The Heart of Tony Winters

by P. S. Power

  It wasn’t going to be like that forever, he knew. After all, soon he’d be in school all day, which would mean he had less time for everyone else. So if he were going to earn his keep and actually prove that he was worth keeping around, he had to get the earliest start on things that he could.

  Jen slapped him a few times on the arm, but didn’t say anything to him.

  Missy was a bit late, though not too bad that way, getting there at about one-ten. They drilled on boxing for several hours, adding kicks into the last part, because he honestly did need to work that weak point himself. She gave him pointers then and was right about all of it, so he listened carefully. When they were finished, she gave him a rather sweaty hug.

  “Hey… Thanks. I know that I’m not the easiest person to get along with all the time. You’ve all been so nice to me here. I mean, I wasn’t certain that I’d even be able to train at all again and now I feel like I can really do it. Fight. That’s not a small thing. You’ll be watching when I fight Leandra?”

  Tony didn’t have to lie about that, since he really would be. He knew her now, after all, which made it important to him.

  “You bet I will. I’ll be watching to see you win against her. Keep working the hand skills. You have talent there, but…” He sighed and shook his head, mocking her a bit. “But you fight like an MMA person that way, not a striker. You have the ability though, so I expect to really notice real improvement. Otherwise I’ll have to keep pretending to be sad like this.” He gave her puppy dog eyes then, making what he hoped was a cute face at the same time.

  It got a laugh, if nothing else.

  “Bye, Tony. I’ll do that. I promise.”

  Interestingly, he thought she really just might.

  Chapter eight

  After that night, a solid first workout and practice for the grappling team under their belt, Tony was able to kind of settle into a bit of a routine. Most of the day he practiced cooking for a while, trying to get ready for his part of the traditional Thanksgiving meal preparation. There was a lot more to cooking than he’d learned so far, which meant going over basic skills, like how to boil, broil and things like that. He practiced without using food for a lot of it, going through the motions, so that there wouldn’t be any waste.

  On Saturday that changed, naturally, since they were all on the bus going several cities away with Lexi, for her first fight. Tony had been working with her, trying to push her a bit, so that she was ready for the fight to come. Really, it was going to be a tense one for him, even though he pretended to be incredibly confident that Lexi would easily win. Debra Mills wasn’t a known quantity, but she came from a strong boxing background. Lex was good that way, but not a boxer really.

  So Tony had pushed their practice, forcing her to step up in a big way. Without actually tearing down her confidence just before the match. Then, as if they were trying to show how very certain they were of her coming success, they spent most of the ride going over wedding stuff. On the good side, unlike what his research had suggest about blushing brides and how picky they were, Nick and Raul were both willing to just do whatever anyone wanted.

  That meant they needed to make it look good, but neither guy was going to be that bothered if they didn’t have the absolute perfect wedding day. Which made for a nice excuse to call Sandy. After all, her dream was to be a reporter or at least involved in the television world and here they had an event that people might actually want to see. Not a lot of them, sure, being only a wedding, but it was something.

  So Tony called, hoping that she was still doing all right. He’d gotten in touch a few times, just to chat for a few minutes, not trying to be annoying or anything. Still, one day he’d probably call only to find that she just didn’t answer. He hoped it wouldn’t happen that way, but it was likely enough that he tensed up with each ring.

  “Hello!”

  “Hi Sandy. Tony Winters here.” He always said it that way, in case his voice was non-descript or gravelly. There was a pleased sounding inhalation.

  “Hey! You couldn’t stand going a whole day without hearing me? It’s my incredible looks, isn’t it?”

  He nodded, since she was sort of cute.

  “Yep. That. Well, there might be a bit of something else. How would you like to go to a wedding with me?”

  That got a pause.

  “Um, sure?”

  “Great! Now, how would you like to set up news coverage of it? Raul and Nick are doing their wedding planning and my part is getting the news crew in for it.” It was a bit mercenary of him, but if she said no, or that she just wanted to go as his date, that was fine as well.

  Instead she screamed. Softly, which meant he wasn’t left deaf in his right ear. Also that nothing popped in her head.

  “O.M.G! Can I do that? I mean, for real? I can get with Uncle Bill… That would be… Yes! Let me call… Can I call you back?”

  “Yeah. Let me get you this number. It’s Jen’s phone. Um… Here.” It took him a bit, but he worked out how to do all of that. Then Sandy hung up on him. Excited about things for some reason.

  Hopefully it was about seeing him again, because the wedding was going to be a bit boring. They were just going to go and stand in front of a crowd, say some vows they were writing and be told they were married. Then they’d go have a party. With cake and dancing. It sounded fine, but wasn’t exactly fight night.

  Having someone to talk to part of the time there might be fun for him. If she was working that would cut down on the alone time, but that was fine. As long as she was having a good time. Nick and Raul as well, of course.

  He moved into the type of venue they wanted for the reception. They both liked the idea of cake, but Nick didn’t care about a bar and Raul felt it was traditional, so figured they were obligated to have one. Tony just wrote it down, even if he wasn’t going to be doing anything like that. It didn’t fit his current life much at all.

  There would need to be a cake tasting, which no one there could put together. That meant calling some bakeries up and finding one that could do things like that. He assumed that would be his job, so made a note of it as everyone kicked ideas around. Nick liked coconut flavored things, Raul was kind of fond of caramel. Neither of them was all that worried about that part, caring more about their special vows than anything else.

  Interestingly, when Nick suggested they hold the wedding on December tenth, Rick had to shake his head.

  “That’s not a good day. Ashley has to go to Las Vegas for the Fox Rends hearing. It’s just the first one, but since she was the one assaulted she’ll need to be there. That means the rest of us should be, too. I don’t want to miss the wedding, so…” He clearly felt a bit bad about that one, so Nick looked at the calendar he’d brought and finally nodded.

  “How about… December seventeenth? It’s a Saturday, not a fight night for anyone that I know of and should be something everyone can show up at. Well, maybe not Fox Rends, but even her, probably.” He was joking, but Raul shrugged.

  “That… I can’t love that she acted up after a fight, but we either let things be bygones or we do not. What do you say, Ashley? I would not insult you by asking her, if it troubles you.”

  That got everyone to go silent for a moment, as she thought about it. Finally, she rolled her eyes.

  “You know, why not? She’ll probably be too busy, but you aren’t wrong. We either hold on to things or not and it isn’t like she’s going to use it as an excuse to attack. It might patch things up. I don’t know.”

  Tony made a note. If they were doing that though it made sense to get some other people in. He started writing down names, but stopped on the fifth one.

  “Um… Don Teevan? I…” Really, Tony kind of assumed that he was the one behind the Rends cover-up. The person that had it done. The man had set Ralph Simpson after him twice after all. Then lied to the police, to get him arrested. It didn’t work, but it had been close.

  Both times. The man was more than willing to mess with Tony for rat
ings and press coverage. To his mind they didn’t need that kind of thing there that day. Everyone else just kind of seemed not to care.

  Raul nodded.

  “He’s important in our chosen field, leaving him off the list might be a problem later. It would be a good idea then. Thank you for thinking of that Tony. Oh… Perhaps Joey Prentice? He can work with your young girlfriend doing commentary for the wedding. That would be darling. Sandy, wasn’t it?”

  Nick smiled then, but no one went after him over it. Steve just seemed a bit sad over the whole thing. Tony got that part without asking. She was too nice to have to die that young. It was something to think about. Sandy could do the fashions and cake choice and Joe could cover any fights that broke out.

  As he was thinking that, being more than a bit of a jerk inside his head for some reason, Steve’s phone rang.

  “Cue Bill.” Sandy had just said she was going to get in touch with the man and no one in the world would be calling some fifteen-year-old boy to see if it were a real option.

  Tony almost felt smug, figuring that out from so little evidence, until Steve spoke, his voice quieter than it normally would be. In fact, he turned away at first, until he hunched in half. Suddenly acting very odd.

  “Gloria? What? I… Hold on. Just… Calm down, I can’t understand you.” The man was a few seats away, since everyone was sitting fairly close to each other, so that conversation could be had.

  Gloria though, was Steve’s old girlfriend, a person that Tony had never met. She’d tried to force Steve to stop boxing and get a real job. After starting a solid pro-career, with four wins under his belt. A good record, since none of them were easy fights. Winters Gym didn’t do that with their fighters. Instead they got them ready, then found someone who they’d really have to struggle to beat. If people couldn’t be bothered to try, then that was a lesson well learned early on.

  Jen scowled as she turned all the way around in her seat. Interestingly Lexi didn’t do that at all. She clearly got who was on the phone, but was just frozen in place. Why that was, well, Anthony knew that without having to listen to what the crying woman on the phone was saying at all. The old love, coming back in tears, plucking at a guy’s heart strings. Better than half of the time that would be enough to get someone like Steve to run to her side, in order to protect her. After all, Gloria hadn’t cheated on him or anything, just gotten demanding.

  That didn’t make her evil. Without that kind of thing it was hard to resist someone that claimed to want and need you. Never even having had that happen to him, he knew the story. His life had shown him a version of it at least once a month for years after all. If not Deidre, then with someone else that was around. Men and women did the same stupid things, too. It wasn’t like one sex had some kind of power over the other. People who you once loved were always a bigger call to you than it seemed like they should be.

  On the great side, Steve Lopez had Lexi now. Tony didn’t know what Gloria looked like at all, though he’d heard that her looks were one of her best traits. From Jen, who had no reason to lie about that kind of thing to him. He tried not to listen, as Steve attempted to get the woman on the phone to calm down, then had to listen to her begging and pleading for twenty minutes.

  “I’m seeing someone else.” His voice was hard, but not the way it should be.

  It was enough that Raul went tight in the face and Denny looked ready to hit Steve if he didn’t get his act together. That would be due to the fact that this kind of crap would, or at least could, shake Lexi’s confidence right before her first fight. What the issue was, well, that was hard to tell.

  Except that, even if the call wasn’t from Bill, Anthony knew that it had to be about one of two or three things. The first one was that Gloria had been arrested and needed to be bailed out. If that was the case the call would already be over though, since no one talked for half an hour from jail.

  The next would be that someone they knew in common had died. A family member of hers would be the most common one. If that had been the case, then there would have been an announcement of that already, in the first few seconds, with Steve saying something like he was sorry to hear that. Then he’d probably make plans to meet up with her.

  Gloria wasn’t saying anything however. Which meant she was hiding something from her ex-boyfriend. Which left only one thing. Pregnancy. Tony tried to count up the months on his fingers, then tilted his head. After all, it would have to have been nearly seven months. Unless of course there had been midnight regret booty-calls. That could mess with the timing. He went back to his notes, since even if she were having a child soon, they were on a bus, planning a wedding and getting Lexi ready for her first fight.

  He got up, waving Denny out from the seat on the window side of Lex.

  The man, who was fit and a very good fighter, nearly growled at him.

  “What’s up?”

  “I want to go over the fight plan again. You can check my work on it?” The idea was that Lexi needed to be on her game right then, not worried about her boyfriend talking to his crying ex. Even if she would be crazy not to do that. It had to be what they did that night. Denny got out of the way, as Lexi looked at Tony, her blue eyes worried.

  “I can’t do this, can I? I suck.”

  Tony smiled at her, since that wasn’t her talking, just her concern over her relationship situation.

  “Bull. This is Debra’s first fight, too. You’ve been facing me in practice. I can almost guarantee you that she hasn’t had that kind of training. Right now, you’re focused. Here. Now.” He pointed at his own eyes then. The girl was shorter than he was and slight of build. Tight and about as attractive as anyone he’d ever met in real life.

  Not that he was bringing that up.

  His plan of the moment was all about distracting her by talking about fighting. So they hit the likely way her opponent would come at her. The power and stamina that she might be facing. That one was a cipher, since everyone trained a lot harder when they made the switch to pro. At least the people that were worth going up against. They had to assume that, but Lexi was doing well that way. Not ready for a title fight, but that was almost everyone, most of the time.

  Tony wasn’t ready for that kind of thing for instance. Denny and Steve weren’t either and that was kind of what both of them were planning on in the next few years. Though Denny had gotten a minor title already, so that kind of told them a lot about what the big time would really take.

  They all knew it intellectually, but even seeing what it would mean was hard to do. You thought you knew, but it was probably hard to actually understand until it was your one big shot. Tony hadn’t really had a first fight either, so he didn’t get that part of what his friend was going through, sitting there next to him. Listening to her boyfriend trying to comfort his ex for some reason. Not even knowing if the right thing to do was call Gloria names and slap the phone out of Steve’s hand to protect him or not.

  So they went over what would be happening. For nearly three hours, as the others went over the coming wedding plans. Tony was supposed to be doing that too, but at the moment there was a problem, so he had to choose. That part was hard, but when it came down to it, the person in front of him having a hard time had to outweigh the ones who might like his help on a future project. On the great side, no one even looked at him funny.

  The call went on until the phone died, which was a relief. To him anyway. Instead of coming up to talk to his current girlfriend, possibly calling his ex colorful and meanly descriptive names, like he should have, Steve held back, seeming quiet and pensive. It was a horrible sign. It could have just been that he didn’t want to mess with Lexi at the moment. He was a fellow fighter, so he might think of the matter like that.

  Denny wasn’t taking it well either. Probably because he kind of liked Lexi, but wasn’t dating her, since he was her trainer and doing things like that never worked. Her last trainer had tried to blackmail her into sex, for instance. It had gotten the man tossed out
of the gym forever though by Rick. Denny had recommended it as well at the time, just on hearing about it. So that kind of thing was a no go area for Denny with her now, even if he almost had to want to be with her.

  Tony waved at the blonde girl and tapped her shoulder once. Firmly, but trying to project confidence. He actually felt it for her, he realized. She could do it.

  “You’re ready for this. We’re almost there. What do you do first thing?”

  The woman took a breath, going over it again. For the fifteenth time.

  “High guard. She’s a boxer, so I need to be ready for that. Then in for a take down after making her think we’re standing for the fight. Make sure I keep control…”

  That was the plan. It might not go that way, but most fights weren’t that different than the plan. In this case the only real possibility was that Debra went right to the ground on purpose, showing a lot more skill there than Denny had been expecting. Since the woman would need to be about twice as good as Lexi for that to happen, Tony wasn’t really worried.

  Honestly, the anxiety came from the fact that they knew so little about the other woman. Which was probably the problem with Gloria, too. That wasn’t his to worry over. Honestly, even Lex wasn’t. He was helping her, since that was what he did, but that didn’t mean she was an obligation on him somehow. The situation was different than that. She was a person, so he tried his best to be there for her.

  They drilled, pantomimed different options and kept the girl focused as hard as she could at the moment. Without letting up. It was a bit soon for that, but it meant she was doing all right as they got to the arena. Instead of finding a seat with the others, Denny pulled him along with them. Steve didn’t even attempt to come along, which was a good fight idea. Horrible for her boyfriend. It probably meant they weren’t going out for much longer.