Banging Reaper (Pounding Hearts 1)

The look of vulnerability vanishes and Ethan stiffens as if I just hurt him

Once again I feel like crying because this is it. This is the end of our friendship. And now, without Ethan, I have no one left. I’ve already pushed away Chase.

After a tense, silent moment, Ethan narrows his eyes in anger and frowns at me. “What are you going to do?”

That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? What am I going to do? I don’t think I can go running back to Chase. Not after all the things I said to him. Not after realizing I’m not good enough for him.

I don’t have an answer right now so I shake my head and shrug my shoulders. “I don’t know, I’ll figure out something.”

“If you leave now it puts me in a bind.”

“I’m sorry,” I apologize. “I don’t want to put you in a bind. I didn’t know it was going to turn out this way.”

Ethan yanks up his sleeve and checks his watch again as if he’s worried he’ll late for something. He scowls then looks back at me. “Can you at least give me two weeks? I think two weeks notice is standard practice. I’ll need to find someone to take your place.”

I hesitate, about to shake my head and tell him no, sorry.

“Two weeks. Just two weeks, Avery,” Ethan asks me while leaning over the desk, his eyes now pleading me.

And, perhaps it’s because I already feel guilty for letting this crap between us go on as long as it has, or perhaps it’s because I still feel indebted to him for everything he’s done for me, going against my better judgement I relent.

“Two weeks,” I tell him and mean it. He’s got two weeks and that’s it.

Ethan smiles and sighs, obviously relieved. “Thanks, Ave. You’re a babe.”

I grimace but he doesn’t appear to be disturbed by it. He reaches into his pocket and fishes out a set of keys.

“We need to head over to the gym.” He tosses the keys at me. “Do you mind driving?”

Chapter Twenty

Chase

Slipping into a routine now is far too easy and miserable at the same fucking time. I have gotten used to having Avery around my house. And I still have fucking cat hair everywhere! I miss the little furball, having him around was really cool too.

The only reason I didn’t get her a ring was because I didn't really have the time to go and look for one yet. The image of her hand in mine with wedding bands on them was a pretty strong one. I could see getting old with this girl.

“HEAD. OUT. OF. ASS!” bellows Dale as I am tossed to the floor by my sparring partner. Fucker has a grin on his face about a mile fucking long.

Dale stands outside of the practice cage ranting loudly as he clutches the chain link, his fingers turning white. “Two fucking weeks left! Two fucking weeks. AND. Every single week you start focused and turn to shit towards the fucking end because you can't keep your fucking head out of your own ass!”

I tune Dale out as I stand up and square off against Brett. He's an up and coming light heavyweight. Good guy and good fighter, but Dale is right, I have been fucking around too much with thinking about Avery. I start up our sparring exercises and remain focused on working with Brett.

***

I am giving Avery her space. I sent her a couple of texts over the last few weeks only making sure she is okay. It would fucking kill me if anything happened to her because I wasn't there to keep her safe.

The last one goes the exact same way as the only other one I’ve sent to her.

Me: Are you ok?

Avery: Yes.

I am dying to say I love you in each one of them, but I haven't. I want to so badly. But I don't. I am keeping my word. I will give her the space she needs.

Training has been going well despite all the ranting Dale has been doing. I think he's stressed out that I am upset about something beyond fighting. Not that he or I can fix the situation. It's in her hands right now. But I don't know for how much longer. I will only wait for so long before I go back to her apartment, break down her door and try to drag her home, bringing the furball with me.

I haven't heard anything from Ethan except the same rhetoric he has been spewing since he was given a rematch shot. He was cheated, he has to take me down to show who’s the king of the cage. I am scared of him, I got lucky. Same shit, just over and over again.