Page 5 of 4th Degree

Just then, the waitress appears next to our table. “Can I get you something to drink, sir? Or do you need help picking a cigar?”

“I’ll have an El Dorado 21, one rock.” I glance at Pete’s cigar. “And I’ll take the same cigar.”

The girl smiles and nods. “Very well. I’ll be right back with those for you.”

Pete watches her walk away. “One of these days she’s going to get tired of waiting for you to ask her out.”

I huff a laugh. “She should already be tired of waiting. It’s been weeks.”

“Remind me again why you won’t go for her?” he asks, moving his focus back to me.

My sigh is heavy. “I don’t know, I just don’t think I’m a relationship guy. Last time I tried, it blew up in my face.”

Pete lets out a snort. “I didn’t say to marry the girl, I’m just saying you could ask her out for a drink.”

I shrug. “Even that. I’ve got so much other stuff going on, I don’t really want to go on any dates.”

“So you’re just going to live out your days as a bachelor?”

Another shrug. “I like being single. Seems stupid to disrupt my life when I’ve already got everything I want.”

He looks skeptical of my answer, which doesn’t surprise me—Pete is happily married with two kids. But I’m not lying. I got married because after five years of dating my ex-wife, marriage felt like the obvious next step. And when it fell apart, not only did it feel natural to settle into single life, but I liked it. I could focus all my energy on fighting, and then on opening the gym. I could create exactly the kind of life that I wanted to live, with my dog by my side as my best friend.

Why would I want to change anything about that?

When the waitress appears with my drink and cigar, I look her over as inconspicuously as possible. She’s young, very pretty, and very obviously giving me bedroom eyes. Pete’s right, I could definitely have her under me at the end of the night.

But I don’t feel any desire for it. Yeah, it’d be fun to get her off, but whether or not that happens, I’m still sleeping alone, and I’m still going to wake up excited to get back to my daily life.

“Thanks,” I tell the waitress, not meeting her eyes and not letting our fingers touch when I take the cigar from her. I can sense the moment her smile droops.

Pete’s chuckling when she walks away. “One of these days some girl is going to turn your whole life on its head.”

I take a few puffs on the cigar to get it started. “She better not. It took me a long time to build the life I have. I’d like to keep it that way.”

He’s still shaking his head when I change topics. “So what’s going on with you? How’s the gym?”

He doesn’t balk at the deflection. Talking business is one of the reasons we get together like this, and although we won’t admit it out loud, we both look forward to it every month. “Gym’s good. I’ve got a few guys competing in Worlds next month, so I’m pushing them hard.” A grin stretches across his face. “Do you remember when you, me, and Sean did Worlds when we first got our black belts? All three of us cramped in that shitty little motel room because we were dead broke?”

I huff a laugh at the memory. “Worst sleep I ever got. But I did get that big win against Rivera, so I can’t exactly complain.”

Pete chuckles. “Hard to believe that was ten years ago. Our lives were so different.”

My agreement is only a silent nod, but his voice takes on an excited edge. “No, but seriously, think about it. We used to dream about doing this shit as a career. Opening a gym, training all day—actually making money with it. And I don’t know about you, but I thought this was a pipe dream.”

“Honestly, I did too,” I mumble.

“And now you’ve got a guy in the UFC, and I’ve got so many students, I had to move into a bigger building to fit them all—twice. Everything that we dreamt our twenties, we made happen. How crazy is that?”

I let out a heavy breath, absorbing Pete’s words. I’ve had my head down working as hard as I can for so long that sometimes I forget to look at how far I’ve come. What I’ve built with blood and sweat and tears.

How proud I am of what I’ve built.

“Yeah,” I breathe. “It’s crazy.”

3

SKYLAR

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