Back To You // T.K

Pearl

'Come on, Pearl, quicker!', Alec yelled, as he tried to keep the punching bag from swinging.
I threw a punch with my right hand, followed by another one with the left.
Right, left, high, low: my fists moved following the rhythm of my short breaths.
Sweat was dripping from the back of my ear to my sports bra, as my hair swinged from left to right.

'Stop', Alec said, as he relaxed his grip from the punching bag.
I hopped on my feet as I watched him walk around the bag, a disappointed yet amused look on his face.

'You have to be quicker if you want to win this match', he said, placing his hands on his hips.
I rolled my eyes as I bent down and took a sip of water from a bottle.
I desperately needed a shower: me and Alec had been working out for the past three hours, as he prepared me for a match I would've had the next week.

I started taking boxing lessons soon after he finished decorating the gym and started to take in clients.
At first it started with just a few lessons, so that I could've learned how to defended myself and never let people like Christian attack me ever again, but me and Alec soon became friends.
He was kind enough to offer me a job at the front desk, when he found out how I was struggling to find a place of my own and still continue my law studies.
I sure wasn't a millionaire, but with the pay-check he gave me, I managed to pay for rent for a little, yet sophisticated apartment just outside Florence.

Then, one thing led to another, and the workouts changed from two times a week, then four, five, and me and Alec became good friends.
Maybe even a little more than that.

'I'm trying', I replied, panting and trying to catch my breath, 'you're just too hard on me.'

He rolled his eyes as he walked closer to me and moved a piece of my hair away from my face.
He smiled as he did so.

'And you think the bitch on the ring won't be even harder than me?', he sighed, 'you have to be prepared for everything if you want to win, otherwise that pretty little face of yours will be busted.'

I chuckled, throwing the bottle on the ground and jumping in his arms.
Grunting, he wrapped  his arms around my waist and began to walk towards my desk, which was on the left of the entrance.

'I bet you wouldn't like that', I said, as he placed me on top of the desk.

He smiled and put my hair behind my ears, leaving a few kisses on jaw and neck.
I bit my lip and tilted my head back, whimpering at the feeling of his cold lips on my warm skin.

'It's been a while since you actually spent the night at my place', he said, as he kissed me from my neck to my collar bone.
'Why don't you come tonight?', his kisses lowered all the way to my cleavage, - he knew a few tricks when it came to asking me something he wanted.

'I have to study', I whispered, trying to sound sure of myself, 'and you know spending nights is not part of the deal.'

'Oh, yeah?', he smirked, lifting his head and placing his palms on my jaw.
'And what is the deal, again?'

'We're friends', I said, while my fingers wandered under his shirt, 'who like to have fun.'

I'm not sure when exactly our relationship changed, I just knew we went from actual friends, to what you could call a 'friends with benefits' relationship, - no feelings, no sleeping at each other's houses, none of that shit.
He was four years older than me, and moved to Italy five months ago, a month before I got there, but he'd just got out of a nasty divorce.
Apparently, one night he came home and caught his, now ex, wife in bed with another man, while he himself had brought another girl over, - relationship goals, I guess.
He didn't need feelings, nor did I.
I wasn't married or divorced, but leaving Tom most definitely felt like it.
It felt like I left my family behind while I enjoyed my life at their expense, because he actually was my family.
He was the only form of love I had ever known in 20 years, so it was still difficult for me not to think about him.
I made sure to stay off the internet as much as I could, so that I didn't have to look at pictures of him and, - I guessed, - all the girls he brought home.
But, from time to time, his memory floated back in my brain, and it hurt.