by Lily Zante
I willingly oblige. I should have known better and worn a disguise, but since I didn’t, it’s clearly my fault I’m getting accosted. I’ll be back here again, soon. It’s not that I’m taking Nina Cardoza’s disinterest as a challenge, well, maybe I am a little, but I’m still eager to get a meeting with Elias. Cardoza obviously sees me as a threat, but between his sister and his girlfriend, I’m sure I can find a way to worm myself into getting something set up.
Anything that can help turn my performance.
Chapter Nine
NINA
* * *
“Are you seeing someone?” Harper asks.
“What?” I cry out in exaggerated surprise. I expected her to say about the actor guy, and here it is.
“You’re obviously too busy to come over for dinner these days.”
I’ve made too many excuses in the past few weeks, but that’s because I have been genuinely busy with work and night school. Definitely not because I’ve been busy with a date.
Harper continues. “I wondered if you were hiding someone from us.”
I scoff, even though I know full well what she’s getting at. It’s no surprise that she insisted I come over tonight—the same day that Callum Sandersby couldn’t keep his mouth shut and came to the diner after going to Elias’s gym. “I’m not hiding anything from you. Unless you want me to tell you what I’ve learned about selecting color palettes for your bedroom.”
“Hardly.” She sniffs. She doesn’t usually pry into my private life, but Callum Sandersby has given her something to sniff about and this is her way of slowly getting to the point.
Only, there is no point.
I inadvertently stumbled across the actor guy getting beat up.
The muggers ran away. He was hurt, I wasn’t.
End of story.
But this is Harper, and she will ask me every single question she can think off. I got to know her better last summer, around the time of Elias’s fight with Garrison. I like her and trust her, and she’s good for Elias.
Back then I spent the weekend sharing a hotel room with her, and I owe her, because she convinced me to go to the fight and watch. I don’t ever like to watch my brother fight, but Harper sensed that my brother needed support. Garrison was the reigning heavyweight champion of the world. He had the whole crowd rooting for him. Elias was no one, and he had only Lou, his manager, and the guys from the gym. Thanks to her, I got to sit in terror as my brother stepped into the ring to fight a man who everyone expected would knock him out in the first round.
Except that’s not what happened.
I witnessed history in the making that night and my brother became an overnight sensation and the boxing world’s newest darling.
I trust Harper, but I don’t like her asking about my boyfriends, or lack thereof. We might still be getting to know one another, but that stuff is off limits.
Even Elias has never pried into that part of my life.
“Are you sure you don’t have anything to tell me?”
“Nothing.” My denial is probably killing her.
“Come over tonight, have dinner with us, like in the good old days.”
“I have assignments to finish.” This is the truth. I always have assignments, and Joni wants me to come to a party at her boyfriend’s house one night this week. I don’t have time for these things.
Harper groans. “I knew that would be your next excuse.”
“It’s not an excuse,” I wail. I do have stuff to do. She’s being especially insistent and refuses to take no for an answer.
“Come on,” says Harper. “Your brother’s getting antsy about the fight. The papers are saying his win was a fluke, and that he’s a one-time wonder. It’s starting to get to him.”
“Why didn’t you start with that?” I would drop everything for Elias, in a heart beat, and that’s exactly what I do now.
Even though I will have to stay up late tonight and finish off my homework for tomorrow, I start to make my way over to Elias’s place. Harper pretty much lives there, even though she has her own luxury apartment nearby.
The fight is still months away, but Elias can get uptight when he’s stressed, and this fight has stressed him out bigtime.
When he beat Trent “The Tank” Garrison it caused one of the biggest upsets in boxing history, because Garrison had been the favorite and Elias uprooted him. It catapulted him to fame overnight. The city gave him a Welcome Parade, and he was invited on talk shows, and he was in all the papers and magazines.
It was around that same time that the other stuff came out.
Things I had no knowledge of. The past suddenly thrust into my future and before I could save myself, I was at it again. I glance at my wrist. The cuts had started to fade away. Little white markings that weren’t so noticeable, but ever since I started cutting again, the scabs and ugly marks have come back.
I should stop. I know that. I plan to. But when I cut, it makes me feel better. It relieves the pressure that builds up, especially after I’ve had a bad dream again. I’m back in the children’s home, in Grampton House, and I’m being chased again. Not by the other kids, not by Elias, but by a grown man.
The janitor.
He’s chasing me. Again.
He’s counting to one hundred. Too fast.
I wake up from those bad dreams with my heart pounding in my chest. The only way I can deal with the pain of my remembrance is to cut.
Nobody will understand, which is why nobody will ever know. Seems like Elias lifted the lid on his demons when his news came out, and I’ve been trying to put myself together ever since. But it hasn’t been easy, and it’s especially not easy being alone, trying to deal with it, but I barely allow anyone to get close to me, so there is no simple solution to all of this.
I pull the cuff of my sleeve lower, to hide the scars.
Soon, I’m on my way to Elias’s place. This is upscale Chicago. A world away from my small place. Elias is always threatening to buy me a place, but I won’t ever take him up on it. Where he lives now is beautiful, it’s like the kinds of places one only dreams about or sees in magazines full of rich people. It is a million miles away from the types of places we are used to living in.
But this is a good thing because we have moved on. Elias has moved on. He was always such an angry young child, always ready for a fight. Growing up I used to worry that he would get in trouble or end up in a fight killing someone. He joined the underground fight clubs, so that we could keep a roof over our heads once we left the foster care system, and I used to worry about him even more. I was always frightened that one day the cops would be at the door, to tell me that he had been killed. I lost track of the number of times he would come home with his face messed up, rearranged, more like, and covered in blood. I’d see the bruises all over his chest. I’d get him cleaned him up and pray that he would be okay, because he was all I had.
Now he has Harper, and she’s the best thing that could have happened to him. Winning the belt is right up there with his achievements but success can be fleeting and real love, well, I like to believe that that’s for life.
Out of all the girls he’s been with, Harper’s the one. I can tell from the way she is with him, the way they are together. They’re in love, and I am happy for him. Sometimes I feel like a complete gooseberry when I’m around them.
“Hey,” Elias opens the door. “This is an honor,” he says, sarcastically, though with a smile.
“How are you doing?” I ask, observing him carefully.
“Good, great. How are you?”
I have my suspicions about what he’s alluding to. This is the real reason they wanted me here.
“We’re getting take-out,” Harper announces, as she joins us on the couch with two glasses of wine in her hands. She hands one to me. “What do you fancy?”
“I don’t mind. Whatever you guys want, but I can’t stay late. I’ve got my—”
“Assignments to do,” says Elias.
“Ho
w’s the training?” I scan his face for signs of worry and upset over that article Harper mentioned.
“It’s going according to plan.” He doesn’t look unduly stressed out to me. I wonder if Harper lied just to get me here. I open my mouth to say something but she comes out with it. “But first, tell us about Callum Sandersby and your little rendezvous in the alleyway.”
I narrow my eyes at her.
“How come you didn’t tell us?” Elias says, accusingly, as if I have underhanded reasons for this.
“How come we heard it from Callum first?” Harper takes a sip of her wine.
“Callum?” I nod my head at her. “Since when have the two of you been on first name terms.”
“He came to the gym, we got talking.”
Elias sighs out heavily. “She got talking. I had to go over and make sure that he wasn’t hitting on her.”
Harper nudges him lightly in the side. “He and Alyssa Watts fell in love while making this movie.”
“Who?” I ask, but not really caring.
“His co-star in ‘Death of a Legend’,” Harper announces.
“See,” Elias thumbs in Harper’s direction. “She knows all about him, even who his latest girlfriend is.”
“It’s in the papers,” Harper cries defensively. “Haven’t you read the papers?” she asks me. “He’s all over them. I’d say he and Elias are competing for front page real estate.”
Elias looks incensed. “What were you doing walking down an alleyway at that time of night, Nina? Are you stupid?”
I can tell he’s angry, because he never uses that word when talking to me or about me. “I wasn’t walking down the alleyway. I walked past it.”
“And yet you somehow ended up in it, and breaking up a fight?”
I guess now is not the time to tell them that I accidentally took a photo of the robbers. My actions were truly stupid. I see that now.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Harper cries. “You let us believe that phony news story instead.”
“You don’t have any loyalty to him,” Elias points out. “Why were you protecting him?”
“Protecting him?” I snort. I wasn’t protecting Callum Sandersby. I wasn’t doing it to save his hide. I just didn’t want this FBI level of interrogation which is what I’ve ended up having anyway. “It was done. It was over. I didn’t see the point.”
“You didn’t see the point?” Harper echoes, “He’s Callum Sandersby, for goodness sake. One of the biggest actors around.”
I’m not into worshipping celebrities, and I couldn’t care less. “He’s only a guy.”
Harper’s about to say something, then seems to think better of it. “But he’s famous,” she says finally.
“I don’t care! He’s a guy to me. A selfish, vain, self-obsessed guy.”
“He is not. I found him to be quite nice,” she replies.
“I agree with you,” Elias says to me, raising his bottle of some red colored liquid. I grimace. “Tomato juice,” he replies. “Vain and self-obsessed.”
Harper frowns. “How can you say that? You were barely civil towards him.”
Elias takes a huge gulp of his juice. “I can tell.”
“So what exactly happened that night?” my brother wants to know. I regurgitate a quick version of the story. “And then we went to the hospital, I made a statement to the police, and the guy’s agent tried to give me money.”
“For what?” Elias asks suspiciously.
“He didn’t want me to run to the press and spill the real story about this big hero boxer guy getting beaten up, I suppose.”
“I can see why. It wouldn’t look good for his upcoming film,” Harper adds. “Did he come to the diner? He said he wanted to thank you.”
Thank me. Three days later? “I don’t know why he came looking for me.”
“He wanted to thank you,” Harper insists, “On account of you coming to his rescue. That was brave of you, doing something like that.”
“I call it stupid.” Elias’s face is still hard set.
Harper runs to the actor’s defense. “I think it was sweet of him to make the effort to seek you out.”
I disagree. “I don’t think it’s that simple.”
“The dude wants my time. I know, and you know,” he points his bottle me, “but you,” he points his bottle at Harper, “you seem to have other ideas.”
“She saved him,” Harper retorts defensively. “He wanted to thank her; I don’t understand why you two are always so suspicious of people’s good intentions.”
Elias and I share a knowing look. Harper wouldn’t know of these things. She has no idea about people’s intentions, and how they make you do things, how they trick you.
Elias lowers his head and a crease appears on his forehead. What happened to him breaks my heart. But there is another story about our childhood; one I can’t ever change. One that Elias doesn’t know about. I just have to make sure that he never will.
“Not everyone is out to get you,” Harper insists.
“The actor dude wants something from me. He wants to talk to me, get a feel for the character, and check out the gym. ‘Get into character’.” Elias air quotes the last bit. “That’s what Lou was told when someone called him asking if we could get together. That much I get.”
“Guys,” says Harper, obviously not stopping. “You saved him, one dark stormy night as he walked around the streets of Chicago.”
I point my finger at her. “It wasn’t a stormy night.”
“But what a story,” Harper says, breathlessly, for effect. “That’s the one they should have printed, except he’s gone and fallen for his co-star.”
I shake my head. She is such a romantic airhead. “You’re always looking for a story.”
Elias snorts. “It’s a shame we’re not getting the real story about that dude, ‘cause it would be damned embarrassing.” He motions with his hand, as if he’s writing the headline in the air. “Hero boxer beaten to a pulp.”
Harper gets up. “Leave the poor guy alone. We should order.”
“Good idea,” I agree, not wanting to continue with this conversation. “I’m starving.”
Chapter Ten
CALLUM
* * *
“Milkshake and one of your wraps with extra salad on the side.” I’m talking to the owner of Frankie’s Kitchen.
Filming resumes in a few days’ time, and I’ve come in again, hoping to see Cardoza’s sister. She’s not around, and neither, thank heavens, is that other waitress.
I order my food and because I’m in disguise, a wig, a hat, and a moustache, nobody bats an eyelid. The owner doesn’t either. I ask her if they do deliveries. They don’t. She stares at me, then stares at my moustache. “You look familiar?”
“Yeah?”
She stares at me suspiciously then touches her upper lip. “And your moustache is hanging off.” I raise a hand to my face and see that half my moustache is hanging off. The glue hasn’t done its job well. I pull it off.
“I thought I recognized you.”
I smile at her.
“This place was mighty busy after you left the other day. I guess word got out.”
“Sorry about that.”
“Oh no. Don’t apologize. This place needs to be busy. You come here all the time you can.” She laughs, a big, hearty laugh that seems to come from her soul.
“I will. I like your milkshakes and the Key Lime Pie is great.”
“There’s always plenty of that to go around. I’m Frankie.”
I shake her hand. “I’m Callum.
“I know exactly who you are, young man.”
I smile at her. “I hear Elias Cardoza hangs out here a lot. You probably get a lot of customers on account of him?”
“I’m not complaining.”
“I was trying to talk to his sister the other day. She seems shy.”
“Nina?” Frankie sits down opposite me.
“Yeah, Nina.” I wait for her to offer up more in
formation, but this lady isn’t saying much. “I needed to talk to her. Harper said I could find her here.” I’m hoping that throwing names around might get me somewhere.
“You spoke to Harper?”
“At the gym. I met Elias, too.”
“Uh-huh.” She folds her arms and peers at me.
This conversation isn’t going anywhere. The other waitress sounded jealous about Nina, this Frankie woman isn’t giving me much to go on. Harper seems to be the only friendly face, but her boyfriend probably wouldn’t hesitate to gouge my eyes out given half a chance. I can’t rely on Rudy to get anywhere, so I have to take matters into my own hands.
“Can you keep a secret?” I have no option but to tell her, especially if I’m to gain her confidence.
“A secret?” Frankie nods, but still looks at me suspiciously.
This is a weird moment for me, and I expect it is for her as well. What am I doing here, sitting in a diner in the early hours of the morning, looking out for a waitress who interests me for reasons I don’t understand? Oh, and one who happens to be related to a famous boxer. I’ve never had to work so hard for a date before, and while this is not a date at all, the principles are still the same, trying to win someone’s attention. I lower my voice and tell her what happened in the alleyway that night. How Nina found me and came to my rescue.
She’s surprised, and at first it doesn’t look as if she believes me. I continue telling her everything, how Nina came to the hospital, and how the studio fabricated the story of my injury.
“You expect me to believe that?” she asks, when I finish.
“It’s true, I swear to God. She swooped in like Superwoman and got me out of a mess.” I tell her to ask Elias or Harper, or even Nina, if she doesn’t believe me, and that seems to do the trick. “You can’t tell anyone.”
She makes a motion as if she’s zipping her lips. “Why did you tell me this?”
