Chapter 40

Molly and Xander were entangled in one another. Wrapped all in silk sheets, Xander cradled her from behind. Looking out at the waxing moon, Molly realized that it had been several hours since she first arrived.

“I think four times is a new record.”

Molly slapped Xander’s arm.

“Oh yeah? I would say let’s go for another round and really make a dent in your bed, but at this point I’m not sure I could take it.” Molly cupped her hand around Xander’s still hard package.

“I don’t know that I could either. You really tuckered me out, Ms. Tompkins. Would you like me to cook you some dinner?”

Xander heard his buzzer go off.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. Ah, Molly. Fuck!”

Molly sat up.

“Forget something?”

Xander pulled the sheets off and got out of bed. He quickly rummaged around his room for a pair of boxers and pants.

“Get up. You have to go. Come on, here are your things.”

Xander threw Molly her dress and underwear from the floor.

“Are you fucking serious?”

Molly began putting on her clothes.

“Xander, I swear to God if you don’t tell me what’s going on—”

Molly saw a change in Xander’s eyes. It was the same as the night she saw him practically beat another fighter to death.

“I told you to stay away from me!”

He grabbed Molly’s arm and led her to a door by the back living room.

Turning the knob, he gave Molly an encouraging pat on the back, which felt more like a push.

“I can see myself out. You’re a coward, and you’ll always be one, Xander. You think you’re such a tough guy, but you’re not and I know it!”

Molly slammed the door behind her.

“You’ll never know what love is Xander Delgado! Never!”

Xander had no time to think about what Molly was saying. He locked the door and made his way across the house to the front entrance.

Xander pressed a button beside the speaker.

“Johnny? Sorry man, I was on the can. I’ll buzz you through.”

Xander left the front door open and went back to his bedroom to finished getting dressed.

“I’ll be ready in just a sec! I just gotta grab my training gear and then I’ll be good to go.”

Johnny waltzed his way into the kitchen, opening the fridge so he could do his usual raid.

“Hey Xander, was that Molly leaving your driveway? She looked pretty pissed off.”

Sifting through his pile of clean clothes, Xander heard Johnny and stopped.

Johnny’s never been one to keep his mouth shut. And if T finds out, I will never hear the end of this. T will royally fuck me over for the next round of fights and there will be nothing I can do about it.

Xander grabbed the first shirt he saw in his clean pile and a pair of shorts in the dirty one. Rushing into the kitchen, he caught Johnny making what was essentially a five-course meal.

“Molly? Why would it be Molly?”

Xander was trying to play it cool but the shakiness in his voice made Johnny skeptical.

“Because you’re obsessed with her. I mean c’mon man, how many times have I caught you looking at her pictures in the last month?”

Xander grabbed his left over food from Johnny’s hands.

Johnny finished chewing what he had left of his mouthful and took a drink from the beer he had poured himself. It was apparent that Xander wasn’t biting on whatever bait Johnny was throwing at him.

“Okay, so if it wasn’t Molly, then who was it? I don’t suspect she’ll be coming back to party with you anytime soon, whoever it was.”

It was like a thousand knives buried in his chest. The thought of what he had just done to Molly for the second time was enough to send him into a spiral, and Xander knew that if he lost control of himself now, then it would be game over. The only thing he could do in order to keep from curling up into a ball on the floor was to push the thought of her to the back of his mind.

That was the probably the last time I’ll ever see her.

“That’s uh ... Samantha. We go way back, before I even met you. She’s someone I’d occasionally hook up with, and late last night she gave me a call practically begging to come over. Takes a stronger man than me to say no to a girl like that.”

Johnny pushed his seat out from under the table and unbuttoned his pants. Rubbing his stomach, he let out a giant burp.

“Eating all of that before training was a bad idea. Alright, Xan, I don’t care if you’re hooking up with a chick every now and then, in fact it’s probably better you do. Take your mind off of little Miss Tompkins, with her perfect ass, her perfect hair and her perfect—”

“Alright, alright, shut up, Johnny. You keep eatin’ like that and you’ll be bumped up to the heavyweight category. Let’s get going.”

Xander grabbed his bag and left the house.

Johnny finished cleaning up his mess and went through the living room to put on his shoes. A small glimmering object caught his eye. It was lying on the floor in front of Johnny’s leather couch, curled into a golden ball. Picking it up, Johnny saw that it was a necklace. A golden pendant engraved with the letter ‘M’ dangled from a shiny gold chain.

M? Xander said the girl from last night was Samantha?

Johnny put the necklace back where he found it. He quickly pulled on his shoes and left the house, locking the door behind him.