Because I Love You

Chapter Seven: Clarify

Where is she?  Gino gazed up at the apartment building before glancing down at his watch.  It was already fifteen minutes past seven.  It was unlike Alana to be late, and if she was, she usually called to let him know what had held her up.  He remembered.  Of course, she wouldn't call unless necessary.  Unless she was ten minutes late or more.  

He moved to run a hand through his hair again, but stopped himself.  If Gino did it again, it would mess up his hair even more.  

Okay.  Might as well go up to her apartment and check.  He pushed open the door and smiled at the landlady, who gave him a nod in return.  Gino was pleased that the middle-aged woman still remembered him after all those weeks.

He stepped into the elevator, pressed the button to the fifth floor and waited.  The doors slid open and he made his way down the hall before stopping in front of an apartment door, with the silver numbers 529 plastered on the oak.  It looked like a nice apartment, and Gino knew that it was her boyfriend Josh's, from what Alana had told him.  Well, his apartment was nice too.

He knocked firmly.

"I got it!" he heard a voice call within, and smiled.

The door opened to reveal Alana with damp, sweet-smelling hair... dressed in nothing but a shirt.  It looked like a young man's shirt.  Gino's blue eyes trailed down to the hem of the shirt; he could see the bottom of her shorts just barely concealed underneath.

When he returned his gaze to Alana's hazel eyes, he saw them widen.  It did nothing to abate the sudden burning sensation that gripped his heart as he felt his stomach drop.  

Gino clenched his jaw, but forced himself to speak, rather stiffly.  "Are you ready for dinner?"

Alana bit her lip and looked down as a blush spread across her soft cheeks.

"I'm sorry, Gino.  I forgot."  He'd never heard her sound so soft and timorous.

"Obviously."

He watched her swallow, and shift from one foot to the other.

"Who is it, babe?" a young man's voice called out.

Gino never knew how much those words pained him until he heard them that day.  He called her babe...

As if something, or someone, was diligently trying to piss him off, her boyfriend came into view.

He was dressed in nothing but a pair of boxers.  Gino was immensely tempted, then, to spit on the ground to get rid of the acerbic taste in his mouth.  Instead, he swallowed.

"Um... it's a friend; forgot we were hanging out," Alana replied.

Gino couldn't help himself: he observed Josh carefully.  He had to admit, her boyfriend was pretty good-looking.  He had warm eyes, a defined jaw, was definitely fit, if the muscles were to by, and tall for an Asian.  He didn't look completely Asian though, perhaps mixed with something else.  Josh did look like a kind, trustworthy guy, and knowing that worsened his temper.

"Oh," Josh smiled politely in Gino's direction, and it took all the willpower he had to give a somewhat decent smile back.  "Well, I'm going to shower now.  You should go change and get ready.  Don't want to keep him waiting."  Josh turned around and disappeared deeper into the apartment.

The silence that followed did nothing to diminish the tension between the two.

"Do you still want to have dinner with----?"

"---- Of course I do," Alana blurted, and Gino had the odd feeling that she was partially responding the way she was as a result of her guilt.  "Just wait here; I'll be out in about ten minutes."