Just hearing her voice made him feel better already and he smiled despite his rough morning. “Yeah, just walked in.”
“So did you tell him or did he find out on his own?”
Gio sat up slowly. “He found out. Why? What did he say to you?”
“I just got a couple of harshly worded texts.”
Already he could feel the anger bubbling in him. “Harshly worded? Like what?”
“He’s mad, Gio and hurt. He’s doing and saying the expected.”
Gio sat at the edge of the sofa now. “Doing? What’s he doing?”
She sighed. “Nothing bad really. He set me up with a laptop so we could video chat and was paying for the internet service on it so I could have the fastest service available up here. This morning Toni called to tell me about the photos going viral all over the internet. When I tried to log on the service was already disconnected. It’s no big deal. I didn’t expect him to keep paying for it. I’ll just get it under my name when I get paid again. It’s kind of blessing actually. Maybe it’s best that I don’t read all the stuff being posted about me.”
Gio stood up, glad that money didn’t buy everything otherwise Bianca might still be with Felix instead of him. “And what did he say?”
“Gio, what do you think? I betrayed him with his best friend.”
“Noah’s my best friend,” he reminded her. “And I don’t give a shit if he’s pissed, Bianca. I don’t want him harassing you. Maybe you should block his ass..”
He got that Felix was pissed. But Felix hadn’t exactly been an angel himself. Gio thought about the jazz singer he’d brought with him to the gym the day he invited Gio to train with him. According to Bianca, they’d been exclusive since last summer. So the chick in Chicago probably wasn’t the only one he’d been screwing while in a relationship with Bianca. As mad as he was now he had a lot of fucking nerve saying anything harsh to her. Like it or not, Bianca was Gio’s girl now and he’d be damned if he would put up with Felix or anyone disrespecting or harassing her.
“It was just two texts early this morning,” she said. “Basically to let me know he knew and had thrown you out, though I already knew you were leaving. And of course to tell me he wanted nothing to do with me ever again.”
“Yeah,” Gio turned when he heard the front door open. “He said that to me, too.”
His mother walked in the room. “Giovanni? Oh my God, your eye! What happened?”
“Nothing, Ma.” He covered the mouthpiece on the phone not wanting to get into the whole thing right now. “One of Felix’s jabs slipped during training, that’s all.”
“Your eye?” Bianca asked. “What’s wrong with your eye?”
Gio moved the phone to his other ear as his mother moved in to examine his eye closer. “I’m taking you to the emergency room. This looks terrible!”
“I’m fine, Ma, really.”
“Emergency room?” Bianca’s voice got louder. “Did you two fight over this?”
Great, he had two hysterical women on his hands now. “Bianca, let me call you back.”
“No. Answer the question. Was there a fight?”
Gio sighed turning his back to his mom. “Something like that. I’ll tell you about it a little later, okay? I’ll call you back soon. I promise.”
His mother walked around to face him, as adamant about taking care of his eye as he knew she’d be. Bianca finally agreed to wait for him to call her back and he hung up.
After finally convincing his mother there was no need for a trip to the emergency room, he was able to take a moment and log onto the internet. Bianca’s friend Toni and Noah were right. The pictures and story were everywhere. He frowned at some of the headlines.
Sanchez’s two-timing girlfriend caught red-handed in the arms of his best friend.
But the comments from readers were even worse. Some made him slam his fist against the table. They were making comments like the one Felix had made about Bianca doing the rest of 5th Street.
The only good thing was that apparently whoever took the photos took only two of them together that night. It must’ve been on a phone camera because the quality was very poor but they were clear enough that there was no denying what was going on. One was of them against the van kissing and another as they climbed in it. The rest of the photos going viral were taken at the bar. They had the story all wrong too. Most said Felix caught them and that’s what the scuffle at the bar had been about.
Clicking on link after link other photos of the two of them began to surface. Stills of them on the slopes and even a couple of them leaving her grandmother’s shop. He’d searched online before for stories about Bianca and Felix and he’d never seen any of these. Whoever took them obviously didn’t think them newsworthy until now. Now they could add their captions and create a story. All of the photos were innocent enough but the captions told stories of how they’d been betraying Felix for months and how these photos captured their “growing affair.” As if any of these people knew what the fuck they were talking about.
For a moment Gio understood the frustration Felix talked about when he said he hated having to explain the stories about him with other girls to Bianca over and over.
Worried Bianca might have seen these already and that she might be upset he called her but it went to voicemail. He left a message and took another aspirin. Logging off the internet he swore he wouldn’t read even one more story about it. Everyone could just screw themselves. The stories would die down soon enough and the tabloids would move on to the next celebrity scandal. The only thing that mattered was that no matter what anyone felt or said about it, he and Bianca were free to be together now. Nothing and no one could keep them apart.
CHAPTER 23
It’d been days since the scandal broke—days since Bianca had last seen Gio and an eternity since she’d last kissed his lips. She hadn’t even been able to say goodbye properly. What was worse was that this could go on for much longer.
Both Bianca and Gio had assumed that the story would die down soon enough. Not only had it not calmed down, they were turning it into a full-blown soap opera. The paparazzi were relentless in their pursuit of a statement from any of the three parties involved in the, now internationally talked about, love triangle. Because they were all Hispanic, even the Spanish tabloids had gotten in on it.
Bianca dropped the only class she’d taken on campus that spring because the once respectful photographers and sleazy journalists were on her now, as Nana so nicely put it, ‘like flies on shit.’
Gio had been fined for flinging one photographer’s camera across the 5th Street gym parking lot. They were forced to lay low for now. The media wanted nothing more than to get more of the story that had everyone talking. At first, Bianca didn’t understand why it was such a huge deal, then she remembered Andy. Felix’s publicist always said any publicity was good publicity. Felix’s fight was just weeks away and Andy was probably loving the media circus surrounding Felix. If she didn’t know any better he was probably working around the clock to keep refueling the story himself. If she was right, this wouldn’t die down at least until after Felix’s fight two weeks from today. Bianca groaned at the thought that it might be that long until they could be together again.
Nana and her mother who’d, as expected, been upset about the dangerous situation she’d put herself in, were over it now. She knew they’d understand that she would’ve never even considered doing something like this unless she was crazy in love. Her mother even offered up her theory on why this had happened. It was simply meant to be. Bianca thought about that a lot. It made perfect sense. All the unlikely circumstances that led them to one another.
As usual, Nana had managed to shock her into silence when she told her she’d seen the twinkle in that boy’s eyes way back when he’d first been in the shop. Nana said that was the reason she made her comment about Felix being a fool to leave Bianca alone with such a good looking boy. Needless to say, neither her mom nor her grandmother were too surprised about how things
turned out.
Having already been forced to drop her only class that semester, and most infuriatingly being forced to stay away from Gio, Bianca refused to let the media frenzy dictate any other part of her life. So when Nana suggested she take some time off and stay home so she wouldn’t have to be hounded as much, Bianca adamantly refused.
She drove up the street toward the shop. Her grandmother had since made sure the paparazzi knew they weren’t welcome anywhere near her property, which included the parking lot, but they knew the law. As long as they stayed out of the parking lot they could still stake out the place from the street.
On top of the usual photographers’ parked cars she’d become familiar with, there was a news van today. A reporter stood facing the camera, speaking into the microphone as if she were covering some important news story. “Oh, give me a break,” Bianca muttered as she drove past the reporter and into the shop’s parking lot.
Both she and Gio had agreed to stop reading or watching any of the ridiculous tabloids. Each day they came up with another twist to the story that as far as she was concerned was over. She wasn’t even able to see him now. How could there be any more to add? She’d made Toni promise again to keep anything new she heard to herself. Bianca didn’t need to know even one more stupid unfounded detail of what they were saying.
She heard the cameras as the photographers stood in the street blatantly snapping away. Why the hell they wanted more photos of her walking into her grandmother’s shop was beyond her. Like she had all week, and unlike Gio, she refrained from flipping them off.
To her complete surprise, Felix was waiting for her inside. The last time she’d heard from him was the morning he found out. He’d obviously been furious because both texts were utter filth—the F bomb among other outrageous accusations. And when Toni had gone to pick up Bianca’s things from Felix’s place she hadn’t even been allowed on the property. Felix had one of the drivers meet her at the gate with a trunk full of Bianca’s belongings. The media had a field day posting pictures of the very van from the incriminating ‘caught red-handed’ photos driving up to Felix’s gate.
She stared at him speechless. No words. None at all came to mind. She hadn’t bothered to prepare anything to say to him if she ever spoke to him again because she honestly thought she never would.
“Can we talk?”
Bianca glanced at her mother and Nana who stood behind the counter. He’d obviously already spoken to them because they didn’t seem to have an issue with walking into the back room and leaving her alone with him in the otherwise empty shop.
Curious about what he could possibly have to say to her Bianca nodded. She walked around behind the counter and waited.
“I wanted to apologize to you.”
Bianca kept her jaw from dropping open as she stared into Felix’s genuinely remorseful eyes. She shook her head unable to find the words.
“I was mad when I found out—real mad. And hurt like hell, but I shouldn’t have said those things to you. I’m just glad I was too proud to call you. I didn’t want you to hear the hurt in my voice. I probably wouldn’t have even made it through the call the way I was feeling. You probably think I’m the biggest hypocrite in the world now. I should be…” He took a deep breath and glanced away. “I should be the last person on earth who’d buy into the media crap and maybe it’s just wishful thinking but I have to know. Is there any truth to what they’re saying?”
Bianca blinked, not understanding exactly what he was asking. “What they’re saying? They’re saying a lot of things, Felix. Most of it is all made up or assumptions but those pictures…” she gulped back the wave of guilt that threatened to drown her. No regrets. “The pictures were not doctored or anything if that’s what you’re asking me.”
“No, I know that. But I know I wasn’t completely honest with you before about Shelley and now that she did the interview I got to thinking maybe there is some truth to it. Maybe you did already know and that’s what drove you to—”
“What are you talking about? Because just so you know I haven’t watched or read any of it for days.”
His eyes went wide for a second before he recovered and stepped forward. “So you don’t know?”
Now she was getting annoyed. She’d gone out of her way to avoid hearing anymore of the madness and now here was Felix, of all people, forcing her to hear what the latest stupid story was. But she had to admit she was curious. It was big enough to have him come see her. “No, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Shelley.” He scratched his head. “When I told you about having seen her again even after me and you had become exclusive, I didn’t tell you everything. You were so mad already, I was afraid to.”
Just like he had the day he confessed the first time his eyes bounced all over the room before coming to rest on her. A few customers walked in forcing them to pause their conversation.
Bianca smiled at them. “Someone will be right with you.”
Having heard the bells on the door Nana was already out from the back. The customers stared at Felix, obviously recognizing him and then their wide-eyed stares were on Bianca. Bianca motioned for Felix to follow her in the back. “Where did you park? I didn’t see any of your cars out front.”
“I came in through the back. They still saw me but didn’t have as good an angle as they would’ve had if I came in through the front.”
Bianca walked through the small storage room all the way to the back door and stuck her head out. If there were any photographers out there they hid well because she didn’t see any. But then there’d been plenty of photos of her where she’d clearly been oblivious to the photographers because she didn’t remember seeing any of them when those particular photos were taken. Those were the ones that crept her out the most.
She turned back to Felix. “You think any of them are out here?”
“If they are, don’t worry. My bodyguard is out there. They already know him. He does the same thing I saw Gio do to one of their cameras.”
Bianca had to laugh as she stepped outside remembering the image Gio had downloaded and texted her of him hurling the guy’s camera clear across the parking lot. That was one of the last times either of them had checked or read any of the stories.
She turned back to Felix ready to hear the rest of his story. It was odd that they both stood there smiling even if for just a fleeting moment. She crossed her arms ready to finish this and cleared her throat. “So, you were saying?”
His wandering eyes started up again, wearing her patience thin. She didn’t want to be out here all day. “Shelley’s pregnant—with my kid.” Again Bianca held her jaw up but it was harder this time. “I didn’t tell her she should have an abortion. I just said at that time in my life I wasn’t ready for a kid. But that’s what the headlines everywhere are saying. And the only reason I didn’t tell her about you was because by the time I found out she was pregnant I’d already fallen for you hard. I was afraid she’d keep the baby just to spite me and I treated her pretty badly. Said some really nasty shit to her in hopes that she wouldn’t wanna have my kid because I was scared to death of losing you. I broke it off completely, Bianca I swear to you. You changed everything. You changed me. Everything was different with you—”
Bianca raised her hand. She’d heard enough. “Okay, you can spare me all the bullshit, Felix. None of that matters anymore, now does it? I honestly don’t care if you’ve changed or not. Just explain to me why you felt the need to come here and tell me all this now.”
He looked down at his feet and moved the snow around with the tip of his boot. Just another way to keep his eyes off hers. “You really didn’t know any of that?”
Bianca crossed her arms again and shook her head exasperated. “No, I didn’t Felix. What difference does it make now anyway?”
“Well, now that Shelley sold her story to the tabloids, they’re saying maybe you did this to get back at me. That maybe that’s why you and him aren’t even together anymore
, you just wanted to hurt me like I hurt you.”
“What?” she gasped.
“And, and...” he added quickly, his previously wandering eyes now fixed on hers. “If that’s true, then I deserve it, Bianca. I understand why you did it. It makes sense now why you stopped sleeping with me. I suspected you might know—even suspected you might be having some kind of flirtation with someone because of it but I never imagined that you and Gio—”
“That is not why I did it,” she huffed. “Believe it or not, Felix, I never set out to deliberately hurt you. I can’t believe you would even think such a thing. It just happened.”
“Okay, okay.” Now he held out his hands. “Maybe it was just karma then. Maybe I just deserved to be hurt. Which is what I was really thinking this whole time. I was a total dick with Shelley but now that’s all out in the open.” He tilted his head. “And now that we’re even, maybe we can still work something out.” His eyes went all sad on her and Bianca could barely believe what she was hearing. “I know after what I just told you, you probably don’t believe this anymore but I really am in love with you. I would’ve never even considered trying to work something out with any other girl after something like this but I’m telling you, with you, it’s different.”
The sincerity mixed with alarm made her nervous. And then he 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 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.”