What?”

“I do,” his laugh sounded a little nervous—a little unsure.

The L word was not something she threw around just like that. As much a she cared for him and as much as she’d begun to miss him when he wasn’t around she wasn’t sure it was love and she certainly hadn’t envisioned the day they did profess their love for one another to be over the phone. She wondered if it was the alcohol talking. “You do? Since when?”

He chuckled again the nervous tone still there. “I don’t know. Since now. This has been one of the most frustrating days of my life and I think I just figured out why. Because I’m dying to get to you already and now just hearing your voice…I love you, Bianca.”

She tried with all her might not to not get too excited about this but it was too late. She felt ready to jump out of her boots. “I love you, too.” The words flew out of her mouth without thought.

She giggled and she heard him laugh on the other end. “Damn, I can’t wait to be with you now. I’ll call you the second I know something, okay?”

“Okay,” she nodded again as if he could see her. Her mood had completely done an about-face.

The door to the gym opened and Gio walked out. She stood at the bottom of the stairs, her phone still at her ear. Gio mouthed the words, “You okay?”

It was only then that she realized a few tears still streamed down her face. She smiled, wiping them away, and gave him the thumbs up. Gio nodded and went back in the gym.

Felix explained to her he had arranged for dinner to be prepared for them tonight. He’d hoped it’d be a very special first night back together but said the dinner was still being prepared anyway and she should have dinner with Gio and the other trainers. He didn’t want her feeling lonely. They said their goodbyes and he promised he’d get to her tomorrow one way or another.

After hanging up she practically skipped up the steps to the gym. What she felt now was such a contrast to what she felt just minutes earlier when he laid the news on her about not making it up tonight. She’d been devastated. She had arranged to have the entire weekend off just to spend it with him. How could three little words make up for it all?

Gio was over by the ring talking to one of the other trainers. He turned when she walked in and smiled at her. She smiled back.

Bianca still couldn’t believe what a small world this really was. She’d recognized Gio almost immediately when she first saw him earlier. He hadn’t changed much since high school. He did look a little taller and she was sure underneath all those layers of snow gear he’d bulked up even more just like Felix had. But his face was still that same almost pretty face with the chiseled features she remembered from school. The girls went crazy for him even back then. She could only imagine what things were like for him now that he’d grown into his own. And his green eyes were just as amazing as she remembered.

At least three of her friends were in love with him back then. He’d always been nice enough to her in school but except for the times he was hitting her up to borrow paper or a pencil she was invisible to him. Felix at least flirted with her making it obvious that he acknowledged her as a girl he might actually consider. Of course, he flirted with
everyone
.

Gio, on the other hand, only ever gave her very polite, sometimes remorseful smiles when he was borrowing something from her—yet again. At times, it seemed he even avoided eye contact. So, no matter how beautiful it was when the boy smiled, even though it was usually at someone else, she never once allowed herself to even harbor a secret crush for him like she had Felix. Gio was completely out of her league and she never even bothered lusting over him.

“Everything okay?” Gio asked as she reached him. “Is he on his way?”

A twinge of disappointment crept back in but she pushed it away remembering Felix’s admission. She shook her head. “No, the airport is snowed in. The earliest he’ll make it is tomorrow but he’s not sure what time.”

“He’ll be here.” Gio gave her an reassuring smile.

Looking at that face, you’d never believe he was a boxer. Even Felix had a scar over one of his eyebrows and one of his cheekbones was slightly higher than the other from having gotten one too many blows to the cheek. Gio could’ve been a model as perfect as his face was.

Bianca turned to Ray, the trainer she knew best so far. “Felix arranged for dinner to be made for us tonight so you guys come on into the main dining room around six for dinner.”

Ray smiled nodding and tipped the brim of his baseball cap at her. She smiled back and turned to the other trainer Ignacio, who she wasn’t as familiar with. “You too, okay?”

After he agreed, she turned back to Gio. “Did you wanna see the rest of the place?”

“Sure.” He waved at the other trainers. “I’ll see you guys back inside.”

They walked out into a third building on the property. This one had a lap pool and cardio equipment. Two treadmills, a few elliptical machines, exercise bike, and televisions all around. “This is probably where you’ll be while he’s out doing his miles on the trails,” Bianca said. “He prefers running the trails to the treadmill so this room gets most of its use from the trainers.”

It suddenly hit her as she tried to make out his abrupt answer and she winced, feeling like a complete idiot. She remembered now hearing about it on the news and then Felix telling her about it, too. A boxing bout in her old neighborhood gone wrong and one was dead. It was shocking enough but when she’d heard it was Gio who’d been the opponent that killed the other guy it was even more of a shock.

That was almost a month ago and she’d since forgotten about it. “I’m uh… I’m sorry. I heard about what happened. I totally forgot… so you’re not boxing anymore?”

“Nope.” He walked over to the pool area.

Bianca followed him. “Is that why you’re here?”

Bianca had met all of Felix’s trainers. Some she knew better than others but Felix hadn’t made any mention of any new ones. Not that he was supposed to tell her everything about his training but seeing Gio had been a pleasant surprise and now this explained why he was here.