Chapter Twenty-Five
Braxton
When I awoke the next morning, it took me a minute to orient myself. The storm had lifted in the night, but it was still overcast, and murky gray light crept in through the windows. Jaimie lay half-curled up on the other side of the bed, her arms clasped to her chest, Winston gently nuzzling her face.
I swatted him away. Within a few minutes, Jaimie stirred and opened her eyes. She looked confused at first, but a look of understanding spread slowly over her face when she saw me.
“Do you remember last night?” I asked her as I put on my running shoes. “You wanted to come over.”
“I do remember that,” said Jaimie. “I didn’t have a drop of liquor, and as soon as my brain un-fogs, I’ll remember everything.”
“Maybe some coffee will help you.” Picking her shirt up off the floor and tossing it in her direction, I went into the kitchen where a pot was already brewing. By the time she emerged from the back bedroom, I was making scrambled eggs on toast and chorizo.
Jaimie peered curiously into the skillet, then turned her attention to an unopened loaf of Wonder Bread lying on the counter between the toaster and the knife rack. “Seriously, don’t eat that,” I warned her. “It’s been there for like a year.”
“You sure?” said Jaimie, brows raised. “It looks like you just bought it.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Why don’t you just throw it away?”
“I want to see how long I can keep it before it spoils. I have a feeling it might out-last Winston.”
“Yikes.” Placing the bread back on the counter, she came over and wrapped her arms around me from behind.
“Oh, hey,” I said, as if I hadn’t known she was there.
“Hey, you. Did you sleep well last night?”
“Yeah, the storm woke me up a couple times, and the cat woke me up a couple times, but apart from that.”
“You wouldn’t have fared much better sleeping over at my house,” Jaimie said. “Whenever there’s thunder, Gina spends the whole night yowling. And then she’ll climb under the couch in the one spot where I can’t reach her, so she sits there and yowls all night.”
“We ought to introduce Gina to Winston,” I said, only half-kidding. “I bet they’d be friends.”
“Probably not, actually. Gina has never accepted the existence of other cats in the world besides herself.”
“Well, then it might be good for her.” Setting the spatula down on the counter next to the stove, I turned and took her in my arms, holding her for a long moment. At this hour of the morning, her hair was matted and tangled, and it smelled faintly of last night’s rain. “I feel like going to the beach today.”
“There aren’t any beaches around here,” Jaimie pointed out.
“I know. And I need to train, and you have work, but if we were both off—I’m not talking about one of those warm southern beaches with crowds of tourists and surfers dotting the water. One summer when I was little, Mom schlepped me and Zac off to stay at an aunt’s house in Connecticut. We had so much fun wandering up and down the rocky shoreline, prodding the umbrella forms of dead jellyfish.”
“Sounds like a real adventure,” said Jaimie, smiling.
“It was.” I added a pinch more cooking oil to the skillet. “I haven’t gotten to travel very much in my life, so that was my favorite summer. Sometimes when I close my eyes, I can still see the black rocks and the dark blue water.” Even just talking about it I could almost smell the salt tang of the air. “Have you ever traveled?”
“You mean besides to Disney World?” Jaimie said with a laugh. “I’ve only been out of the country once, my junior year of college when I studied abroad in Berlin.”
“Why Berlin?”
“Well, at that point I was thinking about going into the music industry. I wanted to work as a financial advisor for one of the major record labels, maybe EuroArts or Viacom International. But right out of college, I landed a cushy gig here in Boulder, and I’ve been working for MMA ever since.” She shrugged in defeat.
“Oof. Sad story.”
“Yes, I suppose it is a bit,” she replied. “But it’s not over yet. I have to believe it’s not over, otherwise I’ll go crazy. But at least one good thing has come out of it.”
“What’s that?”
She twined her arms around me. “I met you, silly. What did you think I was going to say?”
I smiled. “I don’t know; you seem to like your boss a lot.”
“He’s a precious gemstone of a man, but he’s not you. There’s only one of you.”
“For which I suppose we should be grateful,” I replied. “I do have four brothers, but we’re nothing alike.”
“I keep hearing about these brothers. I hope you’re not just teasing me. I hope I get a chance to meet them someday.”
“You will, probably.” When she stared at me dubiously, I added, “Stick around long enough, and one of them is bound to appear. Or maybe we’ll go to them. Texas is kind of magical.”
“Is it better than Berlin?” Jaimie asked.
“Never been to Berlin, but I think I can pretty confidently say yes.”
“I can’t wait to go, then.” Pinning her hair back, she watched in silence as I moved the toast onto a large plate. “Are all the breakfasts in Texas as good as this?”
“Even better,” I said, and I brushed her bangs out of the way so I could kiss her face.
***
Nick sensed there was something up from the moment I walked into the locker room that morning.
“Where’ve you been?” he asked. “Did you get pulled over for speeding?”
I tossed him a small white paper bag containing a dozen donut holes. “No, but I did run by Shipley’s.”
“And you—didn’t eat anything?” asked Nick, staring incredulously down into the bag.
“No, that’s all for you.”
“Are you just in a generous mood this morning?”
I smiled but said nothing as I turned the combination on my locker. Nick rolled up the bag and pointed an accusing finger. “You were with a girl last night. You were with her.”
“I’m sure I don’t know who you mean,” I replied in an innocent voice.
“I’ll take that as a confirmation. How was it?”
“It was—I mean, it was decent. I hope she’ll stick around. I found out she’s never been to Chuck E. Cheese’s. And her taste in movies is a bit high-brow, but I think we’ll manage.”
Nick could see I was being evasive about what we had really done last night. What’s more, I was clearly enjoying it. “Alright, you keep your secrets,” he replied in his best Frodo Baggins voice. “I just hope she hasn’t ruined you for today’s training.”
I froze with one hand on my duffel bag. “How would she?”
“Do you not know about this?” Just then Bruce came walking into the room. He glared at me, but before he could speak, Nick said, “Bruce, tell him about the Warrior!”
“The Warrior?” said Bruce, throwing his arms in the air. “I AM the Warrior!”
“No, the other one!” Turning to me, he explained, “There’s an old MMA legend that every great fighter has a warrior inside them. If you’re really killing it in the octagon, they say you’ve got ‘the Warrior.’ But having sex depletes that energy that you need to stay invincible. That’s why they tell you never to sleep around on the night before a big fight.”
“Oh yeah, never do that,” said Bruce with an ominous shake of his head. “If you need to get laid, try to at least wait until after the fight is over.”
“What if I trick my opponent into having sex?” I asked.
“I never really thought about it. I suppose that could work.”
“Sounds lazy to me,” said Nick.
I stared at the two of them, not sure whether or not they were pulling my leg. “Wait, so is this a real thing?”
“Yeah, have you never heard of the Warrior?” asked Bruce. “And you’ve been in the octagon for how long now?”
“Well, to me it sounds like a lot of superstitious nonsense.”
Nick raised a skeptical brow. “You sure? We’ll have a go now if you want me to prove it.”
He lunged at me half-heartedly, and I batted him away. “Don’t be ridiculous. You don’t want to fight me right now, trust me.”
“Well, if I’m correct about what you got up to last night, I think I do.” He leaped forward and grabbed me by the neck with one arm, playfully mussing my hair.
“Hey, cut that out!” I exclaimed, waving my fists ineffectually. Bruce came over and pretended to sock me in the gut, but slowed his fist to a halt just before it reached me.
“Well, anyway,” said Nick, releasing his grip, “good on you for getting laid last night. But I’d be careful in the future—we could have a Delilah situation here where your girl’s being used by your opponent to weaken you in preparation for the big match.”
“My girl works for this company,” I pointed out. “She wouldn’t be in someone else’s employ, and this whole conversation is ridiculous.”
“Hey, I’m just saying,” said Nick. “Don’t do it.”
“Seriously, DO NOT do it,” said Bruce. “Unless you want to lose, in which case go for it.”
“Well, I don’t believe in superstition.” I closed the locker with a loud clang. “Superstitious people are ten times more likely than the average person to have bad luck.”
I turned and headed off toward the showers, leaving them shaking their heads.