Page 52 of King of Players

Having let go of my past, I was now ready to embrace whatever the future brought with thicker skin and a stronger will. So what if I ruined something, or nearly did? So what if Chad had awakened things within me, and I had prematurely tried to abort them? What mattered now was that I was introduced to them.

The embers of that fire still fought on, desperate for a spark to bring them back to life.

twenty

Knockout

Chad

“Let’s take it again, from: ‘How dare you?’ and the punch. And, action!”

“How dare you?” I hissed at my scene partner who, in the film, was the man who had just informed my character that my wife was sleeping around. Clenching my hand into a fist, I took a swing at his jaw as rehearsed, and he dodged it so I would hit his shoulder instead.

“Zack, you need to calm the fuck down and listen!” he shouted.

Turning around, I grabbed the prop chair and raised it up high, yelling, “Listen to you? Denigrating the only woman I’ve ever loved?” Slamming down the chair, I watched him escape it, the wood smashing all over the rug underneath me. “I’ll never fucking believe you. Never!”

“You’ve lost your fucking mind!” he shouted, approaching me with a glare of rage and fists so tight that his knuckled whitened.

As we engaged in a choreographed physical altercation, I had to focus to not miss a heartbeat. Every movement of his had to be met with one of mine in perfect flow, so that our fight seemed believable without actually hurting either one of us.

Suddenly, I heard a door slam shut and turned around to look at who had the audacity to come onto our set mid-scene. With shocked eyes—as my scene partner punched me and I failed to move—I saw Kaira in the distance. In a blink, I was on the ground, feeling nothing while white and bright yellow patches blinked in front of my eyes.

“Oh my fucking God!” the director yelled.

“Man, I’m sorry!” my scene partner said. “You were supposed to move, man!”

While my vision gradually regained its focus, I felt wetness above my lip. Automatically, I raised my hand to feel it and looked down at my fingertips, now drenched in blood. “Oh, great. I’m fine. I’m fine.”

“Holy mother, Chad!” The scene in front of me was now in full focus as Kaira’s face filled the cadre, her hands cradling my cheeks as she furrowed her eyebrows.

“Lady! What the fuck—" the director shouted.

“Not another peep out of you! Is this how you speak to someone you just called a lady?” Kaira hissed at him, and in an instant, the entire room went so quiet one could hear a needle drop. Three dozen people stood in awe, since nobody up until this moment had dared speak that way to the master of the set. “Okay, take five, everybody,” he grumbled, strutting over to the security guards at the edge of the room, undoubtedly to unleash hell upon them for their little muck-up.

Returning her attention back to me, Kaira quickly pulled a tissue out of her purse and began to dab at my nostrils. I held her hand with the tissue and fixed it there, while pushing myself up to stand with my other hand.

I felt her grip my arm as I whispered, “What are you doing?”

Her chest rose with a deep inhalation before she licked her lower lip, blinking quickly as she fixed her gaze on me. “I—I’m sorry. I didn’t think you were shooting a fight—”

“What are you doing here?” I insisted.

“I… Uh—I came to tell you that I was wrong. I don’t care what people say.”

Tilting back my head, I felt the headache radiate from around my nose to the rest of my skull. Someone quietly brought me a chair, and I sat down, keeping my head up. Kaira stood there, towering over me and leaning slightly forward. She then placed both hands on the arms of the chair, leaning closer so that I could feel her breath on my hand holding the tissue. “I don’t care, I can learn. I’m a highly adaptable person.”

“Okay.” I blinked a few times, trying to ignore the headache and concentrate. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

“The scars that you have on your body? The ones from all the crazy things you’ve done?”

“Uh—What about them?”

“I bet they were some stories.”

“Kaira… I’m the one who got punched in the face, yet you’re the one who sounds like she’s got a concussion.”

“I think I’m in love with you,” she whispered.

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