“I love you,” I say. “But you’re not quitting your job at the Cockpit for me. You’ve finally moved up into a money making spot. You’re on your way to pushing Brynn fully to the sidelines. I’m pretty sure Niko wants her gone anyway after everything that happened.”
“I just don’t see why you have to go back to your hometown,” she says. “We’ve come so far together here. We can fix this.”
“I just…I don’t think we can,” I say, sitting down. My heart hurts so bad, I’m out of breath just talking about the reality of it all. “Everything is going against me, Lainey. All three jobs, waitressing, the studio, and housekeeping for Dom are gone since my life exploded. I just feel like going back to where I started, and starting over is my only choice right now.”
“Well, I hate it,” she says, blinking back tears. I have cried enough to run my tear ducts dry. I can feel a fresh wave coming now that my best friend in the whole world is falling apart.
God. Is there any part of my life that isn’t falling apart?
Suddenly, her phone buzzes, and she looks down at it with a look of confusion.
“Is everything okay?” I ask, wiping my cheeks.
“Yeah…it’s just…” she trails off, scrolling through whatever the text says. “It’s Niko. He’s being annoying,” she says, and she walks into the other room with her phone.
I sigh, looking around her cute, cluttered apartment, then down at my open suitcase and my things all over the floor. The truth is,I don’t want to go. I want to pretend like nothing ever happened. Like nothing is happening still. I want to go back to my studio, and I want to work with Lainey again. I want to live with Dom and raise this baby with Dom and have the life I thought I was going to have before it all fell apart. It’s obvious that my reality and my dreams are different, and I am just going to have to accept it.
Lainey comes back in, and her expression has changed. “What did he want?” I ask.
“To talk about the schedule. But he also said he needs you to stop in before you leave town. He has a paycheck for you.”
I tilt my head. “I don’t think he owes me another paycheck,” I say. “I picked up the last one weeks ago.”
“Well…he has one for you,” she says, shifting her weight. It’s something Lainey does when she’s nervous.
“Why did he text you and not me?” I ask.
“He was already texting me. Asking what I am doing today because he needs me to work. One of the girls called out. Amanda. Amanda called out, and he needs me to come in. I told him I am helping you pack, and I will come in after that.” Her words rattle off her tongue like train cars colliding into one another on a track. I can’t help but feel like she’s up to something.
“I’ll just text him and tell him to mail it to my address. I doubt it’s more than a couple hundred anyways,” I say, pulling out my phone.
“No,” she says, and Lainey literally swipes my phone out of my hands. I stare up at her incredulously, and she shifts herweight again, this time while biting her lip. The girl is practically sweating, so now I know for a fact that something is up.
“Lainey, what’s going on?” I ask.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she lies. I give her a hard, unwavering look, strong enough to crack through whatever fib she’s telling.
“Fine,” she finally blurts out. “Niko and the girls at the Cockpit have a surprise for you.”
“What kind of surprise?” I ask.
“A party,” she says. “A going-away party. Because you’re leaving.”
I sigh.
“This is only going to make it harder,” I tell her.
“I know. But they’ve already got it all set up. They even closed off the ring for it. Canceled matches and everything.”
Canceling matches puts Niko out a fat chunk of change, and I realize then that I have to go. Even if saying goodbye to everything at the Cockpit is only going to make it harder. Still, I can’t say no.
“Alright,” I agree. “I’ll go to the Cockpit.”
Lainey smiles and hugs me, and my heart pounds painfully in my chest. I want this day to be over.
“Where is everyone?” I say as we walk into the bar. The room is empty. I am half expecting people to jump out and yell SURPRISE, but it’s a ghost town.
“They’re all in the ring room, I bet,” Lainey says, coaxing me that way, and I swallow back the nervous lump in my throat. It’s one thing to come back here before leaving; it’s another to go into the ring room. The place where it all started. My heart throbs as I think about that first night, taking in the room and all its chaos. Seeing the two men sparring on the stage, only to realize that one of them was Dominic.
