“I’m not fightin’ you, Rikky.”
“Why not? Afraid you’ll lose?”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
He scoffed.
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes, well, I’ve fought worse than you, Forrester, and I’m perfectly fine.”
I didn’t ask for further information on that. I already knew he wouldn’t tell me, and that I was probably better off not knowing even if he would.
“Where are the gloves?” he asked, and I gestured my head to the tub of gloves and mitts.
He kicked off his shoes, pulled his shirt off and black grappling gloves on, and climbed into the octagonal cage in the center of the gym.
I knew it was a bad idea. I knew I wasn’t in the right headspace to spar. If I got into that cage, it was going to be a real fight.
“If you don’t get in here, I will take it as a confession that you’ve gone soft since your retirement,” he called out to me. When I didn’t respond or make any move to join him, he continued. “You know, Rachel is right. You have been a bitch lately.”
“Like you’d know. You haven’t even been here,” I snapped back.
I was used to Rikky occasionally disappearing for days or weeks at a time. He’d always told me he was just helping his dad with something important. He wouldn’t answer any of myquestions about it, and I’d eventually stopped asking. But these last few months he’d been around even less.
“Isthatthe problem, then? You missed me?”
“’Course I missed you,asshole.”
“You are no fun to tease.”
“Get out of there, Rikky.”
“Come and make me, coward.”
I shook my head. Fine, he could stay in there, then, but I was leaving. I was peeling my gloves off and halfway to the door when he shouted after me.
“It’s not my fault you got dumped!”
I stopped. Turned to face him. A grin spread across his face.
“That’s it, isn’t it? Your mystery man from the club dumped you.”
My jaw ticked. “You don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”
“What did you do?”
My teeth ached as I clamped them together.
“Youdiddo something.”
How was it that even my fucking silence was giving him answers? “I’m not talkin’ about it.”
“Well, I am. Unless you come in here and give me something else to focus on.”
My chest was rising and falling with my deep breaths.
Inhale. Hold. Exhale. Calm down.
