The Heart of Tony Winters

by P. S. Power

  That made sense. He was the newest person on staff most likely. Saying that he couldn’t afford to take time to walk down the street to interview his own friends wouldn’t play with anyone in the world. It just sounded like laziness.

  “Do you need water? Anyone?” They didn’t have anything like that. Ash nodded, smiling at him.

  “Yes? That would be great. Thanks. My voice is going to fail if I’m not careful.”

  That took running on his part. Jogging at least, since he needed to be quiet enough that no one heard him doing it over the phone. Luckily they had bottled water in the fridge. For guests, mainly. Rick and Jen carried water bottles most of the time. Tony had one there as well. Today they all got passed cold bottles, since he didn’t know where those were at the moment. Probably at the gym, since that was where they were normally kept. His was still in his locker for the day, since it wasn’t warm outside.

  He got nods from most of them, though Steve drank half of his blue labeled bottle in one go before speaking.

  “Thanks, man. Looks like we need to get back on the air. In ten… nine…”

  Tony moved back, quietly, getting all the way out of the room. Then he showered again, since it didn’t seem like it was a great day to be walking around covered in grime or wearing sweats. After half an hour he came back down, dressed up like he was planning to go to church. That was one good thing about being done with the fight. He could start going again. He wasn’t really religious, but still tried to go when possible. It was nice to have a community after all.

  His plan wasn’t to be on camera, but it was kind of clear that they were going to be around for the time being, which meant that looking as nice as he could wouldn’t hurt anything. Besides, it killed some time, which given how useless he was in everything that day sounded like a good idea. Interestingly, when Tony walked into the room Steve simply waved him over. The cameras weren’t set up to catch anything, the cameraman working away at an expensive coffee off to the side. The sound person had one as well, being held. She was probably an intern, since there was no way she was much older than Tony was, now that he got a good look at her. Seeing him staring, she waved.

  It was pretty friendly seeming, rather than the kind of thing some women did if they thought you were checking them out and wanted to shame you over it. She was cute, but most intriguing for not being all that old.

  Not that they got to chat about their places in the world.

  “Tony! Bill at the network wanted me to ask if you’d do an interview? Mainly about the Rends thing? They’re running the clip from when you came in… It’s getting some attention.”

  He winced.

  “Did I mess that up too badly?”

  There was a shrug then, as Ashley stood up. She gave him a little hug.

  “Nah. They were just surprised that you were bothering to stand up for trans people at all. They’re doing the same with me, like I’d have an issue there? I didn’t let it bug me with the fights, so you’d think they’d get the idea. I guess they have Rick being kind of down on them though…” She grinned at the words. It was a bit hesitant, rather than mocking.

  He could see all of that, on both sides. Rick and Ashley’s take on things.

  “He’s older, it makes a difference, I guess. I mean, why should any of us care about that? We should probably get Rick in so we can go over that all at once.”

  Steve nodded, then made a phone call, as if the suggestion was a real thing. It wasn’t, which everyone seemed to get pretty quickly. For one thing Rick wasn’t going on the air live for that debate. He was too smart for that, since he already knew that his old school ways of thinking about things were the ones that people would consider wrong. Really, he seemed to think he wasn’t totally in the right anyway.

  It was just too hard for him to instantly adapt to the new way of thinking. That was all. It had happened with gay people too, even though he was willing to work with Raul and Nick. He even seemed to like them. Rick certainly would have backed them up when the chips were down. There wasn’t even any hesitation on those points. Still, he became visibly uncomfortable when gay things were mentioned. It was kind of funny, after a fashion.

  After all, Rick was so together on most other issues that it really stood out.

  When Tony was finally on the air, interviewed from the sofa, the questions weren’t all that hard. It really did focus on Fox, which had Steve mentioning the times that he’d cross dressed as her. Tony smiled and nodded at the ribbing. Then he realized that some people would take it the wrong way without a doubt.

  “That was for training. So that Ashley wouldn’t be taken by surprise by anything happening in the ring. Cage, I mean. I wasn’t wearing it for Halloween or anything like that. For one thing she isn’t famous enough for anyone to get who I was going as. I did do the little dance first each time, however.” He hadn’t worn a costume for that holiday at all.

  Honestly, he’d only done that kind of thing a few times in his life. Deidre had kept to a strange relationship with holidays while he was growing up. They didn’t do most of them. The big ones for her were St. Patrick’s Day, Mardi Gras and Cinco de Mayo. Oddly enough the little boy wasn’t invited to the drinking parties for some reason. Anything where the main focus could be dancing or drinking had always been pretty big with her. So the rest of them, like Thanksgiving or Christmas, weren’t really a thing in his life. Occasionally she’d managed a present for him for the big day. That wasn’t ever guaranteed. Really, it depended on who she happened to be dating at the time.

  Half of the gifts that Tony had ever gotten as a child for the holidays had been because whoever his mom was sleeping with that week had decided that the kid deserved something more than sitting in a room with an old book, at least one day a year. Half of those gifts had been drugs or alcohol.

  Steve just nodded at him, the topic moving forward smoothly. After all, once you nodded and said that you openly cross dressed, any power that it might have over you was kind of gone, as far as the press went.

  “You do a lot of that, don’t you? Adapting sparring to train for specific fights for other fighters. I know that one first hand, since you’ve worked with me on several fights. Boxing. Have you thought about a professional boxing career?” The question came out of left field for him, but he kind of had an answer.

  “Right now I’m focusing on training. For other people. I’m going back to school after the holidays, so that has to be my main focus then. After that, I don’t really know. Hopefully something in medicine?” That probably would cause him to sound like a little kid who wanted to grow up to be a super hero or a master chef. Steve suddenly sat up, tilting his head just a tiny bit. Listening to Bill from the network at a guess.

  “Oh, okay… We have breaking news on the Fox Rends situation. Over to Roger Diller in the studio.” Then he held very still for a bit, since it could take a bit to switch things over. Anthony wasn’t up on television news practices, but he’d seen a few people getting that wrong before. It could be funny, but was better just to stay ready, in case you had to talk again to cover for something. To that end he waited for Steve to tell him it was clear. Thankfully.

  After a moment, there was a nod as Steve spoke to the camera.

  “That’s right, Roger.” Whatever they were talking about, it didn’t come across from getting only one side of the story like the room was.

  After ten seconds there was a sharp nod.

  “I’ll get on that.” Then he stood up, clearly having some kind of plan for the next moments. This time, as soon as the camera was lowered, he explained.

  “We need Ash again. Rick and Jen as well. Fox Rends has just been arrested in Las Vegas, for criminal assault.” He glanced at Tony, then the team he was working with. “For cheating in the fight. It’s big… Huge, since it could mean that anyone using steroids from now on could be arrested, even if no one was hurt.” He walked away then, the cameraman seeming puzzled.

  “Are we working out of here still or�
��” The man was a bit husky, but had even, fairly dark skin and casual clothing on. The sound woman was in a long sleeved pullover.

  She looked at Tony, as if that would be up to him for some reason. Thinking about it, he nodded. They could always change up if the orders came in from someone that knew what they were supposed to do.

  “Assume that for now. This is the best room for it here, unless we move to the gym. If we do that… Well, make sure that you and Steve get to go first? I doubt we could really keep the other crews out in that case.”

  That got nods, the man moving back a step as the girl came over with her hand out. To shake. Like they were adults.

  “Hi! I’m Sandy. Sound for today. You’re Tony?” She was slightly round faced, but cute enough to catch his eyes if they’d met on the street, he thought. Her hair was blonde, giving her a very soft look. Like she should have been in a pink fuzzy sweater instead of a deep green shirt and blue jeans. Her smile was nice. Warm and like she meant it.

  So he nodded, not bothering to point out that she’d heard him called that for fifteen minutes straight.

  She went first, hitting that particular point.

  “There was something about you being called Anthony? Adam Forsyth mentioned that earlier. I guess he used to work with Fox Rends, back when she was a man? Four years ago or so. Do you know him? Adam, I mean. He sounded like you were friends.”

  There was a slightly sly tone to her voice, as if trying to claim that they were dating or something like that. Which would be way creepier than she probably thought. As far as he knew it wasn’t actually a secret or anything, so he just rolled his eyes at her.

  “My father.”

  She blinked, her face going blank for a few seconds.

  “What? I… That wasn’t mentioned. It hasn’t been by anyone. How… Is that why you’re so good at fighting? I mean, people have wondered.”

  “Nope? I’ve only met him once. So unless it’s genetic? I guess part of it might be, but I practice a lot, too. I didn’t know that he knew Fox. That’s weird, right?”

  The camera guy laughed, still standing back.

  “Stranger than you being related to the man? Not really. There are only about ten thousand people in MMA right now. About five hundred that are actually important or famous at all. It wouldn’t shock me to find out that most of you know each other. If nothing else at least through fights. Like you and Hodder? That was a wicked match, by the way. I’d figured that it would be more… I don’t know, like an exhibition? You both went in there and tore the mat up. I swear, I felt like I’d been the one fighting by the time it was done. Then you both went to help out that other guy like you did. Working together… That was better. Now we get this. Drugs. I mean, I get wanting to win, but that stuff will screw you up.”

  Tony nodded, since it was correct, as far as he could tell.

  Sandy touched his arm then, to get his attention.

  “Anyway, um, do you live around here? You work at the Gym? The one down the street?”

  He kind of did, actually, so nodded.

  “I live here. Rick’s my uncle. Anyway, you should get set up. We can talk later maybe? Um… Have dinner or something?” She was probably older than she looked, but that didn’t mean sharing a meal was out of the question. At least he didn’t think so.

  She sighed anyway.

  “I’m only sixteen. I should tell you that before I throw myself at you all night. It’s the job, it makes me seem older.”

  The cameraman laughed, but didn’t say anything about it.

  Tony nodded.

  “So older than me? Hmmm… that’s not bad though, really.” That seemed to surprise her, as if it hadn’t been the biggest selling point to him fighting at all. Because he was so young.

  “Sorry? Aren’t you like… Twenty?” It was a guess, but got the other man to have to look away.

  Tony shook his head though, smiling.

  “Fifteen. So, dinner? I can cook something?” He had questions for her already, like how she had a cool job at her age. Even if she was working for free that was kind of an awesome thing for her to be doing. More than that, she seemed to actually understand it well enough to be efficient the whole time.

  She smiled just as everyone came in, but nodded.

  “At six? Here, I guess, if that’s all right?”

  He nodded, then looked at Rick and then Jenny, since she was probably going to be more gentle with him about the idea that he could get a date. His uncle would probably feel honor bound to tease him over the idea.

  “Hey… You two are good with getting out of the house at six? I’m making dinner for Sandy here. She’s sixteen, so…” Tony was trying to sound polite, while letting them know that he wasn’t going to get some adult woman in legal trouble.

  It was Rick that got that one first, blinking twice then smiling.

  “We can get out of here for a while. Sure. Sounds like a plan. Right now…” He looked at his watch, which got Jen to lean in looking at the digital thing, her face going hard.

  “Um, it’s nearly lunch time at the gym. I’m on schedule to make it today…” She seemed ready to just leave the interview, with the free press coverage that implied, to make sure her people got fed on time.

  Tony needed to head that way anyway.

  “I have that one. I can look up something interesting for dinner, using the computer there. See you then, Sandy?” If anyone else thought it was funny that he had a date, they didn’t mock him openly about it.

  Then, he was fairly comfortable with women on the whole now. He’d had sex with more of them than he recalled the names of by more than he cared to think about. Technically he’d probably been an abused child, since some of his mother’s female friends had started sleeping with him when he was eleven. Even then he’d looked a bit older. Apparently cute enough for them, too. Most of them had been so far gone on drugs or booze that he wasn’t always certain they’d known who exactly they were doing at the time. Except that a lot of them had done it more than once.

  So he had experience, as far as that went.

  Since he’d come to live with Rick and Jen he’d been really good that way, not having sex with any of the women around him. A few of them he probably could have, if he’d bothered to try, but his family didn’t want him doing that kind of thing, since they were all too old. Sixteen wasn’t too old.

  Not that he’d be doing anything that night. Nothing against Sandy, but he didn’t have any condoms. Plus, he had a sneaking suspicion that most people didn’t do that kind of thing on the first date. It was a bit of a shame, but Tony knew that it was more important to be a good person than to get lucky. Especially for a public figure. Not that he was one, but doing the wrong thing could get bad press to happen anyway, in the midst of controversy like they were.

  He smiled, then waved to everyone, while looking at Sandy. She glanced at him, but actually had work to do. So did he, come to that. Not that making lunch was all that hard. It was a pretty strict meal that day, though he did use some Splenda from the gym kitchen to make a sweet glaze for the beef strips they were eating that meal. They had bulgur wheat with it, because that had more fiber than rice, as well as fewer calories. That would allow everyone to eat a bit more, which for some of the people was a big deal. The salad got a vinaigrette, but he used enough spices to hopefully make it interesting. It wasn’t until everyone started to come in that he finally got to see everyone. No one else had shown up for the early run that day.

  Denny grinned at him.

  “I saw you on the T.V. earlier. I should get on the tube myself, but no one wants to hear from me on this one. Did you hear about Rends being arrested? That’s harsh. I mean, ninety percent of the fighters use at some point. Probably at least as much for the women.” He looked down, so clearly showing his own guilt that Tony didn’t bother to do more than load food onto the table.

  Mark, the heavyweight boxer just nodded.

  “It’s kind of tempting sometimes. You get into the ri
ng with people that have fifteen percent more strength than you can build normally and kind of want to even out the playing field.” He took a bite of the beef, cutting it first. Then he nodded, pointing at it. “This is good. Perfect. Thanks.”

  Riley, who had his left hand wrapped up still, ate some too, after that.

  “Yeah. Great, actually. Oh… The doctor said that I just bruised some stuff.” He wiggled his hand to show what he meant. “No hitting anything for a week. Not great timing.”

  Tony knew that had to be true.

  “Okay. Visualization for fighting, more running and any other exercises we can do without stressing your hand?” He didn’t know that would be the plan and several of the others glared at him a bit, as if he were being pushy, instead of asking if that was about right.

  Riley ate more, then tilted his head side to side.

  “That’s pretty much what Rick suggested last night. I hate running. Especially in the cold.”

  Not that it had been freezing out. It was cool in the morning. There was even light frost on the ground in places when he went out. They were decently far south, so it wasn’t that bad, but it was still a thing. It was probably why no one had been out that morning, now that he considered it.

  “Yeah. Still, we should do it. Bundle up first, I guess? It was chilly out this morning and I had two sweatshirts on.”

  Dani, one of the two girls there, smiled at him. Her face was a bit square, but she had nice eyes.

  “You see, Tony… This right here is why we all kind of hate you. You were the only person that went running today. You aren’t even in training. It makes us all look bad. Like we’re lazy.”

  Interestingly, it was Mark that spoke. He hated running too, but took a big breath.

  “Not really. He’s just showing that we are being lazy. It’s different. I… Let’s meet at seven tomorrow? Not that I love the cold either, but we either do the work, or we lose.”

  That was pretty much what would happen. If you didn’t run, or do the other uncomfortable exercise things, then you tended to not do that well in a fight. Skill was a real part of anything you did, but not all of it. He nodded, as if he were invited. No one told him that he shouldn’t show up, anyway.