Chapter Ten – Declan
I looked for Brielle everywhere that evening but she was nowhere to be found. Zach was off with the bimbo he had met earlier so I was flying solo. I went to the hotel bar around 10:00 and got a sparkling water and decided to check out the chicks. I wanted to find someone to keep me entertained for the evening. The selection was okay, I’d seen a lot better, but they were good enough for what I needed that night. I saw two brunettes eyeing me and decided to raise my glass to them so they would come over. They both had decent looking tits so I figured I could chat them up for a bit.
“Hey Declan, we can’t wait to see you fight on Thursday.”
“Are you flying back home after the fight or do you have to fly somewhere else for another fight?”
It was nice to have fans. “Going back home to train to get ready for the next one.”
I got bored with them pretty quickly so I decided to call it a night after I offered them free tickets to the fight. It always helped to have the room packed with chicks. Wherever there were women, men were sure to follow and spend some serious dough.
As I made my way to the elevator, I saw Brielle and her friend with the two idiots they were hanging out with earlier that day. My first instinct was to go grab her away from him, but she would probably cause a scene and I was not in the mood. Even though she acted like she could barely stand me, I knew I saw a flicker of something in her eyes. At least acting like she was annoyed every time she saw me was better than showing complete indifference to me.
It showed me that at least, on some level, she cared. I was going to figure out a way to get some alone time with her before the week was over.
The next morning I was up with the sun and did a few hundred sit-ups, push-ups and chin-ups and I was warmed up and ready to head out. I went to the restaurant and grabbed a quick breakfast of a half dozen raw eggs and a blueberry energy drink. I took a walk on the beach to clear my head so I could get ready to be ready for my fight. Brielle popped into my head but I pushed her out, forcing myself to think about nothing but my days of training ahead. I had not lost a fight in over two years and I wasn’t going to allow Brielle to break my focus and make me lose that one.
I ran over to the gym Zach found, did an hour of cardio and Zach showed up just as I finished. I took a break for an hour and we went over a future schedule that Zach was trying to put together for me, and talked about details of another big fight that he wanted me to be in. When we were done we went outside and walked a few laps around the building to keep the blood moving and then we went back inside to spar.
After about 10 minutes I could tell that Zach was frustrated with me.
“Let’s take five.”
He took off his gloves and scowled at me.
“What the hell, Declan?”
I looked down at the ground, and knew why he was pissed, but I didn’t want to get into it.
“Declan! Eyes here!”
He pointed at his eyes and I reluctantly raised mine to his.
“What the fuck is wrong is wrong with you today? The fight is in four days! Are you a winner? Are you going to win this one or are you going to be a bitch and hand the win over to Lopez?”
When Zach raised his voice at me I knew he wasn’t playing around, and he was right. I was completely off my game. All I could think about was Brielle and it was messing with my head. I thought I was ready to go after my workout that morning, but she kept jumping into my thoughts. I couldn’t shake the sight of that prick she was with rubbing her back the night before at the bar.
“Whatever has you blocked you need to clear it away right now. Take whatever it is and use it to make you better in the ring. Don’t let it cripple you, man. You’re better than what I am seeing today and I want to see the Declan I know can fight in this ring. Are we clear?”
“Yeah, dude. Give me a minute.”
I jumped out of the ring, took off my gloves and went to the bathroom to splash water on my face. I stared at my reflection as the water trickled down my face and closed my eyes when Brielle floated into my thoughts. I had to focus so I decided to play that scene of that guy running his hand down her back over and over in my mind until I felt like I was going to burst. I wiped off my face and went back out there ready to go.
My first swing nearly knocked Zach off of his feet.
“There you go!”
My next swing did the same thing and he gave me a huge grin.
“That’s what I’m talking about!”
I imagined the guy’s face and I pummeled Zach’s hands and knocked him down with a swift kick. Zach was lying on the ground, breathing hard, with a huge grin on his face. I reached out to help him and he jumped up and gave me a friendly shove.
“My boy is back! You’re gonna kick this guy’s ass on Thursday, dude!”
We sparred for another hour and then took a break to eat. We didn’t go too hard that day, we never did right before a fight, but Zach did help me perfect a few of my kicks. I did some strength training on my own for a bit, then hit the showers and went to sit in a tub of ice. I was at the gym until about 8:00 that night and felt pretty good. In every fight my objective was to get out with as little of my own blood shed as possible, and for the past year I had done just that. I was really making a name for myself in the MMA world and it felt good.
We grabbed a late dinner and then Zach went to meet up with his chick while I went to the beach to relax. I sat on the sand with a sparkling water in my hand watching the waves crash onto the shore, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath of the fresh ocean air. I felt good about my workout that day and felt like all of my distractions had melted away. I sat there with my eyes closed and felt myself relax as the warm night air washed over me, and then a girl yelling ‘No!’ made my eyes fly open. Brielle.