He went on. “I love you, Macio… so much. I tried hard to get over the heartbreak, but couldn’t. There hasn’t been anyone else in my life who could replace you and I never wanted any one to. However, if we do this again… if I open my heart up to you again… it can’t be like it was before. I have to know you won’t ditch me when things get rough.”
He was now looking at me and I could tell he was giving me time to respond. I wasn’t much for words; I was a bruiser, not a poet. All I could give him was my honesty and I was sure that was all he wanted from me.
“I fucked up. I panicked like a little bitch and I made the biggest mistake of my life when I let you walk out of my hotel room. I’m never going to do that again. I thought my career was more important than my happiness, but I was wrong. I also got scared of what would come my way. I could get into an octagon with a brutal opponent and not feel one ounce of fear. But the thought of being outed and having people I knew and didn’t know looking down at me… well… that thought terrified me.”
“Do you think it was easy for me to publicly come out?” Aiden asked as he put his hand on my knee.
I shook my head. “I envied your courage. But I also felt that we lived in two different worlds.”
Aiden sighed and nodded. “That’s true, and it was one of the reasons why I was so willing to live in yours.”
I reached up, caressing his chin. I loved everything about him, even his stubble that scratched my skin. “I’m not afraid anymore, Aiden. I’m not sure if I’m ready to share you or what we have with the public just yet. But I’m not going to run away ever again. That, I can promise you. Whatever comes our way, we wade through it together from now on.”
Aiden smiled and leaned forward, kissing me. When he pulled back, he punched me as hard as he could in my jaw, snapping my head back. Pain shot through my face and more than one tweety bird flew around my head for a second before I cleared my senses. I looked at Aiden as I massaged my jaw.
“That’s for breaking my heart. I love you. Okay, you know what I like for breakfast.” He got up from the bed and sauntered into the bathroom to shower.
I was left there with my jaw stinging from a blow that I should have seen coming, but hadn’t. I laughed as I rubbed my aching jaw. Looked like my baby has a nice right hook. I flexed my jaw as I dialed for room service. Once I placed the order for our breakfast, I joined Aiden in the shower. We actually just washed up this time, no hanky-panky. Aiden and I enjoyed our breakfast, then he rescheduled his flight. I hated to see him leave. At one, I had my meeting with OnyxTime that went very well. The deal was for a million dollars for five ads over the course of a year. Which worked out to two-hundred grand per ad.
After the meeting, I could tell Rupert wanted to get into it about Aiden, but I shut him down and kicked his ass out of my hotel room. I didn’t want to hear anymore anti-Aiden shit right then. When I told Barry if I could get a second chance, I wasn’t going to blow it, I meant it. I decided to go down to the gym and burn off a few calories before I hit the city for the sights.
“So, you really are in love with Aiden?” Barry asked me as he held the punching bag while I kicked it.
I nodded and threw in a knee.
“Oh, that’s a good one. You really need to work on switching your offensive tactics. Strike low, then go high with the knee, that’s a good stunner,” Barry said, breaking from the conversation about my love life to give me fight pointers. “Okay, back to what I was saying… I didn’t really want to bring this up, but since your next championship fight ain’t for another two months—”
“Spit it the fuck out. What are you talking about?” I snapped, throwing a few powerful blows at the bag.
“Rupert has been sitting on this for the last two weeks, not wanting to worry you. However, I think you should know about it.”
I stopped throwing punches and gave all of my attention to Barry. “Stop pissing around the bush.”
“It’s beating around the bush,” he corrected.
“I know, but I like ‘pissing’ better. Now, get to it.”
He sighed as he let go of the bag, then rubbed his eyebrow. “He’s been trying to figure out who this person is that’s sending him photos of you and Aiden. There’s been new ones since you two got back together.”
I huffed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’m telling you now.”
“How long have you known?”
“About a week. We both didn’t want to bother you with this if we could figure it out and stop it. But then the son of a bitch sent another photo, this time to me with a blackmail demand,” Barry said.
I actually growled at that. “What’s the fucking demand?”
“The letter said…” Barry sighed as though he didn’t want to tell me. “It said, ‘Fags don’t fight in MMA arenas. If you don’t want your dirty little secret getting out, I want one million dollars. You’re rich, I know you’ve got it, so give it, cocksucker.’”
Oh, that pissed me the fuck off. I punched the bag so hard it hit Barry, knocking him to the side from the impact. He almost lost his footing, but caught his balance.
“Damn, kid.”
“Fuck this shit! Fuck whoever sent that bullshit, too. They ain’t getting a motherfucking dime out of me. I want to see the photos and that note. Call Rupert, get his ass here, now!” I raged. I snatched off my boxing gloves, tossing them to the floor.
“See, this is why we didn’t want to bother you with this shit,” Barry stated.
