Rob
“Agh!” POW! “Agh!” POW! “Agh!” POW!
My mouth falls open.
I had almost gotten used to arriving home to the surprise of my life. Amy was coming up with something amazing and wonderful on a regular basis for me to open the front door to after work.
But what I walk in on today tops them all.
“Agh!” POW! “Agh!” POW! “Agh!” POW!
My little lady has tiny gloves strapped on her hands and is throwing combinations into an equally tiny punching bag. Both are, you guessed it, pink.
Aim notices I’m there but doesn’t stop calling out combos for her to throw.
“Two, two, three!”
Maddison fires off a pair of double left hooks and a right uppercut.
“Agh!” POW! “Agh!” POW! “Agh!” POW!
“Remember your feet! One, two, three!”
Maddie hops and bounces a bit before landing a jab, hook, uppercut.
“Agh!” POW! “Agh!” POW! “Agh!” POW!
I can’t keep my mouth shut for another second, “That’s perfect!”
Maddison doesn’t turn around, keeping her tiny eyes focused on the bag, waiting for her next combo.
“I kuw.” I recognize the slur, Amy has also found a tiny mouth guard.
Aim gets up, “You can pick your combinations for a bit, princess, just remember to pause between them.”
“Ugkay”
“Great, and where do they start?”
“Muh fuet.”
“That’s right!”
They tiny yells fade as I walk with Aim down the hall – when I’m quite sure we are far enough away from the living room I press her against the hallway wall and plant my gratitude on her lips. I’m pretty sure she was starting to assume no ‘thank you’ could come from me without also tasting her.
I make myself come up for air and for an explanation, “How’d you do it?”
“What do you mean? I just showed her like you showed me.”
I had always assumed there was no way to teach Maddie martial arts without touching her. But seeing the confusion on Aim’s face makes me realize that striking doesn’t have to require any touch from another person at all.
I feel like a royal dumb ass. Once again, I lean in to plant my gratitude on her, but she ducks under my arm.
“Sorry, I have to go.”
“You don’t wanna stay for dinner?”
She was already headed back down the hall, “Sorry, I can’t. I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye.”
“Aim.”
“Bye, princess! See you tomorrow!”
“Buh”
“Agh!” POW! “Agh!” POW! “Agh!” POW!
Before I can think of something else to say, she has scooped up her purse and gone. I stand staring at the closed door until a less muffled voice comes from directly behind me.
“Can you take these off?” I turn to see Maddie holding out her gloved hands.
Doing my best impression of a statue, I study the gloves, trying to analyze the best way to ensure I don’t touch her getting them off. The other thoughts in my mind – the ones screaming at the top of their lungs – make it hard to think.
Finally, she takes the initiative and uses her teeth to pull open the Velcro at each of her wrists before holding her hands back out. I’m grateful for the solved puzzle and simply grab onto the ends of the mitts and pull. When they pop off, she sits on the floor and starts to unwrap her hands.
I swallow and try not to sound shaken up, “I’m gonna jump in the shower before dinner, okay?”
“Okay”, she doesn’t seem to notice my inner turmoil, putting in her earbuds and planting in front of the TV.
“Okay.”
When I walk past the spot in the long hallway where I had last kissed Aim, my chest tightens up and it gets harder to take deep breaths. The edge of my bed seems like an eternity a way, but I manage to get there before my legs go into total noodle mode.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
What did I think was gonna happen? I told myself years ago that no woman was going to be willing to sign up for my crazy life. No one wanted to pick up all this baggage. Okay, she is an amazing babysitter, but that doesn’t mean she wants this mess twenty-four/seven.
That doesn’t mean she wants me.
The hot water steams up the glass walls of the shower, and while normally I’m an in-and-out kind of guy, right now this is where I need to be for a while. I sit on the large stone bench that I normally ignore or use for a shampoo stand, and lean my head against the marble wall.