Love Cursed

by Julia Derek

  It hadn’t sounded like it had been coming from a TV to me.

  The next day during my session with Gabi, having first made sure no one was close to us, I brought it up to her. I especially made sure Dante himself wasn’t anywhere around.

  She looked at me with a frown. “When did you say you spoke to him?”

  “At eight thirty,” I replied.

  “Eight thirty? Are you absolutely sure?”

  I replayed the conversation I’d had with Dante over the phone in my mind again. “Yeah, it was definitely eight thirty. I was watching a show on TV as I was waiting for him to pick me up, and it was over then. It’s only a half hour show.”

  Gabi looked away, as though she’d just thought of something she didn’t want to reveal.

  “What?” I asked her. “What is it that you know? I can tell it’s something. It’s all over your face.”

  Gabi sighed. “I hate to fuel your suspicions, but Dante wasn’t at the gym then.”

  I felt like someone had just punched me in the stomach, and it was suddenly hard to breathe. Please God, have her say something that explains where he could have been. Please make her tell me there’s no other woman in his life. I don’t want to be love cursed. Because it’s truly beginning to seem like I am.

  But she didn’t say anything else.

  “How do you know he wasn’t at the gym?” I managed to get out.

  “Because I saw him leave with one of the trainers at eight twenty. He was walking out with her just as I was walking into Crunch. I’d forgotten my sunglasses in my locker, so I was coming back for them.” Gabi looked like it was very hard for her to tell me this, which only served to intensify the pain in my stomach. “And as I left again, I ran into another trainer who was starting her floor shift at eight thirty. That’s why I remember the time. Since she had a few minutes before she had to clock in, she was in no hurry and we spoke for a while. Dante was walking with that trainer in the plaza below.”

  I took a deep breath, unable to do another set on the lat pulldown machine like I was supposed to.

  “Were… were they laughing?” I asked, barely daring to look at Gabi.

  “I think so, but so what?” She put a hand on my shoulder, looking more composed now. “Ricki, just because he was laughing and walking with a female trainer doesn’t mean he’s involved with her.”

  “Maybe not, but neither does it explain why he was lying to me and canceling our date.”

  She nodded. “That’s true.” She looked pensive. “Maybe something came up that he had to do and he didn’t want to tell you.”

  “Why wouldn’t he want to tell me? He’s told me all kinds of stuff about himself. Stuff that I don’t think even you know about.” I shook my head, sighing. “You have to agree that something’s not right.”

  She shrugged helplessly. “I honestly don’t know what to tell you. All I can say is that I haven’t seen him hanging out with that girl before.”

  “The trainer he left with, you mean? Who is it? Is she on the wall with the trainer photos?” I was dying to see what my potential rival looked like.

  Gabi shook her head. “No, she isn’t. She’s a new trainer here. She’s only been here, like, three weeks, so management hasn’t had time to have her photographed yet. You have to be here for a few months before you get your headshot up on the wall.”

  I smirked. “That’s too bad. Is she good-looking?”

  Again, Gabi got that noncommittal expression on her face.

  I rolled my eyes and my stomach twisted with pain again. “That means she’s very good-looking or you’d have loved to tell me how terrible she looks.” I chuckled to myself. “I’m not even sure why I asked. Of course she’s hot. Every trainer at this gym looks like a supermodel. It seems that’s part of the requirements to get hired here.”

  Gabi sighed. “I can’t argue with that. Management does favor good-looking people. But that’s also because the clients expect trainers and instructors to look good,” she added hurriedly. “It is after all an image-driven business, like everything else Hollywood.” She gazed at me earnestly. “But you’re very pretty yourself, so you really shouldn’t be worried. And I don’t think Dante is unfaithful to you. I’m sorry I made you feel that way.”

  “Why don’t you think so?” I asked her, sincerely interested in hearing her argument.

  “Because of the way he talks about you. The guy’s crazy about you. For real!”

  I grabbed the metal bar attached to the lat pulldown machine, getting ready to finally do a set. “I really hope you’re right. I just can’t shake the feeling that he’s hiding something from me.”

  “Maybe he is hiding something, but maybe it’s a good thing he’s hiding?” Gabi looked at me with a hopeful face.

  “Let’s hope so,” I replied, not convinced at all.

  We finished the session and then I went to take a shower in the women’s locker room. As I walked around the corner that hid the entrance, I almost crashed right into Dante.

  “Whoa!” he exclaimed, catching me before my head could bump into his chest. Then he grinned that adorable toothpaste model grin and brought me close. “What a nice surprise…”

  He pulled me into a deep alcove that was built into the wall next to us. He kissed me hotly and hungrily in that way that made me feel like nothing else in the world existed but the two of us. Despite my suspicions, I found my arms come up around his neck and I helped him to kiss me even deeper. God, he better not be unfaithful to me. I’ll never survive it. I simply couldn’t resist this man. I was completely powerless in his hands.

  He removed himself from me and gazed deep into my eyes, with so much love that I couldn’t believe it was possible there was another woman in his life. How could someone seem so sincerely into me, yet have space in his heart for someone else? It just seemed impossible, but the feeling in my gut that he was hiding something from me—and not something good, like Gabi had tried to convince me of—was too strong to ignore. But right now I didn’t want to deal with it.

  “Don’t you have to go train a client?” I asked him, my arms still around his neck.

  He squeezed me closer yet. “I do, but he’s always late.” He winked at me. “Besides, I have something more important to deal with at the moment…”

  “What’s that?” I whispered, smiling.

  He kissed me with such passion a rush of heat pooled in my stomach, instantly turning me on. I suddenly wished he would throw me down on the mats stacked against the wall farther into the alcove and just take me, make love to me with as much fervor as the first time we’d ended up in bed. Dominate me, make me come over and over. But I knew that was not about to happen, sadly. It was risky enough that he was making out with me at his workplace when corporate was looking for a reason to get rid of him. So I forced myself to remove my arms from around his neck and peel his off from me.

  “You better go, honey,” I said. “Not that I wouldn’t love to keep making out with you here, but it’s probably best that we continue this later, don’t you think? We don’t want to give them a reason to fire you.”

  He sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. You still wanna come over to my place tonight?”

  “Definitely.” We were finally going to spend the night at Dante’s place instead of at mine. I’d begged him to invite me over, but he kept claiming that I’d dump him if I ever saw how he lived. But I’d managed to convince him that he was talking silly, so now we were supposed to watch a movie and chill at his place, eating take-out.

  We walked out of the alcove together. “I’ll be there at nine sharp,” I told him. I gave him a look that I hoped conveyed the right mixture of seriousness and jest. “And don’t you dare cancel on me again, Mr. Davila.”

  He looked outraged. “Of course I won’t!” Leaning closer to me, he whispered, “Do you think I could ever resist continuing what we just started?”

  I wanted to say that I really didn’t know any longer, but I just smiled and walked into the locker room inst
ead.

  Dante

  A week and a half later, a Friday night, Ricki and I went to a Thai restaurant after I was done with work.

  “You hungry?” I asked her as we were seated at a window table.

  She grinned at me, looking lovely in her white dress. “Starving.”

  “Me, too,” I said and grabbed one of the menus the hostess had dropped off. “How about we get a few dishes and share them?”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  The food we ordered arrived shortly. I’d told the waitress to bring everything out as soon as possible, so now there were plates full of food between us: edamame beans, chicken curry with sides of rice, Japanese seaweed salad, rock shrimp tempura, salmon teriyaki, and steamed veggie dumplings.

  Ricki stared at all the plates. “Wow, that’s a lot of food.”

  I smiled. “Well, you said you were really hungry, right?”

  She laughed. “I guess I did.”

  “Well, then, let’s dig in. We’ll burn off all those calories later…” I winked at her.

  When we were done with dinner, both of us stuffed, I asked her if she wanted dessert.

  She patted her stomach. “I honestly don’t know if I have room for that.”

  I opened one of the dessert menus the waitress had brought us. “Let’s get something small.”

  She shook her head and sighed, defeated. “Fine. But I won’t have more than a bite. If I keep eating like this, I won’t be able to fit into my clothes soon.”

  “Don’t worry, nena. You’ll be fine. Tomorrow you’ll just do some more cardio if it bothers you so much.”

  Jose sent me the first text only seconds after I had ordered some ice cream for us:

  Change of plans. Boss wants to do fight tomorrow night. Not Sunday.

  I read the text twice to make sure I’d understood it correctly. What the fuck?

  “Is everything okay?” Ricki asked, a light frown between her eyes.

  I made myself smile at her at the same time as my phone buzzed with another text. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I replied. “It’s just a client who wants to switch times.” I glanced down at my phone:

  Fuck man. I wont ever make a fuckin fight tmrw no way! Im dead man.

  I tried to keep my face straight as another frantic text came into my phone:

  Ill never get out alive/ I need another day What the fck should I do

  Two more frantic texts saying similar things came into my phone.

  “What’s going on?” Ricki asked. “Who is it?”

  “I need to call my client,” I said to her. “It looks like she’s having a meltdown. Excuse me for a moment.”

  I stood up and walked toward the men’s room. I found a nook beside it that would give me some privacy while I called Jose. He picked up right away, breathing heavily into the phone.

  “Calm down, Jose,” I said in a low voice. “I know it’s not a great situation, but you can still do it.”

  “Fuck, man, I don’t think so.” His voice was shaky. “I need…I need…”

  “Take a deep breath, Jose,” I told him sharply. “A deep breath.”

  I could hear him inhale a couple of times. Finally, he could talk again. “I need… another fuckin’ training day. I’m gonna fuckin’ die.”

  “No, you can do it. Remember what I told you—half of it is mental. More than half. As long as you’re focused, you’ll be fine. You’ll know what to do when you’re in the middle of it. It just feels like you’re fucked right now. I’m tellin’ you, you’ll be fine.”

  “I won’t be fuckin’ fine. I can’t do it…”

  “Stop talkin’ shit, Jose. You’re a great fighter. And they have no fuckin’ clue that you are. The surprise factor alone is enough for you to take them. Where are you now?”

  “At home…”

  I inhaled. “Listen, I’ve almost finished dinner with Ricki. I can be home in an hour and then I’ll call you on Skype. We’ll go over some moves together and you’ll be fine, okay?”

  “I can’t do Skype tonight. My computer fuckin’ crashed this morning…”

  I got cold. De puta madre. Maybe he was fucked after all...

  “Well, then you need to practice on your own. Start as soon as we hang up. You know what to do. Then go to bed. Get a good night’s sleep. You still have the sleeping pills I gave you?”

  “Yeah…”

  I was about to tell him that, above all else, he needed a good night’s sleep to be sure he’d be ready tomorrow. Sleep deprivation would weaken him significantly during the jump out. But I changed my mind at the last second. Stressing what would happen if his brain wasn’t alert during the fight would just freak him out more.

  “Practice for no more than an hour, then pop the pills,” I said. “They’ll knock you out cold.”

  We spoke for another five minutes. I kept repeating the thoughts he needed to fill his mind with before the jump out, thoughts that would get him in the right mindset by giving him the necessary confidence to have a chance of getting out alive. He needed to believe he could do it in order not to freak out so much he totally lost it, not even trying to defend himself. No matter how much we’d worked to prepare him, and despite the fact that no one seemed to suspect anything fishy, the odds were still overwhelmingly against him. Tomorrow I’d text him to wish him good luck and further motivate him. With my crazy schedule I couldn’t count on getting a chance to actually speak to him before.

  For all I knew, this might be the last time we spoke. My chest tightened at the thought.

  “Hey,” I said when I felt that he was finally calm enough for me to end the call.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Thanks again for saving my life.”

  He laughed nervously. “I should be the one thanking you. You’re my only chance to get out alive.”

  I smiled with sadness. He did have a point. “I’ve gotta go. Remember that I love you.”

  I wanted him to know that at least someone did if he didn’t make it tomorrow. We said good-bye and disconnected.

  As I turned around to walk back to the dinner table, I saw Ricki standing a few feet behind me. Her face was stony.

  “I wondered what was taking you so long,” she said, her voice quavering. She must have heard my last words to Jose, judging from her expression. But I was too depleted emotionally to reveal everything that was going on. The only way I’d be able to keep it together right now was not to talk about it. Pretend like everything was a lot more okay than it really was.

  “I just needed to talk to an old buddy for a while,” I said, putting my phone back in my jean pocket. “A very close one.” I put an arm around her shoulders. “Come on, let’s go back to the table. I’m sure dessert is already there.”

  “Yes, it is,” she confirmed, feeling stiff under my arm.

  I wasn’t able to relax during the remainder of our dinner, and my jumpy mood seemed to affect Ricki as well. She hardly replied to my poor attempts at making conversation.

  We rode to her house in silence. I remained on my bike after she had climbed off.

  “Hey, I think I’m just going to head home,” I said. “I’m not feeling good.” I gave her a half smile. “You don’t want to be around me when I’m in a crappy mood. Why don’t I just check in with you tomorrow morning instead? And then maybe we can do something in the evening?”

  “Okay,” she said, her face serious. “Well, thanks for dinner then.”

  I leaned in and gave her a quick kiss. I could tell she was upset by her cool demeanor, but I honestly didn’t have the energy to do something about it. In a few days, I’d tell her everything, when the jump out was over and Jose was hopefully still alive. She’d understand then.

  Ricki

  Old buddy my ass! I was boiling over with fury. Dante must really think I was stupid. He actually thought I’d buy he was telling a buddy he loved him? What guy did that? And wasn’t it a client who was having a meltdown? A female client. He was lying so much he couldn’t even keep
his facts straight!

  I huffed where I sat in my car behind the steering wheel, watching as Dante pulled out of the mall complex that contained Crunch. It was probably the “client” he was about to go see now…

  When he hadn’t texted me at all today, I had finally texted him in the late afternoon. He apologized for not having checked in with me, and then he claimed he had to go train a client who lived an hour from the city. Which meant he didn’t think he’d be back in time to see me, so I should make other plans. I decided then that I would wait for him until he left Crunch and follow him to see what he was really up to. I was sick and tired of all his shady behavior and was determined to catch him in the act.

  I rolled up the car window and switched on the ignition as I watched him ride his Harley down North Crescent Heights. I pulled out from my parking spot at the curb and drove after him. I was literally fuming, so I cranked up the A/C to cool off. Since when did he train people on the outside? With a busy schedule like his and the threat of being fired if he didn’t meet his numbers, how on earth would he have time for outside clients? He obviously thought I was a total moron to tell me such a pathetic lie. It was laughable actually. And I would laugh if I wasn’t so incredibly pissed off.

  Of course it had been a girl and it was she he was going to see tonight, not some outside client. I didn’t think it was that trainer girl he’d left the gym with the other day, though. Gabi had talked to her and found out that she had a serious boyfriend. The trainer had even shown Gabi a photo of the boyfriend and seemed all in love with him.

  So there must be someone else that Dante was seeing then, and I was about to find out who she was. I’d catch them as they were kissing or something, and then I’d tell him exactly what I thought of him. Hopefully, the other girl would join me as I reamed him out. Surely she’d become as pissed as I was right now when she found out that he was seeing someone else behind her back. I mean, what girl was okay with that? I couldn’t imagine that she was aware of him seeing someone else.