by Julia Derek
“Sorry I’m late, man. There was an accident on La Cienega that took forever to get around.”
I put an arm around his shoulders. “No worries, dude. Let’s get started.”
Jose grinned knowingly at me as we made our way down to the basement gym. “So things worked out with the chick then?”
I nodded. “Yeah. You were right. It was time to let go of the past and look at the future. How are things with you?”
“Good. If we can keep up this pace, I’m sure I’ll make it out alive.”
For once I’d been able to see Jose four times in a week, not a common occurrence. We usually still only got in three training sessions a week and never back-to-back like tonight, either, because he couldn’t get away from the gang or I had to train late.
“Yeah, let’s hope we can,” I said, sincerely hoping that. Jose was getting better at blocking my attacks and he was also much stronger, but I still worried that it might not be enough. He seemed to have a hard time remembering a couple of key moves, which was why I would have liked to do sessions more frequently with him. We didn’t have much time and had only recently decided that Jose would announce his wish to leave a little sooner than planned. The longer we waited, the bigger the chance that someone would start to suspect what Jose was up to. Even though Paco was behaving himself, not even asking for more money to protect Jose against Carlos’s attacks, this could change any day. Also, the more muscle Jose developed, the more suspicious the other members would get. Thank God he had a habit of wearing very baggy clothes. As long as they were unaware that Jose was preparing for the fight, they wouldn’t pull a fast one on him like they’d done to me but play it fair. And he might actually get out alive.
Ricki
“No!” Nina said after I told her all that had happened in the last couple of days. She and I hadn’t had time to catch up since she’d been busy shooting a commercial from early morning until late evening. All she knew was the text I’d sent her, telling her that there had been lots of crazy, great developments in my life. I also explained that I preferred telling her about them in person, not over text. I really wanted to see her face when she found out. I wasn’t disappointed; as I’d expected, her grin went from one ear to the other. “Oh, my God, Ricki, that’s great! I’m so happy for you. He actually called you his girlfriend already?”
“Yup,” I replied, still barely able to believe that he’d said that myself. But he had, so I guess it was official—Dante and I were a couple, as unbelievable as that seemed. He’d further confirmed his commitment to me by coming up during my session with Gabi yesterday and kissing me on the mouth in front of the entire gym. I couldn’t be more ecstatic. For once things were going like they should in my love life.
“Wow, and we who thought he was such a player,” Nina said, stretching out on my living room couch. She’d had her chocolate brown hair cut several inches in preparation for her part in the Steven Spielberg movie she’d shot a couple of months earlier. Instead of ending in the middle of her back, her hair now only reached just below her shoulders. “I guess we were wrong about that.”
I proceeded to give her every detail of the magic dinner date I’d shared with Dante yesterday—well, all except maybe fifteen minutes of it had been magical—because that was the part I’d been dying to talk to her about first; I’d wanted to relive it myself. After I was done rejoicing, I told her about his involvement with the gang and how he’d gotten out, and all the sadness about his dead girlfriend and his young mother’s tragic end. I also told her about how he was on probation for taking the blame for a crime he hadn’t committed, and how he had to work twice as hard to remain at Crunch.
Nina bit her lip as she shook her head. “And I thought that I’d had it rough. Poor guy. Well, at least he’s on the right track in life finally.” She patted my knee. “And he couldn’t have a better girlfriend than you, either.”
“Thanks, Nina, that’s really nice of you to say,” I replied. I had a big chunk of the carrot I was eating, almost choking on it when I remembered that I had more exciting news to give her. “Okay, so now let’s move on to Aidan…” I peered at her, smiling in a way I thought made me look mysterious. It was so much fun to be the carrier of so many mind-blowing events, and I wanted to make the most of them.
Nina stared at me. “The guy who’s more confused than a dog running into a meowing laptop? What did he do now? Tell you that he’s really into sheep?” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Well, from the way you look, it seems it can’t be something too upsetting…”
I smirked mischievously. “No, I can’t say it’s very upsetting, no…”
“Okay, stop it with the weird faces and tell me already!” This time she pinched my thigh instead of patting it nicely.
“Ouch!” I exclaimed. “Okay, okay. He’s going out on a date with Nixon this Friday.”
Nina’s pouty lips dropped open and she gasped, her hazel eyes big and round now. “No way…”
I nodded slowly. “Mmm-hmm, yes way. From what Nixon texted me earlier today, they’re going to this cute little place by the beach in Santa Monica for dinner on Friday. I think they’ll be great together, don’t you?”
Nina looked like she considered this. “Probably. Opposites attract, right? They’re definitely each other’s opposites, that’s for sure. At least physically speaking.”
“Yeah, but I think personality-wise, they’re pretty similar. They’re both really into fashion and design and old movies. And maybe Aidan isn’t as in to working out as Nixon is, but he is big on taking care of his health. In any case, it can’t be any worse for Nixon than the way his current relationship’s going with Simon.” I grimaced with disgust and Nina soon joined me. We both very much disliked Nixon’s on-again, off-again fashion designer boyfriend.
“You’re damn right about that,” Nina said, huffing. “Well, let’s keep our fingers crossed that it works out between them then.”
My phone buzzed on the coffee table. I reached for it to see who’d texted me. A smile spread across my face. A very delighted one this time.
Nina rolled her eyes. “Let me guess—it’s from Lover Boy. What did he say?”
I handed her my phone, not able to stop grinning. She took it and read what Dante’s text said: Thinking of you.
Simple, short and to the point.
She gave it back to me. “Well, I guess it’s good that we know you’re on his mind.”
“Uh-huh,” I said and nodded.
Nina threw a glance at her own phone. “I should go. I’m meeting up with Elle and her mom. They want to go over the wedding invitations again.”
Elle was Nina’s fiance’s little sister and used to be someone Nina hated—with good reason. Not so any longer. In fact, they’d gotten so close since Nina and Dylan got engaged I was beginning to get a little jealous. Nina got to her feet and grabbed her purse from the floor.
I gave her a meaningful glance. “Just don’t forget who’s your maid of honor,” I said.
She winked at me. “How could I ever forget that? You remind me every time we talk about the wedding… I have to admit that I do enjoy Elle’s company, but in all seriousness, babe, she could never replace you. And since the reception’s gonna be at their house, you can’t blame her and Dylan’s mom for wanting to go over the vast number of people who’ll be there.” Nina smirked. “Far too many if you ask me. I know their house is big, but it’s not that big.”
“It’ll be a blast,” I said, wanting to be encouraging now, after having yet again jabbed Nina with my jealousy. Besides, I did think the reception would be a blast.
I followed her to my door, gave her a hug and said good-bye. Then I went back to my living room couch and plopped down there. I grabbed my phone and scrolled through the text messages Dante and I had exchanged lately. Since our date last night, we’d already amassed more than a dozen between the two of us. Unlike the other night, Dante had gone home to sleep afterward. He’d said he didn’t think he’d be able to function on
three hours of sleep another day, no matter how crazy he was about me. There was no way he’d be able to just sleep, he’d added with that now familiar fire in his gaze, if he was lying next to me.
I couldn’t blame Dante for wanting to sleep in his own bed, get some much needed rest. As hungrily as he’d been kissing me outside my apartment building, there was no question he and I would be doing anything but sleep if we spent another night together. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if he really had been going home to sleep like he’d said. He’d been receiving a bunch of texts last night that he’d claimed he simply had to respond to in the middle of our dinner. He’d explained that it was a client who was driving him crazy and that he’d had no choice, but I wasn’t 100 percent sure I believed him. He’d just seemed… too preoccupied about the texts.
That same nagging suspicion that he was hiding something from me entered my mind now. Had he really stayed single since the death of his girlfriend? What if he’d only said that because it sounded better, not wanting to admit there had been other girls who’d been more to him than one-night stands? I didn’t doubt he was truly into me—I could feel his passion for me all the way into my core when we were together. But what was it that they said about Latin men? They were more hot-blooded than regular men. Latin men needed lots of action to be satisfied… At least that’s what I’d heard somewhere. And while Dante was only half Mexican, he was most definitely like your typical Latin man.
Was there someone else in Dante’s life? Someone whom he still had feelings for, someone he couldn’t quite stop seeing?
Someone who’d demanded his attention yesterday?
I shook my head, laughing at all the silly thoughts running through my mind. Surely it had only been a client, exactly like he’d claimed. I knew from having hung out with Nixon just how demanding clients could be, some more than others.
I got to my feet and went to get another carrot from my fridge. I supposed these were the repercussions I was bound to suffer from having been burned by several men—I was turning into this crazy, paranoid chick. Of course it had just been a demanding client and of course Dante had gone straight home to sleep, I told myself, shaking my head and chuckling. Then I returned to my living room to watch an episode of Girls.
Dante
Jose sighed, looking pained. “I’m sorry to be so crazy yesterday, man. I don’t know what happened. I haven’t had an attack like that in a while. I guess we’re just so close now and I thought it’d be all over for me before I even got a chance to fight. So I freaked.”
“It’s over, so stop worrying about it,” I said and went over to lean against the brick wall down in the Whiskey’s basement gym. Jose needed to switch into workout gear before we got started training. “It wasn’t something I couldn’t handle.” I wanted to add just don’t do it again, but I knew better than to do that. It would only serve to make Jose even more anxious with all the pressure he was under. He couldn’t help his sensitive nature; it was just the way he was made.
Paco had been messing with him all evening last night, and Jose had insisted on telling me about it via texts during my dinner with Ricki. At first I hadn’t been too worried, but as the texts had kept coming with increasing frequency, I hadn’t been able to just blow him off. Advising Jose to tell Paco we’d give him a hundred instead of fifty bucks from now on hadn’t been enough to calm him down. He’d clearly been going through an anxiety attack judging not only from how often his texts had appeared in my phone, but how they were written, too. All of them had contained misspelled words and incomplete sentences, a sure sign he wasn’t doing well, making more of the situation than was necessary. But there was nothing I could do but to tell him to chill out, that it’d all be okay.
I didn’t want to leave Ricki alone to go call him, because I knew I’d never get off the phone when he was in this mood. We’d been through them several times before. He’d be fine as long as he went somewhere dark and quiet and did some deep breathing. Besides, the way Ricki had kept looking at me each time I’d excused myself to deal with Jose had begun to give me a fucking anxiety attack. The inquiring look in her eyes that had become increasingly pronounced was very unsettling.
At last he’d stopped texting and we’d been able to resume our meal in peace. I’d done everything in my power to make up for my rude behavior by giving Ricki my full attention after that.
I watched Jose now as he was warming up, mixing dynamic stretches with jumping jacks.
“So you’re sure he’ll be fine with seventy bucks a day?” I asked.
“Yeah, man. A hundred’s too much. Way too much. He was just being a dick yesterday, driving me fuckin’ crazy. Seventy should be plenty to shut him up for a while.” Jose didn’t sound nearly as confident as the words he was saying. But he was exhausted from a burglary he’d been part of yesterday, so maybe that was why. Despite that he’d only been the lookout, having to stay up half the night meant he’d hardly gotten any sleep.
“Okay.” Based on his desperate texts yesterday, it hadn’t sounded like even a hundred would be enough to placate Paco’s newly awoken greed. More importantly, I prayed that Paco hadn’t begun to question where the hell Jose was getting all his money from. Jose’s supposed savings weren’t that big, so they were bound to run out soon. Even someone as dense as Paco would figure that out eventually and become suspicious. “I’ll give you another thirty though,” I said to him, “just in case.”
“Fine.”
I did some stretches to get myself ready for our training. “The way things are going, I think it might be smart for you to announce that you want to leave even sooner than we’d planned. Like at the end of next week.”
Jose stopped in the middle of a groin stretch, instantly tense. “Are you crazy? Do you really think I’d be ready by then? I’m not even sure I’ll be ready by the end of two weeks from now.”
“Yeah, I do. Don’t worry, I’ll get you ready by then. I’ll just have to train you via Skype in the middle of the night the days we can’t get together here. It’s not the best solution, but it’s better than you doing it completely on your own. I can watch you to make sure you do everything right. Besides, half of it is mental anyway, believing that you can do it.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I have a feeling Paco’s turning on you. It seems he’s getting a taste for fuckin’ with you just like Carlos. If he figures out someone’s feeding you money, you’re finished.”
Jose sat on one of the workout benches and sighed heavily. “Yeah, you might be right about that. He was having a little too much fun messin’ with me yesterday…”
“Don’t sweat it, man,” I said to calm the tension in Jose that had made his body rigid. “For sure it’ll take a while for Paco to start wondering. Right now he just wants more. If you give him a hundred tonight instead of seventy, you’ll be fine.” I gave him an encouraging smile. “You know how greedy he is—when he sees all those dollar bills, he’ll have a fucking orgasm. And if he starts questioning you, tell him you’re out of money but that you’ll be doing a hit soon. In the meantime, you’ll be borrowing money from loan sharks to pay him. He’ll buy that explanation.”
Jose nodded, looking calmer now. “Yeah, that should do it.”
I got in fighting stance. “Trust me, it will. Now get up and show me what you’ve got.”
I spent an extra hour training Jose, not leaving the Whiskey until slightly after eleven p.m. That hadn’t been the plan—I was supposed to be finished at ten and then ride over to Ricki’s place afterward and hang with her, spend the night. But after what Jose had told me and our decision to have him announce his wish to part from the Devils yet sooner than planned, I’d been too nervous not to train him as hard as I could tonight. And I’d totally forgotten about Ricki.
Fuck. As I checked my phone, I saw that she’d texted me twice, wondering first where I was and then asking if I was okay.
I called her.
“Hey,” she answered almost immediately. “Is everything okay?”
“Oh, that’s okay, I totally understand. Things come up. Was it the same client who was texting you at dinner yesterday?”
“The same client… There was no client texting me at dinner yesterday. Wait, oh, yeah, you mean when we had dinner? Yeah, a client did text me then. How could I forget about that?” I laughed. “Damn, I’m really tired, querida. I’d better head home to crash. It’s late now. Can I make up tonight this weekend?”
“Uh, yeah, sure. I could see you Saturday night. Would that work?”
“Saturday is perfect, baby,” I said, glad Ricki wasn’t more pissed at me. I really was fucking exhausted. “I’ll be done at seven and then I’m all yours. And if you let me, I’d love to spend the night with you…”
“I’d love that. Well, you better go to bed then, right?”
“Yeah, gotta be up at four thirty. Talk to you tomorrow?”
“Absolutely.”
We exchanged a few more words and then we disconnected. As I mounted my bike and rode along Sunset Boulevard in the direction of my place, I promised myself I’d make a better job of not screwing up too much more with Ricki. I’d just need to be a little more focused the next two weeks—probably get used to sleeping three hours a night—but I could do it. Surely I’d fuck up again, but she’d understand when I told her what my life had been like after Jose was safely out of the gang. Then I’d be all hers.
Ricki
Dante kept his promise and we had a wonderful second date the following Saturday. Instead of having dessert at the restaurant, we rushed home to my place to enjoy each other instead. My fears that there was someone else in his life were stilled, only to be reawakened several days later, when he once again claimed he had to train someone late and had to cancel our date right before we were supposed to meet up. I could have sworn I heard a girl laughing in the background when I spoke to him over the phone. When I asked him who it was, he said it was from the TV at the gym, not an actual person.
