Page 15 of Punchline
Guess I’d find out.
CHAPTER 6
JAKE
I’d been in Vegas for almost two months, and things were going well. I had a regular schedule at the gym, Beth and Carson and I all got along for the most part, and I was really enjoying working one-on-one with Ethan. It almost felt like a betrayal to acknowledge that the time I spent with him was the best thing I had going right now, but… well, it was true.
I mean, Ethan was cute without being intimidatingly hot, he was engaged without making me explain things a dozen times or assuming he already knew everything, and he was interested in me without actually asking me out so far. That was fine, as far as I was concerned, because… well. Apart from being his coach at the moment, I hadn’t been on a date with a guy before. Hookups, a few times, but a date? Nope. I was thinking about it now, though, even if I wasn’t quite ready to act on it, and overall, things were good.Ifelt good.
Naturally, it didn’t last.
It was a reality of being big that I was, unless I stated otherwise, going to be used to keep other big boys down.That had been the way it always worked in every gym I came up in—“you’re a big ol’ cornfed bastard and that means we’re throwing you at every person over two hundred pounds who walks through the door.” It used to be something I didn’t mind, once I was done with high school at least. I got a better workout with a bigger opponent, except in rare cases like Carson where the smaller guy was too fucking fast for me to keep a grip on.
I’d gotten out of the habit of being a human wrecking ball in Vegas, though. Beth was a fairly petite woman, and her head instructor was an average-sized guy. They didn’t attract the bigger, ‘roided-up men who tended to cruise jiu jitsu gyms looking to dominate. Not that Beth would let them get away with it for long—I didn’t know her well, but I knew that much. But still, by the time someone my sizedidwalk through the door and decide to stay, I’d gotten used to not playing that role.
Two weeks after I started working with Ethan, all that changed as the biggest guy I’d seen for a long time walked in through the gym door. He was a little shorter than me, butbroad, with a barrel chest and legs like tree trunks.
“Hey, little lady!” He greeted Beth effusively, going so far as to pick her up and squeeze her right after he walked in. I was about to head over when Carson stopped me.
“Old training partner, I think,” he murmured, but his eyes were sharp too.
“Bubba, you’re looking good.”
Holy shit, his name was actually Bubba? Unbelievable.
He puffed out his chest. “Bought a farm down in Tennessee, been workin’ out a lot more than I used to.” He flexed an impressive set of arms. “Got on T, too, and that’s doin’ wonders for me.”
I didn’t roll my eyes, but it was a near thing. Of coursethis guy was on testosterone; it was the supplement du jour of the weight lifting and BJJ communities. Who needed steroids when you could get things like testosterone and human growth hormone without endangering your career?
And peptides. Couldn’t forget the fucking peptides.
“And you’re here because… ” Beth prodded him.
“Bachelor party for one of my boys, y’know? But I heard you started your own gym and I had to check it out and see how you’re copin’ without your brother jackassing the place up.”
Well, at least he wasn’t a fan of Kevin. I’d never met the guy, but I’d learned fast not to ask questions about him unless Beth and Carson were drunk and feeling vindictive.
“We’re doing good, thanks.” She gestured toward us. “I’ve got some great guys working with me.”
Bubba’s face split with a grin as he caught sight of me. “Aw hell, there we go, girl! You finally got yourself a man big enough to handle a spitfire like you!”
“We’re not together,” I corrected. Beth was a great woman, but there was no attraction on either side.
“Well, why the hell not?”
“How about minding your own business?” Beth shot back as some of our other students began to creep in around Bubba’s massive back.
As the mat began to fill, Carson took me aside. “It’s open mat tonight,” he said, looking more serious than I’d seen him in a long time. “You need to start with Bubba and put him down hard before he can get going.”
“He’s trained, then?”
Carson sighed. “The guy runs a place of his own near Memphis, I think. Gracie lineage. They’ve got a rep for going super hard, though. He’ll try to play by the rules in someone else’s gym, but…”
“Yeah.” I got it. New place, high adrenaline, wanting to test your skills—that could go bad at the best of times, and Bubba was bigger than any of our students. “I’m on it.”
Bubba wasn’t even surprised when I held my hand out as Beth readied the timer. “All right,” he said, smacking my palm so loud the crack echoed through the room. “Let’s do this, big boy!” He decided to start standing, so I matched him. The buzzer went off, and?—
Bubba charged, grabbed me, and took me down with a double-leg before I could even blink. He went for a crush, but I got my K-guard into position and held him off. It was fuckinghardto hold him off, but I managed it.
