I stare down at Brandi as she sleeps peacefully in our bed –her round, pregnant belly is still evident under the thin layer of sheets. She had thrown the comforter off of herself in the middle of the night after a slight night sweat –likely due to the pregnancy. I stand and stretch; my back aches. The bed had been way too soft. I’ve slept in my ex-wife’s bed for the past two nights, and it’s killing my body. It’s weird; this used to be my bed. I had slept on it for years, but after several months of sleeping on Tyler’s hard couch and Laurel’s less than-fluffy mattress, this soft crap is just not doing it for me anymore.

Without waking Brandi, I head out of the room and down the stretch of hall. I start to walk down the large stairwell, but I stop quickly and turn back around to go grab a robe. I’m down to just my underwear, and after what happened yesterday morning I’m not going traipsing around my house half-naked. Yesterday I had given the maid and the cook an eyeful when I headed into the breakfast nook. I guess there are a few things I’ve gotten out of habit of doing while I have been away.

Once I’ve got a robe on, I head back downstairs and enter into the small kitchen area. I’m thinking pancakes, but I suddenly catch a whiff of ham. That’s right; I asked the cook to prepare ham and eggs this morning. I guess that works. As I am sitting down at the bar, Marie enters from the back kitchen area with a plate of ham, eggs, and biscuits –all freshly made. She smiles and plops it down in front of me, and I’ve never realized how weird this is until now. I had spent years living this sort of catered lifestyle after my boxing career had skyrocketed, but just a few months away from it –a few months of actually having to make my own breakfast and drive myself around and a number of other chores I had never done –and this just seems so strange.

“Thanks, Marie,” I say and nibble on the ham. I had really been craving pancakes, but I’m not about to ask her to go back into the kitchen to make me some after I had requested ham last night when they had taken my order. Taken my order –what is this, a restaurant? Yeah, I guess it is, in a way. This huge house seems so ridiculous now. I miss the little apartment Laurel and I had started sharing; it was cozy, and it had everything we needed.

“Of course, Mr. Trial,” she says happily and pours me some orange juice upon request.

My phone goes off, and I slip it out of my robe pocket and have a look. It’s a message from Tyler. I sigh; he and Marty have both been messaging me for the past couple of days, and all of their messages have been since ignored. I skim through all of the recent messages from Tyler –none of them are good.

WTF man?

Marianna told me about you and Laurel!

You went back to Brandi!?!?

Where are you?

Laurel’s really upset.

Laurel is looking for you.

Dude, seriously?

Where R U?

And, the most recent one:

I swear to God if you ignore one more text I’m shoving your phone down your throat next time I see you.

Nice. Tyler’s comments are fairly benign compared to Marty’s. That’s kind of ironic considering that Marty had been spying on me for Brandi… of course all of that was before he knew Brandi was hiding her pregnancy from me. Even good boy lawyer Bobby has been texting me, but he’s been a lot nicer about it. Then there’s Laurel’s friends –the other female fighters, and they are anything but nice. Especially psycho Britany. Marianna has probably been the nicest of that group, but that’s only because she’s been seeing Tyler.

I sigh and send Tyler a quick text. I’ll talk later. Hopefully that will hold him over for the time being. What did they expect me to do? My wife wanted me back –my pregnant wife! I had something good with Laurel, but I had something good with Brandi too. I really did once upon a time, and now that she wants to try to make things work –shouldn’t I? She’s pregnant with my baby girl; I can’t just walk away from that. I had been the one to screw things up; Brandi had every reason to leave me. I can’t blame her at all for leaving –for throwing me out and starting all of this craziness. I was the one who lost his job. I was the one who was drinking like a lunatic. I was the one who knocked her over on live television –humiliating her and labelling me as a misogynist in accordance to the local media. Everything happening, every uncomfortable emotion I am feeling, I completely deserve. I can’t blame Brandi for that. I got my life back together, and she’s giving me a second chance. I just hate that I left Laurel hanging the way I did.

Laurel had been the one who had pulled me out of my slump. She was there for me when Brandi wasn’t… I definitely owed her more than just suddenly walking out on her –packing my bags in the middle of the night and telling her so-long the next morning. I owe her a better goodbye than that, but it’s done now.

My breakfast winds up getting cold long before I finish it. I shake my head and sigh, pushing my eggs to the side –playing with my food like a child. There is so much on my mental plate right now that I can’t finish the actual one in front of me. My stomach aches, and I feel positively nauseous. Work is going to be hectic now too; I have to go back tomorrow. Alex, my boss, gave me a few days off, but I can’t keep putting off going to the gym much longer. I wonder if Laurel will be there? It is her gym; if she’s not there, I’m sure her friends will be at the very least. My reemergence into the boxing world has not quite taken off yet, so I need to keep my day job for the time being. Working as a trainer at an all women’s gym turned out to be a lot better than I had thought it would be, but now that all of this craziness has gone down, I’m not exactly looking forward to going back.

My phone goes off again, and I look at a text from Marty. What do U think Gabe would think about all this?

That does it. I slam my phone down. That was a line, and now I’m pissed. I text him to fuck off. Gabe, my former trainer’s assistant and my best friend, had been killed not too long ago. They’re still looking for the guy who did it; they found the assailant’s car a while back, but that is as far as the investigation has gone. I can’t believe he would try to make me feel guilty using Gabe’s name like that. I ought to kick his ass for that one. I might. I wonder how Gabe’s little sister is doing? I haven’t seen Mary since the birthday party we all threw for her.

I shake my head and put the thoughts aside for the time being; I turn my phone off so I will stop getting text messages. Hopefully Alex doesn’t try to reach me before my shift tomorrow. I’ll talk to the guys sooner or later; they had all gotten pretty close to my girl. Tyler and Marty had been close with Brandi once, but they feel like she abandoned me when I needed her. My alcoholism was too much for her, though, and I can’t blame her for that. I suddenly hear water running, and I realize Brandi must be up and in the shower upstairs. Looks like my day is about to be underway.