Fighting for Us (Love is Worth Fighting For Book 1)

by Bella Emy

  We rise to our feet and stand across from one another. I almost get lost in my thoughts, staring into his big brown eyes.

  “I had some things I needed to grab for tomorrow morning. I shop here at this time often, but this is the first time something like this has happened to me.”

  “Let’s hope it’s the last.”

  I nod. “Definitely.”

  “Okay, I’ll wait till you get into your car and drive off before I get going. Just to make sure,” he states.

  “Thanks.” I walk to the driver’s side of my car and hop in behind the wheel.

  Lorenzo walks up to my car, so I lower the window.

  “Drive carefully, Carissa.”

  I smile. “Thanks, I will.”

  “Hey, wait a second,” he says. “Do you have a pen?”

  “Sure,” I fumble through the glove compartment and pull out a blue ink pen. “Here you are.”

  He grabs it from me, and our hands brush yet again, sending electricity flowing through me. Just one touch from him sends me zooming. It’s just like the first time at the grocery store. It seems like we’ve got a thing going on with groceries.

  I chuckle to myself as he pulls a small piece of paper from his back pocket and scribbles something on it. When he’s done, he hands it to me with the pen. “That’s my number. Call me if you ever need me again… or text me if you just want to talk.”

  I swallow thickly. Holy shit… his number? Emy and Shannon will have a field day with this.

  “Thanks, I will.”

  He smiles again, tapping the frame of my window. “Cool. All right, I’ll let you go now. Have a great night, Carissa.”

  I smile back. “Good night, Lorenzo.”

  He pushes away from the car. Reluctantly, I push the button to close the window and drive away into the night.

  Chapter Twelve

  Lorenzo

  What are the odds, running into the girl you can’t get out of your mind again and finding she needs your help? What a douchebag that guy was. We didn’t get to talk much, but from what I picked up from the conversation, they surely had a past. I can’t imagine anyone treating her the way he was. I hope that when they were together, he treated her better than what I witnessed. Sure, he was drunk off his ass, but c’mon. I’ve been drunk before, and I would never dream of treating a woman the way he was treating her.

  Thank God I had decided to go for a run at the last minute. I was supposed to hit the shower once I got home, but Gianna was still up and she didn’t want Marianna to leave quite yet. So she stayed with her while I went jogging. It felt so good to run and not think of much. I blasted my music on my AirPods and let each thud of my step release the day’s stress. It was all going so well until a woman across the street caught my attention from the corner of my eyes. Lo and behold, it was her. Two blocks from my house, I saw Carissa, and the rest was history.

  Sure, it was a risky move giving her my number. Honestly, I don’t know what came over me, but it was on impulse. I hadn’t taken two seconds to think about it, and it hadn’t crossed my mind at all before she was about to pull away. It was as if one minute I’m bidding her adieu, and the next, I’m pulling out a piece of paper and scribbling my number across it.

  The piece of paper? A receipt from the 7-Eleven near the gym. I had stopped by momentarily after my workout to grab a bottle of Cool Blue Gatorade.

  I quietly tiptoe inside my house and see Marianna sitting on the couch, typing something on her phone.

  “Hey, is she out?” I ask, closing the door behind me.

  She puts her phone down and looks up at me. “Yeah, after ten minutes, she cuddled up against my side and fell asleep. I just put her down in her bed like five minutes ago.” She stands and stretches her arms.

  “Thanks.”

  She shakes her head. “It’s nothing. I love watching her. You know that.” She pauses for a moment and then says, “I was starting to get worried about you…”

  I furrow my brows. I guess I was gone longer than I had told her I was going to be. “I’m sorry.” I don’t really want to get into it with her. If she knew I got into an altercation with some drunk guy over a random girl, she wouldn’t be too happy with me.

  But is Carissa just some random girl? We’re friends now, aren’t we?

  She raises an eyebrow and smirks. “I hope you didn’t get into any trouble.”

  Now I have to look away. The only thing I need is for her to find out my taking longer than expected had something to do with some girl. I pretend to busy myself with tidying up, grabbing magazines and crayons off the living room coffee table. She and Gianna must have been coloring in her princess and pony coloring books.

  “Lorenzo?”

  “Hmm?” I lift my head in her direction, but I continue looking at the table in front of me.

  She grabs my arm. “You’re not telling me something.”

  I finally lift my gaze to meet hers and shrug. “I may have had to help a friend of mine.” I pull away and pretend like it’s no big deal.

  Marianna throws up her arms in exasperation. “Lorenzo! You know you have a temper that can get you into loads of trouble! I don’t want to see the cops arresting you because you can’t control your emotions. You have a little girl you need to put first, before some muscle head friend of yours from the gym!”

  My sister loves to throw that little incident from three years ago in my face whenever she can. I got into a fight with a neighbor that caused the people upstairs to call the cops, and yeah… I was brought into the station. It wasn’t my fault, but I may have had a little bit too much to drink, thinking about my miserable life, and there went that.

  But that all happened three years ago, and there hasn’t been another incident since. I’ve been on my best behavior. I need to be anyway, for my little girl. It’s just that sometimes, my temper gets the best of me. It is why I turned to mixed martial arts. I get to let my anger loose and not get in trouble with the law.

  In a matter of milliseconds, my anger rises, and I explode. “It wasn’t a guy from the gym! Carissa was being harassed by her asshole ex-boyfriend. I needed to intervene. He was getting physical with her…” I blurt. Crap, I couldn’t control my mouth. The last thing I wanted to do was tell her about Carissa.

  Her shocked expression is exactly what I expect. She folds her arms across her chest. “Carissa? Who’s this Carissa you so casually speak of?”

  I shrug. Might as well face the music now rather than later. “The chick Max was teasing me about since the night we went to the bar. I saw her again at the supermarket the other day, and just now when I went jogging. She needed help. I couldn’t just turn a blind eye and let the guy have his way with her.”

  She nods. “Of course not. You did the right thing. I just hope the cops weren’t involved.”

  “No, he ran off with his tail between his legs.”

  She chuckles. “Good. I would think so. I mean, look at you.”

  I cock my head.

  “You’re a beast, Enz. Anyone ballsy enough to stand up to you is crazy.” She takes a few steps forward, heading toward the door.

  “Hey, Mari?”

  She turns around. “Yeah, Enz?”

  “Don’t mention this to Max, okay?”

  Smiling, she says, “Of course not. He would never let you live it down. I’m glad I have a brother who is such a wonderful man. She’s lucky to have you.”

  “Wait, I’m not with her with her… you know. She’s not… We’re not—”

  “Lorenz, I know,” she says, cutting me off. “I’m saying she’s lucky to have you as a friend. Nothing more.” She winks at me, and it makes me feel like she’s hoping there soon will be something more between us. Great.

  After Marianna goes home, I quickly peek into Gianna’s room to check on her. She’s sound asleep with the sweetest smile on her face. My pretty little princess. She melts my heart.

  I leave the door cracked open and hit the shower. Once I finish, I get myself ready for
bed. I slide in between the sheets, but I’m restless. Too much is on my mind, and I can’t fall asleep.

  Okay, I lied. Not too much. But maybe too much of someone.

  I grab my cell phone off the nightstand and scroll through my Instagram feed. Pictures of my friends’ days and celebrity posts fill my screen. After liking a few, I check Facebook. I do the same: like a few posts, comment on some, and turn it off.

  As I place my cell phone back onto my nightstand, it vibrates, alerting me of a new message. I lift it again and bring it back to me.

  Hi, it’s Carissa.

  With those three words, my heart stops. I store her number in my contacts and compose a text back.

  Me: Hi, Carissa. How are you? Get home okay?

  So maybe it wasn’t the best opener, and it may sound like she’s disturbing me, like: “Good you got home okay. I’m assuming because you’re texting me. Now can you please fuck off?”

  Fuck. That’s not how I wanted it to sound. I’m so thrilled she texted me already. I honestly didn’t think I’d be hearing from her, especially not now. But me texting her if she’s okay makes it seem like I want her to say what she has to say and get on with it. Dammit.

  Carissa: Yes, thank you. I got home just fine. But I wanted to thank you again for rescuing me tonight ;) It was very sweet of you.

  A smile spreads on my face from ear to ear. I’m glad she texted me back. Now I can think of something better to say and possibly talk to her for a little while.

  Me: Hey, it’s no problem. I’m just glad I was able to be there when you needed me.

  Me: So what are you up to? I’m just lying here in bed and can’t fall asleep :/

  I hit send, but two minutes later, there’s still no reply. Maybe she doesn’t want to talk to me after all. Maybe she was just being polite and thanking me once more before going to sleep.

  I kick myself. You blew it, Lorenzo. Way to go.

  I exit out of the text messaging app and refresh my Facebook and Instagram feeds and then my phone alerts me again. My heartbeat speeds up.

  It’s another message, but once I realize it’s not from Carissa, I frown. I open it anyway.

  Ryker: Lorenz, you up?

  Me: Yeah, what’s up, bro?

  We spend the next couple of minutes texting back and forth about the upcoming Christmas party at the gym. I frown when twenty minutes later there’s still no reply from Carissa.

  “So I’m thinking of bringing Justine. What do you think?” Ryker asks as we’re in the locker room getting ready to start warm-ups.

  I throw my boots into the locker and fumble through to find my gloves. They’re somewhere in here, but ever since last night, I haven’t been able to function. I fell asleep sometime around 1:00 a.m., but the first thing I did when I awoke this morning at seven was check my phone. Still no text back from Carissa. She must really think she made a mistake by texting me in the first place. I should have just said you’re welcome and called it a night. Why did I try to start a conversation with a woman who probably is turned off by men, thanks to her wonderful ex or whoever he was to her?

  I mean, I’m not trying to start seeing women right now, but I wouldn’t mind getting to know her, considering we keep running into one another and I helped her last night.

  I’m nowhere near ready to start dating. No matter what my family or my friends say, Sylvia will always be my wife, and I can’t bring myself to find someone new. It wouldn’t be fair to her. The thought makes me sad.

  “Earth to Lorenzo. Come in, Lorenzo… You alive, bro?” Ryker waves a hand in my direction, catching my attention.

  “What? Oh, I’m sorry, dude. You said something about your baby mama?”

  He chuckles. “Yeah, I wanted to bring Justine to the party, but yo, where’s your head at? I’ve been trying to talk to you all morning, and you’ve been totally spacing. What’s going on with you?”

  I slam my locker shut and lean against it, adjusting the straps on my gloves. “Just got some stuff on my mind, nothing serious. But yeah, I think that’s great about Justine. You guys getting along again?”

  “We are, and I’ve been seeing her and Mandy every night after work. I think we’re really hitting it off again.”

  I smile. “That’s great, man. I’m happy for you.”

  He closes his locker. “Thanks, bro. But now, what’s up with you? You know you can talk to me, right?”

  I’m about to dismiss him again and not get into it, but what the hell? He’s the one who always tells me I need to make some more friends, and why not females? I don’t necessarily have to tell him I’ve been thinking about Carissa as much as I have been, but I can tell him I misread her texts.

  That was for sure. I was certain she wanted to start a conversation with me last night over it, but instead, it seems she was just being polite.

  “It’s not a big deal, but there’s this girl who—”

  “Oh, hell yeah. Go for it,” he says, cutting me off.

  I chuckle. “Man, you don’t even know what I was going to say.”

  He places a foot on the bench and ties his laces. “Doesn’t matter. You mentioned a girl, and, dude, you need to get laid.”

  I feel my anger starting to rise. I’m not trying to get laid. For fuck’s sake, why is it always about that? Can’t a man and a woman be friends without sex being involved?

  I want to ask him, but I know it won’t get me anywhere. I compose myself so this doesn’t turn into another MMA match. “It’s not about getting laid, man.”

  “It’s always about getting laid. But continue.”

  I swallow hard and try to push aside what I really want to say to him right now. “Anyway, there’s this girl I’m constantly running into everywhere.”

  I go on to tell him about how I first saw her at the bar with her friends, then at the match, followed by our supermarket cream cheese episode and then my encounter with her asshole ex-boyfriend. I finally tell him about our text conversation, and he just listens to every word and all my concerns.

  “Damn, Enz. That’s crazy.”

  Some of the guys exit the locker room and make their way to the floor. We should be joining them right about now, but I need to talk. I didn’t realize how badly I needed this until Ryker pushed me to do it.

  “Yeah, so I was going to try to make a friend, but you see where it got me. I need to just realize it’s not for me. My love came and went. It’s just me and my princess and—”

  The sound of my phone going off stops me mid-sentence.

  Ryker chuckles. “Dude, if that’s her, she wants you. No doubt about it. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have texted you back anymore.”

  I avert my gaze from him without saying a word. I unlock my locker and ravage through my things to find my cell phone in my bag. It could be Gianna’s school, but if it was the school, wouldn’t they call instead? My ringtone is different from my notification tone. And as a matter of fact, each notification sound is different. This one was definitely a text message, but it could be anyone.

  A new text message from Carissa is waiting for me.

  I look back at Ryker, who is standing over my shoulder trying to see if it is indeed her.

  “It’s her… Carissa.”

  Ryker jumps. “I told you, bro! She wants you! Invite her to Friday’s party!”

  I turn around with the phone still in my hand. “Are you crazy, Ryke?”

  “Why am I crazy?”

  I smirk. “I haven’t even checked what her message says. For all I know, she could be asking me not to text her anymore, and you’re telling me to invite her to our company’s Christmas party? No way, dude.”

  He steps back with a look on his face that tells me he’s not satisfied with my reply. “It’s just a party… not like a romantic dinner date. You could get to know her with a ton of people around so neither one of you feels uncomfortable. Maybe she doesn’t want to date right now after what you told me happened to her in the parking lot, but Enz, I’m telling you. If she
’s texting you back now after so many hours of being silent, she definitely likes you. Trust me.”

  I think about his words for a second but don’t say anything. If the party wasn’t going to be offering alcohol, kids would be welcomed, and I could bring Gianna. But since I can’t bring her, he does make a valid point. The party would be the perfect way to get to know her without technically asking her out on a date.

  “Bro, check your text. See what she said,” Ryker says, reminding me why I have the phone in my hand in the first place.

  I nod and open the message from her.

  Carissa: Hey! I’m so sorry I didn’t respond back last night… I passed out and woke up with my phone in my hand. So to answer your question, I was lying in bed myself, not able to fall asleep. :)

  Immediately after reading her message, thoughts of her lying in a bed cross my mind. What the fuck? What is wrong with me? I shake my head to get the thought of her out of my mind.

  “She passed out while we were talking. That’s why she never responded back,” I say to Ryker, who nods his head.

  “Good, now ask her.”

  “What?”

  He comes forward, motioning for me to message her back. “Let her know about the party. Ask her to come.”

  I swallow hard. Do I have the balls to ask this woman to the company party? What are people going to think? Fuck, man. Why is this so difficult?

  “I can’t do it.”

  Ryker chuckles. “Why the fuck not, dude? It’s just a party.”

  “What are people going to think? That she’s my girlfriend?”

  “Who cares what the fuck people think! It’s none of their goddamn business if she were your girlfriend. But she’s just a friend, and you can introduce her as that, or fuck it, don’t introduce her to anyone you don’t want to. It’s none of their damn business what you do with your life anyway.”

  He has a point. Who cares what people think? And if I really wanted to date five years after my wife passed away, would that be so wrong?