“Training, my sexy little Raven,” I tell her. I don’t want her to think I eat like this every day.
And I am back in training mode. I received a text this morning from Dale with a time and date for three months from now. I have my date, and I am going to pound that little fucker into the ground. I am legally going to be permitted to punish that fucker as much as I want. I have five full rounds at five minutes each. I can last and perform that long, let’s see if fuckface can.
“Already? I thought you got to take a break,” she says and snags one of the last pieces of bacon from my plate. I growl playfully at her.
“Careful, missy,” I say before taking a huge drink of my smoothie. I try offering her some of it, “I swear it really doesn't smell that bad, and it is really tasty.” But she shakes her head and pulls away.
“But to answer your question, I usually do. But after Ethan pulled his little stunt yesterday with the media, I agreed to go again in three months. It’s a shorter break than usual, but they probably figure that we both already...
Avery breaks in with, “Again? What do you mean again? And what stunts?”
I'm shocked that she knows nothing about what has been transpiring. But then again, she may be Ethan’s friend and my girlfriend but that doesn't mean she follows the fight news.
“Yeah,” I answer her, giving it to her straight. “He’s done nothing but spout shit off to any reporter who will listen to him, claiming I cheated. And he’s demanding a title shot with me. I'm going to give him one too, this way he can't come back again. Two losses in a row should put his shit show off track for at least a year.”
“Wait, what stunts?” she asks.
I pull my phone out of my pocket and bring up yesterday’s press conference before sliding it over to her. “If you want, go into the messages part and see what all Dale has sent me. Your friend has a mouth on him.”
Avery sits there for a long time as I finish my food. I see her going through the articles that were written and the video from the press.
I pick up the dishes as she puts the phone down. “Are you going to kill him this time?” she asks and there is absolutely no mirth in her voice as she looks up at me.
“No. But since he wants to try and push my buttons and flat out tell everyone that he can take me out any time he wants... I am going to give him a full five rounds to try it. Five rounds of me punishing him.”
I don't know what answer she was expecting, and that might not have been the best thing I could have said, but I won't lie to her.
She shakes her head and looks down at her hands, trying to hide her confliction. “He is so fucking stupid.”
“Yep.”
Chapter Fifteen
Chase
Avery is quiet as we drive to her apartment. She decided after breakfast that she wanted to come with me today to see what I do on Nightmare Days. I think she thought I was kidding when I called my training day that.
She comes out of the apartment wearing a pair of black yoga pants and still has the t-shirt of mine she swiped from my closet when we were getting ready. A backpack on her shoulder, she smiles as she slips into the car. I hang up the phone with Dale and smile at her.
“What’s up?” she asks as I pull out of her driveway.
“I was talking to Dale. He wants to know what press releases our camp will be putting out about the upcoming fight. I told him to do the exact same thing as last time.”
“Holy cow, are you serious?” She turns to me and her eyes are opened wide. “Ethan was so infuriated, you only talked about how you were preparing for the fight. He said you were full of self-righteous bullshit.”
“Yeah, I do that most times when other guys start talking all their shit. I don't like talking shit, so the more they do, the more I put on the humble guy who is training his butt off approach. It usually pisses them off pretty good.”
We walk into the gym and I introduce Avery to Dale again and the couple of people there.
I pull her to the side and hand her my keys and wallet. “Lunch is on me. Whenever you get hungry if you want to get something just get me the same thing but double order it for me.”
Avery
I’m a little stunned when Chase hands me the keys to his Jeep and his wallet. Not only does he trust me to drive his car, he trusts me not to take off with all his cash and credit cards.
I slip the keys and wallet in my purse, then give him one last kiss before sending him over to Dale. I don’t know what I did to deserve such a good guy like him, but I’m glad I did it.
And I’m glad that he trusts me, because it only makes me feel like I can trust him more.
I head over to one of the empty benches against the wall and sit down, settling in for the long haul. At first, it feels a little weird watching Chase workout, like I’m some creepy peeping tom. Especially since he’s so focused on what he’s doing and everything Dale is yelling at him, he barely glances over at me.
Whenever I accompanied Ethan to his training sessions for his fights, it always felt like he was showing off. Like he wasn’t really training, he was performing for the crowd.
Ethan would constantly call out to me, “Watch this!” Then do something mildly impressive like ten pushups on one arm.
Chase… Chase is in the zone. Dale pushes him through several different weight lifting machines. He has him working his arms, his shoulders and his legs. There’s even some kind of weird squatting machine that looks like it hurts. When he’s done, I’m flabbergasted to hear that was just the warmup.
I’m exhausted just watching him.
Once Dale breaks out the fighting mitts and starts yelling things at Chase like “That’s all ya got, big boy?” and “Suck it up, Buttercup!” I decide it’s time to grab some lunch.
Grabbing up my things, I wave over at Chase, getting his attention and motion that I’m leaving. He nods and I turn to walk away.
I hear a loud thump then Chase grunts in pain. I turn back around just in time to see Dale yelling at Chase, “Eyes on me.”
Hurrying out the door, I hop into the driver’s seat of the Jeep then have to do some serious adjustments. At first my feet don’t even touch the floor. Once I’m comfortable and have the mirrors pointing the way I need them, I pull out and drive just up the street to grab coffee from my favorite coffee shop. Chase told me to order him double of what I order so I return to the gym after picking up four giant meatball subs.
Chase and Dale break for lunch when I return. And since I picked up enough subs for everyone, the three of us sit down at a table and eat together.
“So, do you train like this every day?” I ask Chase before shoving a meatball in my mouth.
Chase grins at me and shakes his head. “No, these are nightmare days. I do the nightmare days twice a week, then three medium days, then one light day and one day off while I’m training for a fight.”
“Sounds exhausting,” I remark while watching him devour a large chunk of his sub in one bite.
Chase only shrugs and chews.
“Do you do this for the entire three months?”
Chase nods.
“Why do you do it?” I ask.
Chase blinks at me, confused. “What do you mean?”
“Why do you fight? Why put yourself through all of this?”
Dale starts chuckling and excuses himself from the table to take a call.
“Because I like it,” Chase answers and leans over the table towards me. “Because it’s fun.”
“It’s fun? Seriously?”
“Yes,” Chase grins and I can’t help but squirm in my chair the way he looks at me, like he’d like to eat me up. I have flashes of last night. Did it get hot in here?
“It’s fun,” he goes on. “I could probably spout off some philosophical bullshit about Zen and shit, but the truth is I enjoy it. I fucking love it. It’s almost as good as pizza. Almost as good as sex. And I get paid to do it.”
“Almost as good as sex?” I ask with a smirk.
“Out of all that, that’s what you focus on, huh?” he asks.
I bite my lip and shrug my shoulders. How can I not think about sex whenever I’m around him? He has supernatural pheromones. Even as sweaty as he, even as stinky as he is right now, I’d so jump his bones.
Chase shakes his head as if he can’t believe me and picks up his second sub, taking another huge bite.
“You can’t do this forever, though, right? You’ll have to retire at some point.”
Chase nods and continues to chew.
“When do you plan to retire?”
He doesn’t answer and I get the hint he doesn’t intend to. I guess that’s secret or something.
“Do you have plans to do something if and when you retire? Like something else?”
“Yep,” Chase answers easily. “I’ll put my real estate license to use and take over some of the reins from my dad.”
I nod, remembering he told me his dad was in the real estate business.
“That sounds cool,” I say and glance down at my phone. I’ve been checking it all day hoping I’d get a call about the internship. I only have three more paid weeks off before I have to take Ethan up on his offer.
“What about you, Avery?” Chase asks, balling up his sandwich wrapper. “What do you want to do? What are you going to school for?”