Page 42 of The Jester and His Outlaw: Part 2

My expectations of training with Kai were not this. He’s a pretty quiet dude, serving up one or two-word answers regularly. You talk about fighting, training, anything to do with his gym and self defense… The guy has a lot to say.

I spent the day eating when he texted me to eat and drinking water like it’s going out of style. All week he’s been prepping me, helping me learn what to eat to pack on muscle and keep my strength up. We’ve been meeting up in Charley’s neighborhood and running until my feet are going to fall off. I have no problem with working out and have done so over the years, but I’m not a gym rat like Jensen. What I’ve been going through with Kai has taken the meaning of training to an entirely new level.

I’ll deal with whatever he wants to throw at me if it means getting stronger to help protect my girl.

He’s been strictly business. No drama, no bullshit, no games, and I appreciate the hell out of him for it. I like his style but I’ve noticed it’s different for everyone. I’ve hung around the gym watching people spar with him on different levels. He learns what each client needs and how they respond to get the best results. If they need him to yell, he fucking yells. If they need him to get them angry to motivate them, then he gets them angry. Turns out it depends on the day for me. But as I’ve learned with all my friends and my girl, tough love helps me.

We’ve been going at it for a couple hours now. We ran this morning, then spent a while warming up this afternoon when I finished with work. Now I’ve been hitting the pads so long my arms are going to freeze up.

I won’t quit until he tells me to, though.

Sweat drips into my eyes and I close them against the burn as I toss another jab, then land a kick to the pad on his shin.

“Alright, that’s what I’m talking about. Give me two more rotations, then go shower.” When we’re here, we’re not friends, instead simply a teacher and student. We talk about nothing other than training. When we’re finished, our masks go back in place, because we both have them.

Conversation with Kai is easy and also almost nonexistent. Jensen is definitely the leader of conversation between all of us. He’d probably freak out if he knew how quiet it was when he wasn’t around. If we talk, we dive little into relationship stuff. We’re both not that type and I’m dating his sister, so he doesn’t really want to hear about what we’ve got going on. He does often ask how she’s doing. He and Charley are close. She tells him all the things you would tell a best friend, but he still believes she’s holding back and has mentioned to me he trusts me to tell him the truth if she isn’t doing well. I tell him I will to a point, because I will not betray my girl’s trust, brother or no. If he needs to know, he will know.

I finish my rotations then step back, ripping off my gloves, my chest heaving. I’m worn the fuck out and in need of food. Working out is definitely one way of getting your appetite back. Even if I’m anxious or don’t want food, my body needs it, so that’s what it gets. I haven’t been able to eat as much as Kai wants me to, but he knows I’m giving it a valiant fucking effort, so he hasn’t ridden me too hard in that area. When I can’t eat that much, we’ve agreed to supplement with nutrient dense drinks to make up the difference. Most of them taste like shit, but they get the job done.

My body is a machine, he tells me, and right now we are on a journey. I won’t always have to eat shit I don’t like or work myself to death.

“Man, you’re getting stronger, I can feel it.”

I wave him off. “It hasn’t been that long. Maybe I just went a little harder today than normal.”

“Whatever it is, you look good and I expect you to give it your all every day, got it? None of this going-harder-than-normal, alright?”

“Yes sir,” I say teasingly. He cracks me up when he gets like this. But I have to say, I enjoy the encouragement more than I thought I would.

“I’ll see you after we shower. I was thinking you could help me close everything for the night, then we could grab some food downtown somewhere?” Not like I can really afford to eat out, which is why I help him with whatever he needs around the gym to make up for free training, but I could use a meal out. I planned to pay him to work with me, knowing I would figure out a way to afford it. I may not have been able to train as often, but I had every intention of paying him. He offered this situation and to pay when I can because the work around the gym doesn’t come close to equaling up to how expensive his sessions are.

Believe me, I wanted to pass it up, but baby steps. Accepting his help was a big baby step, but I did it. Training is helping to get me on track and the focus it takes, the structure of this lifestyle, is bringing me a sort of peace I’ve never felt before.

“Uh yeah, that sounds good man.” We brush knuckles and head into the locker room.

We’reat a Mexican restaurant that we walked to from the gym. It’s bustling, servers running around like crazy to bring people food and drinks and to seat everyone that files into the door. They are no nonsense when it comes to getting people in and out. Almost as soon as we’ve ordered, the wait staff sets our food in front of us, piles of rice and refried beans steaming.

The place is small for as busy as it is. The wood is all a dark cherry color, vintage, looking as if the place used to be an Italian joint or something. The booths we sit in are all mismatched, cracked vinyl in weird seventies colors. The backs of them have fiesta style murals carved into them, showcasing people with large sombreros celebrating, shaking maracas and tossing confetti. The walls are sort of dingy and in need of a paint job, but they are an odd sort of champagne color, like maybe they used to be white.

Whatever the case, the food is amazing.

“So how are you holding up?” Kai asks, and I take a second before I answer him. I’m not sure what he is referring to. He seems to be the one that takes my grim outlook on life the hardest. It freaks him out. I don’t mean for it to, but I’m an honest person and sometimes people can’t handle that honesty even if they ask for it. While Jensen is my best friend and worries for me, Kai worries for his sister. Understandable.

“I’m better, I think. I have an amazing fucking girl that knows me better than I know myself.” With that, I see a smile that I always see on Charley’s face creep across Kai’s. I can compliment his sister, I just can’t talk about fucking her. It cracks me up. “Great friends, a new place to live, and a drill sergeant that stays on my ass daily. It’s difficult but I’m getting there.”

I dive into my enchilada after finishing my chicken tacos. I’m eating too fast and likely to make myself sick, but I’m starving. Kai scoops some meat from his sizzling cast-iron skillet into a freshly prepared tortilla.

“That’s a hell of an improvement, I’d say,” he says, and digs into his food.

“Yeah, it is.” We fall into our usual comfortable silence as we eat and I wonder if he would answer the same questions that he asks me. I’m forced to answer them to keep them off my back, but I genuinely want to know how my friends are doing.

“What about you? How are you doing? Things going okay with Fox and J?” He stills as if people don’t ask him that enough. I, for one, am guilty of that. When your friends don’t need you to ask how they are doing, sometimes you forget maybe they do.

“It’s interesting,” is all he says.

“Is interesting a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Most of the time a good thing.” He pauses, swallowing the food in his mouth. He studies me intently, as if maybe he isn’t sure how to proceed or even if he should. I try for an easy, friendly look that says I’m not judging. I must succeed because he wipes his mouth with a napkin, then takes a sip of his water and continues. “I’m still struggling with a bit of jealousy. Like I know they have every right to do things when I’m not there, just like I have every right to do things with Fox when J isn’t around. But I just can’t help but think maybe she likes him more. I mean, I’m not really sure of the rules with this kind of thing. Ya know?”

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