Take Care

by Ash Johnson

  My dad isn’t that old. He and my mom were both seventeen when she got pregnant with me, so his threatening me with retirement doesn’t scare me because he still has a good thirty years in him before he’ll even think of retiring.

  “Dad, I got a degree in business. I have followed you around on the job since I was able to walk. I think I know what the job entails, but if you’re going to threaten me with not getting your company if I don’t quit fighting, then you can just shove the company up your ass.

  “I don’t want to quit MMA and if you want to give your partner position to someone else, then just fucking do it. Quit threatening me with the position as a way to throw it in my face that you hate what I do for a living.”

  I don’t like talking to my dad like that, and I think about apologizing to him, but he makes my outburst totally justifiable with his next words.

  “Okay then, Jay. If that’s how you want it, then don’t come crying to me when you get that career ending injury because I won’t be here to help you get back on your feet.”

  With that, he hangs up and I throw my cell phone across the room, getting even more pissed off when it shatters against the wall. I decide to pack my gym bag and go take my frustration out on a sparring partner for the next few hours before I break something else in the house.

  Chapter 5

  Ada

  The next three months pass by in a blur. Rob was driving me crazy with all of his different attempts to get me back. There were anonymous flowers and balloons sent while I was working, he would wait in his car outside the hospital so that he could catch me after work and try to talk to me, and then there were constant text messages ranging from heartfelt apologies to threats of things he would do to me if I didn’t take him back.

  I was working extra shifts or trading shifts with other nurses so that I could avoid him at all costs. That was also a bad idea because then I saw more of Greg who decided to up his game now that he knew I was single.

  I had to explain to Greg three different times that I just wasn’t ready to date anyone right now. He even offered to bring another chick he’s hooking up with into the mix to ease my mind. Dick.

  Finally after about two and a half months of pestering me, threatening me, and having to change my cell phone number, I think Rob got the idea and stopped coming around. I was then able to go back to my normal shift to avoid Greg before I killed him.

  The divorce was filed and after waiting a month and having to get a court order for Rob to sign the papers, I was told to wait sixty days for it to be finalized, but the day finally came and I couldn’t have been happier. It was Thursday afternoon when I got the call from my lawyer that I needed to come into his office to sign the finalized paperwork. I had to work later that night, so I rushed over to the office of Jeremy Charles to sign them.

  “Okay Ms. Hyland, if you could just sign here then your divorce will be finalized.” Mr. Charles says with a grin, his gray hair shining along with his deep blue eyes.

  I grab a pen and look down to the paper, noticing that Rob has already signed them and feel half a smile take over my face. I’m glad to know that it was easier to get him to sign it this time than it was last time.

  “I legally changed my last name back to Michaelson, so should I sign it with that last name or with Hyland?” I ask, looking up at my lawyer.

  “Sign it with Hyland since that is the name on all of the paperwork,” he says.

  I sign it as Adelaide Hyland for the last time and look up with a grin on my face.

  “Well Ada, you are a single woman, now” Mr. Charles says, extending his hand for me to shake. I grab his outstretched hand a give it a firm shake.

  “Thank you for all of your help Mr. Charles, and although you were a wonderful lawyer, I really hope I don’t have to see you again,” I smile.

  He laughs at my joke and says “yes, I hope not either Ada. I hope you have a long and happy life with someone you love.”

  I walk out of the building and need to call someone to tell them my exciting news, but Elle and all of my other friends have day jobs, so I call the one person that I know will be home; my mother.

  I sit down on a bench outside of the office building and brace myself for a conversation with her since she’s not the easiest woman to talk to. She and I haven’t seen eye to eye in a long time and our conversations don’t always end on a good note, but after all I’ve been through in the past few months I really need someone to talk to right now.

  After two rings, my mom answers.

  “Hello, Adelaide.”

  I hate that name.

  “Hi mom, how are you doing?” I ask.

  “I’m doing okay. I just moved in with Rick over the weekend and I got a promotion at the grocery store last week, so things are looking up,” her scratchy voice grates on my ears. Rick is my mom’s latest boyfriend and, although he’s a bit skuzzy, he is a huge step up from the assholes she’s had since my stepdad left. Rick actually has a job and a working car.

  My mom clears her throat and continues, “How is everything going with you? Did you work it out with Rob yet?” For some reason, she has always liked Rob and then she refused to listen to me when I told her about that night at the hospital.

  “No mom, things aren’t worked out with Rob. I just left my lawyer’s office, actually. My divorce is finalized.” I smile as I say those words. I can hear the distain in her voice before she even speaks.

  “I don’t know why you would do that, Adelaide. That man worshipped the ground you walked on and you threw him out like a stray cat. He even knew what happened with your sister and still loved you. That’s more than I can say for other people.” She’s either talking about my old step dad, Jack, or she’s talking about herself. Most likely the latter.

  “Okay mom, I didn’t call to have a ‘let’s bash Ada’ conversation. I just called to see how you were doing, so I guess I’ll talk to you later.” I start kicking myself for thinking that I could ever have a normal conversation with my mom anymore. I should have just waited until Elle was home from work to talk about this.

  “No Adelaide, wait. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make it seem like I was bashing you, I just wish you would have tried to work it out with Rob before throwing it all away. Now some other woman is going to snag him up and be taken care of like you used to,” she sighs.

  “Yeah mom, that woman is his fiancée that I met in the E.R. when I was still married to him. How can you not see that as a bad situation? Should I have stayed married to a man who had a fiancée on the side that he was with while I was at work?” That thought still makes me sick. I’ve often wondered how long he had been cheating on me, and what he would have done with her if I’d never found out about them.

  My mother lets out a loud puff of air before she answers me. “No, Adelaide, I wouldn’t want you to be in that situation. I’m just saying, it doesn’t seem like you were doing all you could to please him or he wouldn’t have gone outside of your marriage.”

  Ouch. The fact that my mother not only takes my ex-husband’s side, but says that I wasn’t a good enough wife for him is like a swift kick to the gut.

  “Wow mom. Well, even though this conversation has been fun and enlightening, I really have to go get ready for work. I’ll call you later,” yeah right, I think, Hell will have to freeze over before I call you again.

  “Oh Adelaide, before you hang up, in a couple months it’s the thirteenth anniversary. Are you going to go with me to Nebraska to visit your sister?” mom asks.

  My older sister was sixteen when she died. I was twelve when it happened and my mom felt that everything bad that has happened in her life from the day of Ivy’s death and onward has been my fault.

  “Yes mom. I’ll request a few days off so that we can go see Ivy. Are we going to drive to Nebraska or fly?” I ask, but even as the question comes out of my mouth, I’m wishing I would have just said let’s fly. I don’t know if I could take a twenty hour car trip with my mom and survive it.


  “We’ll fly. Driving will take too long, sound good?” she sounds like she couldn’t take the idea of a car trip with me, either.

  “Yeah mom sounds good. Can I ask you for a favor before I let you go, though?”

  “What is it, Adelaide?” she says with another huff, like I’m asking her to become my slave for the rest of her life.

  “Can you please stop calling me Adelaide, mom. You know how much I hate it. Just call me Ada, please,” I’m practically begging her.

  “I named you Adelaide for a reason, but if you insist,” she says in a snarky tone.

  My parents chose the name Adelaide because it was the name of an elderly woman who lived down the street from them when they first got married and had Ivy.

  My parents weren’t well off because my father had a minimum wage job as a mechanic and he refused to let my mom work, so Adelaide would make them dinner once a week and bake banana bread for them on a regular basis. My parents loved her so much that when she passed away, they promised to name their next daughter after her.

  A year and a half later, I was born and given a ninety year old woman’s name.

  My sister Ivy started calling me Ada when we were little girls and after she died, I only went by Ada. I’m not really ashamed of my full name, but being called Ada makes me feel closer to Ivy in some strange way.

  “Thank you, mom. Tell Rick I said hi and congratulations on your promotion. I’ll talk to you soon.”

  “Thanks, Ada,” she sneers. And with that, she hangs up on me.

  “Wow, that went well,” I murmur to myself as I get up from the bench to walk to my car.

  Suddenly, I get an uneasy feeling, like someone is watching me. I pause in my walk to my car and look around the large parking lot. I don’t see any cars that I recognize and I don’t see anyone lurking in corners, so I shrug and continue my short walk to my car, but my pace is a bit quicker than it was before.

  As soon as I’m enclosed in my car, I realize how relieved I am that my mom didn’t say anything about my birthday tomorrow. I’ll be turning twenty five and I got the night off so that Elle and some of our friends from high school and college could help me celebrate with dinner and dancing.

  When my mom actually remembers my birthday, she destroys it by reminding me how unfair it is that I get to turn another year older and Ivy will never get the chance to again. When that happens I spend my day mourning the loss of my sister and trying to swallow the guilt of her death so I have learned to reject calls from my mom on my birthday.

  Thirty minutes later I’m pulling into Elle’s driveway and admiring her front yard. Since I have moved into her house, I have not only paid half of her mortgage each month, but also been doing the gardening in the front and back yards.

  The front yard of her small white cottage is covered in pretty red poppies and yellow wildflowers along the front of the house. I smile and admire my gardening skills as I walk through the front door, telling myself that I’m going to have an awesome birthday.

  Chapter 6

  Jay

  It’s Friday and I’m pumped for my fight tonight. I feel great and am very confident that I’m going to win this one. I’ve fought Quinn Johansen before and I KO’d him in the first round then. It’s going to be a quick and easy fight, but I have to remember to keep my wits about me and not get too cocky. I step into the octagonal cage when I hear the announcer yell my name.

  “Standing in the south corner at six feet six inches, weighing in at one hundred ninety seven pounds, and wearing the lime green trunks is Jay Hunt!”

  The crowd erupts in cheers and whistles, but I tune them out and listen to my coach in my ear.

  “Remember son, Quinn has that quick left hook and he’ll try to knock you off balance to get you flat on the mat. Watch your balance and always attack.” I shift my attention to my squatty, bald coach and nod.

  When the bell sounds, I approach Quinn first and strike quickly with a right jab which momentarily stuns him. I give a swift left kick to his ribs and then follow up with a left hook.

  When my hand connects with his chin, he falls to the floor, where I take advantage of his position and jump on him, constantly attacking with a few jabs to the face, an elbow to the ear, and quick taps to the ribs. With one last right jab to the right side of his face, Johansen is KO’d.

  I smile widely, not a scratch on me. My smile broadens when the announcer tells the crowd I am the champion and lifts my hand in victory. I see Blake and some of my friends from the gym in the crowd cheering me on and I point to them in recognition. After getting showered and shaking hands with Johansen, I meet up with Blake and the boys when we all decide that we should go out tonight to celebrate my win.

  Club Free it is.

  My friends and I make it to the club around 10:30 p.m. It is a bit too early to start finding a girl to follow home, so we decide to have a few shots of tequila and two or three beers before we start scoping out the action.

  Thirty minutes later I spot a tall redhead in the corner, looking around like she is waiting for a friend to show up. From across the room she looks like she could be pretty and so I decide to approach her and see if she has potential.

  “Hey there beautiful, are you waiting for someone?” I ask. Upon closer inspection I see that she isn’t really my type, but she’s still pretty and might be a good lay.

  She smiles when her eyes connect with mine. “I guess I was waiting for you, handsome. Want to dance with me?” She flashes me her most charming smile, which looks more like a grimace and kind of creeps me out, but we’ll see how she dances.

  “Sure, let’s go.” I extend my arm toward the dance floor and follow behind her. I’ve always thought you could tell a lot about how good sex would be with a woman by how she moves when she dances.

  This woman dances like a fish out of water. She’s flailing her arms everywhere and has stepped on my feet a few times since we made it out to the dance floor. I decide I need to try and make this less uncomfortable than it already is, so I attempt to talk to her. I take a step closer to her and lower my mouth to her ear.

  “Did you come here with anyone?” I’m curious as to who she was looking for when I approached her.

  “Yeah, I’m here with my boyfriend. He went to get a few drinks for us from the bar.” I stop dancing with her and look around, waiting for some guy to come barreling through the crowd and try to take a swing at me.

  “Why the fuck did you say you would dance with me if you have a boyfriend?” I’m very curious and also a bit mad now. If I came to a club with a girlfriend I would be beyond pissed off if I saw her dancing with another dude while I went to get us drinks.

  “Well, we were looking for a third person tonight and you might just be the winner if you’re game,” she plasters on what I’m assuming is a smile, eyeing me up and down, while I try not to cringe at her. Wait- what did she just say about making me a third? I freeze as I try to process what she’s just said to me.

  “What the hell do you mean you need a third person?” I suddenly don’t like the turn this conversation has taken.

  “Well, just what I said. My boyfriend and I both like to have another man join us while we have sex and we haven’t found our third for tonight yet. You interested?” she raises her eyebrows at me and bites at her lower lip, causing the shiver of disgust I was trying to keep at bay to wrack through my body.

  “Oh hell no, I’m not interested. Good luck finding someone to join you sweetheart ‘cause it sure as shit isn’t going to be me. Have a good night,” I huff as I turn to walk off the dance floor and back to my friends who are sitting in a booth.

  “What the hell happened, Jay? It looked like you were getting close to that wacky waving inflatable tube on the dance floor,” Blake says, trying to hide his laugh behind his beer bottle.

  “You will never guess what she asked me out there.” I shake my head and take a long pull from my beer, still trying to wrap my head around what she said to me.

  “What,
man? Did she want you to take her to the bathroom and nail her?” Blake asks, raising his brow.

  “No asshole, she wanted me to go home with her and her boyfriend to be a hole filler for both of them.” I exhale loudly and shake my head, then take another large gulp of my beer as I listen to Blake howl with laughter for about five minutes.

  After he’s told all five of our friends the hilarious story and they’ve all had their fill of laughing at me, I decide to sit back and relax for a bit before I look for another girl to try and follow home tonight.

  After about twenty minutes and a few more beers to get bad images of that girl out of my head, I feel an unexpected knot form in my stomach.

  I turn to the entrance and see a group of girls walk into the club, but only one stands out.

  She’s standing in the middle of the group with the most gorgeous smile on her face. It’s like staring at the face of an angel. Her smile is so captivating that I can feel the corners of my mouth turning up for no reason at all.

  She’s short, probably a lot shorter than I am, with straight blonde hair that sits above her shoulders and a plastic tiara is perfectly propped on her head. She’s got a small button nose, a blinding smile of straight white teeth, and big doe eyes; from across the room and with the dim lighting I can’t tell what color they are.

  She has a petite little body, with smaller breasts and a thin waist, but her arms and legs look toned. She’s wearing a black tank top with lace at the bottom and a purple mini skirt with a pair of sexy black fuck-me pumps.

  I begin to wonder why I have such an urge to be near her. I’ve never wanted to approach a woman as much as I want to go talk to this one. The confidence she seems to exude, even while surrounded by her equally gorgeous friends, is sucking me in like no other. Then I realize I don’t need to know why I want to be near her, I just need to get her.

  As soon as I get my jaw picked up from the floor I’m going to talk to her. Yep, that will be the girl I go home with tonight, that is, if no one beats me to it.