-1Chapter 38

Gio had finished putting everything away in the deli and was getting ready to head home for the night. As he was getting ready to head out he heard someone banging loudly on the door of his deli. Gio turned to see who it was. He saw Amanda with a very angry expression on her face banging against the door of the deli with her hand.

What is she doing here? Gio wondered to himself. Amanda kept banging on the door of his deli. "Hey, let me in!" She called out loudly. "Okay.. Okay…" Gio said and went and unlocked the door. Amanda came in pushing past Gio.

"Amanda what do you want?" Gio asked her. "My deli is closed for the night. I was just getting ready to go home."

Amanda turned to Gio, the angry expression still on her face. "Your friend stood me up!" She told him and went to sit down at a stool in front of the countertop. Gio turned the light on so that they both could see better.

"Kyle stood you up?" He asked surprised. "That doesn't sound like him."

"Yes he stood me up! I waited three hours at the Club for him and he never showed. I tried calling him several times but he wouldn't answer his phone. I can't believe he stood me up. Who gets stood up at a Passion Clippers concert?" Amanda frowned.

"I can't believe this. I thought he might be my dream guy and then he doesn't even show for our date." Amanda put her head on the countertop and rested it there for a few moments. She then looked up at Gio.

"Kyle isn't my dream man, even though I thought that he was. Linda said you were supposed to lead me to my dream man, and Kyle is a friend of yours. When he asked me out I thought that he might be my dream guy…" Amanda looked at Gio wistfully. "I guess I was mistaken. Dream guys don't stand up their dates."

"Hey now.." Gio sat down beside Amanda. "I think that you are jumping to conclusions here. Kyle just isn't the type of guy that would stand up a pretty girl. That's not who he is."

"Well, you must not know him that well, because that is exactly what he did. He didn't show up and then he wouldn't answer his phone when I called him."

Gio shook his head. "I know Kyle very well. It is not like him to do something like this Something must have happened. Let me see if I can reach him." Gio pulled out his cell phone and tried to call Kyle. After a few minutes of trying to contact him but to no avail, he hung up. "He must have his phone off. That's strange. He almost never turns his phone off."

Amanda sighed. "But he just happened to have it turned off for the night of our date. He is just another loser."

Gio shook his head. "Kyle is not a loser, something must have come up. I'll try him again later or will talk to him when I see him. I'll find out what happened Amanda."

Amanda scowled. "Whatever, I'm out of here." She got up to leave, stopping at Gio's door to look outside. "Hey…my cab is gone! Ugh! I told that bozo to wait and he didn't. He left me!"

"Did you pay him?" Gio asked.

"Well yeah, he told me the total, and I gave him some money, I thought that he was billing me for the first part of the ride. Cab drivers have done that to me before. I told him to wait for me, while I went inside and talked to you. Apparently the idiot can't hear because that well because he's gone!"

Gio got up from the counter. "Where do you live?" He asked. "I was about to head home for the night. I can drop you off where you live. Just give me the directions."

"Okay." Amanda gave Gio directions to her apartment building. They both went outside and got into Gio's van. He started to drive the way to Amanda's apartment building, once he got there he slowed his car down and noticed that the building was on fire. There were several people standing outside, many of them looking shaken up, there was also a fire truck and several firemen who were trying to put out the fire. It was a pretty big fire.

Amanda and Gio got out of the car and went near the building. Amanda turned to one of the women standing outside. "What happened?" She asked her. "We don't know." The woman admitted. "A little while ago, the smoke detectors started going off and some of us had smelled a lot of smoke. A lot of people started evacuating the building to come outside. It was a good thing that we did, because the fire had started spreading by then."

"Well, you don't know how it started?" Amanda asked.

"We don't. I heard it started in room 303, and started to spread. It has destroyed at least five of the rooms on that floor, including 304, 305, 306, and 307."

Amanda's eyes widened. "I live in apartment 306!" She exclaimed.

The woman looked at her sympathetically. "Oh, honey I'm sorry, but your apartment has been destroyed."

Amanda started to panic. "But everything I own is in that apartment. My TV, my radio, my computer, my clothes, oh my clothes!" Amanda started to shake and almost collapsed but Gio had been standing beside her and caught her. "Whoa, it's okay." He picked her up.

Amanda looked at him, panic in her eyes. "It's not okay. My stuff is gone, Gio. All of it. And I'm homeless." Amanda looked very afraid. "Now Wait.." Gio said guiding her farther away from the scene to talk to her and try to calm her down.

"The fire is still going on and it looks like they are having a difficult time putting it out. If it continues it will probably burn down a some more apartments. It looks like there are going to be several people who are going to lose their apartments." Gio stated. He started to think. "Maybe there is some place that they will have everyone go to who has lost their apartment."

"You mean like a shelter? I--I don't want to go there. I don't want to be crammed in with all those people, It would be very uncomfortable… No shelter…"

"Amanda okay.. .okay, do you have any friends you can stay with?"

"Well there's Marc."

"Call Marc."

"But he's out of town until next Friday. He's not going to be back until a week from now. He's doing some business for Wilhemina. And he lost his spare key. I told him to make another one, but I don't think that he has." Amanda looked at Gio with a very worried expression on her face.

"Okay what about your other friends, can you call one of them?"

Amanda made a face. "Well… I don't know, most of them are probably out partying and doing who knows what and are not at their homes half the time anyways. Two of them have kids, who I don't like to be around, and another one is out of town."

Gio looked perplexed. "Amanda there has got to be someone you can stay with."

She shrugged and looked at him.

"How about a hotel?" Gio suggested. "Do you have enough money to stay there for a week until Marc comes back. I think that would be the best thing to do."

"Well… I think…Wait a minute… I forgot my purse!"

"What?" Gio asked.

"I forgot my purse! I must have left it in the cab. I was so upset about your loser friend not showing up, that I was in a rush to get to you and chew you out about it. I can't believe that I left my purse."

"Call the cab company." Gio instructed her. "Call them and tell them what happened. We have to locate your purse."

Gio gave Amanda his cell phone. She dialed the cab company and talked with someone for a while. Gio watched as a very frustrated look come across her face while she was talking on the phone.

"What do you mean, he says it's not there? Of course, it's there. I left it in his cab! I don't care if he took three other customers home after he dropped me off. What do you mean one of them must have picked it up? Are you kidding me?! Well call them, all three of them, find my purse. You don't know their names, what type of moronic cab driver doesn't ask his customers names. Well… You can just kiss it!" Amanda hung up looking very distraught. She looked at Gio. "My purse is gone." She handed him back his cell phone.

"This night just keeps getting worse and worse. I got stood up, I'm homeless, I have no TV, no computer, no radio, no clothes. Marc's out of town, so I can't stay with him. My purse is gone, it had all my credit cards in it, some cash, my driver's license, make up…everything. I'm in trouble. Deep, Deep trouble. I might as well go fall off the face of the earth." Amanda looked at Gio trying to fight back tears.

Gio felt sorry for Amanda. He wasn't sure what to do. She was in a pretty bad predicament, and he wanted to help her but he wasn't sure how. Maybe… He thought to himself. Should I do that? He looked up at her, at her red eyes, and her incredibly sad expression. He decided that he would.

"Amanda…" He began hesitantly. "If you want to… you could stay with me. Until Marc comes back or until by some chance your purse shows up. I have an extra bedroom, so you could sleep in that. I have plenty of food, an extra TV, you can use my computer if you needed to…"

Amanda smiled. The sandwich guy is sweet. She thought to herself. Amanda thought about the options they had went over, the ones that weren't going to happen, the ones that she didn't want to do. Amanda then decided that staying with Gio wasn't such a bad idea. He seemed nice enough and was kind enough to offer her a place to stay. And it would only be for a week until Marc came back. Amanda decided to take him up on his offer. "Okay, Gio. Thank You. Yeah, I'll stay with you."

Gio nodded. "Okay then, it's settled. We can go home, unless you wanted to talk to someone?"

Amanda shook her head. "No, I just want to get out of here, I'll call the landlord tomorrow and maybe try to settle some things, but tonight I just want to get out of here." They both went over to Gio's van and got in. Gio started up the car and began to drive the way to his apartment. On the way there Amanda realized something. "Oh, no!" She exclaimed.

"What is it Amanda?" Gio asked concerned.

"What am I going to do about clothes, and toiletries?" She asked worried.

"Well I can give you money for toiletries." Gio offered. "But for clothes.. hmm" He tried to think of what to do. An idea came to Amanda's mind. "Before we go to your place, take me to Mode."

Gio was confused. "Mode, why do you want to go there? Isn't it closed this time of night?"

"You'll see why I want to go, take me there please." Gio did as Amanda asked and drove her to Mode. Amanda went up to the front of the building and saw a custodian working on the inside. She motioned for him to open the door for her. The custodian looked at her for a few moments and then reluctantly opened the door for her.

Gio watched as Amanda talked to the custodian for a few minutes, and then he saw the custodian nod, Amanda giving him a hug and running past him. Gio then waited for a good thirty minutes before Amanda came out. He saw her come out with several bags in her hands. She put all the bags inside the back of his van and climbed back into the passenger's seat. Gio turned and looked at all the bags in the back. "What's all that?" He asked.

Amanda smirked. "Clothes, shoes, jewelry, everything I need to keep looking fabulous for the next several days."

"Where did you get that from?" Gio asked curiously.

"The closet. It's a place at Mode where we keep a lot of the clothes from different designers. There are clothes there for the different fashion seasons. I just went and picked up some things."

"It looks like you emptied the closet." Gio commented.

"Well, not quite, but at least I have clothes now." Amanda stated happily.

Gio nodded, smiling to himself. He started the car back up, and began to drive back to his apartment. On his way there he stopped by a store, and gave Amanda some money so that she could get toiletries as well as some undergarments. He then took her home to his apartment and helped her get settled in.