The sincerity mixed with alarm made Bianca nervous. And then Felix let out a breath and frowned. “Andy wanted me to threaten her—threaten to go after her with everything I had—dig up any skeletons she might have and threaten to go public with them, all for the sake of intimidating her into having the abortion.” He looked away, and Bianca sensed he couldn’t look at her anymore. She was almost afraid to hear more. “I might’ve done it if this had happened before I met you. I actually considered it, but then I thought what if it was you? What if this had happened when I first ran into you again, before I really got to know you, and I’d done this to you. I didn’t know much about her either, but I kept thinking she could be just another sweet and special girl like you, who I’d be screwing with just to cover my own ass—I couldn’t do it. That’s when I realized I’m not the same guy I used to be and it’s because of you. I’m giving her whatever she needs, and I plan on being there for my kid, but there’s nothing else going on between me and her. So I guess . . . ” His eyes looked deep into hers for a moment then looked away again. “I guess I was hoping this was just your way of giving me a taste of what I deserved but maybe now that you had you might consider giving me a second chance.”
Bianca stared at him, flabbergasted for a moment before shaking her head and speaking. “Felix, I’m sorry that I hurt you. I really am. But let me assure you I am not that type of person. I would never play those kinds of games just for the sake of revenge. I wish that I could explain to you why I did it, why it happened, but I don’t even understand it yet myself.” She brought up her hand and waved it over her head. “And this. All this craziness with the media is why Gio and I haven’t been together lately, not because we’ve stopped seeing each other but because I don’t want to give them anymore to write about. I want it to just go away already so that seeing him won’t be such a circus.”
The disappointment in his eyes made her feel guiltier, and at that moment, she knew everything he’d said about how he’d changed after falling for her was true. Unfortunately, it was too little too late. “I believe you, Felix. I believe you’ve changed and that’s good for you. But my heart is in another place now. I can’t do anything about that. I don’t want to.”
They spoke for a little longer before he apologized again. He actually wished her happiness with Gio and she hugged him goodbye. Just as she’d known from the very beginning, Felix did have a good heart. It just took him a while to figure out his heart could be happy in only one place.
~*~
Gio
Gio walked into the gym office, ready to pack up his stuff, just as Jack stood from the desk where he and Hector had been playing chess. “He beat you again, Jack?”
“Yeah, damn it. I’ll get him one of these days.”
Hector laughed. “Not likely. It’s been a long, long time since anyone’s beaten me.”
“Abel’s right, you smart ass,” Gio said, throwing the paperwork for the new youth boxing classes he was trying to get going into his backpack. “You should join the chess club at school. There’s gotta be some kind of scholarship you can pick up as good as you are.”
Hector rolled his eyes. “Don’t get him riled up on that again. I walked in there once and walked right out. Nothing but nerds, and don’t get me started on the chicks in there.” His face soured.
Gio glanced at Jack who was over by the wall heater, fiddling with it. “Well, you’re not there to pick up, ass. You’re there for the possible scholarship.” He turned back to Jack. “I thought you had that fixed.”
“I did,” Jack said without turning away from the heater. “But it stopped working a few days ago.”
That thing was so ancient Gio didn’t know why Jack bothered with it. It didn’t even heat much either when it did work, and it always stunk like gas. Gio had warned Jack a few times about getting it checked again.
His phone rang just as he finished zipping up his backpack. He pulled it out of the backpack’s front pocket and saw it was Noah, so he answered. “What’s up?”
“So what happened?”
“With what? The paperwork?” Noah was going to be helping him get the classes going.
“No, with you and Bianca. You ain’t seeing her anymore?”
Gio pinched his brows together. “No. I am.”
Noah was quiet for a moment. “They’re saying she’s back with Felix. Roni saw pictures. She’d told me earlier this week that’s what the rumor was since you two haven’t been seen together. I told her it was bullshit until she showed me the pictures of the two of them just today. She’s laughing in some, and then in another one, they’re hugging. They’re calling the whole thing with you and her a publicity stunt for his fight. You haven’t heard about this?”
As much as Gio knew the media was full of shit and how ninety percent of everything they wrote was completely made up, he hated that his heart was already beginning to beat a little harder. This had to be some kind of bullshit story. “I don’t read or watch that shit anymore. I’m sick of it. So, no, I hadn’t heard anything about this, but just like the rest of the crap they write, it isn’t true either. She’s still with me and those photos are probably old.”
“The stories are probably a lie, but the pictures aren’t old.” Noah said very matter of fact. “They were taken today. Did she tell you about seeing him today?”
“I haven’t talked to her. I was just now gonna check my messages and texts, but my phone rang. I’ll call her right now.”
Anxious to get this straight now, Gio was off the line with Noah in seconds. He did have a text from her and he clicked on it.
Text: Call me when you can. We need to talk.
No x’s and o’s or smiley faces like she usually added to her texts. Gio gulped, hitting speed dial. He wasn’t jumping to any conclusions. The damn paparazzi had done enough already by keeping them apart this long. He wasn’t about to let them mess with his head. He’d get this shit straight right now. Thoughts about how the last two times he offered to drive up to see her and she discouraged it popped in his head. She had perfectly good reasons for it. It’d been a media frenzy up there ever since the story broke about them. His showing up now would only make it worse. Not once had it even entered his mind that she might be blowing him off.
When it went to voicemail, he sat down in front of the computer on Jack’s desk and set the phone down. He logged onto the Internet and Googled Bianca Rubio. Immediately all the endless articles about the scandal came up. He scrolled through the newer ones: the ones he hadn’t seen or heard anything about.
Headline: Boxer’s love triangle all a publicity stunt to hype fight. Exclusive first photos of Sanchez and Rubio back together again.
He clicked on the link and froze. The pictures of Bianca and Felix were dated today. Like Noah said, these weren’t old. In them, they were engaged in what seemed like a happy conversation, since in some of them they were not only smiling but laughing. Then there was the one of them hugging, Felix’s arm tightly around her waist, her arms around his neck, face resting against his chest, eyes closed—today.
His phone rang just as the thrumming in his ears started up. With his heart in a near panic, he glanced at the caller ID. It was her.
“It smells like gas in here.” Hector’s words barely registered as Gio answered his phone, still staring at the picture on the screen.
“Bianca?”
“I have to make this quick, Gio. I’m rushing back to my car right now. I tried to make a stop at the market. Bad idea. This is getting out of control.”
Gio clicked on more of the headlines.
Headline: Love triangle ploy to boost publicity of Sanchez/Bautista fight. Couple happily back together.
“Were you with Felix today?” His own words sounded odd, like he was hearing someone else say them.
Bianca sighed on the other end just as Jack banged the heater making Gio look up.
“Yes, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
Gio straightened out in his chair, feeling a bolt of something almost electric sear through him. “So these pictures were really taken today?”
“Pictures?”
“Yeah, Bianca,” he stood up unable to sit anymore. “Pictures of you and him together laughing—hugging—his fucking arms around your waist.”
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “They have pictures of that already?”
It all sunk in at once: The realization that the photos weren’t fake. They weren’t old. She’d really been with Felix today. Her sudden declining need to be with him. Noah’s theory. The pungent smell of gas in his nose as he looked up to watch Jack take that last hit at the heater with a screwdriver that caused a small spark.
The explosion was massive, sending Jack flying across the room. Gio’s body was lifted into the wall behind him, whipping his head back violently. The desk with everything on it flew right into his face, and everything went silent.