Chapter eleventh: Goodbye

Betty walked to the office later that Saturday morning to take care of several pending tasks. Daniel Mead had been very complacent with her, letting her take a day off knowing the amount of work that they had due next week. The ride on the train had been a very pleasant trip from Queens to Manhattan and Betty found time to reflect, relaxing her body with the soothing rocking of the train car and thus calming the disappointment of the previous day. The truth was that Gio hadn't communicated with her since their last goodbye and she was starting to get worried. It wasn't like Gio to do things like that, she thought. She was about to dial his number but something stopped her. He was the one who should call her, the thought flashed through her mind. Her pride conquered her heart and she returned her cellphone to its place inside her purse.

The lobby of the Meade Building looked deserted. Her eyes drifted to 'Gio´s Deli'. She knew he opened every Sunday until two in the afternoon. She frowned and, in spite of all that morning thinking, she couldn't control her feet that guided her directly to the small business. Her lips formed a thin line and opened the door violently ready to have a not very pleasant conversation with the owner of the place.

Raul and Rori were sitting at a table. As they heard the sudden noise of the door opening before them, they stopped their chattering and looked straight at Betty.

"We're sorry. We're not opening today, ma´am", Raul said. Betty stopped her walking and looked around. There were no signs of Gio and the whole place was a mess.

"Don't be silly. That's his girlfriend "said the Rori.

Raul scanned Betty from head to toe until he confirmed that he really knew her. Then he jumped of his seat and got closer to Betty with a preoccupied look in his face.

"You want to come with us?"

She didn´t understood the question and stepped back. She disliked the behavior of that man, so obviously a Casanova, and remembered the libidinous way he had stared at her the first time they met. Instead she asked:

"Giovanni Rossi, is he here?"

Raul and Rori shared a look.

"Could it be possible...? You don't know, yet?

"No, what happened?" Betty felt her own voice shake. She disapproved of mystery and she started to feel a cold chill in the base of her spine.

"Please, sit down" Raul ordered her reaching a chair for her.

Betty obeyed reluctantly. Her eyes couldn't fully understand the words that their lips pronounced; she heard voices in an incomprehensible language, phrases that her brain couldn't process and they lingered echoing inside her mind.

An accident. Last night. Emergency. Surgery. Hospital.

That can't be happening!

They had to repeat themselves several times before her body reacted in a sudden panic attack. She found it hard to breath and she asphyxiated with each gasp of breath she tried to take.

"Where is him? Where?"

"I can take you", said the man. "Just give me a second".

She let them shepherd her like an insane patient. And it took her the whole trip to the hospital to regain her conscience and understand the seriousness of the situation. She felt horrible for having doubts about trusting Gio and she swallowed her tears so she could cry them afterwards. At that time all she wanted was to see him and confirm that he was out of danger.

At the hospital, Raul guided her to a door of a room. A dark skinned man and a woman of asian features were chatting in the corridor, without even trying to pretend to conceal their voices.

"Yamir, he is in serious condition after the quick surgery. The nurse told me he spoke nonsense's in his sleep the whole night" said the chocolate skin brunette of shining hair and dark eyes, standing like a mirror reflection of the young man that was by her side.

"I think he could be crazy. I heard her sister this morning…" said Yamir.

Raul got closer to the woman and grabbed her by the arm. She shut up immediately and offered a scrutinizing look at Betty.

"Who´s her?" asked Indira, Yamir´s sister.

Raul whispered something to them and then the woman looked at her with growing interest, in a way that would make Amanda seem like Mother Theresa.

Betty wasn't in the mood for the same harassment that she was suffering at Mode. Making a polite gesture to them she advanced to the door in front of where they were standing. She knocked it gently and opened it cautiously.

A woman was sitting at the edge of the bed having her back to where Betty was standing. The woman turned and Betty recognized Gio's sister.

"Betty…" was heard from behind Anna Maria who moved and exposed him who was lying on the hospital bed.

Ana Maria rose from where she was sitting and hugged Betty affectionately kissing her cheek. Betty didn't move having her eyes fixated in those that were looking back at her imploringly from the sickbed. Gio's sister pointed to the night table and the containers that were carefully placed on top of it, she took her purse and put it on her shoulders.

"I'm going to get some fresh air and get 'Mama' here. Betty, dear, try to make him drink the milk. He needs it to reinforce the action of one of his medications".

Betty nodded and, once they were alone, she got closer to him and laid her hand on top of the one that was reaching for hers. Gio's skin was pale, the hair untidy and, for the first time, she saw his neglected face covered with growing facial hair; his eyes, ever so vivacious and radiant, ready to annoy her just for the fun of it, had a gloomy and tired spirit trapped inside them surrounded by a pair of profound purple circles.

Gio seemed to notice her preoccupation and broke the silence between them.

"They tell me I was lucky…" his voice was trembling and distant. Gio had to make a great amount of effort to pronounce the words that struggled out of his mouth "Couldn't call you… just… conscious a few hours ago".

"Yes, they just told me. Yes" acknowledged Betty unable to take her eyes out of the bruises that painted his forehead, his neck, his arms. "It doesn't matter".

"Hey, 'linda'. I'm fine… Don't worry about me" he tried to sit, in vain. Betty approached to him and helped him. He could notice how Betty quivered at the touch of his feverish skin. But he really hated to preoccupy her and tried to crack a smile in his face. "I'll be much better soon… in a couple of days".

Betty felt relieved by his words, but still couldn't hide a hint of worry in her persona. She wanted to hug him that very instant and cry on his shoulders. But she knew better and tried with all her might to show more signs of the preoccupation that was consuming her soul. She went to the table, took the glass of milk and brought it near to him. Gio rejected the offer with a disgusted face.

"Milk… is for… babies. And I…" he stopped talking feeling a scorching pain that disfigured his features. Betty tried to run and look for help but Gio asked her to stay put. She found a chair and pulled it closer to the bed. Gio leaned back and took a deep breath feeling million knives tearing his body into pieces "This happens… stay with me".

He closed his eyes and tried to rest.

Betty obeyed and caressed his arms while she looked at every inch of him praying in silence. Ten minutes passed and Gio opened his eyes slowly and searched for her. Betty smiled as she noticed they had regained their usual vitality. Gio pressed with affection the hand that was holding his and spoke to her with clear and uninterrupted voice:

"I'm going to take you in a horse carriage ride for your birthday".

Betty laughed at such ridiculous idea. Gio had the same sense of humor even in the middle of crisis, she thought. She used her free hand and combed the loosen hair strands that were covering Gio's sweaty forehead.

"But… you know my birthday was two months ago".

He continued, ignoring her words.

"You'll see. You'll be mad at me at first but then…" he stopped and looked to the white painted roof over their heads as if replaying scenes in his mind. "You know, you'll like my new haircut".

"I like your hair the way it is now", Betty kept nursing his head.

He smiled without taking his eyes of the space between him and the roof avoiding to meet Betty's eyes.

"I'm scared" he said. "Scared to disappear. Scared that I won't be the one who'll be with you".

"I'm not going anywhere" Betty rose from her chair and leaned over him without letting go of his hand, trying to meet his gaze that was still lost between her and some place behind her that only he could see. "I'm here with you".

"But you will also be there for him".

He closed his eyes for an instant pressing hard them hard as if trying to contain the tears. He opened his eyelids slowly, his face returned to its former passiveness and his eyes, that were again opaque and sick, focused back at her.

"Hi, 'linda' ".

Betty felt like breathing again and was unexpectedly relieved upon hearing his broken struggling voice again. She sank back in the chair.

"You had me worried. What was that all about?"

Gio made a funny gesture and responded.

"What's this… whole fuss… about that damned milk?!"

A man walked away from the door where he'd been resting for quite some time and Betty tried to wonder when he had entered the room. He got closer to the chair where Betty was sitting. He was tall young man with exotic but plain features that radiated a certain special charm. Betty recognized that face.

"When he has seizures like those he doesn't seem to remember anything he said or did", the man put his hand in Betty's shoulder in a soothing manner. "The doctor insist that it's commonly caused by injuries in his gigantic head".

Gio forced a smile on his face that looked more like a smirk due to the effort for moving his facial muscles.

"Trying to scare my girl away, Robert?"

Betty switched glances from Gio to Robert, the previous sandwich cart employee at Mode before Gio took that position. She moved uncomfortably in her chair. Robert pulled away his hand from Betty's shoulders.

"I'm not doing anything bad. You and your sharp tongue, Gio. I shouldn´t have come. I'm just here because Indira insists in helping your mother. Anyways", he said addressing Betty, "who's the pretty lady?"

Betty wrinkled her face. Gio laughed briefly.

"You know her… from Mode".

Robert put a surprised face and tried to remember the face of the woman in front of him. Betty smiled, out of politeness, showing her 'bracers' in their entire splendor. He stepped back and yelled:

"Yeah, yeah. I remember".

At that very moment the dark skinned woman of shiny long hair opened the door and, without taking her fierce eyes at Betty, hugged Robert and whispered something to his ear. Then an unbelievable amount of people filled the room dragging Betty into a corner. Betty stood there, away from the whole scene observing how everyone interacted so naturally between them as she stood there alone in the shadows.

She could hear Gio´s mother, a usually strong woman, crying like a young little girl in a nearby couch hugged by another woman of similar age.

"I was told it was nobody's fault. That it was an accident. So many times I've told him to change that vehicle. That it will bring nothing but trouble and look at him now…"

"There. There. Calm down."

"How do you want me to calm down if it's my baby, my baby!" Mrs. Rossi buried her face in her handkerchief and kept sobbing.

Betty noticed a group of young people encircle Gio's bed; probably his friends. In the opposite corner, Ana Maria insisted to fight Gio's vehement refusal to drink the milk. Meanwhile, little Angelo and Leah ran up and down the hallway paying no attention to Antonella who tried to make them behave in a more decent manner at the hospital. New friends and family seemed to arrive by the minute, so many people who barely noticed Betty's presence sitting alone in a small chair at her corner.

Betty looked upon everything in silence and patience. She really didn't want to leave. But she also knew she was not yet the heroine in Gio's life, not even a supporting character. As things were then, she was little more than a intruder.

Another hour passed and Gio's older sister left with her young ones after thanking Betty for her company.

Yamir approached her indicating her it was about time to leave and that he would be the one to bring her home. Betty had to say goodbye to Gio earlier than she expected. His many aunts claimed the room as their territory discussing home remedies around the bed, gossiping about the family or the neighborhood and asking thousand questions to Gio.

"Yamir… I need a favor" Gio asked before they left. He got closer to his face to help him and listened with attention, made a nod and returned to Betty's side.

The road back home in Jackson Heights was silent and eternal. Yamir walked Betty to the front of the Suarez house and informed Betty that Gio asked him to look for her tomorrow evening if she found it convenient.

"I wouldn't really want to trouble you…" started Betty but he interrupted her.

"It's no bother. Besides tomorrow morning I have to run an errant around this area. So, see you then".

Betty nodded and opened the door to her house where all the members of her small family came to greet her and console her. Everyone knew how much she must be suffering.

—0—

Sunday in the afternoon. They were finally alone. She took hold of his hand. The day had been terrible with all those visitors and nurses entering and leaving the room and the analysis and treatments were becoming more and more frequent. The evening was dying and visiting hours where almost over. Gio's family left to grab some dinner and Betty grasped the moment and offered to stay in the room with him. He made an effort and pointed to a backpack resting in the couch at the corner. She looked for it returned back to her seat by his side. She knew Yamirhad brought it when he kindly drove her to the hospital. Following Gio's instructions, she unzipped the backpack and found a small package gift wrapped gift on top of the clothes that were inside it. The wrapping was smudged with some dark smears that she refused to believethey looked so much like blood stains. On top of the gift she found a small envelope that carried a business card and a note. The card had written: 'Cynthia Perez. Executive assistant. Neo"writer's magazine'.

She looked at Gio questioning with her eyes but he made a gesture commanding her to read the note. She recognized Gio's handwriting printed in blue ink:

'Dear Betty:

Today I'm also having the best day of my life.

Thanks for making me your hero.

Love,

Gio"

p.s. Check page 23'

"Gio, What's this?" Betty had to lean over him to hear his words.

"Your surprise. Open it".

She unwrapped it carefully. He forced a smile hiding the pain that was torturing him. But it was quite amusing to watch how she didn't tear the wrapping like everybody else but how she carefully took out every single tape and unfolded the paper as if it was the present in itself. Betty found a volume of the famous launch magazine for new fiction writers: 'Neo-writers'. Just to be mentioned in that cultural magazine was like appearing in front of the whole narrative circle of New York. Her heart started beating in madness. Her trembling hands were barely able to find page 23. She read: 'Betty Suarez'. She caressed her printed name with her fingers. It was real, her short story was published: the first part of three installments.

Several daring tears filled her eyes without prior warning, trailing her cheeks and falling down ruining the magazine. Gio managed to laugh as he noticed that Betty could barely take off her eyes from the pages of the magazine.

"They loved it", Gio said. The gratifying feeling of pleasing her like that had been more rewarding than he expected.

"Gio", she could say drying her tears of joy that clouded her sight. "You better get well soon. I'll punish you for this. How come you never told me? I'm going to kiss you and hug you for the rest of your life".

"Silly", he muttered visibly pleased.

She pressed her lips against his and, remembering a scene, she pulled away and asked:

"You didn't sleep with her, did you?"

"Of course not... You earned this yourself", he laughed at Betty's remark. But a new stroke made his face twist in pain and he started coughing very badly. Betty noticed several blood drops stain the sheets.

So painful.

Betty panicked and was about to stand up but he took hold her arm preventing her to leave his side. A nurse opened the door, and after a quick check up, started massaging the bare chest of Gio with a special ointment. Betty noticed in horror the profundity of Gio's bruises all over his body. After a short while, he stopped coughing. The nurse changed the serum and left.

He asked her to lean on him once more. She did so. Gio whispered in her ear pausing at each sentence and reciting the words in a low sick voice, as if they were being held captive inside his mind for a very long time.

"If I could… turn back time, if I could repeat… everything… all over again, I wouldn't hesitate. I'd fight to win you over. I wouldn't care who you were with. I'd help you more to follow your dreams. Betty", he tried to get closer to her, "if I had the chance, I'd love you again".

"Don't say those things. Everything is going to be fine".

The door opened and a middle aged man appeared at the doorframe. Besides the white short and scarce hair, with small traces of black, abundant facial hair, of strong body build in spite of his years, the man looked like a mirror image of Gio: his father. Ana Maria appeared from behind him. Gioseemed to eye her disapprovingly but she didn't flinch an inch. Betty stood up and gave them some space to talk things over.

"I'll see you tomorrow" she told Gio and walked out of the room followed by Ana Maria. She offered to take her home but Betty refused the offer. It wasn't very late and she could still take the train.

Walking down the streets, back in Queens, she noticed the beauty of a cloudless night and looked up trying to find the stars that Gio once showed to her. As she scrutinized the firmament she noticed a glitter of light travel across the skies, like a shooting star. And without any apparent reason, she started crying on the way back home.

—0—

Betty surged from the elevator with a bright smile on her lips. It was noon and she took advantage of her free time at lunch to pay Gio a visit. Under her arm she had the magazine where her story was published. She wanted to read it to him and discuss certain aspects of style with him. That would surely entertain him a little, she thought.

She opened the door of room 1908 and discovered that Gio wasn't there.

Her eyes shot wide open and she couldn't contain a cry of joy. She wondered if it was possible that God heard her prayers and Gio was already back home.

She asked the nurse who was tidying the room.

"The patient that was here in this number, was he discharged already?"

"Are you family?" That was not the answer Betty was expecting.

"Almost ", she hesitated. "I'm a friend... a very close friend".

The nurse touched her shoulder. She didn't like that touch. It was cold and it froze her insides.

"I'm sorry", the nurse s said in glacial trained voice. "He's gone. He passed away last night. I'm sorry".

Betty's eyes tried to discover in desperation any sign in that woman's body that revealed that she was joking. She couldn't find a hold and she felt dismay. Her shaky hands grabbed the magazine as if it were a salvation log in the open sea. "This can't be possible", she thought. He was the hero of her story. He couldn't die.

"No!" she let escape from her pale lips. The nurse considered that it was better to leave her alone for a moment and closed the door behind her.

Betty, with inexplicable strength, tore the magazine in half. Her mind was on the verge of insanity. She threw the pieces of the magazine against the bed. But nobody was resting in it. It was empty. It was deserted.

"Because of this you died! I don't want this. No!"

She imagined him lying there, over the same bed she had in front of her, just like he was last night. Tears were running like salty unstoppable streams disfiguring her face. Her teeth were clattering as she moaned inconsolably.

She climbed on the bed, suffering a nervous breakdown. She curled up around the pillow and cried softly over the white sterilized sheets, recognizing finally the deepness of her feelings, murmuring words that nobody could hear anymore.

"Don't go. Don't leave me", she whispered to the empty pillow. "I love you".

He was gone forever. Not even the chance to say a single word, not even a miserable single word, not even 'goodbye'.

"No… no", she cried sobbing finally realizing there was nothing she could do, nothing anybody could do. Gio was dead and soon he would be nothing more than a memory. "Oh! No, no…

No, no…

———

Next Chapter: One last Chance