Page 11 of Sucker Punch Drunk Love

When my mind went in the gutter, I wanted to take a bite so bad…but I had to stop myself.Focus. She might be a beautiful woman, but she’s still a fighter. If I wouldn’t do this to a man, I would constantly have to check myself not to do it with her.

A moment of relief came, when about twenty minutes in, she heaved over, asking for a water break. “Okay, but you get twenty seconds?—”

“Just twenty?” she asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, twenty,” reiterating. “If you spent half your focus on maintaining a steady speed instead of trying to prove to me how fast you can run, you wouldn’t be half as tired. This ain’t a marathon, Medina. I’m testing your stamina, not asking you to win a race. Yeah, you look the part, but you’ve got poor endurance. You wanna last three, five, ten rounds? You’ve gotta be able to do it despite being worn out.”

“Okay,” as she took in a deep breath, and nodded at my, “Ready?”

She was compliant for the rest of the jog, as when I asked whether we could follow up for tonight, she took a ride with me toHouse of Beast, so I could go over some of my plans for the next few weeks.

Instant hoots, hollering and catcalling filled the gym from the moment she walked through the doors, my counter arguments about cutting that shit out calming it down a bit. Geez, you’d think these fucks had never seen a skirt before.

“I know most of you are not accustomed to seeing a woman atHouse of Beast, but calm the fuck down. You’re going to be seeing a lot of her from now on, so don’t make her feel like anything less than what you come here for. ¿Entiendes?*?”

That seemed to ease her explicit unease at the idea she was the only woman here, but she was going to be spending a lot of time here, and while she was legitimate, she was going to have to prove that to the regulars here, as much as she had to prove it to me.

We’d nearly made it to the strategy room, before she noticed Héctor setting up the striking wall, as her an infectious smile spread across her face at the sight of recognition, eyes beaming, as she flashed an excitable wave at him. “Medina, let’s go,” I ordered, as she ducked into the office, plopping onto the first chair she came to contact with.

“First matter of business, we’ll do a weigh in next time, but I’m putting you on a meal regimen so you’ll be able to make weight when it’s time to. Ever consider going down to flyweight? Flyweight’s got nearly twice the fighters and the point is to get more fights, so it might be a good idea to go down a class.”

“I prefer being at bantamweight.”

“It’s not about preference, it’s about access to more people to fight,” I doubled down.

“I don’t want to argue. And I don’t want to sound like I know everything. But I’m in my weight class for a reason. If I could haveoneboundary, it would be to stay in the weight class I can maintain better,” she gently challenged. I locked eyes with her, looking for a point of weakness or possible chance she could be persuaded. She seemed firm in her conviction, so I figured I could grant her this one thing.

“Fine. But that’s your only get out of jail free card. You allergic to seafood?” quickly changing the subject.

“No.”

“Good, because from now on, you get your protein from seafood,” handing her a print out of the meal plan I’d set up for her in the next coming weeks. She looked over it with caution, like she wasn’t sure she could commit to it. “Is there a problem?”

“No,” she stammered.

“Good, because everything is temporary until I see how it affects you and if you’re able to make weight. There are challenges with that anyway, but I hear it’s hard as shit for a female fighter considering your body holds onto water and your weight fluctuates due to hormonal changes leading up to your period.”

“If it helps, I have an IUD. So, I don’t get my period every month, but when I do, they don’t last as long,” she seemed to shy at the talk of her menstruation.

“I don’t need to know what kind of birth control you’re on, I just need you to be able to make weight when it comes up. The pay is shit this early in, and we don’t want you missing out on bonuses or have it cut into your earnings, or if we even get that far, cost you a title.”

She seemed to understand what was at stake with that, answering with a civil, “I’ll take that into consideration.” Placing the meal plan in her gym bag, before she could be dismissed, I wanted to know one more thing.

“One last thing. What happened this morning can’t happen again, understand?”

“Mmmhmm.” She nodded.

“I’m serious. I’m being hard on you because you’re not showing me you want this. Show me and I’ll ease up. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Before you go, I got one more thing to add to that list I gave you last night. Remember I said, no crying, no hugging, no drama or no excuses?” each one counting off a finger with. “I should have said this with the rest of them, but this one is most important than them all. If we’re going to work, I’m gonna need for there to be no secrets between us.”

“Okay?” her tone questioning.

“I mean it, Medina. When I start meshing your name with mine, I need to know if there’s anything that can potentially bite us in the ass. So, if you’ve got any skeletons, now would be the time to tell me, because I can’t spin what I don’t know,” I further explained.

“I’m not sure I get what you mean when you say skeletons,” she clarified.