by Evelyn Glass
CHAPTER TWENTY
ADRIANA
She had made excuses, thought up every possible reason that he would have slipped out in the middle of the night without a word. Perhaps there was an emergency, or he’d suddenly realized there was somewhere he had to be. She’d tried to rationalize why he hadn’t responded to her text message the next morning and why when she’d finally got up the nerve to call him, the automated voice at the end of the line had told her that the number was no longer in use.
It was a lot of trouble to go to just for a one-night stand. If Grayson had to change numbers every time he slept with someone, she’s amazed he would ever be able to keep up. She had rationalized the change in number, perhaps his phone had broken or he’d lost it or it was stolen before he could explain to her why he’d snuck out like a thief in the night.
But as the days ticked by without a word, she began to suspect that the most obvious conclusion is usually the right one. He had made her believe that he cared about her, and then he had disappeared into thin air, again. She had made a complete fool out of herself…again. She had fallen back in love with someone who clearly didn’t care the slightest bit about her…again.
“Grade A asshole!” Willow’s voice on the end of the line stirs Adriana from her thoughts. “I knew I should have ripped his eyes out when I had the chance.”
Adriana smiles at the anger in Willow’s voice. There’s something comforting about having a friend who is willing to inflict bodily harm on your behalf.
“Easy tiger.” She picks up her keys and starts heading out of the door. Work would help her stop thinking about Grayson. Work would save her. Work would distract her from the fact that tonight was his big fight, the fight that would put him on the map.
“Let’s go out tonight. You can’t spend another evening in that sad little apartment crying and watching Greys Anatomy on repeat.” Willow has known Adriana long enough to know that’s exactly what she’s been doing the past week.
“Will, the last thing I’m in the mood for is getting all dressed up and going out to some club. I’m at the part of the mourning process where if I can’t wear a onesie then I’m not going out!” Adriana locks her apartment door firmly and spins around, realizing she’s going to be late for work when she comes face to face with a bald man built like a bull.
“Adriana, good to see you again.” West’s voice is kind and calm, and he makes no bones about having turned up uninvited.
“Will, I’m going to have to call you back.” Adriana ends the call without taking her eyes off of Grayson’s coach. “Nice to see you West, you visiting a friend in the building?” She waves vaguely off to one of the other doors on her floor.
West shakes his head, a little sheepishly now. “No, Adriana, I’m here to see you. It’s about Grayson.”
The seriousness in his voice makes her heart skip a beat. “Is he alright?” She hates herself a little for caring, but she really does, she couldn’t hope to pretend otherwise.
“He’s healthy and strong as an ox if that’s what you mean,” West reassures her.
“Good, well nice to see you West, but I’ve got to get to work; I’m already running late.” She shrugs apologetically at him and starts walking towards the stairs.
“He misses you.” West’s voice stops her in her tracks.
Adriana takes a deep breath, not wanting to dump all of her shit on West, but his words have severed the very thin rein she had on her temper. She wheels around, advancing on a man big enough to lift her with his pinky finger menacingly enough to make him take a step back.
“He misses me? Are you fucking kidding me, West? The guy that broke my heart ten years ago, only to waltz back into my life and do exactly the same thing again, misses me? Well, unless we have two very different definitions of the phrase, I think you must be mistaken. And now, I really do have to go.” She tries to take in some deep breaths to regain control of her breathing. “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I think a third time would officially make me a head case.” She turns on her heels again, wanting to get away from this confusing conversation as fast as her legs can carry her.
“He needs you, Adriana. He won’t say it, but I know he does. That boy is like a son to me, and it tears me up to see him like this. I don’t know what’s got into his thick head this time, but I do know that whatever reason he’s pushing you away, he thinks it’s for the best.” West puts a fatherly hand on her shoulder. “I’ve never seen him as happy as when he was with you that morning. It was like that damn cloud that he carries around with him had lifted. Now, it’s back. He’s not sleeping, he’s distracted and unfocused. That’s not good for him, and it’s not good for the fight tonight.”
Adriana’s eyes widen at West’s words. “So, that’s what this is about. You need me to turn up because you think that I’m his goddam lucky charm?” Adriana shakes her head in disbelief. “I like to think I’m a pretty good judge of character West, but I didn’t have you pegged as someone who uses other people.”
“This fight, it isn’t just about the title for him; it’s bigger than that, more important. His future is hanging in the balance, and I’m scared he’s going to throw it all away because he’s so busy beating himself up about leaving you that he doesn’t have the energy to beat on the other guy in the ring!” West rubs a hand over his ball head that’s already starting to sweat in the morning humidity. “Grayson’s past is…complicated. He carries a lot of baggage around with him, things that no one should have to live with. He needs someone to help him make sense of it all; he needs someone like you to help him.”
Adriana bites her lip, not wanting to feel anything at West’s words, but she can’t help it; she feels everything. The thought of Grayson going through pain, of him hurting and carrying the burden alone, trying to be brave, trying to do the right thing, it makes her heart ache.
“What are you asking me to do, West?” Her voice falters around the knot in her throat.
“I’m asking you to come to the fight tonight, get his head back in the game. After the fight, you can decide what you want to do with Grayson. All I’m asking for is tonight.” West holds out his hands, palms up as if to demonstrate how little he wants.
“Grayson told me you thought I was a distraction, now you want me front and center at the biggest match of his career?” Adriana shakes her head. It doesn’t make any sense. She absently wonders if all men are so confusing or if it’s just guys involved in MMA.
“I was wrong. I don’t say that very often. You are a distraction, but of the good sort. You distract his demons; The Adriana Effect.” West smiles at her kindly.
“He said that?” Adriana clasps her hands together to stop them from trembling.
“Well, I sure as hell didn’t make it up!” West chuckles at his own joke, but he sobers up almost instantly. “I’ll leave you to think about it, Adriana. Tickets for you and your friend will be at the ring if you want them. I hope you make the right decision.” He pats her on the shoulder as he walks past her.
Adriana tries to put some order into her thoughts, but there’s too much to process. “West!” She closes the distance between them, her expression intense. “What’s the right decision?”
West gives her a sympathetic look. “You care about him, don’t you? I think that should give you your answer.” With that, he’s gone, taking the steps two at a time, rushing back to his star fighter.
He needs you. That was what West had told her. But could she do about it?
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
GRAYSON
“You had no right to do that, West!” Grayson paces around the dressing room, breathing deeply, trying to get his rage under control.
“You didn’t exactly give me much of a choice. You’re a mess. How the hell do you think you’re going to go out there and fight when you’re like this?” West gestures around the room where chairs have been broken and tables have been flipped, as Grayson tried to work out his sense of guilt over Adriana.
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“Did you ever stop to think there might be a reason I didn’t want her around?” Grayson can’t even bring himself to say her name. Just thinking it is hard enough.
“Whatever reason you might have, you’ve done a pretty good job of keeping it to yourself. There’s no prize for being the biggest martyr, Grayson.” West levels his protégé with an unimpressed stare.
Grayson reacts on instinct, squaring up to his coach, pulling himself up to his full height and width and towering over the older man. “What did you say to me?” His voice is deathly calm, but his hands are shaking with anger. That West, of all people, could accuse him of playing the martyr is unbelievable to him. It is as if a switch had been flipped inside of him.
“You heard me. What are you going to do, Grayson? Punch me?” West cocks his eyebrow, almost goading Gray into a fight.
“Alright there, guys.” Tommy’s body is suddenly in-between them, his hands pushing them gently apart. “I think tensions are running a little high.” He looks worriedly between the two men. This is the first time he’s ever had to diffuse a situation between them, and it’s clear that it’s unnerved him.
Grayson shrugs off Tommy’s hand, taking a few steps back and rubbing his wrapped hands over his face as if to erase what just happened. He can’t believe that he just squared up to West, a man whom he respects more than any other. He really must not be thinking straight.
“You hear that noise, Grayson?” West gestures outside where there’s an unmistakable roar of the crowd. “They’re all here for you. They’re here to watch you become what they know you can be. Don’t disappoint them.” He doesn’t wait for an answer as he storms out of the door, slamming it behind him.
Grayson shakes his arms out, trying to get rid of some of the nervous tension still tingling from his argument with West.
“He was just trying to help you know, G?” Tommy’s voice is quiet, like he’s apprehensive about reminding Grayson that he’s still in the room.
“I know.” Grayson’s voice cracks, as he tries to get his emotions in check.
“You wanna talk about it?” The discomfort in Tommy’s tone is clear as he rakes a hand through his blonde hair. Grayson stares at him doubtfully. “Okay, okay! I just thought I’d ask!”
They remain in silence as the minutes tick by, and the moment that Grayson is due to go out into the ring edges ever closer.
There’s a knock at the door and a voice shouts through. “Ten minutes, Punisher.”
Grayson nods his head, jumping up and down on the spot, trying to get himself psyched up for the fight. He needs to get his game head on. He can’t allow himself to be preoccupied thinking about Adriana and what she must think of him. However, putting her out of his mind has been anything but easy. He hasn’t stopped thinking about her since the night he left her asleep in bed without any kind of an explanation.
“Five minutes, Punisher!” The voice outside is getting urgent, probably wondering why Grayson hasn’t surfaced yet.
There’s another knock. “Alright, we get it! Now fuck off!” Tommy’s nerves are apparently as shot as his friend’s, as he yells through the closed door.
“Okay, I’ll just go then.” The voice on the other side is unmistakable to Grayson.
He jumps up, rushing towards the door like a torpedo. “No! Wait!” He throws it open to see Adriana standing there, half-turned to go back the way she had come.
“I guess this was a bad idea after all.” She shakes her head like she’s angry with herself for coming there.
“No, no, it wasn’t. We thought you were someone else.” Grayson can barely breathe as he looks at her. She literally takes his breath away. Her green-gold eyes are wide, as she takes in the scene of destruction in the dressing room behind him.
“Don’t worry, we were just doing some remodeling.” Tommy appears at Grayson’s shoulder smiling charmingly.
“What are you doing here?” The words are out of Grayson’s mouth before he can temper them. It sounds more like an accusation, and that’s not what he’d meant at all. He wanted to ask why she’d come after the way he’d treated her, why she had listened to West when it was so much more than Grayson deserved.
“What our ham-handed friend here means is that it’s good to see you…” Tommy switches to his megawatt smile, clearly thinking that Adriana is hot enough to deserve it. Grayson feels a twitch of jealousy.
“Adriana,” Grayson says, finishing Tommy’s sentence. She looks between Tommy and Grayson, probably wondering whether to believe if she really is welcome or if she’s just made a terrible mistake.
“Well, I’ll tell you what, Adriana, I was just on my way out. Can you keep the champ company for a few minutes before I bring him out into the ring?” Tommy doesn’t wait for a response, as he smoothly slides past Grayson and takes Adriana’s shoulders, guiding her inside the room. He nods, satisfied with his handiwork, and then his face turns serious. “Three minutes, man.”
Grayson nods grimly, closing the door and taking a deep breath before he turns around to face Adriana. How is he supposed to condense everything that he is thinking and feeling into three minutes?
“So, how are you doing?” Adriana looks anywhere but at him or the carnage that he’s caused.
“I’ve been better.” Grayson doesn’t bother to lie; he doesn’t think that he could even if he tried. “There’s so much I want to say.”
Adriana shakes her head, stopping him in his tracks as he moves closer to her, her presence pulling him towards her like the strongest magnet known to man.
“I came here because West asked me to. He said you needed your head put back in the game, and he seemed to think I would know how to do that.” Adriana shrugs, her black crop top lifting and showing more of her flat caramel belly.
He licks his lips, feeling himself harden in his shorts. He tries to divert his attention. Real smooth, Fletcher, he tells himself. “It’s good to see you.” He cringes at his own lack of charm, wondering how this woman manages to make him so tongue-tied. All of his defenses go down around her; his walls crumble.
Adriana shakes her head like she doesn’t believe him. Why would she? He knows that he hasn’t given her any reason to trust him in the slightest.
“I can’t get into that now.” Adriana looks away from him, chewing her bottom lip pensively. Grayson has to resist the urge to reach out to grab her and hold her to him. “I’m here because, whatever happened between us, that’s not a reason for you not to win tonight. You’ve worked so hard for this; you need to give it your best shot.”
Grayson feels his heart fill with emotion for her at her words. Despite the way he’d treated her, she’s come to tell him to give the fight his all. “I thought you didn’t care about MMA?” He clenches and unclenches his hands, flexing under the tape covering them, working out the tension running through him.
“I don’t.” Her answer is flat, and she breathes a deep sigh as if she’s wondering why she decided to come here after all. “But I didn’t come here to see you get the crap beaten out of you.” She finally looks at him, leveling a hard stare. “West asked me to come and get you in the right frame of mind to fight, and that’s what I intend to do.” She crosses her arms over her chest, like she’s protecting herself.
Grayson can’t help but smile at the determination in her face. “And how are you planning on doing that?”
“Don’t turn on the Grayson charm; it isn’t going to work tonight, or ever again.” She holds her hand up to stop him in his tracks, as he takes a step towards her. “I just wanted to let you know that whatever happened the other night, there aren’t any hard feelings. You don’t have anything to beat yourself up about.” She doesn’t look at him as she says the words, avoiding eye contact at all costs.
Grayson feels like all the wind has been knocked out of him. Out of all of the things that she could have said, this wasn’t what he would ever have expected. She was giving him a free pass, trying to put his mind at ease so that he can get out the
re and do what he needs to do in the ring. There’s so much he wants to say to her, so much that he needs to explain.
But there’s no time. There’s an insistent knock on the door, and it’s opened before he can respond. Tommy appears, looking around to gauge the atmosphere of the room.
“You about ready, big guy?” He looks between Grayson and Adriana, like he’s trying to figure out what’s gone on between them.
Adriana doesn’t wait for his reply. “I should get back to my seat.” She makes her way to the door, pausing just before she gets there. “Make sure you win, Grayson. Willow’s placed a bet on you, and I’ll never hear the end of it if you don’t come up with the goods.” She throws a smile at him over her shoulder, and he feels his heart break a little.