"Look at me, G." Gio turned back to Noah then followed Noah's gaze. Jack and Felix were coming toward them, but they were moving slow, and Jack was really struggling. Still, Noah spoke fast. "Whether she's still sleeping with him or not is beside the point. He brought you here as a favor. You're my friend, but what you're doing is a huge disrespect to him."Gio dropped his head back, exhaling through his mouth. Noah was right and Gio couldn't argue there, but he was too far gone to try and fight this thing, whatever it was, no matter how wrong he knew it was."I know you're not as close to him as you once were, but you're still his friend. Now I don't know what she's thinking," Noah continued adamantly as Jack stopped walking to take a breather. "But she's staying in his cabin—sleeping in his fucking bed. If this is really what she wants, then maybe she should move out. Have you two talked about that at all?""I haven't had a chance. We text when we can, but since the last time he l
Pushing through the front door, Gio scanned the huge parking lot. His eyes zeroed in on Bianca waving at him over by a van. Gio skipped down the stairs in the front, now in a full sprint to get to her. When he reached her, he didn't even ask; they could talk later. The first thing he did was take her in his arms. He kissed her with a hunger he'd only experienced since the first time he tasted her mouth.He hadn't even given her time to remove the mint, and it was now in his mouth as he pulled away, grinning and holding it between his front teeth then pulled it back in his mouth and kissed her again. "I love you," he whispered against her lips, his eyes closed, afraid of what she'd say but more of what she wouldn't.As usual, she surprised him. She pulled back and he opened his eyes. Her big eyes stared at him very determinedly. "Before I say this, I want you know that even though this may or may not matter to you, it's still important to me that you know. I care about Felix, but I've
BiancaBianca did her best to appear as casual as possible as she made her way back to the table with the rest of the girls. One glance over at the guys by the bar had her heart racing. Felix eyed her and he didn't look happy. Could it be possible he knew what she'd been up to? The idea that he may have had one of his security guys follow her, even as a security precaution, didn't even dawn on her until she was on her way back, but now it was a major cause of worry.Felix started toward her as she got closer. She slowed, not wanting to be too close to the girls now if they were going to argue. Starting to smile as he stepped in front of her, Bianca's smile went flat seeing the fiery contempt in his eyes. "Where've you been?"Assaulted by the stench of tequila followed by his slurred speech, Bianca realized he was drunker than she'd ever seen him. "To the ladies' room. I got caught up on my way back when I ran into someone from school."His eyebrow jerked up at that. "A guy?""No,"
GioGio walked out of the bathroom fully dressed. The room was still dark. He'd set his alarm so he could get out of there early. Knowing Felix, he'd be feeling like shit about what happened last night. His suspicions about Bianca had nothing to do with Gio—yet.If Gio didn't hurry to miss him this morning, Felix would probably be all apologetic about his behavior last night. Although it hadn't happened in a long time, this wouldn't be the first time one of them got drunk and stupid and had to be held back or dragged out of a party or club. Whoever it was always felt stupid the next day. Gio wasn't about to stick around and have Felix apologize to him.Sure, Gio had swung at him and landed a good one, but it was justified. All the other guys agreed. Although, they all might've just given Felix a good shove in the chest to shut him up and maybe told him to have some respect. Felix's anger and unreasonable fit of jealousy seemed to stem from him overdoing the shots and nothing more, s
They drove silently until they reached the drug store where they bought the ice pack and some aspirin. When they got back in the car, Gio, who sat shot gun, rested his head back, holding the ice pack to his swollen shut eye."Look guys," he began. "I know what I did seems despicable, but I didn't just decide to go after his girl. We fell in love—both of us, not just me. I tried to fight it. I—""You should've left," Abel said, staring straight ahead as he drove.Gio lifted his head and glanced at Abel's unsympathetic, almost angry expression. He reclined his head back again and closed his only good eye. "Yeah, I should've." He had no choice but to agree. "I fucked up, but it couldn't be helped."He didn't expect them to understand, because if one them had done what he'd done to one of their closest friends before this ever happened to him, he'd be just as disgusted."So what?" Hector sat up, leaning against the back of the front bench seat. "You and her are together now? Isn't tha
BiancaIt'd been days since the scandal broke—days since Bianca had last seen Gio and an eternity since she'd last kissed his lips. She hadn't even been able to say goodbye properly. What was worse was that this could go on for much longer.Both Bianca and Gio had assumed that the story would die down soon enough. Not only had it not calmed down but they were turning it into a full-blown soap opera. The paparazzi were relentless in their pursuit of a statement from any of the three parties involved in the, now internationally talked about, love triangle. Because they were all Hispanic, even the Spanish tabloids had gotten in on it.Bianca dropped the only class she'd taken on campus that spring because the once respectful photographers and sleazy journalists were on her now, as Nana so nicely put it, "like flies on shit."Gio had since been fined for flinging one photographer's camera across the 5th Street gym parking lot. They were forced to lay low for now. The media wanted nothi
The sincerity mixed with alarm made Bianca nervous but she waited as Felix let out a breath and frowned. "Andy wanted me to threaten her—threaten to go after her with everything I had—dig up any skeletons she might have and threaten to go public with them, all for the sake of intimidating her into having the abortion." He looked away, and Bianca sensed he couldn't look at her anymore. She was almost afraid to hear more. "I might've done it if this had happened before I met you. I actually considered it, but then I thought what if it was you? What if this had happened when I first ran into you again, before I really got to know you, and I'd done this to you. I didn't know much about her either, but I kept thinking she could be just another sweet and special girl like you, who I'd be screwing with just to cover my own ass—I couldn't do it. That's when I realized I'm not the same guy I used to be and it's because of you. I'm giving her whatever she needs, and I plan on being there for my
BiancaIt'd been over an hour since the line between Bianca and Gio went dead. She tried to convince herself that he hadn't hung up on her. There had to be a reasonable explanation for why they'd been cut off and he was now not answering any of her calls or returning her texts. Even with the pictures, he couldn't possibly believe the stories about her and Felix being back together.Toni had called her about a half hour after her call with Gio to warn her about the new stories. The new photos of her and Felix coupled with the stories the media was circulating were pretty damning. She suggested Bianca give Gio a head's up. The media sure had a way of making even the most innocent of photos seem like some kind of deep moment between them.The more time that passed without her hearing from Gio, the more anxious she felt that he might actually be buying into the hype. He couldn't possibly, could he? But it was late already. They usually talked in the evening until bedtime.The televisio