“I don’t know, Len, since I wasn’t out there with you and I don’t have fucking x-ray vision. I don’t know who you saw, pulling out of the lot,” I snarked.
Lenny frowned in the way he always does when I give him one of my smartass answers, which was pretty frequently.
“Anyone told you you’re a jackass lately?”
“Not in the last…” I paused to look up at the clock. “Twelve hours. That also could be because I haven’t spoken to very many people in the last eleven and a half hours, either.”
“Consider yourself told. Asshole,” he mumbled.
“I’ll jot it down in my fucking calendar.”
“Anyway, what was she doing back here? You didn’t… did you?” He frowned.
I cut my eyes in his direction as he moved inside my office, shutting the door. “No, I didn’t. Not that it’s any business of yours.”
The fucker actually had a nerve to let out a sigh of relief.
“I hired her as my trainer. I think.”
Lenny was silent for a heartbeat before he said, “That’s great.”
I wasn’t surprised by his reaction. He’d made it clear the day before when she first showed up, he was a fan of hers. But I wanted to yell at him to fuck off because the very thought of working with Syd had me feeling off balance. The absolute last thing any fighter wanted was to feel like they weren’t on solid footing, or they couldn’t orient themselves. In a fight it could mean total disaster. In life outside of the cage, the consequences were the same.
“Yeah, whatever. I’m sure Syd will quit after a week anyway.”
“Syd?” Lenny questioned.
I frowned as I gave him a scathing look. “Yeah, that’s her damn name.” He’d just used it himself. “Shit Len, I’m the one who’s been getting knocked in the head all these years, don’t tell me you’re already losing your shit, going senile or whatever the hell is happening.”
He shook his head. “I’m just surprised. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve heard you call a woman by her actual name.”
I glared at him, giving him a dumbass expression because he couldn’t be accurate. “Get out of here, man.”
“I’m serious. What was the name of that woman you took home after the Caldwell fight?”
“Who, Legs?”
“See? You don’t even know her name.”
I opened my mouth to argue because I knew I’d ordered the chick an Uber and had to put her name in the app for that, hadn’t I? The words never came as I recalled that I’d indeed forgotten her actual name as soon as I’d heard it.
“And the woman you were dating for a few months last year. You introduced me to her on three different occasions, never using her real name. Instead you referred to her as—”
“T&A.” I chuckled, remembering the tits and ass on that one. Couldn’t remember her name either, although I did know it started with a C or a K.
“And then there were all the women in college and since you started fighting who got some kind of nickname, mainly based on some part of their anatomy, I might add.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” I waved him off, turning back to my desk.
“Yeah well, so for you to refer to a woman by her actual name speaks volumes.”
I dropped the pen I’d picked up and turned to Lenny. “It doesn’t say shit except that I decided to give her a shot at being my trainer. That’s it.” I wouldn’t go around calling anyone on my staff Legs or T&A or any bullshit like that.
“If you say so.”
“I fucking say so.”
“You really hired her?”
