Loving Diego

Chapter 5 - Seriously?!

Diego's POV

For the past hour Gabriella's been pacing back and forth in the bedroom. She was acting like people thinking we were seeing each other was a bad thing. Just the simple thought of it actually being true brought joy to my heart but seeing her act the opposite pissed me the fuck off. Derrik told me it was normal for a woman to act this way. He said sometimes they act the opposite of what they're feeling. Honestly I don't get it.

"Could you possibly take me somewhere?" she suddenly asked.

"Depends where," my voice sound distant even to me.

"I need to go speak with my father," she said shyly.

"Sure. Just grab your purse and let's go," I stood up and grabbed my car keys.

"Are there a lot of reporters outside?" she asked as we got in the elevator.

"Does it really matter?" I countered.

"Listen I don't want to cause any damage to your reputation," she blocked my path.

"My reputation is the last thing I'm worried about Gabriella," I grabbed her hand and towed her to my car.

It was a good thing the building had an underground garage. I opened the pasanger door for Gabriella before getting into the drivers seat. Turning the car on I headed towards the exit.

I could see Gabriella playing with a strand of her hair from the corner if my eye. She kept twirling it around with her pointer finger. Her eyes darted quickly towards my direction and I knew she wanted to say something.

"Just spit it out," I said emotionlessly.

She froze. At the moment we approached a red light. I turned to look at her briefly before looking forward again. She seemed to be thinking something over.

"What did you mean when you said your reputation was the last thing you were worried about?" she finally asked.

Taking a deep breathe I could feel myself becoming closed off. I wasn't going to let it happen again though.

"When I first opened the restaurant I was an ambitious 22-year-old. I loved the attention I was getting from everyone. Growing up I was so used to being overshadowed by Rebecca, Victor, and Salvador. No one paid any attention to me unless I got into trouble," I could feel her gaze on me and for some reason that gave me more confidence to continue,"In high school I was always getting into trouble and my parents weren't happy with my decision. There was point in my life when I became involoved with the wrong crowd. Carmen wanted to do everything I did cause she thought it was 'cool'.

I changed my attitude a little once I got out of high school and started my bussiness, but having people swarming around me because I did something good was amazing. I let greed take over though. I wanted to be with the prettiest girls I could find. Even though they only wanted my money. I stopped though because I saw the way it was affecting my mom. She looked broken hearted and disappointed in me. The magazines started saying shit about me."

"What did they say?" she asked quietly.

"They started saying shit like how maybe I caught some type of STD from sleeping around so much. Some even said I turned gay. All that nonsence really pissed me off, but for the sake of my family I ignored it. That was about 2 years ago and since then I haven't given a fuck about what they say anymore."

I felt like a huge weight had been taken off my shoulders. My heart was pounding from confessing something that I hadn't told anyone. For some reason I felt like Gabriella could understand my reasons for acting the way I did.