Gio (5th Street) (2 page)

After chatting with Tony for a bit, he went inside. It was mayhem. Camera crews were everywhere. Photographers taking pictures not only of Felix and his entourage, but of some of the regular guys training.

Felix stood by the ring smiling as a reporter interviewed him in front of a television camera. As usual, there was a girl in his crowd and as usual, she was all glammed up like all the girls he ever brought with him. He brought a different one in every time he came. Gio peered at her for a second to see if he recognized her from anywhere. The last couple of times he was here both girls he’d brought were small time celebs. One was the previous year’s runner-up of American Idol and the second one played a supporting role in one of the hotter sitcoms on TV.

This girl didn’t look familiar at all but he knew that didn’t mean anything. Gio hadn’t recognized or heard of the first two girls either. Noah and Abel walked up to him halfway to the locker room. They seemed more excited to see him than having Felix at the gym.

“Hey, you’re finally back.” They both greeted him with the usual guy shake and patted him on the shoulder. “And not a moment too soon,” Abel added with a smirk.

“No shit.” Noah laughed. “He ain’t lying. He just finished telling me this morning if you weren’t back by tomorrow he was coming to get you.”

Gio chuckled. “Well, then I’m glad I did.”

It felt a little weird being back and having Felix’s circus there made it feel even weirder. He turned to where Felix was being interviewed. The girl he’d brought held a phone to her ear and covered her other ear with her hand. “She anyone we should know?”

Gio had felt a little stupid the last time he’d been introduced to Felix’s flavor of the week and he had no idea who she was. He wanted to prevent that happening again.

“I dunno,” Abel said with a frown. “Somehow it got leaked that he’d be here today. The camera crews have been here all morning. He just arrived about an hour ago. He was mobbed as soon as he walked in. We barely had a chance to talk to him.”

“I don’t recognize her from anywhere.” Noah tilted his head sideways.

Gio gave up trying to figure it out and headed to the locker room to put his things away. He hadn’t been in there very long when he heard a commotion and then loud voices coming toward him. Felix and Abel walked to him. Felix had a big smile on his face. “Hey, my man! How’s it going?”

“I’m doing all right.” Gio reached out his hand to shake Felix’s but Felix pulled him in for a man hug.

Felix pulled back to face him and the smile slowly collapsed. “I heard about what happened, man . But you know what? This shit happens in boxing. They say you’re really beating yourself up about it. You can’t do that, G. It’s not your fault and hey, it might even happen again.”

“No, it won’t,” Gio said turning back to his locker. “Not to me anyway. Because I’m not fighting anymore.”

Felix glanced back at Abel who shrugged, leaning against a row of lockers. “What do you mean you’re not fighting anymore? You can’t give up because of this one thing. Gio, it wasn’t your fault.”

“I know.” Gio stuffed his bag in the locker. “But I’m done.”

“Dude, so what are you gonna do now?”

“I’m gonna train. There is some real good talent coming in here lately who I think have a lot of potential. I’ll focus on getting them ready.”

Felix’s eyes opened wide then he smiled. “Fuck that. If you’re gonna train, come train with me. I need a good sparring partner and you were one of my best.”

Gio stared at him for a moment not sure if he was serious. “With you?”

“Yeah, it’d be perfect. This fight is coming up in a few months so I’m headed up to Big Bear to train there. You can come with me. It’s only a couple of hours from here so if you ever need to come back home for whatever you can just drive back.”

Gio and Abel exchanged glances. “Are you serious?”

“Hell, yeah,” Felix laughed. “This will be awesome. You’ll be well compensated, too. Because even though we’ll do the whole snowboarding and partying with all the snow bunnies up there, I’m putting your ass to work. This guy I’m fighting is supposed to be the best thing outta the Philippines since Pacquiao. I got my work cut out for me.”

“Yeah, you do,” Abel agreed then turned to Gio. “Some time away might do you some good, too. Who knows? Sparring with Felix might get you itching to get back in the ring.”

Gio wasn’t sure about that but he was right about one thing. The time away
would
probably do him some good. “When are you headed up?”

Felix smiled. “Next week. I’ll be up there for two months straight. ‘Course there’s gonna be times I’ll have to leave. Since I’ll be in California, my agents lined up some stuff for me to promote the fight. Television appearances, morning radio shows, shit like that, but I’ll only be gone for two, maybe three days tops when I do that stuff. You can stay up there and ski or go snowboarding while I’m gone.” He winked with a smirk. “I’ll make sure you have company.”

Gio chuckled, knowing exactly what he meant. “Speaking of, who’s this chick with you today? Anyone I should know about before I make an ass of myself like I did last time?”

“Nah, she’s a jazz singer but she’s small potatoes. I met her in Vegas after one of my fights. She does have her own show out there but nothing you’d know about.”

“So, she your new chick? “ Abel asked.

Felix laughed. “C’mon brother, you know me. Life’s too short to settle on just one chick. Although there is one who seriously has me considering it.”

“No way,” Gio said, closing his locker. He’d heard rumors about Felix and a girl from Big Bear but just like all the other rumors he’d heard about Felix, Gio hadn’t thought anything of it.

“Hey,” Felix said, lifting his hands in front of him. “Stranger things have happened. So what do you say? You in?”

“I’ll give it some thought and let you know in a couple of days. I gotta talk to Jack, too. This is my first day back and already I gotta tell him I may be leaving for two months.”

As it turned out not only was Abel right about Jack agreeing that Gio could use the time away, he insisted Gio did. That evening Jack took Gio aside. “I’m getting old. Too old to be managing this place. The busier it gets; the harder it gets for me.”

“Yeah, that boy is smart as a whip. I showed him the other day how I do all the back end stuff around here and within minutes he had it all going on the computer—said I could do it all faster and more efficiently that way. He’s working on getting everything in there now.”

Gio remembered Abel telling them how his little brother had always been smart and talented that way. He said if the kid ever stopped messing around, he might actually do something with that talent.

“Anyway, so Felix is talking about remodeling this place and putting some big bucks into it. He really wants to give back.”

Gio’s eyes opened wide. “That would be awesome!”

Jack turned to Gio. “That’s why I need you to go and get yourself all better. This place is gonna be all of yours soon and I need you to be here one-hundred percent, both physically and emotionally. But there’s something else I wanted to run by you.” Gio nodded, waiting silently for Jack to go on. “Your name is already on the title of 5
^th
Street. I added you years ago.”

Gio’s eyes opened wide. Jack had made comments in the past about how someday he’d pass 5
^th
Street on to him but he had no idea he was already on the title.

“I wanna add Noah, Abel and Hector’s names too, but I wanted to make sure you were okay with that.”

Gio couldn’t believe Jack would even have to ask. “Of course it’s okay. They put in just as much work around here as I do. But Jack, I don’t… I don’t know what to say.”

“Just say you’ll always work as hard as you do now to keep this place running smoothly. This place is my life and I’m trusting you boys with it.” Jack stood. Gio walked over to him and hugged him.

“You have my word.”

Jack smiled. “I knew I would, son. Just do me a favor. Don’t tell them anything yet. I wanna get their names on the title first. And keep to yourself the fact that your name was the only one I added at first.” He pressed his lips together. “You were just the first one I got close to. But now I love you all the same. They don’t need to know about that.”

Gio promised not to say anything and with that their guy talk was over and Jack left him with a lot to think about. Gio always knew in his heart that someday he and the guys would be running things. Jack, who had no family of his own, always treated them like family and he’d been a father figure to all of them. For the first time in weeks, Gio felt excited again. 

Nana and her mother stared at Bianca as she got off the phone. She hadn’t been able to wipe the silly smile off her face fast enough.

“Was that who I think it was?” Nana asked.

Bianca gave in, nodding. Ever since the past summer, she’d been seeing
the
Felix Sanchez, current welterweight boxing champion of the world. She didn’t know a thing about boxing but everyone, especially in her neighborhood, knew about Felix. She’d gone to high school with him and he became the local hero when he started winning fight after fight. Then he’d won the championship over a year ago. He was now known worldwide and
she
was dating him.

Although she admitted him being famous and insanely rich was part of the intrigue, she’d actually had a crush on the guy way back in high school. She hadn’t seen him in person since she graduated, but last summer when she came up to Big Bear after her grandfather’s death she ran into him. She’d been surprised he remembered her. One thing led to another and they began seeing each other.

A first she had her doubts about it working out. She even reasoned that it would be okay if it didn’t. She knew he lived a busy life that was much different from her small town life in Big Bear.

Another reason for her doubts was his fame. Boxers weren’t usually the target of the stalkarazzis but because of Felix’s age and looks—the fact that he’d been linked with quite a few young Hollywood A-listers,
and
because his upcoming fight was so highly anticipated, he’d now become just as much of a target as a movie star.

Bianca had never been one to follow the tabloids but ever since she’d gotten involved with Felix she couldn’t help but get sucked into them. Especially when they talked about him being seen with a new girl—this after he’d assured her their relationship was an exclusive one.

She’d been doing her best not to buy into the hype and made up drama, which Felix said, was
all
it was. One particular incident last year was when she saw a photo of him and Shana Thompson, the current women’s figure skating champion, said to be the front-runner in this year’s Olympics. It was the week he’d had a photo shoot for Sports Illustrated’s Hottest Young Athletes layout. They were caught in a compromising pose where they apparently were on a date sitting in a very cozy restaurant booth in New York. In one of the photos it appeared as if they were about to kiss. It made Bianca crazy. They’d only been intimate for a few weeks when the photo surfaced and she’d lost it.

Days after letting him have it and telling him she was done with him, the same photo resurfaced only this time Shana’s boyfriend and Felix’s publicist Andy were also there. The other photo had been doctored. They took the most damning picture of them when they’d leaned in to say something to each other and cropped everything and everyone else out. Just like Felix explained, it wasn’t just a restaurant it was also a blues club and the music was really loud. She felt terrible, especially because Felix had tried in vain to explain to her that that’s what the paparazzi did to sell stories and word was beginning to get out about his mystery Big Bear girlfriend.

Neither her grandmother nor her mother were crazy about her dating a celebrity, especially one known to be such a womanizer, so of course they were concerned when they saw how upset all the tabloid stories made Bianca. But once the truth was out about the photo they actually convinced her to call Felix and apologize. They also made her promise she’d stop reading the stupid tabloids. More than anything they hated to see her hurt and her mother said it was a better idea if she just followed her heart instead of the gossip. From that day forward, she vowed to never read any of the tabloids. Though there were times she’d slip and give into the temptation. But it had been a while since that happened.

“So he’ll be up here for two whole months?” Nana asked with a coy little smile.

“Yes.” Bianca clutched the phone in her hand, feeling like a silly schoolgirl. The time she got to spend with Felix always felt so short. Knowing he’d be up here for two whole months and his saying he wanted to spend as much time with her as possible made her insides go wild. She eagerly filled them in on how long Felix would be there and when he’d arrive. Then she remembered. “But don’t worry, I won’t cut my time away at the shop.”

Nana waved her hand at her. “We can more than handle it if you want to take some time off.”

In addition to Bianca and her mother she had two cousins who also worked at her grandmother’s rental shop. During the winter, they rented everything from snowboards and skis to sleds. Then in the summer, they rented all the water sport stuff—rafts, fishing gear, kayaks and they sold bait all year along with a ton of souvenirs. They weren’t insanely busy but business was steady year round with summer and winter being their busiest seasons.