Below the Belt

by Sidney Halston

  “Hi, girls,” he said, smiling at his nieces.

  “Tío Tony!” the two girls squealed.

  “What are you doing here?” his mother asked in Spanish.

  As he usually did, he answered in English. “Wanted to see my favorite girls.”

  “Bullchit. You didn’t even know I was babysitting. Why you really here, hijo?”

  His response was a shrug as he unbuckled the girls from their high chairs, picked them up, and swung them around. For the next few hours he played with his nieces and ate his mother’s food. When his sister came to pick up her daughters, he had a few beers with his brother-in-law. It was late in the afternoon when he left, stuffed and with containers full of leftovers. All he wanted to do was lie down and go into a fried-food-and-carb coma without any judgment. It had taken everything in him not to kiss Francesca that morning and tell her how much he loved and missed her. But she’d only come back to babysit him. She hadn’t come back for him. It was all business, and that hurt more than he cared to admit. He was happy Francesca’s car was not there when he pulled into his driveway, but he also couldn’t help worrying about where she was. Miami was a big city, and he assumed that she was staying at least the night, since it was a long drive back. He sent her a quick text: Where you staying?

  As he waited for her response, he grabbed a soda, kicked off his shoes, put his feet up on the coffee table, and surfed for a movie on the television. The three kittens shot into the room, and he immediately began to sneeze. “Damn it. Girls, you can’t be on the couch.” He shooed them, careful not to touch them too much, into the cat tree that stood at the far end of the house. Then a big brown cat sauntered over and rubbed its side against Tony’s calf. “Who the hell are you?”

  Reluctantly, he turned the collar. “Winston?” he said out loud, and the cat purred. The collar had Francesca’s name on it in case of an emergency. “Since when does Francesca have a cat? A cat named Winston?” He shook his head and decided to ignore the cat for now. He washed his hands and threw his shirt on the floor before taking an antihistamine. Within half an hour, he was sound asleep, not having heard back from Francesca.

  —

  Francesca stared at her phone. Where you staying?

  She had typed five different responses to that question, ranging from the full-on bitchy None of your fucking business, asshole to I miss you—can I stay at your house? but had deleted all of them. That’s how all-over-the-place her emotions were. She had found a hotel near the gym and was lying in bed with a pizza box and a small wine bottle from the minibar. Since none of the hotels allowed pets, she had left Winston at Tony’s house; she knew he’d take care of him, and really, he already had three cats, so what was one more?

  She read the text one last time and decided the best response was no response, since she needed to get a handle on what exactly she wanted. All she knew was that the priority had to be the upcoming fight; they needed to put their differences aside and work hard to win. Everything else needed to be dealt with after the event. She fell asleep an hour later thinking that tomorrow they needed to have a serious chat. At the very least, they had to agree to be civil, professional, and friendly.

  At nine the following morning, Francesca knocked on Tony’s door. Cain opened it and let her in. “He’s up but he’s late again,” Cain said, then motioned to the box of donuts on the kitchen table. Her brow furrowed, and she looked at Cain questioningly. “He brought them.”

  She grabbed a donut and began to eat it. “He hungover?”

  “Don’t know,” Cain responded as he sipped his coffee. When Tony finally came down, he was in his gym clothes. He gave her a terse hello and then grabbed a donut for himself.

  Cain snatched it from Tony’s hand and tossed it in the garbage. Tony scowled before reaching for another. “You’re not goin’ to make weight,” Cain said. Francesca took the entire box and threw it away. Tony’s eyes narrowed at both of them. He opened the refrigerator, took out a container, and opened it. It looked like homemade pastries. It was like an orgy of carbs and hydrogenated oils.

  Francesca and Cain watched Tony stuff himself with a plateful of pastries and buttered French bread. With a mouthful of food, he said, “We’ll head out in ten minutes.”

  Something soft touched her ankle and she looked down to see four cats purring. She reached down and began caressing their soft fur.

  “Who the hell names their cat Winston? It’s a ridiculous name.”

  “Says the man with three kittens named Ariel, Bella, and Snow White.”

  “Cinderella,” he corrected with a mouthful of food.

  “Whatever.”

  “When did you get a cat?”

  She lifted her shoulder and let it drop. “I saw your kittens before I left and decided I wanted one too.”

  “That’s not a kitten. That’s a baby tiger. It’s fucking huge. I hope it doesn’t eat my kittens.”

  Francesca looked down at her big brown cat. Okay, so maybe he was big. Maybe she was overfeeding him? “So, are you like a crazy cat lady or something? What’s with your cats?”

  He swallowed a mouthful of milk. “I thought my nieces needed pets. We never had pets growing up.”

  “Me neither,” she put in.

  “So I bought them all kittens.”

  “That explains the names.”

  “Yes. The names,” he groaned. “Two of my sisters, Anita and Maria, were okay with it, but Isabella was not, so she left her daughters’ three cats with me. I should’ve taken them back to the shelter.”

  “No!” Francesca broke in.

  “But,” he added quickly, “I couldn’t do it. Now I’m stuck with three kittens named after Disney princesses.”

  “Oh, they’re not so bad,” Francesca said.

  “I’m allergic. I have to take an antihistamine every time I come inside my house now.”

  She looked up at him and burst into a fit of laughter. “Yet you’re keeping them.”

  “Yet I’m keeping them,” he answered.

  She smiled at him before looking back at the kittens. The man was certainly a conundrum.

  Then he took a huge bite of pastry. Red filling dripped down one side of his mouth. He licked around his lips.

  Cain watched as Tony grabbed another pastry. “Sure about that, brother?”

  In response, Tony looked at him and took a huge bite of the fried goodness, crumbs falling everywhere.

  Francesca shook her head and watched Tony. She wasn’t sure if he was being defensive because she and Cain had called him out on his diet, or lack thereof, or if he was just being plain dumb. One thing she was certain of: in about twenty minutes he’d regret it.

  —

  Half an hour later Francesca walked into the gym. Tony was on the treadmill, so she decided to get on the one next to him. She got a good pace going but had barely broken a sweat. “This is nice, don’t you think? We should do this more often now that I’m in town,” she said.

  Tony grunted. “Yeah. Nice.”

  She chuckled and continued her run. Forty-five minutes later, the machines came to a stop. Francesca looked over at her electronic monitor and then at his. “Well, look at that. I ran one mile more than you did.”

  His breathing was shallow. “I didn’t know we were in a race.”

  She lifted her shoulder and smiled cheekily. “We weren’t. Just an observation.” She slapped his butt and winked.

  “You’re too chirpy. It’s annoying.” He scowled as he wiped his face with a towel, and he looked a little green.

  “Or maybe someone ate too much junk before working out, and that someone is grumpy.”

  He huffed before walking away, and she followed closely behind. Cain was waiting by the mats at the rear of the mostly empty gym. “We’re going to work on the floor today.”

  “Oh, goody. I can help,” Francesca said. She knew she was annoying the hell out of Tony, but the man had to learn a lesson.

  “I’m not doing that today.”

&nbs
p; “Wasn’t a request,” Cain said.

  “I’m not fucking rolling around on the ground today. We’ve been doing that shit for weeks. I need to make sure I don’t get my face pummeled, so I’m going to work on the speed bag.”

  “Tony!” Francesca barked. “You are not in charge. You have to follow Cain’s regimen.”

  “You two are just trying to make a point because of the fucking diet thing. I don’t need you to tell me how to cut weight. I know what I’m doing and I’m not grappling today.”

  Francesca stood straighter. “You are.”

  “Am not.”

  “What are you, ten? I’m not getting into this with you, Tony. You will do what Cain says.”

  “No skin off my back, brother,” Cain put in. “You already lost once. Maybe this time you’ll have to tap out.”

  “Rodrigo’s a World Class champion on the ground. He’ll completely crush you. I bet he’s taking his training seriously, while you, on the other hand…well…” She cocked an eyebrow and crossed her arms. “You’re developing a little gut. You need to cut weight.” She poked his stomach.

  Without missing a beat he grabbed her finger and pulled her so quickly and brusquely toward him that she almost lost her footing. He leaned down and put his lips close to her ear so that only she could hear. “Listen up. You’re not going to tell me what to do.”

  “Yes, I am. I am in charge. You signed a contract with Worth the Fight Academy. If you don’t start doing what Cain says you need to do, I swear to God, I will invoke the terms of the contract.”

  “Which are?” he barked.

  “You’ll be penalized every time you miss practice. And if you lose the fight, we can sue you for breach of contract because you didn’t train. You didn’t try.”

  “If you think I give a fuck about money, you obviously don’t know shit about me.”

  She was so shocked she was speechless. At last she said, “Listen, I didn’t come to Miami to fight with you.” She swallowed. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry that everything is all screwed up and the lines have been blurred and that you’re pissed at me. But you have to train, Tony. Please trust that I know what’s best. If not, at least trust Cain, okay? Be that fighter I used to watch on pay-per-view winning bout after bout. The guy I spent a shitload of money to bring into my team. Be that guy again. I know you can win this, Tony. Just try. Please.”

  After a brief hesitation he walked past her, threw his bag aside, and got on the mat with Cain. Francesca let out a relieved breath.

  —

  The next day, Cain advised her that Tony had spent all day working on his ground skills. She put on a long white maxi dress, styled her hair, slipped on heels, and drove to his house.

  “You look unbelievable,” he said when he opened the door.

  “May I come in?” she asked, and he stepped aside to let her in. “Where’s Winston?”

  Tony pointed to the other kittens. “Over there. He’s taken over all the cat toys.”

  “Thanks for watching him for me. Listen, I want to take you out to dinner. I haven’t really seen much of the city, so I thought maybe we could go to your favorite restaurant. My treat.” His brows knitted questioningly. “Cain told me how hard you trained today, so thank you for that. Plus I’ve spent two days eating fast food. I could use a real meal, and I don’t know any places around here.”

  He said nothing, and she began to think that maybe this hadn’t been a good idea. “Uh…it’s no big deal. Never mind.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “I’ll just go. I’m sorry I…uh…okay, bye.” She turned to leave, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her into him. She could’ve sworn he sniffed her, but she didn’t move.

  He looked tired, and there was a sadness behind his eyes that she’d never seen before. “Let me just go change. I’ll be right back. Make yourself at home.”

  Francesca took the opportunity to really look at his house. Everything was modern, long straight lines and hard edges. The cold marble floors lacked an area rug, the pale walls with modern art lacked photos of family and friends. It all seemed very sterile and generic. She loathed it. But the purr of the cats brought a smile to her face. She kneeled on the floor and the three kittens quickly rushed to her, but Winston’s big fat furry body pushed the kittens aside and he tried to jump on her. At the last second, she remembered that Tony was allergic and quickly stood before they had a chance to get too close to her. She bent at the waist and cooed and talked to them from a distance.

  “Hope you didn’t rub yourself all over them, or else I’ll be sneezing all night,” Tony said as he came down the stairs.

  “Nope. I remembered and stayed away. It was hard, though.” She looked down. “They’re so freakin’ cute.”

  He chuckled. “So are you.” She looked up at him and smiled back. “So where are you staying?”

  “At a hotel a few blocks from your gym. It’s nice.”

  “How long are you staying in town?”

  “Until the fight,” she responded.

  “I have so many empty rooms, you should just stay here. You can have the spare room at the end of the hall. Don’t waste your money on a hotel.”

  “I—uh—I don’t know.”

  “At the very least, I hope we’re friends.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Then give me a good reason why you don’t want to stay here.”

  She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, instead of stating the obvious.

  He shook his head. “You’re staying here. I’d do it for any of my friends. Cain’s staying out back. You can stay too. You can help me with the cats. I can’t get close to them.”

  “Okay, but are you sure?”

  “Of course. Come on, let’s go check you out of the hotel and get your stuff and bring it back before we go to dinner.”

  “If you’re sure…”

  “Yes. I’m sure.”

  An hour later he was dropping her bags on the floor of the spare room. He handed her a paper with the code to the front door scribbled on it. “Here, don’t lose it.”

  “I won’t.” She folded the paper and stuck it in her purse. “Come on. I’m starving.”

  —

  “This is lovely.” Francesca closed her eyes and inhaled the warm ocean breeze. They were seated outside at a trendy Ocean Drive restaurant filled mostly with affluent tourists.

  Tony smiled at her. It was nice to see her, especially since she seemed so much more relaxed. “I’m glad it’s not too hot and we were able to sit outside. It’s a fun place to watch all the eccentric people walk by, and the food is great.”

  Francesca picked up her menu and began looking it over. “How was today? Cain said you did great.”

  “Everything hurts.” He stretched his arms over his head.

  “Will probably hurt more tomorrow. But it’ll be worth it. You really needed the training—Rodrigo’s a black belt in jiu jitsu.”

  Tony leaned back and crossed his legs, ankle to knee. “Oh, that sounds serious.”

  “Don’t be an ass. He’s good, Tony. I’ve seen—”

  He groaned and was on the verge of saying something that would undoubtedly erupt in an argument, but at the last moment he decided against it. Luckily, the waitress came at that moment to tell them about the long list of specials, which served as a great distraction. When she left them alone again to decide, Tony skimmed though the menu and tried to enjoy Francesca’s company. Any mention of Rodrigo, or of any man who had even so much as looked at Francesca, irked him. It immediately soured his mood. But he understood he was being ridiculous, especially since he had a past himself. He was trying to keep his jealousy and temper in check, but when he heard Rodrigo’s name it took some serious internal reflection to cool him down. He didn’t want to ruin a nice evening out.

  “What are you going to order?” she asked. “Maybe I’ll just get that special with the shrimp.”

  He shrugged.

  “Have you been here many times?”

  “No.
Just once or twice.”

  She set her menu down carefully, clasped her hands together on the table, and looked at him. He looked back. They were at a stalemate. One of them had to speak soon, and he wasn’t planning on being the first.

  “What’s going on with you tonight?”

  He closed his menu abruptly, put it aside, and leaned forward. “I’m just annoyed. But it’s nothing. Really.” He reached for her hand across the table and squeezed it. “I’m really glad we’re here, Francesca.”

  She looked at him curiously for a moment before smiling as the waitress came by to take their order.

  They both sat back and let the nice summer breeze envelop them. They people-watched in silence, both lost in their thoughts. As soon as the food was set in front of them, they began to eat. She immediately picked out all the tomatoes and placed them on his plate without looking up.

  When they weren’t arguing, he thought, they worked well together. Apart they were kind of a mess, but as a unit they were perfect. He made her strong where she was weak, and she pushed him to his limits when he needed pushing.

  “Let’s go get a drink,” he said once he had taken care of the bill. He was about to grab her hand but stopped himself, unsure where they stood. There was too much awkwardness radiating off them, and it bothered him.

  —

  He walked up to the bouncer, who tapped his fist against Tony’s before moving the velvet rope aside to let them through. Tony led them to a quiet area off to the side. “Be right back. Stay here.” He strode away before she could reply.

  “Frances? Frances, is that you?”

  She turned around to find one of her oldest friends, someone she hadn’t seen in years. “Justin? Oh my God, honey! How are you?” she squealed, and threw her arms around him. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m dating the owner!” Justin winked. “I come in and help out when it gets really busy.”

  “I tried to look you up when I moved back to Tarpon Springs.”

  “You’re living there again?”

  “Yep. Dad got sick, and I’m running the Academy.”

  “Well, you won’t find me in that little town anytime soon. I moved to Miami about six years ago. I met Chris last year, and now we’re living together and it’s just been magical.” He put his hands on her shoulders and gave her a once-over. “And you, darling? You look stunning!” He leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek.