Page 21 of Dali: The Demolisher

Hushed voices luredKas down the hall. She’d been up long enough to handle her hygiene and check her phone notifications. The last thing she remembered last night was having a breakdown and trying to get blackout drunk so she wouldn’t remember. Her brother had obviously brought her to his place, and she was grateful she hadn’t woken up and had to deal with her feelings alone.

When his and Dali’s eyes landed on her, their conversation ceased. The sight of the cut on the side of Dali’s black eye made her wince.

“You lost?” she asked quietly.

“Nah. He sucker punched me when I was looking to see what was going on with you.”

“Ouch.” Kassadee massaged her own eye as if the truth had physically struck her. “I’m really sorry about that. I thought I was ready to come to one of your matches but obviously I wasn’t.”

“I don’t care about this,” he said, pointing to his eye before he stood and took a step in her direction, but when she took a step back, he paused. Ken stood, placing his hand on Dali’s chest. “I just… wanted to make sure you were okay, bae. But I… I see that you’re not.”

Avoiding his eyes, Kas hung her head as she hugged herself. “I don’t think I can come to your fights for a while. I’m sorry. But I’ll still be rooting for you like always.”

“Of course. Whatever’s best for you. But you… you’re not scared of me, right?” He took another step in her direction, and again, she took another step back. “Because you know I would never hurt you. I’ll never put my hands on you, Kassadee.”

Clenching her jaw, Kas released a long breath. “I know. I think I just need some time.”

“Yeah, sure. Just um… call me if you need me. Okay?”

Kassadee nodded, though she was sure that was something she wouldn’t do. She went back to Ken’s room and climbed into his bed. Pulling her knees to her chest, she rocked and released silent tears.

12

Dali

One Month Later

The truthabout why Germany was so adamant about marrying Twila had finally come out. She was pregnant. We’d gathered for their co-ed bachelor and bachelorette party and her stomach was poking out of the white mini dress she had on. The baby made things make sense, but it wasn’t a good enough reason to commit to a woman you didn’t want to spend the rest of your life with.

I didn’t subscribe to the narrative that you had to stay in a loveless or toxic relationship for the sake of a baby. To me, that did more harm than good. More than anything, I believed children needed to see a healthy relationship between their parents, whether the relationship was a romantic one or not.

I felt like I couldn’t hold back anymore and really needed to let Germany know how I was feeling, but I knew it wouldn’t change anything for him. This was the first time in my life where I finally understood why our grandmother would end her life talks with, “It’s off me now and on you.” Because even ifGermany did nothing with what I had to say to him, it would burn me alive if I didn’t speak up and look out for him.

Since tonight was their night, I decided to talk about it with him in the morning. They didn’t seem like they were in a loving mood, but they weren’t arguing and fighting so that was a plus.

They’d rented one of the only two event venues in Jasper Lane.Mierra’s Memories Ballroomwas about ten thousand square feet total and where most weddings and larger gatherings were held in the small town when people didn’t want to go to a bigger city like Memphis or Rose Valley Hills. The space was designed with their two favorite colors—olive green and light yellow.

The room was fairly segregated with Twila’s family chilling and seated while our family was dancing and turning up. It was a distinct visual of how different they were, how different our families were, and another reason to me why they shouldn’t have been getting married. Germany loved to enjoy himself and have a good time, and Twila’s family was boring as hell. I didn’t see him getting close to her father and brother and building bonds with them that went beyond her. Clearly, he didn’t care about that, but it was important to me that I got along with my in-laws well.

Just the thought had me looking over at my date for the evening. Geneva was cool but she wasn’t someone I planned to be with seriously. She was just someone to chill with and fuck to pass the time. Since things didn’t go how I thought they would with Kas, I decided to give her a little space. I hadn’t given up on us, but I also didn’t want her to feel forced to be with me just because I’d retired to pursue her. Honestly, she wasn’t the only reason I retired, but she was a big part of it. The other reason was for my mom’s peace of mind and my health.

Though I had a great record, a hit was a hit. One of my mentors, Haven, was a prime example of how even those withseveral wins under their belts could still have brain and body damage because of the amount of sparring we had to do in preparation for our fights. I only had two fights a year, but in preparation for them, my training was year-round except for the summers. That was the only time I allowed myself to truly take off and enjoy myself.

After hearing about his health declining and the documented damage done to his brain that led to his early retirement, I decided to start taking my checkups a bit more seriously. I loved boxing but didn’t want to lessen my quality of life as I aged because of it. My goal was to fight every other year until thirty-five, but I eventually decided to retire now so I could shift my focus onto my family. Or, at least, the family I wanted to have with Kassadee.

I hadn’t planned to tell her about that the way I did, but I’d been holding so much from her that it kind of slipped out the day I went over to cut her yard. My plan was to date her and show her that I was serious about friendship being our foundation for more… then I would tell her. It hadn’t worked out that way, though, and as much as I wanted to go after her, I decided to let fate decide.

“Are you enjoying yourself?” I asked Geneva. We’d sat down to take a break from dancing and so I could roll up. She didn’t smoke but she didn’t care about me doing it. Now that I wasn’t in the ring, I was able to do it freely instead of just over the summer.

“Yeah, your people are cool. The bride-to-be seems a little… off. Is she okay?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle as I nodded my head. Now if someone who had just met them could sense something was off… their asses were just choosing to be blind to it.

“Yeah, she—”

“Cuzzo,” Germany called, stepping in front of me.

“Wassup, man?” I stood and shook his hand.

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