They spoke for a little longer before he apologized again and actually wished her happiness with Gio and she hugged him goodbye. Just like 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 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 beat 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 printed 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.

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.

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.

Love triangle ploy to boost publicity of Sanchez/Bautista fight. Couple happily back together.