I enter into the back entrance at the gym, and I immediately spot Alex standing in the hallway with her hair pulled up into that same old ponytail of hers; she does it to hide the bits of gray in her hair, and she does so unsuccessfully. Her arms are crossed, and her eyes narrow when they see me. I check down at my phone. Five minutes late. “You’re late,” she snarls slightly. “I gave you a few days off, and you’re late on your first day back?”

“I’m only five minutes late,” I say; she’s not normally such a stickler.

“Yes –exactly. Five minutes late,” she says. “I need you to clean the bathrooms.”

“Really?” I question. “I cleaned them just a couple of days ago.”

“Well do it again,” she says.

I’m not used to this sort of attitude from her. “No problem,” I say to her. I cross my arms. “Did I do something to upset you?”

“Yeah, actually,” she says. “Laurel hasn’t been here since you dipped out, and it has all of my fighters on edge. My trainers are starting to get antsy too, and I have a lot of people wanting you to beat it. If it wasn’t for all those soccer moms who are gaga over you, you’d be gone.”

“Geez, Alex, I didn’t mean to get things stirred up at the gym,” I say. “And honestly, I didn’t mean to hurt Laurel. I really didn’t. Brandi is my wife, or she was, and she’s pregnant with my child. Do you think I should have just walked away from that?”

Alex crosses her arms and presses her lips together as she rummages through her brain for a response. “No, I suppose not,” she says at last and then uncrosses her arms. “You’re just putting me in an awkward situation.”

“I know,” I say. “And I’m sorry, but there’s not much I can do about it now. I can assure you that when Laurel decides to start coming back I will do whatever I can to make sure I don’t make her uncomfortable. I’m just here to work. Honestly, that’s all,” I look at my phone again. “I have a class to teach, if I still have a job, that is.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Alex says and waves me off with her hand. “You still got a job for now. Besides, with you heading up the marathon event, I’d be a real dumbass to fire you right now.”

“And don’t you forget it,” I tease as I hurry into the gym, taking the long way around so that I don’t have to walk right by the boxing ring where the female fighters, Laurel’s friends, will surely be hanging out. I head to the second floor to one of the open rooms where one of my self-defense classes will be taking place.

The soccer moms all love me, so the morning starts out pretty decent. I teach my class, and nothing goes awry. It’s what comes after this that has me on edge. Alex needs me working the ground floor doing some equipment repair; the ground floor is where the boxing ring is set up. Once the class is over, I head downstairs, and I enter into the lionesses den. Britany, Marianna, Katie, LaWanda, and Eleanor are all present. I cringe when I realize that Britany, the brunette brute, has spotted me. “Hey, asshole!” she calls out from the ring.

I see Marianna shift uncomfortably; she’s dating one of my best friends, so I know she doesn’t want to cause trouble with me even if Tyler is just as peeved off at me as the women are. “Hey,” I do this awkward wave as I keep my distance and busy myself with a broken treadmill. Shit gets broken around here a lot; I swear I’m always fixing the same stuff over and over again.

Britany is not shy about it. She walks across the gym and is standing over me within minutes. “You want to tell me what the hell you did to Laurel?” she asks.

I’m sitting on the gym floor with a tool bag beside me as I attempt to fix the backend of the treadmill; I can’t help but wonder if I answer in a way that she finds dissatisfying if she will punch me in the head. “Britany, I don’t think that’s any of your business,” I say as calmly as I can. “You can talk to Laurel.”

“How am I supposed to talk to her if she’s bumming it out at some ghetto gym to avoid seeing you?” Britany snarls. “What the hell, Jonathan?” she crosses her arms, and I wish she would stand still. With the way she is walking around me, I feel like the prey to a wildcat.

“Look,” I say firmly and toss my tools down. I don’t stand up; I don’t want this to turn into a screaming match because she thinks I’m challenging her or something. “I care about Laurel. I really do. And I’m sorry that she got hurt because of all of this, but what the hell would you have done?”

“Excuse me?” she questions.

“What would you have done, Britany? It’s not just Brandi I was going back to, you know?” I glare up at her, but I try not to make it too intense. Britany would be dumb enough to swing on me, and I’m not getting fired today. “I wish things could be different, but they’re not, all right? I can’t just walk away from my kid. From my daughter.”

Britany crosses her arms and appears to curl up within herself. She searches for a response –a bitter comment to throw back at me, but she doesn’t have one. “Didn’t know you were having a girl. I guess I should say congratulations.”

“Thanks,” I say sadly. “I really am sorry I hurt Laurel, I hope you know that. That’s the last thing I wanted to do. I never stopped caring about Brandi, though. She left me; I didn’t leave her. She left me, and then I find out she’s pregnant. Then all of a sudden she wants to give me a second chance. It’s complicated. I wish things had turned out differently.”

“How do you mean?” Britany asks.

I just shrug. “Just not like this. I really am sorry. I just hope Laurel knows that. I shouldn’t have left things the way I did.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” Britany says. She shakes her head. “But I guess it’s done now. Maybe we shouldn’t go through this whole rivalry thing again. We’re friends, right?”

I laugh. “If that will keep you from leaving your dirty tampons lying around for me to clean up, then sure, yeah, we’re friends, Brit.”

She laughs too, but it’s a sad laugh. “For real, though,” she says, “congratulations on the little girl. After that little party we did for your friend’s sister, well, I think I can say that you’re going to be a pretty good dad.”

“I thought we agreed to never talk about that?” I question, and a small smile creeps onto my face. I really didn’t want to start back on square one with Britany and the others; I’m glad we’re being descent towards each other.

She nods rapidly. “Oh, believe me, if you ever tell anyone about that giant yellow dress you idiots got me in, I’ll strangle you, but it was actually pretty cool of you. I bet Mary will remember her little princess party for a long time, Mr. Charming.”

“That’s Prince Charming to you,” I say as I recollect the ridiculous costume I had worn to Gabe’s little sister’s birthday party.

“Of course,” she says with an eye roll before heading back over to the boxing ring. I breathe a sigh of relief. If Britany, the stubbornest of the group, is going to be decent towards me, I’m sure I can expect the rest of the group to keep steady heads while I’m at work. I’m just worried about what’s going to happen when Laurel decides she’s ready to come back to her regular gym. I miss her, and that worries me.