Outmatched

“So I’ve heard.”

“The event has secured me enough sponsors to pay off the bills and keep this place in the green.”

Garret’s eyes narrowed. “Sure. But for how long?”

“For as long as it takes.” I leaned forward and set my forearms on Dad’s old desk. “I’m not going to sell to you, Garret. Not ever.”

His chin took on a mulish angle, and I held up a hand to forestall whatever he had to say.

“I get it. My gym is an eyesore and smack in the middle of your plan. You’re trying to gentrify this community and make a buck. There isn’t anything I can do about that. Just like you can’t do anything about me being here.”

Garret grunted. “What’s your point, Morgan?”

“You can either be pissed about it and lurk around on sidewalks, or you can do something constructive.” I held his gaze. “You can sponsor this place.”

At my side, Parker stirred, but she kept quiet.

Garret, on the other hand, snorted long and loud. “You’ve got brass, I’ll give you that. Why the hell would I help you when I want you to sell?”

“Because it will pretty this place up. You can use it as an enticement for all those young professionals you sell to. A world class boxing gym with pro instructors right in the heart of your safe but ‘urban’ community.”

The chair beneath Garret squeaked as he leaned back and steepled his fingers. He stared at me for a moment, then a slow smile spread. “And I suppose the added benefit of you reaping in all those new memberships is, what?”

“A symbiotic relationship in which we both win.”

“I’d win a lot more if I owned the gym outright.”

I simply stared, waiting him out. Parker remained silent, but I could feel her there, my loadstone.

Finally, Garret grinned. “Definite brass.” He stood, and I did as well, accepting his outstretched hand to shake. “Send your proposal over to my office. I’ll have my lawyers look it over.”

He nodded to Parker. “Ms. Brown.”

As soon as he was gone, Parker turned to me. Her smile glowed. “Would it be patronizing if I told you how very proud I am of you right now?”

For years, all I had was my own sense of pride. I never knew how good it would feel to be the recipient of it.

I opened my arms, and she stepped into them. “Just don’t stop being proud of me, all right?”

I could handle anything as long as she was in my corner.

Parker

One of the reasons I grew to love science and engineering so much was how theories could be proven and knowledge could be gained in this tangible way, uncomplicated by emotion or contradiction.

Life outside of science was messy and definitely contradictory. After Theo died, I wanted nothing but to avoid it.

Yet, if we’re honest, there are contradictions in science too. Take the moon, for example. Using uranium-lead dating, geologists dated fragments of the moon and determined it was 4.51 billion years old. But if you calculate the rate at which it is moving away from the earth and then reverse it, the moon would have been sitting on top of the earth only 1.55 billion years ago. A direct contradiction to the big bang cosmology.

So there were contradictions in life everywhere. Even in my beloved world of academia. I just hadn’t wanted to admit it. I wanted it to be safe from that. Yet, you can’t hide from life. It was messy and convoluted and emotional, and I was done cowering behind excuses.

Which was why I cycled to work the day after I confronted Rhys about Marcy with a dreamy expression on my face but an ache of guilt in my chest.

Since then Rhys and I did more than just have hot sex. Sometimes he made love to me. I knew it, lying beneath him as he gazed into my eyes and moved inside me. It was magical and stunning and stole my breath. So, of course, every time I thought about those moments, I couldn’t help my goofy goddamn grin.

However, I’d also every now and then get an image of the hurt on his face when I told him we were from different worlds. My guilt was real. I shouldn’t have had an entire conversation in my head about our relationship without him out of fear, and I’d spent the last few weeks since that night trying to show him that I wasn’t afraid to throw myself into this relationship.

As Rhys’s training intensified, there wasn’t a lot of time to revel in our newfound certainty in each other this past week, but I was there to show support—like I did when he so cleverly made his proposal to developer Kyle Garret—and to help with any last-minute details for the charity event.

Which was now upon us.

Tomorrow was the big fight, and I had prehistoric-sized butterflies in my belly about it.