Page 23 of Nate

“Can’t, I’m working.” He nodded at Kevin who was on his last round of barbell lunges. “I’m his personal trainer.”

The guy looked over at Kevin, then rolled his eyes, blowing him off. “That derp? Have one of your subordinates handle it.”

Nate was immediately pissed. He turned to face Chucky fully. “First, you know I don’t allow any kind of douchebag bullying in my gym. Second, that’s my boyfriend. And I don’t appreciate you calling him a derp or any other derogatory name. Do it again and your membership is revoked. You got that?”

Chucky swallowed hard and nodded. “My mistake Big Nate.”

Nate fought not to roll his eyes. “So, you still want to spar?”

Chucky stepped back. “No, I can find someone else. And I’m sorry Nate, for breaking your rule and the disrespect. Won’t happen again.”

Nate didn’t say anything, he just nodded as Chucky hurried away. He’d known Chucky wouldn’t want to get in the ring with him after pissing him off. He might not be a part of the underground boxing world anymore, but his reputation for ruthlessness in the ring was still intact. And he hadn’t lost any of his skills. The few people he did box here practically considered it an honor, but they would never take him on when he was in serious fighting mode.

He turned his attention back to Kevin. He was finishing up his set, staying low and controlled on each lunge all the way through to the end. He re-racked the bar and came over.

“Who was that?”

“Just a gym guy. He wanted me to spar with him.”

“Are you going to?”

“No. I’m sort of busy with a client right now.”

Kevin wrinkled his nose. “Gross. That makes it seem like you’re a male escort or something.”

Nate arched a brow. “How’s that?”

“You know, since we’re doing it,” Kevin said with a shrug.

Nate barked a laugh. “Doing it?”

Kevin grinned. “What am I supposed to say, having sexual intercourse? I’m not that much of a nerd.” He looked over to where Chucky was jumping rope. “I wouldn’t mind seeing you box you know.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I spied on you when you were doing some punching bag work on your own once. And I might have looked up some of your fights on YouTube.” He grinned again. “It was hot.

“Is that right?” Nate thought fast, thinking of who he could get to spar with him. “I might be able to arrange a few rounds. Go get your cardio in and I’ll see what I can set up.” Kevin jogged off to do some laps, while Nate went looking for a sparring partner.

It didn’t take him long to find people to help out. By the time Kevin was finished with his cardio, he had a partner and a ref, and had changed clothes. Nate glanced over at Kevin sitting slouched against the wall of the gymnasium, a bottle of water raised to his lips.

Nate had wrangled Ed, one of his trainers, into doing a quick sparring session with him. Ed was glad to do it, he was considering joining the same fighting ring where Nate had made his notorious fame and fortune. Nate had cautioned Ed to think hard before entering that world. He was glad to see that Ed had taken his advice, turning down the chance to have his first fight last weekend.

Kevin sat there watching as they geared up, taping their hands before putting on gloves and protective head gear. Their ref, Jim, was a longtime patron and avid boxing fan. He checked to make sure their gear was secure and went over everything with them before they got started. No one else was back there. Nate had pulled the heavy, dark curtain that divided the area into two sections. A crowd tended to gather when he fought, and he wanted this to be private for Kevin.

Jim clapped his hands and with a theatrical“Let’s fight!”the match was on.

They circled each other for a few moments, throwing quick jabs that they knew they wouldn’t land in order to test reflexes. Nate made his move first. He wasn’t impatient, but he always liked to get things started, to be on the attack rather than the defensive.

He got a couple of hits in, forcing Ed to put his hands up and retreat. The fight progressed, with Nate maintaining the upper hand. Until he did something he’d never done before. He took his eyes off his opponent to glance over at Kevin. His attention was riveted on the fight, excitement clear in his dark eyes. Nate wanted to beat his chest. But Ed beat him to it. He landed a solid punch right on his left pec. It hurt, and brought his attention snapping back to his opponent. Ed had a knowing grin on his face.

“Try to stay focused for a little while longer. He isn’t going anywhere.”

Nate had to grin himself, shaking his head at being caught out. He refocused, going after Ed with a series of jabs and upper cuts. Ed got in one more round of offense before Nate went after him with a tight and controlled fury of a combination. Ed stumbled back a few steps before he planted on his ass. The ref called it, awarding the points and victory to Nate. They pulled off their gloves and shook hands.

“Thanks for the practice,” Nate said.

Ed laughed. “No, thank you. I can see from this that I need more training before I think about fighting for money.”

---