“It’s bullshit,” Aaron barks before he turns the television off. Turning to him, I tilt my head to the side. “It’s fucking bullshit,” he repeats. “It wouldn’t have mattered who fought Byers, he would have died. Doctors said so. Had nothin’ to do with you or your strength. End of the day, he shouldn’t have even been in that ring.”
“But he was and it was my fist that took him down.”
Aaron lifts his hand and waves me off. “Bullshit, Kingston. Nothin’ you could have done any differently. Now, you’re going to step in that ring and you’re going to defend not only your title but your goddamn name too.”
Nodding, my lips twitch into a small smile. There’s a reason I have kept Aaron as my trainer throughout my entire career. He’s rough, doesn’t mince words, he knows what to say and when to say it.
“Let’s train then. Gary fucking pissed me off and I need to take some aggression out on the bag.”
“Now you’re talkin’.”
TULIP
After hanging up with Louis, I find Charlie’s name again in my phone. It’s been two hours since I tried her and I can’t wait a second longer. I’ve packed maybe three boxes in between my worrying about her.
The phone rings twice, then she picks up. “Hey girl,” she calls out, sounding happy and surprised to hear from me.
I let out a breath of relief. “You’re okay,” I state.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
I debate on telling her about the extra creepy vibes Mark has been giving me lately, but she sounds so happy, that I decide not to. Maybe it’s just me, and maybe he’s completely over his weird obsession with me and has moved on to her. When he first started working at the grocery store a few months ago, I thought he was a pretty nice guy. A little odd, but nice.
“Just checking on you after going home with Mark,” I say, deciding to tell the truth, or at least part of it.
There’s a moment of silence and then she lets out a sigh. “He came back to my place. You know he still lives with his mother? I wasn’t expecting that,” she mumbles.
“I know. But everything was good?”
She hums, then I hear her clear her throat on the other end of the line. “Yeah, I mean I think he was super excited because he finished really fast. But then he took care of me and the second time was a little better. It’s not perfect, but you know he’s super different. I need a change.”
I can understand that. Louis is my different, he’s the complete opposite of Joey. Though, when we’re finished, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to find my happiness. I honestly don’t think that any other man on this earth can make me as happy as Louis has made me, even in such a short amount of time.
“I get that,” I say. “I won’t be in tonight. I’m packing up my apartment.”
“Moving in with that hot ass man. You lucky, lucky, bitch.” She laughs. “I’ll see you tomorrow night then. We can fill each other in. Mark is picking me up and taking me to work and bringing me home again. Hopefully, his trigger will be a little more delayed tonight.”
With a laugh, I end the call and go back to packing. I have my music blasting from my phone speakers when I hear a faint knock on the door. Without glancing at the time, I stand up from sitting in the middle of the living room packing up DVDs to answer the door.
Glancing through the peephole, I’m surprised to see both Hutton and Laurie on the other side. Quickly, I tug the door open to look into the women’s faces. Motioning for them to come inside, I turn around and jog over to my phone, turning the music down.
“What are you guys doing here?” I ask as I face them.
Hutton smiles, shrugging a shoulder. “Louis texted Beaumont.”
“Who texted Hutton and the phone chain was put into motion.” She grins. Then I blink as she holds up some cardboard. “We brought more boxes.”
Hurrying over to her, I take the flattened boxes from her hands and lean them against the wall. “Thank you so much, you guys didn’t have to do that.”
“The shop was dead, we were bored,” Laurie murmurs.
“And the last thing Laurie wants to do when she’s bored is clean and organize the shop,” Hutton grumbles.
Together, the three of us spend the next three hours packing up the entirety of my tiny apartment. Since I don’t have a sofa in the living room, we stack the boxes neatly on top of one another.
Excluding my furniture, just the boxes stacked up, I never realized how little I own. Granted, I have a fairly large pile of items that I’m going to donate to the women’s shelter in town. I only packed my personal items to take to Louis’. We didn’t talk about it, but I have a feeling that my used kitchen gadgets and cheap silverware isn’t really needed at his place.
“God, it’s like packing my life up to live with Beaumont all over again,” Hutton sighs, placing her hands on her hips.
Turning my head, I look back over my shoulder at Hutton. “Did you get rid of everything?”
She nods. “Everything but my clothes and a few little personal things, like pictures.”
“I’m debating on keeping the DVDs and CDs. I honestly can’t remember the last time that I even used one of them.”
“Donate them all. Nobody watches DVDs anymore or busts out a CD. We all have streaming services and Spotify,” Laurie shouts as she takes a bite of an apple that she found in the fridge.
Nodding, I walk over to those two boxes and pick them up, taking them over to the donate pile before I can change my mind.
“Can I ask you a question?” Laurie blurts as soon as I stand up.
Turning my gaze to meet hers, I nod. “I can’t ask Hutton, she’s loved Beau her whole fucking life. But you haven’t loved Louis since you were a teenager.”
Shaking my head slowly, I agree with her. “No, I haven’t loved him my whole life.”
“How scared are you?” she asks, her voice dropping a little. “Not of him, but of the fans and the celebrity status. Then, how scared are you that he’s going to leave you behind?”
Pressing my lips together, I take a moment to breathe. I know why she’s asking me. The father of the baby she’s carrying is one of Beaumont’s bandmates. He’s not as famous as Beaumont, but he has a fan base and with that comes women and a level of insecurity.
Releasing my lips, I nod my head once. “I’m terrified,” I admit. Her eyes widen and I hear Hutton gasp lightly, but I don’t break eye contact from Laurie. “I’m terrified, but Louis isn’t. He knows what he wants and I’m just kind of holding on and enjoying the ride.”
Laurie scrunches her nose up. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”
“Jesse wants to be involved and he really likes you. Give it a chance to turn into something more,” Hutton says, but it sounds like she’s said it a million times and she’s just plain tired of repeating herself.
“I’m not going to get hurt. I’m not going to allow this baby to be hurt,” she snaps.
“I walked in on Joey fucking Raylee, on my sofa, in my living room. Joey didn’t have a job, never held one down for more than a couple weeks and he was only famous in Gallup for being lazy. He still cheated on me, Laurie.”