“In his f**king cabin. She calls herself his girlfriend and she looks even better than she did back then.”

“You’re kidding me. Bianca? How the hell did that happen?”

Gio explained everything Bianca had told him then added, as he sat back down on the bed running his hand through his hair, “She’s still as sweet as I remember her being and she really does seem to care about him. What sucks is he’s probably gonna do to her what he does to all the chicks he goes out with. Use her to his convenience.”

“You never know, G. Maybe she’s different.”

Damn right she was. “The hell I don’t know. I just saw his dumbass on TV. They had footage of him and some other chick walking into a hotel together in Chicago just today.”

Noah was quiet. He’d been Gio’s best friend since high school. Noah knew him too well and Gio knew he sounded a little more irritated than he should. He really shouldn’t care about this so much. He never had before when it came to Felix and his trysts. In fact, it’d been fun to hear some of his stories in the past. But this was different.

Before Noah could catch on to what Gio didn’t even understand he was feeling, he changed the subject abruptly. “So why did you want me to call you?”

“I need you to leave next weekend open.” Noah’s cheery voice was back. “Roni’s making dinner and wants everyone over.”

Finally, Gio had reason to smile. “Why? Is she pregnant?”

“Dude!”

“What?” Gio smiled even bigger.

Noah had told Gio about Roni getting off the pill and that he might be a dad soon. This was no surprise. As much as Noah, who was an orphan, had always put up a front about not caring that he had no family and that his friends were his family, Gio knew having a family of his own was huge for him. Noah had been almost giddy when he told Gio about it. As young as Noah was, Gio had no doubt he was mature enough and could more than handle fatherhood.

“Alright, but don’t ruin the surprise.” Again the smile Gio imagined on Noah’s face practically radiated through the phone. “She is, and since you’ve already ruined that part of the surprise I may as well tell you the rest. We’re getting married. I wanna do it before the baby is here so we’ll just have something small but she wants to go to Tahoe.”

“Tahoe?”

Noah told him about how since Roni couldn’t drink she could at least gamble and how she thought the snow would be extra romantic. They were basically eloping. Noah didn’t want anyone having to take time off and spend money to make it up to Tahoe but they’d have a little something when they got back. Noah was obviously excited. Gio couldn’t be happier for him. He’d never seen him so happy as when he was around Roni. He congratulated him whole-heartedly and was surprised that even with all the baby and wedding talk Noah went back to Bianca.

“So, you gonna be okay being around Bianca?”

The warm feelings of joy were suddenly overrun with annoyance. “What do you mean? Of course I am.” His words were so defensive he almost expected Noah to laugh but he didn’t.

Instead, he sounded even more serious. “All I’m saying is, I know you. You already sound like this pisses you off. And I’m with you. It’s bad enough Felix does this to girls in his own league but to dick around with someone like Bianca, who you say is so sweet and probably has no idea what she’s in for, sucks. You’re a good friend and if she warms up to you at all and vice versa it’s gonna make it even harder to know his ass is just toying with her.” Noah sighed. “You’re out there for a reason, man. To get your mind clear and ready to get back to how things were before. I just hope you’re not gonna get all caught up in this shit.”

Damn it if Noah didn’t read him like a book. He was already getting caught up and he hadn’t even been there a day. But he lied. “Nah, I’ll be cool. Fuck it. She’s gotta have some idea about what she was getting herself into with him. She can’t be that in the dark about it. Right?”

It was wishful thinking and it only made sense that she did. But something in his gut, something in those unsuspecting eyes of hers told him she was really buying whatever crap Felix was feeding her.

“I don’t know. You tell me,” Noah said. “Does she seem stupid?”

“No!” Just like that, he was back on his feet. “Just trusting. And she’s beautiful. Why wouldn’t she believe Felix could really be feeling what he’s probably telling her he is? In fact after spending the evening with her I was beginning to think maybe he did, until I saw him on TV.”

“Well, lets not jump to conclusions. We all know what the paparazzi can be like. Remember he told us about what they did with that photo of him and that ice skater a few months ago? This could be the same shit. And who knows maybe you can talk some sense into him. Tell him not to be such a heartless ass.”

Yeah. That was easier said than done. Just because Gio could talk to Noah like this didn’t mean he did with everyone. He’d been as close to Felix as he was to Noah once upon a time. But that was years ago. Gio sighed. He hadn’t even realized how much this really bothered him until Noah brought it back up.

“I guess. But I’ll be fine. Don’t worry, I won’t stress over this crap.”

Even Gio didn’t believe his own words and he was sure neither did Noah but he was ending this now. He wanted to hang up on a happy note. “Hey, congrats again bro. I’m really, really happy for you guys. Give Roni a hug for me okay?”