Romero (4 page)

They went silent for a while. Isabel dare not look up, since they were obviously making out right there in front of her. She could literally hear the exchange of bodily fluids.

“Stop,” she finally heard Valerie whisper. “Alex, we’re not alone.”

Thank you!

Isabel pushed her glasses up a bit and pretended to be engrossed in the screen of her laptop. After an unbelievable few more kisses, Alex finally left.

Valerie closed the door. Now Isabel could look up.

“Sorry about that,” Valerie said, still standing by the door. “He gets a little carried away sometimes.”

Isabel nodded, not sure how else to respond to that. She only prayed this is not what she would have to put up with for the rest of the semester.

“I’ll just unpack and let you do whatever it is that you’re doing.”

Two hours later, Valerie had unpacked most of her stuff, but as far as Isabel could see, she hadn’t really put much of it away. For the past half hour, Valerie had been on the phone with Alex again.

“Yeah, I’m done unpacking.”

Isabel jerked her head up from her book. Most of her things were still all over the floor and she’d stacked a lot of stuff along the walls. They had drawers, bookshelves and a closet. Was she not planning to use any of them?

“No, I’m not coming home this weekend but you can come here.”

Isabel squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath.

*

Two months later, Valerie’s things were pretty much in the same place where she’d
unpacked
them, and there was never a dull moment. Valerie and her boyfriend had a turbulent relationship. Things were wonderful for a few weeks then Valerie would get into a noticeably bad mood, grumbling that she hated him and slamming things around for days.

Isabel never asked her anything about it. They hadn’t exactly warmed up to each other. Things got tense between them after the few times Isabel had to remind Valerie about not leaving her clothes on the bathroom floor after she showered.

Isabel had a ritual when it came to studying. She needed absolute silence. She’d explained this to Valerie, who said she understood and would try to keep it down, then proceeded to blow-dry her hair.

“I didn’t know you were studying,” she’d responded to Isabel’s complaint. “Who studies on a Friday night anyway?”

After a few more blow-ups, they officially hated each other.

Isabel sat on her bed. It was Friday night and she’d decided not to head home until the next morning. One of her friends told her about a party tonight just off campus, but as usual, she passed. She’d just finished talking to her sister, Gina, who couldn’t believe Isabel was sitting in her dorm room on a Friday night. Isabel had always envied her sister who was not only smart, but always fit right in with the popular, party crowd.

To her surprise, the door opened and in walked Valerie. Ever since the beginning of the semester, Valerie had gone out every weekend and sometimes during the week. She glanced at Isabel, her eyes and nose bright red.

“You okay?”

Valerie shook her head and walked into the restroom. Isabel had witnessed many of Valerie and Alex’s over-the-phone arguments. She’d been mad at him plenty of times, but this was the first time she saw her cry over him, if her tears now in fact were because of him.

Valerie came out of the restroom and pulled a t-shirt out of a bag from the floor. She took the blouse she wore off, and pulled the t-shirt over her head. Isabel had already decided she’d let her be and not pry, until Valerie sat down on her bed and buried her face in her hands, sobbing.

Out of pure reaction, because it was what she’d do if it was one of her sisters, Isabel jumped from her bed and sat next to Valerie, putting an arm around her. Valerie leaned against her, welcoming the comfort of Isabel’s gesture.

“I don’t even know why I care anymore,” she said, finally looking up. “It’s not like he’s ever promised me anything.”

Isabel stared at Valerie’s wet face. She grabbed the box of tissue from the desk and handed it to Valerie.

“He does this
all
the time.” She stopped to blow her nose. “And I pretend like it doesn’t bother me, then I find out the truth and…” she put the tissue to her eyes and took a deep breath. “It hurts like hell.”

Isabel had only been in one relationship in her life. It was long, but boring by most standards. She didn’t have much to offer in the way of advice. “What did he lie about?”

Valerie told her how long she’d been going out with Alex, and that she’d been drooling over him since grade school. Theirs was an open relationship, which Isabel didn’t get. Supposedly, they were both okay with seeing other people. From what little Isabel knew about Alex and the body language she saw when he was with her, he didn’t strike her as someone who would be okay with that kind of understanding. But she listened without interrupting.

“The longer I keep this up, the more it hurts to know I won’t be spending time with him because he’s with someone else. I used to shake it off, but sometimes it really hurts, especially coming off a week like this one.”

“It’s always been like this between us. Either I accept our relationship for what it is—take what he
will
give me—or walk away and lose him completely.” She took one final deep breath, and wiped her eyes. “I’m done crying. This isn’t the first time and I’m sure it won’t be the last.” She gave Isabel a pathetic little smile. “I’m starving. You wanna split a pizza?”

They ordered a large pizza. As tiny as Valerie was, she devoured more than half within minutes. They sat on the floor exchanging stories about high school and their families back home. “You live in La Jolla and you’re paying for a dorm? Isn’t that like twenty minutes away?”

Valerie nodded. “Alex.” Valerie must’ve read the look of confusion on Isabel’s face because she clarified, “I was hoping the time away from home would help me eventually get over him.”

Valerie told her more about her relationship. Isabel told her about her high school sweetheart, Jacob. They talked until almost three in the morning.

“Two and a half years,
really
?”

“Yeah,” Isabel smiled. “We started going out my sophomore year.”

“So why’d you break up?”

“It wasn’t so much a break up, as it was a to-be-continued type of deal. He enlisted in the Navy. He wanted us to stay together, but I just didn’t think it would work. Plus,” Isabel shrugged. “I was kind of over it already anyway. When he told me about enlisting, I was actually relieved. I’d already started to practice my break-up speech.”

“You weren’t in love with him?”

“I thought I was. But looking back now, I think I was just in love with the idea of
being
in love, you know? He was my first everything, and even though that was exciting, it was never spectacular. I’ve read so much about that warm fuzzy feeling and how you can hardly wait to see him again—when you’re with them the world seems to stand still.”

Valerie pouted. “I know that feeling.”

Isabel pouted too. “Well at least you’ve felt it. I never did. I think we were just too comfortable with each other from the very beginning. Everything was perfect all the time. I don’t even remember ever arguing with him. We agreed on everything.”

“What about the sex?” Valerie grinned.

“It was okay.” Valerie’s expression made her laugh. “I mean at first, of course it was. We were both each other’s firsts, so
that
was exciting. But neither of us knew what we were doing, it was always over so fast—never mind-blowing like I’ve read so much and seen in the movies.”

She left the part out about how after two years with him she’d never even had an orgasm. On her own, certainly, but never with him. A big part of the reason was since they were so young, most of the time they were sneaking around so they had to make it quick. That was probably the most exciting thing about it. That she was doing something bad, and though she never admitted it to Jacob she liked being bad sometimes. It was so unlike her she doubted Jacob ever knew how thrilling it had been for her to take such risks.

Isabel didn’t even have to ask, but she did anyway. “How ‘bout you and Alex?”

Valerie smiled so big, and although it made Isabel green with envy, she laughed anyway. She was really enjoying her time with Valerie. If she could get past her roommate’s messy side of the room and her habit of leaving things everywhere, she might actually get used to this.

Romero

Manny and Max weren’t happy when they found out that not only was Romero not going into the family business, he wouldn’t even be doing the doorman gig anymore. Of course, he’d help out if they were ever in a bind and needed him, but he had a goal and he was sticking to his plan.

After a year of doing the doorman thing exclusively, he started landing jobs at other bars and clubs. He needed the experience of dealing with more than just throwing a bunch of drunks out on their asses.

He landed a job at a sports arena working security during concerts and events. The bigger celebrities had their own security, but the small-time celebs needed to be escorted in and out. As different as the venue was, compared to his uncles’ bar, the sexual encounters were surprisingly similar. His choices in this case, were of a more sophisticated caliber but the outcome was still the same. The women may have been classier on the outside, but to Romero they were just as hollow on the inside and the act itself, just as meaningless.

The biggest difference was while the women at his uncles’ bar looked up to him as if he were on a higher level because his uncles owned the joint, these women had the fucking nerve to look down on him because he was the security guard to their gig. They’d spread their legs just as easily as the girls from the bar and moaned just as loud. It was laughable. Though most of the time he didn’t feel much like laughing.

One night he walked the back stage, keeping an eye out for any eager fans that might sneak back to get a closer look at the musicians performing that night. The music blared so loud you could actually feel it vibrate through the halls.

Thoughts of his next step to get to his goal consumed him. He’d already enrolled in an online course required by the state to get his business license. Talking to Angel and Eric helped him stay on course. They were always talking about the next semester and having to pass this or that prerequisite. Even though he never talked about his own goal, he had a lot to take care of before he got to where needed to be.

The main thing slowing the process for him now was money. His uncles had it, but he wasn’t about to hit them up. He was doing this on his own. That was part of the reason he sought out another job—more money. His uncles had offered him more money to stay but he knew it was a hand out. Most of the time he sat out there for hours. Some nights he saw no action at all. How the hell could he justify a raise for doing nothing more than sitting and keeping an eye out?

Loud voices jolted him from his thoughts. He turned to see a man and a woman arguing just outside the ladies’ room at the other end of the hall. He hurried toward them. From what he could see, they both seemed to have the proper backstage passes around their necks. Their argument was escalating. The music was loud, but so were they, and Romero could make out what they were arguing about.

The second Romero saw his other hand go for her throat, he broke into a sprint. He felt something ignite in him and the memories of that night with Cici in the parking lot assaulted him. “Get your fucking hands off her!”

They both turned, startled by his voice. The man backed away from the woman just seconds before Romero reached them. Romero slammed him against the wall. “You think you’re a tough guy, hitting women? Hit me, mother fucker!” He held his hands open to his sides dying for this guy to take a swing.

“All right that’s enough,” someone from behind Romero yelled. Romero kept squeezing and the man’s face began turning red. The rage he felt got worse by the second. The coward didn’t even try fighting him off. Romero reached for the passes that hung around the man’s neck with his other hand and ripped them off. He had every right to throw anyone out who started trouble. This guy had started more than that.

He pulled his hand off the guy’s neck and grabbed him roughly by the collar of his shirt instead. Romero hauled him off toward the exit. “Where are you taking him?” A bald man surrounded by a few bodyguards asked.

Romero didn’t even turn to look at him, trying desperately to calm himself before he did more than he should and responded. “He’s out of here.”

“Do you know who that is?”

“I don’t give a shit.”

As it turned out, he should’ve given a shit. The man he’d thrown out was the brother of one of the boys in the wannabe boy band performing that night. Even though the band was still up-and-coming, their clout was big enough to get Romero fired.

It was a pisser, but a well-worth-it pisser. All this time he thought he was over what had happened to Cici that night. Seeing that man put his hands on that woman brought back the ugly memory. He played the scene repeatedly in his head every night. The look in her frightened eyes just before he slapped her, then seeing her body fly backwards. Images of her swollen bloody lip made him squeeze his eyes shut. There was no doubt in his mind that if he had to do it over, he would pound Fred’s face into the ground until he was unconscious.