Worth the Chance

“Okay.” She’s being tight lipped and I don’t blame her. Probably thinks if I was really interested, I’d have asked when I walked in the door…like a normal fucking person.

“What did you do all day?” she asks, her head resting on my chest. I stroke her hair, it brings me peace, the urge to wrap it around my fist and pull gone with my pent up frustration, thanks to Liv.

“I went to Arlington Cemetery.”

Lifting her head, she props her chin up on her hand resting just over my heart, and looks up at me. Her voice low and full of concern, she asks, “Is that where your father is buried?”

“Yeah.” I stroke the hair back from her face. She’s so god damn beautiful.

“Have you ever been there before?” Playing with the dog tags resting on my chest, she runs her finger over the swollen letters embossed on the ID.

I shake my head no.

“I would have gone with you. You shouldn’t have had to go alone.”

The fucked up thing is it never even dawned on me that she would want to go with me. I’m just so used to taking care of myself, going there anything but alone wasn’t even a thought.

“Thanks. It means a lot that you would have gone.”

Tilting her head to the side, she holds my gaze for a minute before speaking. “Vi

Maybe I’m dense, because I don’t see the damn difference. But Liv was always better with words. I shrug my shoulders.

Chapter 31

Liv

I’ve never been to a professional fight before. I know it’s just an exhibition, but I’m still excited to see it. See Vi

Because it’s not a sanctioned fight, each pair of fighters only spends one minute in each of three rounds, instead of the usual three or five minutes. Since Vi

We enter a small room under the building where the fights take place just above us. An older man greets us. It’s clear the two men are fond of each other.

“Preach, I’ve missed you, you old bastard. The place just isn’t the same without you.” The two exchange a guy hug, a sort of combination hand shake and one armed half hug chest bump.

“You don’t miss me you stupid little shit, you miss Nico having someone else to fight with.” Smiling, their teasing says a lot about the strength of their relationship.

Preach catches me out of the corner of his eye. “Who you got with ya…this girl’s too pretty to be hanging around with a goof like you.” He smacks Vi

Coming to stand before me, Preach ignores Vi

Laughing, I extend my hand, “I’m Olivia, it’s nice to meet you, Preach.”

Preach takes my hand and shakes, but doesn’t let go as he talks to Vi

“Elle’s right there.” Vi

The three of us hang out in the small locker room for another hour, the two men catching up on different fighters. Preach was Nico’s trainer and retired when Nico did. The three men have a lot of history together, and I get the feeling that they’ve become Vi

Eventually, as it gets closer to the time for Vi

The crowd goes crazy as Vi

Almost on cue, as if he’s responding to her, Vi

The a

Undaunted by the brevity of the fight they paid good money to see, the crowd goes crazy, yelling and screaming as the referee holds up Vi

Even though I have a pass allowing me access to the downstairs area, I still wait on line with the others, many of which don’t have passes. I wonder to myself why people would even wait, with the size of the security guard checking for passes, until I catch on to what’s actually transpiring in line in front of me. Those with passes are let through quickly, those without are sized up. The nice looking women with short skirts and nice legs are all slipped passes. The ones deemed not worthy are turned away. It makes me wonder how many women have found their way into Vi

Trying my best to ignore the pang of jealousy I feel deep inside, knowing I can’t control either of our pasts, I make my way down to Vi