Words & Whiskey

EDITED VERSION: Chapter Twenty-Three

I set my coffee mug down on the counter and looked around the apartment. "Where is Nathan?"

"Where do you think?" Darian snorted as he changed channels on the television. "He's at the gym."

"Again?" I leaned against the marble counter and sighed. "This is his fifth time this week and he was supposed to bring me today but he left without waking me up."

My roommate shrugged. "Liam came to the apartment again when you and Samara went to Starbucks yesterday. I think he just needs to let out some steam."

I sighed and placed my mug in the sink. "I'm going to go see him."

Darian turned around and gave me a confused look. "Why?"

"Because he is upset and now I'm upset because he didn't wake me up to train," I replied, stomping over to the coat rack by the front door. I grabbed my navy peacoat and tied up my laced boots. I opened the door and turned back to Darian. "I'll be back later."

***

I stood in front of the rickety old building and I sighed. The place looked even worse than when I had last seen it. The bricks were more chipped and all the windows were broken and sealed up with either duct tape or wooden planks.

As I went down the stairs, I braced myself for the grossness and creepiness I was about to endure. Usually, when I came here with Nathan, no one paid any attention to me, but whenever I dared to come alone to meet him here, all I got were perverted looks and flirtatious comments. I opened the door and I was harshly greeted with the metallic smell of blood and sweat. I made my way through the crowd, ignoring the flirtatious stares and whistles I received as I walked by.

Once I made my way to the room, I slammed the door and stood with my arms crossed, staring at Nathan intently. "Fancy seeing you here."

Nathan stopped attacking the bag and he gave me an annoyed look.

Sweat dripped down his face and his hair looked soaked. He wasn't wearing a shirt, which caused me to feel distracted as he walked slowly over to me, his muscles bulging as he did so. Once he was right in front of me, he stopped and gave me a pointed glare.

"What have I said about coming here alone?" He said, in a dangerously low voice.

"You can't blame me for that one seeing as you were supposed to train me today but blew me off instead." I countered, taking a step around him and going deeper into the room. "You give me a beautiful necklace, we had a fake relationship, and we spent the night together, yeah, it was just sleeping but still. You can't go from acting all cute one day and ignoring Darian and me the next."

Nathan's serious face soon was replaced with a cocky grin. "You thought I was cute?"

"That is not the point!" I argued, feeling flustered. Without further thought, I punched the punching bag in front of me with my left bare hand. Pain pierced through my knuckles and up my arm. Why would I do that? "Shit that hurt!"

Nathan chuckled as he took off his gloves and then he went to grab some wraps from his gym bag that was on the bench near the equipment and began to wrap up my hand. "You're supposed to punch with the gloves on, princess. C'mon, I know I taught you better than that."

I scowled at him. "I'm still mad at you. Darian may not say it because he doesn't want to piss you off but he's worried about you and the fighting and everything else that's going on with you."

"What fighting?" Nathan questioned, scrunching his eyebrows in a fake confusion.

I rolled my eyes and looked down at his hands carefully wrapping up my probably sprained hand. "We've seen the bruises, Nate. You need to stop. Do you really want that pretty face of yours all bruised up?"