“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 f**ked 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 that gonna be weird?”

Gio shrugged. “It’s not like we’ll ever be around him anymore. You heard him. He never wants to hear from me again.”

“Yeah, but what about when he comes into 5th Street?”

Abel turned back to Hector. “He probably won’t anymore.”

Gio opened his eye. “He wouldn’t do that—block you guys out and Jack—because of me.”

Abel lifted a shoulder. “He might. Maybe he thinks we were all in on this. We all decided to come up here and enjoy the weekend while you screwed around with his girl.”

Something tightened in Gio’s stomach and he sat up straight. “We weren’t screwing around.”

“Call it whatever you want, G. Bottom line is you betrayed your friend for a girl. A friend who was doing you a favor by bringing you up here in the first place.” Abel tightened his jaw. “That’s not cool.”

Hector sat back now that the conversation had taken a turn for the uncomfortable. Gio laid his head back again. It was beginning to throb and he hoped the aspirins would kick in soon. “I know it isn’t. I don’t know what else to tell you, man. You can’t fight love. Trust me. I tried.”

Nobody said another word about it the rest of the way home. They stopped and grabbed breakfast sandwiches which they ate in the car but other than that made no stops.

Gio thanked Abel for dropping him off and went inside, glad no one was home. He wasn’t in the mood to answer all the questions he knew would be coming from his mom and sisters. He was sure by now they’d heard something. He plunked down on the sofa in the front room and did what he’d been thinking about doing since last night—called Bianca.

“Hey you. Are you home now?”

Just hearing her voice made him feel better already and he smiled despite his rough morning. “Yeah, just walked in.”

“So did you tell him or did he find out on his own?”

Gio sat up slowly. “He found out. Why? What did he say to you?”

“I just got a couple of harshly worded texts.”

Already he could feel the anger bubbling in him. “Harshly worded? Like what?”

“He’s mad, Gio and hurt. He’s doing and saying the expected.”

Gio sat at the edge of the sofa now. “Doing? What’s he doing?”

She sighed. “Nothing bad really. He set me up with a laptop so we could video chat and was paying for the internet service on it so I could have the fastest service available up here. This morning Toni called to tell me about the photos going viral all over the internet. When I tried to log on the service was already disconnected. It’s no big deal. I didn’t expect him to keep paying for it. I’ll just get it under my name when I get paid again. It’s kind of blessing actually. Maybe it’s best that I don’t read all the stuff being posted about me.”

Gio stood up, glad that money didn’t buy everything otherwise Bianca might still be with Felix instead of him. “And what did he say?”

“Gio, what do you think? I betrayed him with his best friend.”

“Noah’s my best friend,” he reminded her. “And I don’t give a shit if he’s pissed, Bianca. I don’t want him harassing you. Maybe you should block his ass..”

He got that Felix was pissed. But Felix hadn’t exactly been an angel himself. Gio thought about the jazz singer he’d brought with him to the gym the day he invited Gio to train with him. According to Bianca, they’d been exclusive since last summer. So the chick in Chicago probably wasn’t the only one he’d been screwing while in a relationship with Bianca. As mad as he was now he had a lot of f**king nerve saying anything harsh to her. Like it or not, Bianca was Gio’s girl now and he’d be damned if he would put up with Felix or anyone disrespecting or harassing her.

“It was just two texts early this morning,” she said. “Basically to let me know he knew and had thrown you out, though I already knew you were leaving. And of course to tell me he wanted nothing to do with me ever again.”

“Yeah,” Gio turned when he heard the front door open. “He said that to me, too.”

His mother walked in the room. “Giovanni? Oh my God, your eye! What happened?”

“Nothing, Ma.” He covered the mouthpiece on the phone not wanting to get into the whole thing right now. “One of Felix’s jabs slipped during training, that’s all.”

“Your eye?” Bianca asked. “What’s wrong with your eye?”

Gio moved the phone to his other ear as his mother moved in to examine his eye closer. “I’m taking you to the emergency room. This looks terrible!”

“I’m fine, Ma, really.”

“Emergency room?” Bianca’s voice got louder. “Did you two fight over this?”