“Or you’re just fucking slow. What’s the matter? Marriage slowing you down?”
I swung, aiming for his left side ribs and landing a spectacular right hook. Thiers’ grunt was loud and immediate.
“Don’t mention my marriage.”
“Fuck you,” he spat back, lowering his hands. “I’m done with this shit. I told you I don’t fucking like sparring.”
Sighing, I lowered my gloves. He was right. While Thiers was always one for a workout in the gym, he actually loathed getting into the ring and sparring with anyone. My usual sparring partner had canceled, leaving no one to get into the ring with. I’d had to bribe Thiers with front row seats to the Elton John concert that was coming to town in a few months.
“Don’t think this means you can get out of getting me those tickets.” He pointed back at me as we walked over to the metal folding chairs which sat against the wall, facing the boxing ring.
“I had no idea you were such an Elton John fan.”
He snorted before squirting water into his mouth from the water bottle. “I’m not. But my lady is.”
“Going to an Elton John concert for a woman? You must be serious about this one.”
He nodded, smiling, a funny expression crossing his face. “I think so. Jeanette is different from all of the other women in my past.”
“How so?”
“She’s smart. Loves to read. I mean, this woman can spendhoursreading. And she listens more than she talks. Most women I’ve met only want to talk about themselves, who they know, who knows them. All that bullshit. Not Jeanette.”
I nodded, knowing the feeling very well. My friend was falling in love. I could hear it in his voice. If this had been a different time, I would’ve told him to shut the hell up about it and that he probably was just making up feelings that weren’t real. But I didn’t because I knew exactly what he was talking about.
“What’s that face about?” he questioned, giving me funny stare.
I clenched my teeth, not wanting to say the words that would answer his question, but needing to. “Rick thinks Deborah is in on it.”
Thiers’ eyebrows dipped. “In on the Townsend leaks?”
I dipped.
“How is that possible?”
“He has photos of her with one of the guys he’s pinpointed as being behind the leaks. Recent photos,” I clarified. “It’s of her ex, Cohen. He thinks they never broke up. That she’s having an affair with him behind my back.”
“He thinks?”
I grunted and nodded.
“But you don’t?”
I turned, looked Thiers right in the eye, and said, “I know it’s bullshit.”
“But the photos are getting to you.”
I turned toward the rest of the boxing gym, not saying anything. I didn’t need to. He knew me well enough to draw his own conclusions. Seeing my wife in the arms of another man had stirred something inside of me that nothing in my life ever had.
I stood up.
“All I know is that when all of this is over, no motherfucker will ever test me, my wife, or my marriage again. And it will be Robert Townsend Junior with his name on the office of the CEO suite at Townsend Industries.” Those two things I were a fact.
I also knew neither one of them was going to happen without me having to get some blood on my hands. I’d made peace with that weeks ago. It was time to put an end to this shit.
I wouldn’t let my first son enter this world with questions still being held over my wife’s head. Nor would I let Townsend Industries keep being run by a man with no vision, poor negotiating skills, and only his last name to bolster the confidence of his allies. Even if that man was my father.
****
