My boxing Angel

Chapter 11

~Jasmine~

I’m just inches away from his lips when my phone starts to ring. I scurry away from his lap and stand, picking up my phone and distancing myself from Vincenzo. I look at my phone and notice that the caller has an unknown ID. I look back at Vincenzo, and he has his brows furrowed.

I answer the phone call and start making my way to the dining table, all while feeling a burning stare on my back.

“Hello?”

“I thought you would be asleep,” Beckett’s joyful voice says from the other side of the line.

“Hey!” Happiness is evident in my voice.

“Are you busy?” Beckett asks, and I laugh at his question.

“I’m never busy for you,” I tell him, and I hear his laughter. Beckett starts to speak, telling me all about his day. I suddenly hear shuffling from behind me, turning around, I see Vincenzo on his feet with a cold stare directed at me.

“Where are you going?” I whisper yell at him, separating the phone from my ear so that I can listen to his response clearly.

“You are busy,” he tells me nonchalantly, and I see a flash of hurt in his eyes.

“I will just be a moment,” I tell him with a smile, but he doesn’t return it.

“Don’t hurry your conversation with your boyfriend to be with me.” Boyfriend? What boyfriend? “I’m no one’s sidepiece.” Vincenzo spat the words out with so much venom laced in his voice, that I flinch away, feeling hurt. Before I could compose myself and try to defend myself, he walks away.

“Are you still there?” I hear the muffled voice of my brother from my phone, and I snap from my trance and place the phone to my ear.

“Yeah,” I tell him softly, and Beckett begins once again to talk about something that happened to him. But I can’t help but let my mind drift to one big, grumpy-ass man. Even though I don’t want it, he still makes my heart beat twice as fast when he shows me his soft side, the vulnerable one.

On the morning of the match, everyone was tense, but Vincenzo was tenser than ever. Joaquin made scrambled eggs for everyone, but when everyone had their plate and sat down to eat, the dining table was silent, which was something that wasn’t regular on the D’Angelo dining table. After breakfast, Vincenzo left to get some last-time training, but he left alone, leaving his brothers behind.

“What’s up with him?” Elias asks, and Joaquin lets out a stressed breath.

“I think it’s our fault,” Rafael says sheepishly. “We shouldn’t have been watching videos of his opponent.”

“Is there something we can do?” I ask them.

“Just let him blow off some steam, he will be back,” Joaquin says with a tight nod, and everyone just awkwardly leaves to lock themselves in their room before the match.

When the hour arrived for us to leave, I made sure to keep out of the way of the brothers until it was time to get in the car. I was the last one to get in the car and the first one to step out of it when we arrived at the stadium. I think I gave the chauffeur a scare because I jumped out of the car before it stopped moving completely.

Once inside the locker room, I made sure to sit in the far corner and make myself useful with my camera. Elias was the only brother who approached me, but I shut him down quickly. I wasn’t really in any mood to speak to any of them, even though my sour mood was based on the big grump who was about to walk into a boxing ring.

-

I drop the camera from my eyes to inspect the fight instead of taking the perfect photo. But I regretted it the moment I saw the fighter hit Vincenzo square in the jaw. Okay, it’s just the first round, I’m sure he will shake it off.

The fight just went from worse to horrible.

I wince as the fighter takes another clean right hook at Vincenzo. He stumbles back but regains consciousness. He seems distracted, which is not normal for him. Vincenzo is one of the most precise boxers out there, but he is just not in the zone tonight, he seems distant, maybe even anxious. The referee separates the two fighters and sends them to their own corner.

I speed walk towards Vincenzo’s corner of the ring and see his brothers hurry to try and get him back in the game.

“Vincenzo, what the hell is wrong with you tonight?” Joaquin whispers hard, clearly irritated with him, but he doesn’t answer. Rafael moves his head to the left, inspecting him, looking for any injuries that need close attention. Vincenzo’s light brown eyes connect with mine and once they do, they harden, and he moves his face to the other side.

Why is he mad at me? How can this possibly be my fault?

I shake my head to forget all the questions that are brewing inside my head and walk right behind Vincenzo. “You need to use his momentum against him,” I tell Vincenzo, and I see how he stiffens when he hears my voice. Elias turns his attention to me with a puzzled look. “He is fast, but if you cut him off, he will lose his balance,” I tell him, and Elias smiles at me, understanding that I’m trying to help Vincenzo win the match.

Vincenzo enters the ring once again with the fighter, and he watches closely as the fighter is quick to swing, but Vincenzo sidesteps him. The fighter loses his balance, and Vincenzo takes this opportunity to cage him inside the ropes. I cheer alongside his brothers.

I can’t believe he listened to me. I just hope it can help him win the match.

The bell rang, and the 10th match was over, the points were counted, and Vincenzo’s hand was not raised. I feel the disappointment of the brothers from where I stand, and it pains me to see them like this. But had Vincenzo not regained his focus in the last four rounds of the match, he would never have gained the points he lost in the previous rounds.

The rest of the night went quiet. I didn’t even take a family picture because Vincenzo ordered us to leave the locker room and wait for him by the car.