The Heart of Tony Winters

by P. S. Power

  Adam and Sally weren’t there, but that was all right, he decided. To be honest, Adam was kind of an unknown to him anyway. He was too young to get with Sally for any fun, either, making her coming a bit off to his mind. Hopefully they’d just decided to skip it for some innocent reason.

  The table didn’t need to be set by him, since someone else had gotten to that. They had to extend the table for the extra people, but the thing transformed somehow, to do that. Tony hadn’t even considered it as being possible, really. It was the kind of thing that he’d never encountered before. Like magic. The table, filled with food, was similar to what the pictures on the web had shown him it was supposed to be like. There were a lot of people, but he’d made food for more than that, just in case more came.

  When they sat, he bowed his head. Thinking of Steve and his new kid, of all things. The guy hadn’t been into the gym all week, which was probably a bad sign. If he’d been alone he would have come to visit. The man didn’t really have family he was close to. That meant he was with Gloria, probably being berated for not being a better father already.

  He clasped his hands, since they were supposed to pray before eating. Addy scoffed out loud, but everyone else did that part. No one spoke though, so finally, he did it.

  “Dear Lord… Thank you for this meal, the friends and family that we’ve been allowed to have with us and let us keep them near to us as the year goes on. Please bless us all and those that are distant from us today. Amen.” It wasn’t inspired, but people muttered the word after he did, then reached for the food. Lexi was on his right hand side, Addy on his left. There wasn’t assigned seating, so it was their choice. Lexi he nearly understood, since they were close. Denny was on the other side of her, with Jen’s mother on the far side of him, clearly bumping his leg under the table.

  Over all, Tony thought the whole thing went well. People ate the food, then they had pie and whipped cream in front of the television, as a team in blue and white went up against the red and gold group. He kind of got the basic idea of what was going on. It was a bit boring, but he paid attention, since that was what you did in life if you wanted to win.

  Lydia had to be prevented from stripping in the living room, which was funny. Carl looked to be totally sober and a bit amused by the antics as well. Addy tried to move in beside him, only to find herself cut off by Lexi, who actually hopped over the back of the sofa to do it. Then, they ate pumpkin pie.

  Tony pointed at it with his fork.

  “This is good. I’ve never had it before.”

  Addy gave him a funny look then, moving in behind him, her hands on his shoulders.

  “But you’ve had ecstasy and special-k, right? That was your thing? Some kind of drug kingpin?”

  Not everyone looked at them. Carl clearly got the idea. Rick glanced toward them and Jen winced. Lexi looked away, which was telling.

  Tony shook his head.

  “Nothing like that at all. Drugs are bad. Just say no.” Confessing anything in a room filled with people was idiotic. At least if you didn’t want to end up out on the street hustling for a warm bed that night.

  Then, Addy had never lived in that world, so it probably wasn’t real to her.

  “Great pie.”

  Samantha smiled at him, from the chairs over to the left. William was next to her. They had the nice seats, because they were the oldest people there.

  “You should try the cherry and apple as well. There’s pecan in there, too.”

  Addy, for all that she was clearly being a bit mean on purpose, started to rub his shoulders. It was gentle enough, but strange. She hadn’t been drinking after all. It wasn’t really about him however. That was a thing that Anthony knew from life experience. She wasn’t trying to get with him. Not even a little bit. No, her goal was to make other people upset by her actions. As if no one was going to catch on to her less than clever ploy.

  They all did though, or at least held their tongues. After a while she sat down and ate pie as well. Lexi kept nudging Tony with her shoulder, as if pretending to cuddle with him. Except that he wasn’t totally certain that she wasn’t just trying to get comfortable.

  Finally, at about seven, everyone left. That meant he got to clean up the mess, but it wasn’t that hard. Just work. They’d packed food off with people, though the Winters weren’t going to leave until the next day, in the morning. After they all went shopping, since it was black Friday.

  As if fighting crowds for sales on socks made any sense at all. They could not waste money and just stay home as well, but that probably wasn’t what people did.

  Jen looked at Rick, then Tony. Her face was kind of mixed, emotionally.

  Not letting her apologize or anything, Anthony smiled.

  “Ha! No one even got knifed. We win!” Then he jumped up and down a bit, fists pumping toward the ceiling. Everyone smiled at least.

  Samantha stood up, clearly planning to help them clean. She put an arm around his shoulder as she moved toward the group.

  “That young lady seems to like you, doesn’t she? Lexi? I think poor Addy nearly lost some teeth. Thankfully that was avoided. Also, superb meal, Anthony. I actually forgot at one point that it wasn’t professionally catered, which is impressive.”

  Rick looked away, tearing up a bit.

  “It really was great. Thanks, Tony.”

  They moved to the kitchen, Jen moving in alongside of him, seeming quiet.

  “Sorry about my sister. It wasn’t about you. Not even me. She feels that Carl kind of stole mom from dad. You… Well, you saw how mom is. I don’t think it was really like that. Not our problem. One more day and they’ll go home. I love them, but thankfully the holidays come, but once per year.”

  That was probably wise enough. It didn’t seem that bad to him, but everyone there was still new to him. He just worked, making sure everything was taken care of before bed, then did some reading, sitting in the living room. It was more about the witch trials, which he got to explain to William.

  After all, it was a holiday. The man seemed to expect him to start playing video games for some reason. To at least do some fun things.

  “Right, but tomorrow will come and I need to be ready for it.” It was a throwaway line, but the other man just stared at him for a while.

  “Understood. That… Well, remember to have fun as well. You have a whole life to study and work. Not that what you’ve accomplished isn’t impressive. Remember that though, you have time for a lot of life yet. The expectations on you are far less than what you have placed on yourself.”

  It was nearly like the man understood what Tony was actually doing. Trying to be, or at least seem, perfect, all the time. Helping others and making everyone else happy. That meant he had to not be that way himself as often as he could. Then again, happy was overrated.

  A good thing, but when compared to making others happy, he knew which Tony would have picked. Not for the first time, he realized that he was slowly becoming the act he’d tried to fool everyone with. The goody-two-shoes perfect boy that never did anything wrong. It was getting hard though, as the day went on. Not that he was going to snap at anyone, but the thought of going shopping the next day sounded horrible, to be honest.

  Tony would go and do that though, to make everyone else happy.

  He got to bed at about ten, which was later than he wanted, but got up first the next day, getting out for a long run with Riley. The other man’s hand had finally healed up, which meant he was back to regular training. Or would be if the gym was open. It wasn’t, so they ran. When he got back everyone else was leaving, just as he came in.

  William smiled at him.

  “Out running? Good man. We can wait for you?” He seemed almost desperate, but Tony wouldn’t want them to be late on his account.

  “I’m good. See you all later?” He wasn’t certain that he wasn’t required by tradition to go, but Rick and Jen both just waved at him.

  “Be good. We’ll be back by two. If not, well, then somethi
ng has gone very wrong.” Jen sounded fake scared about the prospect, being funny on purpose.

  Probably for Samantha, since she wanted to make a good impression on Rick’s people. That made sense. So far it seemed like it was going well enough to him. Sure, Addy was a bit of a problem, but she wasn’t their issue to deal with. The day before had been all right and they had leftovers in the fridge. Tony had never had any of those from Thanksgiving before, so had looked up some recipes for that kind of thing. Mainly sandwiches, all of which sounded good to him. That was for later though, since before anything he was showering.

  As he came down the stairs, there was a gentle knock on the front door. Tony checked the peephole first, so saw that it was Adam. His father. Sally was right next to the man, smiling brightly.

  Opening the thing, he shook his head.

  “You’re a bit late for dinner. On the good side we have some food left. Plane trouble?”

  Adam nodded, hand coming out to shake.

  “The airport was snowed in, if you can believe that? We couldn’t even call, since we were locked in the place for the entire day. Ooff.”

  The noise was due to the man being pushed out of the way by the blue beret wearing woman next to him. Sally Laird. Her glasses glinted as she closed with Tony, pulling him into a tight hug, dropping her bag on the walkway.

  “Tony! Tony! Yay!” There was jumping up and down then, as she held him. Then he was walked backward, still in her arms as Adam chuckled at them. “You missed me, right? I totally won my last fight. I brought that with me. The video? Sorry we’re late. We can spar later? I tried to explain it to Adam, but I don’t think he gets how good you really are that way. How you can copy other people? I told him it’s like magic, but he seems to think you’re just sort of decent at it, or something.”

  The man grabbed the bags and walked in. They had a car, which was parked out front. A rental, since nothing else would really work. They were probably lucky to get it.

  The blue eyed man, who was about six-two or three and wickedly fit seeming, glanced around.

  “All alone?”

  Tony nodded, smiling, wondering if Sally was going to let him go any time soon. Not that the contact was horrible or anything. The fact was that it would be really easy for him to like Sally a lot if she were going to stay that close. He was trying to be good though, so finally stepped back. She took the hint, or at least let go about then.

  “Yep. Everyone else was going shopping as I came back from my run. One of our fighters needed to get out, so, you know, Cardio-Coach Boy to the rescue. As a reward for being good I got to avoid the crowded shopping mall. So, you know, that was a win.”

  Sally looked around, having seen the place before. It was decorated a bit, but otherwise hadn’t changed.

  “Is it all right if I clean up? I can use your room, right? Or the guest room?” She was teasing about the first part, but it made sense.

  “Mine? The Winters are in until later today. So you can have rooms tonight, I bet. I’ll take the sofa?”

  Sally rolled her eyes.

  “We can share. I won’t bite, after all.”

  Then she bounded away, as if that would change anything. Tony half expected Adam to lecture him about older women. Sex at any rate. Instead the man just looked at him, smiling hopefully. Then he waved to the living room.

  “I know it’s ridiculous, after a day of sitting, but I’m exhausted. Remind me not to travel in a three-piece suit next time as well. Sure, I win on style points, but comfort is lacking.” His British accent was thicker than it had been on the phone, probably due to being tired.

  They settled in the other room his bags behind the couch. There was an awkward silence then.

  “I really am sorry about missing the day. I hope it wasn’t too disappointing?”

  Considering that Tony had mainly forgotten they were supposed to be coming at all, that wasn’t a huge issue for him. Still, no one wanted to hear they weren’t loved.

  “Nothing too bad. You did miss out on Jen’s cute mom feeling everyone up all day, which I’m sure you would have gotten your share of. Her younger sister was interesting as well. Not in a fun way, but that wasn’t a problem for me. Other than that? Just an incredible meal. I made most of it, so… Yeah, it was pretty much the bomb.”

  Tony meant it, but didn’t really know what to do with the people that had come after that. Not unless they wanted to sleep. Then they could share his bed. Instead Adam tried to make small talk until Sally came back. She’d showered and was wearing actual clothing, instead of the see through things she’d favored in the summer. Probably because upstate New York was just cold in November. Anthony had been in that area a few times so knew that first hand.

  The woman plopped onto the sofa, next to him, settling close enough that it was clear she was trying to steal his body heat. Adam, in one of the good chairs, just seemed a bit stiff, but didn’t mention anything about it. Finally, laughing a bit, Tony pushed her back. Trying not to notice that she’d pressed up against his arm on purpose with her chest.

  “You promised fight vid? Bring it forth, or I’ll have to start going on about the grappling work I’ve been doing. Trust me, we want to save that for later. Otherwise we’re talking about the Salem witch trials. Which is interesting, but I haven’t finished the books on them yet, so…”

  Sally knew the system there, so had her fight running on the big screen a minute later. When it played Tony had to watch it all the way through, then got up and restarted it.

  Then he nodded.

  “It’s like looking at a different fighter, Sally. A good one, too. That’s… Well, it wasn’t flawless, but it was darned close. Incredible! I knew you could be good.” He didn’t want to damn her with faint praise, but she was doing a lot better.

  She smiled, buffing her fingernails on her shirt front.

  “I know. It’s amazing what not doing drugs and actually practicing can do for you. I owe all of it to you, too. Left to my own devices… Well, I’d be a barista at Starbucks right now. If I was lucky. Now, tell me… Where am I not perfect?”

  She looked at the screen. Tony did too, but mentioned the obvious first.

  “The beret. I get that it’s a style thing, but you look like a hipster art teacher, not a fighter. I guess it works, but…”

  She looked over at him, her curly black hair not having that on it at all, since she didn’t wear it all the time.

  “Wait, was that a joke? You grew a sense of humor? No, I must be wrong… That… Not Tony Winters…”

  Smiling he nodded at her.

  “It’s a thing I trot out about twice a year. That’s your Christmas present, so enjoy it. As for the fight, it really wasn’t bad. Now… Prepare to have me tear your world apart!”

  Tony did too, with Adam making a few good points as well. Sally pretended to frown, but at the end of it shrugged.

  “Right, well, I never claimed I was perfect. Just to get you back, I have your last fight too. Notice, I won mine?”

  She played the Hodder fight then. It wasn’t horrible. Honestly, Adam was silent the whole time. Then Tony went over it, going past what he could have improved. There were things in it that could be better. Enough that it took a few minutes to get through.

  Sally stuck her tongue out at him when he was done.

  “Good. I don’t feel half as bad if you have to have the treatment, too. That… I watched it live. I’d thought that you’d won… I mean look at that guy, he had the snot beaten out of him. You’re barely even breathing hard.” She’d gone serious suddenly.

  So had Adam.

  “I heard that this is coming under question? A friend of mine is on the gaming commission. I got a call a few days ago, going over it all. It looks like someone is finally going to take Teevan down. It’s about time. The man is three kinds of shady. I…” He stopped then, since the front door opened. It was Jen, Rick and his parents. They had bags and boxes enough to prove they hated their money and wanted to waste it all. />
  Rick smiled.

  “You made it. I didn’t mention anything yesterday, but I was planning to call and gritch you out Monday if I didn’t hear from you.”

  The men had been best friends at one point and kept falling back into old patterns. Ones that even Tony could see. Adam straightened the front of his wrinkled blue-gray suit jacket as he stood up. Moving forward to shake hands with people. Samantha hugged him. Like he was a long lost child.

  His voice was friendly instead of being tense about things.

  “Snow shut the airport down. We managed to get underway in the middle of the night, then rented a car. We were just going over the Hodder fight with Tony… I heard that there’s an investigation into it? I also got word that Fox Rends is in hiding.”

  It could have been confusing, but Anthony understood what was going on.

  “Witness protection? Do they think Teevan will try to buy her off? Intimidate her, maybe? She’s a fighter, so that might not be so easy to do.” He spoke without thinking, but Sally looked at him, then shook her head.

  “There are probably ten thousand ways to stop her from testifying credibly. Plant some drugs in her room and call the cops… Have a woman show up claiming that Fox raped her when she was a man… Threaten to hurt her friends or relatives, that kind of thing. If innocent little me can think of those things off the top of my head, then I bet someone like Don Teevan can do a lot more in the weeks he’s had to get ready.”

  Anthony knew that all of that was probably right. Just telling a person that if they testified and he was going to prison would have their house burned down would probably be enough for most people. Even if they were strong inside. Tony had spent a lot of time pretending to be Fox, so knew that there was one thing that was actually true there. The woman wasn’t weak.

  Not the best fighter ever, but both as a man and later as a woman, she’d used her guts and heart to get through things that skill couldn’t have. She wasn’t going to shut up just because someone threatened her or tried to make her feel bad. That wasn’t who Fox Rends was. In a way it was an admirable trait. It was also part of why she’d ended up cheating, trying to beat Ashley.