Page 66 of Two Chances With You

The trainer comes over. “Problems?” He puts his hand on my shoulder.

“No, no, everything’s fine. Or almost.”

I stamp my feet, and I put my hands on my hips, breathing deeply as I pull myself upright.

“Okay, you see, now I could finish you off, if I didn’t feel pity for you,” she says.

“How charitable you are. Shall we move over to the ring?”

“Certainly.” Gin smiles at me calmly and walks confidently past me.

The trainer goes over to the side of the ring and raises the ropes, helping us to pass under them. “Hey, pal, listen to me. No low blows and go easy on her, okay? I want to see a nice, fair match.”

Gin joins me at the center of the ring. We tap each other’s boxing gloves. Both of them at the same time, just like in the movies.

“Are you ready?” I ask her.

“I’m ready for everything. And don’t pay any attention to him. He’s not my trainer, and you’re done for! Let me inform you that all kinds of blows are allowed, especially low ones, illegal ones, and unfair ones, especially from me.”

“I’m so afraid!”

In response, she tries to punch me right in the face, but this time I’m ready for her. I parry with my left, and I give her a nice, fat kick in the ass, but without hurting her too badly. “I’m here for the party too, now. Well, shall we get started?”

We bounce up and down, circling around each other, studying each other’s moves while the trainer has started the timer on a Swatch chronometer of his. Gin starts punching me and smiles as she does it.

“Hey, are you still enjoying yourself, Gin? Good. Enjoy it while you can because in a minute…” Then a quick, hard straight to the belly takes my breath away for a moment. My friend is fast.

“Save your breath, living legend. You’re going to need it. Did I tell you that I’ve done a fair bit of full-contact boxing too?”

I continue to bounce up and down as I catch my breath. “First rule, you always need to attack after connecting with a punch. Otherwise…”

I start in on her from up close but not too hard, not too fast. Right, then another right, then I dribble her with a left, and then another right. She parries the first three punches perfectly, and then I make it through her defenses with the final right.

When I see Gin absorb the punch, she moves to the left and almost slips and falls. I’ve hit her too hard. I reach out to steady her before she drops to the canvas.

“Hey, I’m sorry, did I hurt you?” Sincerely concerned. “It’s just that—”

Gin responds with an uppercut, catching my chin just off center. She takes the words right out of my mouth. Luckily just the words.

“You didn’t hurt me at all.” She huffs proudly and whips her head around to toss her hair back and then leaps in to attack with a double scissor kick. Right, left, and with the flat of her foot, she pushes me back and then goes to town. Right, left, and then another right.

Left, right, hook, I parry as best I can, trying to keep from hitting her again. I parry smiling and with some difficulty, truth be told.

Closer and closer. She forces me into the corner and attacks again.

“Hey, take it easy.” I cover myself with my gloves, and she continues punching. Then she attempts a right straight, and boom, it happens. I swing a wide left on the fly and manage to reach around her body. I block her right arm under mine, and I hold her tight. “Imprisoned!”

She stands there, blocked like that, with her left slightly farther away.

“If you go at it with too much enthusiasm, you see what happens?”

Gin does everything she can to get loose. She pulls back, she leans on the ropes, she comes at me, she throws herself back again, and she slams against me, trying to wriggle free.

I give her a light punch to the face with my right. “You see what I could do to you?” I continue hitting her. “Boom, boom, boom. Gin as a punching bag. You’d be finished!”

Her only response, as if demented, is to try to hit me with her unhampered left fist. I parry it easily, but she won’t give up. Boom, boom, boom. I parry every one of her punches, one after the other. Gin tries an uppercut, then a straight, a hook, another uppercut, then she climbs up on the ropes with one foot and launches from there to add impact to her punch.

None of it does a bit of good. I’m braced against the corner, and I hold her right fist pressed close against me.

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