Chapter 4

Sitting on the couch with my legs tucked into my chest I stared blankly at the vibrating cell phone.  It was like a curse or something.  Every ten minutes its gone off like clockwork for the last four hours. 

I refused to answer the blasted thing.  I didn’t have to look to know who was calling.  It was Jay.  He would want to know how the ‘perfectly planned dinner’ went last night.  What a fiasco that turned out to be.  The shame I experienced was enough to last me a life time.  I wasn’t in any mood to relive it.  Especially with Jay.

The phone when off again.  Why couldn’t he just give it a rest?

Sniffing, I angrily wiped another tear from my face as I recalled the look on Rio's face when he told me who those two girls were. He was absolutely livid with me for accusing him of wanting them for his own entertainment. It was so stupid of me to jump to conclusion.  Really, really stupid of me.

How the hell was I supposed to convince him now? Rio wanted nothing to do with me and after the way I acted last night I could hardly blame him.  I really didn’t want much to do with myself at this point.

That damn phone vibrated on the table again.  “Shut up!” I snapped. Acting out of instinct, I reached for the phone. Without even bothering to look at the caller ID I lobbed the stupid thing across the room with all the force I could muster.  It bounced off the wall with a loud thump before falling to the floor in hundreds of tiny pieces.

Wrinkling my nose up I stood up and stared the pieces of the broken phone.  Broken just like the small organ currently beating like a drum inside my chest.

Feeling sorry for myself, I taunted the battered piece of technology. "I dare you to ring now, damn it!"

"What the hell is going on?" Charlie asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

Standing in the doorway, he looked like he’d just rolled out of the bed.  He wore nothing but a pair of navy blue basketball shorts and his hair was sticking up in every direction.  I probably woke him up with my own bit of theatrics.

Taking a step back, I blew out a deep breath of air and stared regretfully back at the smashed phone. In my moment of clarity I realized how supremely childish I’d been acting. I was an idiot.  

"Nothing Charlie," I said on a sad sigh. "Nothing at all," I repeated, turning around and collapsing on the couch.

For several awkward moments he just stood there stoically in the doorway.  I could see the wheels spinning in his head. I was secretly hoping he would take my answer for face value and just go back to bed, considering I woke him up and all.  But I should have known better.  Who was I trying to kid?  This is Charlie Bodello after all.  In all my years nothing ever seems to get by him.

"I call bullshit," he said, walking over to the couch to stand in front of me.  He crossed his arms over his chest and that was the point I knew that this was going to be one of those lectures.  Yay me.

"You are my sister.  I know you Bailey and something's up. Something’s been up with you for a while now. What I want to know is what that something is."  Damn the man.  Charlie could be very intimidating when he wanted to be and right now with his eyes so supremely focused on me, I was struggling to come up with an answer.

"It's nothing, Charlie."  I repeated in a defeated tone. I ran my hand over my face hoping to avoid his careful scrutiny, but did that work? Um, the answer to that stupid question would be a flat no.  He stood in front of me like an impenetrable rock.  He wasn’t going to just let this go.

"Agh!" I vented loudly. What I really wanted to do was scream out in frustration but instead I threw my hands up in the air. "Look Charlie, it’s none of your business, okay. Just leave me alone."

I glared at him but my brother never wavered.  His eyes stayed on my face. "It's a guy, isn’t it?  The one you were asking me about yesterday.  Something happened and he hurt you," he guessed.

Lord save me from overzealous men.  Standing up, I rolled my eyes.  The last thing I wanted to do was sit around here, feeling sorry for myself while I told my sob story to my brother.  If he only knew what I’d done last night then he’d probably disown me.

"No you don't." Charlie said, grabbing me firmly by my shoulders and gently pushing me back do on the couch. "We're not finished yet."

He may not be finished but I certainly was.  There was no way I was going to tell him about Rio.  No way.  No how.  Not today and not tomorrow.  This conversation had hit a dead end.  Raising my head, I stared up at him defiantly.

"Who is it?" he asked again in a low whisper. And damn it all to hell, he had determination written all over his face.  Not only that, he just so happened to be standing so close to me that I felt like a tiny mouse caught by the big bad cat.

"None. Of. Your. Business." I told him and enunciated each word clearly so that he understood me perfectly. This was one argument he was not going to win.

Charlie just shrugged his shoulders.  “Okay,” he said, taking a seat beside me. "You want to play hard ball, then fine.  I can too," he said just as sweetly as he pleased.  "By all means, be a stubborn ass.  But just so you know I have all day to sit here until you tell me what I want to know."

Sitting back he proceeded to get comfortable.  After putting his feet up on the coffee table, he then lifted the remote and turned on the television to ESPN Sports Center.

"Uh, no.  I don’t think so," I muttered.  I was not going to get into one of our infamous standoffs with Charlie because he always won.  Always.  “I’m out,” I said, standing up.

That thought was nice as long as it lasted, all of 2.2 seconds. I had no more than straightened my back when I found myself wrenched back carelessly onto the couch. That little booger wrapped his fingers in my belt loop and pulled me as if I weighed no more than a floating feather. This really sucked.

I turned to glare at him. "You're impossible you know," I said.

He didn’t seemed flustered in the least little bit. "Tell me who he is and I'll let you go. It's as simple as that Bailey."

No it really wasn’t that simple but if he wanted to know then, fine.  I couldn’t take it anymore.  "It's Rio, Charlie!  Rio is the guy.  Are you happy now?" I yelled at him, feeling the fingers of anger rise in my face. All I wanted was to get out here.  Away from Charlie. Away from Rio.  Away everyone.  I just wanted to be alone. 

He slowly clicked off the television and everything went eerily quiet with the exception of the ticking of the grandfather clock in the foyer.  One second passed.  Two seconds passed. Three seconds passed.

And then spoke.  "Do you want to run that by me again?" he asked, way too calmly in my opinion considering what I’d just told him.

And just like that, all the anger that I was feeling a second ago just drained right out of me.  I was feeling suddenly self conscious about repeating my answer. Closing my eyes I answered his question.  "Rio." I said barely above a whisper. “The guy that I went to see was Rio.”

"My best friend, Rio?  Rio Mendez?" he asked, pointing at his own chest.

Unable to speak, I nodded my head.  What else could I do?

"Are you fucking crazy, Bailey?"

"See, this is why I didn't want to say anything to you." I told him as I stood. Thankfully, he released my belt loop this time. “I don’t need you telling me who I should and shouldn’t be seeing.  Which you don’t have to worry.  After last night, Rio made it painfully clear that he wants nothing to do with me by the way.”

Charlie pressed his fingers to his temples and shook his head. He looked up and our gazes met.  I immediately wished they hadn’t because there was nothing but sympathy and pity for me in his eyes.

"Bailey, listen to me. You don't understand. Some bad shit happened to him overseas. Stuff that you could never possibly even begin to understand. Rio's not the guy for you. He's too dark, too unstable, and too edgy.  What you need is a nice that will open doors for you, bring you flowers and take you out to a nice restaurant for dinner. One that will whisper sweet nothings in your ear and love you for just being you. I'm telling you right now, Rio Mendez is not that type of guy."

Charlie is wrong.  I know he is but arguing that was pointless.  "Thanks for the unwelcome advice dad?" I said mockingly. I needed to get out of here. I have this sudden need to work out my own frustrations and the gym sounded like just the place to do it. "If that’s all you have to say then may I be dismissed to go to the gym?"

I was already hurt and angry and to top it all off, hearing my own brother tell me that the man I love, was not good enough for me. Well, that just pissed me the hell off.

Charlie stood up, everything about him looking serious.  "Bailey, please. Just take my advice and stay away from him. Okay? I’m telling you now; you don't know what you’re getting yourself into. When you mess with Rio, you're playing with fire and the last thing I want to do is see my baby sister get burned."

"I'll keep that in mind," I told him, and that was all I could take.  Brushing by him abruptly, I went to the closet and picked up my gym bag. I turned around to get my phone before I saw the broken pieces scattered all over floor. Well, the good news is at least it will be a quiet work out I thought as I picked my keys up by the door and headed for my car.

*****

Walking into the gym all I could smell was dirty socks and sweat. There were people of all shapes and sizes working on the different pieces of exercise equipment.  Televisions hung from the ceiling with different sport games showing on each one. I came here for a specific reason though.  Eager to feel the burn in my own muscles I quickly headed to the locker room to change.

Standing in the locker room, I was pulling a tank over my head when I heard his name. Rio.  Two distinctly feminine voices were carrying on a conversation on the next aisle over.  There just wasn’t many Rio’s in this small town.  I had no doubt they had to be talking about the same Rio.  My Rio and now they had my full attention.

Tip toeing to the end of the aisle, I strained to hear their conversation.

"Did you see how big his arms were? I mean damn, those guns have to be illegal."

They both laughed together.  "His arms? Really? I was too busy checking out his fine as hell ass." The second voice added.

My hands balled into tight fists reflexively.  They didn't need to be talking about his ass. That ass belonged to me.

"Macy said he was home for good now."

"That’s news.  Looks like I need to make my move fast. Rio would be the perfect husband.  Sexy, hunky and I heard that in bed, his tongue can do things make a woman orgasm in less than sixty seconds."

"Girl, you'll have to go through me first.  I heard the same thing too and can you imagine our kids?  How cute they’d be.  I am going to convince Rio to be my husband, or die trying."

“You might as well go ahead and die then bitch, because I called dibs.”

They both started laughing out loud and I couldn't bear to hear anymore. Just the mere thought of what those catty women said burned me up. Both of them better think again. No one is putting their mitts on my man, especially if I have a say about it.

I walked out of the locker room, a thick ball of tension riding me hard like a bull. I was more than ready to do some serious damage. I made a bee line for the bikes and smiled when I realized that I would be alone. Perfect.

I jumped on and turned up the tension. I needed to feel the maximum burn. I started at a medium pace and gradually increased my speed. Ten minutes later I could feel the moisture beading on my forehead and a line of sweat dripping down my back.

I reveled in the burn of every limb, of every muscle.  

Every time I pictured Rio's face, filled with fury and staring at me with disdain, I pushed myself harder.

"Hey, you may want to slow down a little or you’re going to really be hurting tonight." The family deep voice sounded from beside me and I stopped with rivulets of sweat running down nu face.  I knew that voice. I knew it all too well. It’s the voice in my dreams. The voice of all my sexual fantasies.  It was Rio Mendez.

"Uh, uh." I said dumbly because what else could I say.  I was at a complete loss for words.

He chuckled lightly and shook his head. "It's alright." He said with a mischievous glint sparkling in his eyes.

"I, I'm sorry for last night," I quickly rambled out and then immediately cursed myself for sounding so pathetic. Hadn't I been telling myself all along that confidence was the key to getting what one wanted in life? Where the hell was my confidence now?

He took a hand towel and wiped his face.  "It's okay Bailey.”

When I just gave him this ‘yeah right’ look, he tossed his towel over his shoulder and placed a reassuring hand over mine.  “Listed, it is, okay?" he said. "No harm, no foul, right?"

And that was that.  Call me crazy but I believed him.  He was genuinely smiling and that had me melting into silly putty right before his very eyes.

I returned his smile and nodded in agreement.  I wasn’t sure what had changed his demeanor but who was I to question a gift horse in the mouth? 

"So," I drawled the word out, staring down at my lap. "You're not still mad at me?" I asked hesitantly. “About last night?  Because I really didn’t know and I shouldn’t have accused you of anything.” 

He slowly breathed in deeply and then hissed it out between his teeth.  "Bailey, I’ve know you forever and the last thing I want is to be mad at you.  Hell, I can't stay mad at you. But you need to lose the notion that we are meant to be together in that way. I am just not that type of guy. I don’t do relationships. Not the love kind anyway.  I never have and I never will.  I just can’t do it.  But I do want to be your friend, though. Can we do that?" he asked, looking at me hopefully.

"Friend." I said testing the word on my tongue. "Friend.”  I said it again and grinned.  “Yeah, I think I would like that," I told him honestly.

A plan was already starting to form in the back of my head. Every good relationship has to have a strong base.  What better way to build a strong base than friends? From there I could slowly work my way into his heart, showing him how great we would be together. That’s it.  Friendship.  I could definitely work with this.

"Alright then," he said, holding his hand out to me.  "Friends."

I eagerly accepted his hand and shook it in earnest. " Yep, friends." I replied, unable to stop the hint of a devilish smile curling up at the corners of my lips. 

Don't count out the girl when she's down. Women have minds that work in mysterious ways. Those minds are always thinking, always churning for ways to get what they want. I still want Rio. That simple fact has never changed.

Operation attain Rio is officially reinstated.