Page 46 of Give Me Perfect Love

My head whips back. “Come again?” I say, looking at the man who just went stupid. Something about his eyes look familiar, and I slightly tilt my head in curiosity.

He stops in his tracks and walks closer to me.

“You heard me,” he says. “I said, watch where you’re going.” His chest touches mine, and I eyeball him. “You got something to say, pussy bitch?”

I smile before shoving his ass back. He charges forward, but my fist connects with hard bone when it collides with his cheek. Red takes over my vision, and I fight the stupid fuck until I can’t feel my hands. He gives as much as me, though, and when yelling surrounds us and my arms get snatched back, I snap out of it.

“Bryce, calm the fuck down!” I recognize Ronnie’s voice. He owns this place and trains. My eyes search for the guy I was fighting, but I don’t see him.

“Where’d he go?” I ask, feeling my left eye start to swell.

“He’s gone. We kicked him out.”

I turn and look at Ronnie. “Was he a member here?”

“Nah, just been coming in on day visits. What the hell happened?”

I shake my head and lick my re-busted lip, breathing hard and hanging my hands on my hips.

“Stupid fuck ran into me.”

Ronnie laughs. “Jesus, boy. I’d hate to see if someone really crossed your ass.”

I look back at him, but my thoughts are on the man. Who was that?

“Go to my office and let Jessie clean that.”

“I’m all right.”

“Your eye’s closing up. Go on in there. She’s got an eye iron in the cooler.”

“Geez, what does the other guy look like?” Jessie, Ronnie’s girl, asks when I sit down. She has platinum blonde short hair and fire red fingernails, has tattoos snaking up her arm, and has no idea that I just got into a bar fight yesterday.

“I don’t know. I didn’t get to see.”

“You’ve been coming in for years now,” she says, putting the eye iron up to my swollen socket. It’s freezing to the touch. “Why don’t you train with Ronnie?”

“My dad was a fighter, but we aren’t the same blood, and I lack self-control in that area.”

“Ahh,” she says. “Makes sense then.”

“What was that guy’s name?” I ask, taking hold of the handle.

“I’m not sure. I can look on the sign-in sheet, though.”

“Do that for me,” I say as the phone rings in her office. She slides her chair back around her desk and answers the phone. It sounds important, so I stand up and mouth, “I’ll see ya. Thanks.” I hold up the iron before placing it on her desk. She cups the end of the phone.

“I’ll get back to you with that name.”

I nod and open the door. The blinds smack against it when I shut it, and I head to the locker room for my things before heading home.

__________

Kathrine

The front door shuts and I reach down and lift my used towel off the floor, exiting the laundry room, spotting Bryce grabbing a water bottle from the fridge.

Black sweats cover his legs, while a pair of yellow Nikes protect his feet. His jacket is thrown over the back of a stool and the back of his white T-shirt is soaked with sweat.

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