Fighting For a Second Chance (Fighting 1)

She looks at Bella and says very calmly, “No, you may not play in the mud with Tristan. Not until you’ve graduated from college, have a good job, and are married.”

Bella looks at her completely confused and begins arguing when I decide to help Kayla out and change the subject. “Oh, Bella, look at the time. If you don’t want to be late, we better get you washed up so you can be on your way to preschool.”

Hearing the word preschool, she immediately forgets all about playing in the mud and getting dirty with boys. Kayla shoots me a look of gratitude and begins to clean up the dishes from breakfast. I mouth to her, “you owe me.”

After dropping Bella off at preschool—and crying my eyes out at the fact that my baby is growing up—I head to a couple places to apply for an accounting position. I love numbers so it was a given I would major in business and accounting, but I never imagined it would be so hard to find a job in this field.

After filling out several applications, I make my way to the coffee shop on the corner near our apartment to get a cup of coffee and continue looking for a job. Right after getting my coffee and pulling out my laptop, I get a text message. I check it and sigh. I should’ve known she wouldn’t drop this.

Kayla: Please, Liz. Friday night 7 p.m. UFC fight

Me: Not happening

Kayla: One night out isn’t going to make you a bad mom. Pleeeeaaasssseeeee!

Me: I don’t even have a sitter.

Kayla: I already spoke to Tristan’s mom and she said she’d watch Bella for the night. No excuses!

Me: All night? You know how I feel about leaving her with someone overnight. I barely even let my mom take her.

Kayla: Your mom lives in Florida! You can’t compare the two. One night. Bella will love staying up and watching movies with Tristan. You’ve known Ashley for three years and she’s a mom just like you! Plus, she’s a teacher! C’mon… do this for me!

Me: Fine.

Kayla: Seriously? You’re really going to go?

Me: Yes

Kayla: Your one-word answers are scaring me…

Me: Good, you should be scared. I’m not happy about this.

Kayla: Yay!! I’m so excited. I will be home around 3 so we can go buy new dresses for Friday. C-ya later!

It’s Friday night and I seriously can’t believe she’s talked me into this. I should be immune to the craziness that is Kayla, but I’m clearly not. For starters, I haven’t worn a little black dress since before I got pregnant with Bella, and if I remember correctly, it was that damn LBD that got me into that position in the first place. Although, I can’t really be upset about it because it got me Bella, and I wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world. But that’s not the point.

The point is, I don’t want to be wearing this dress and going to this fight when I can be home hanging out with Bella until she goes to bed, and then reading one of my romance novels that I live vicariously through since my own sex life is non-existent. Well, except for in my dreams.

After our mini-shopping trip, we pick Bella up from preschool, where she explains to us the entire way home in detail every second of every minute of every hour of her first day at school.

“Mommy, I love preschool so much I’ve decided I’m going back tomorrow.” Well, that’s good because she doesn’t really have a choice.

I do my best to stifle the laugh I have building up because she’s being dead serious right now. I guess it’s good she’s decided she’s going to continue her education on her own because trying to force Bella to do something she doesn’t want to do is like pulling teeth.

After dropping Bella off at Tristan’s house with my friend Ashley, we head over to the stadium. I met Ashley through a mommy-and-me class we attended with our kids and she’s probably the only person outside of my family I trust to watch Bella. As luck would have it our kids also ended up in the same preschool class.

Since Hayley had to get there early, since she’s working the event, she left us tickets at will-call. We take our tickets and head to our assigned seats.

As I sit here, in my little black dress and heels, looking around at this madhouse of an event, I wonder why I’m so gullible that I let Kayla talk me into this shit. The entire place is packed. Music is pounding through the speakers, women are everywhere dressed to kill, and everybody is clearly pumped for the event. I never realized how popular the UFC is.

It appears Hayley has hooked us up with decent seats. We’re sitting pretty close to the front—or the middle, I guess? In the center of the arena is a huge stage looking thing with a fence that runs around the perimeter. From where we’re sitting, the guys can practically sweat on us when they’re fighting. To our left is a black carpet that leads from what looks like the dressing rooms or is it fitting rooms? Shit, I don’t even know. It’s some type of room where the guys will come out of and walk down the carpet to get to the stage.