The Fighter

Chapter 11

|Andy|

"Simon, I don't wanna stay home by myself tonight."
"Why?"
"The nights of fights make me nervous after the break in."
"Okay, I'll stay, but I have to leave fairly early in the morning." I kicked off my shoes and plopped down on the couch in the living room. Simon stalked in after me and threw himself down in a chair. I got up and went over to the chair, sitting down on his lap. "What are you doing, Andy?"
"Who said I was doing anything?" I snuggled up to him, wrapping my arms around his waist. In this moment, I felt extremely tiny. I mean extremely. He didn't really move at first. Didn't put his arms around me, didn't move at all, just sat there. "Simon, please. I'm sorry about earlier, okay? There wasn't much I could do, but I'm sorry."
His face broke into a huge grin and he latched onto my waist. "You're so tiny, you know that? Look at your little hands. How do you cold things?"
"My hands aren't that little."
"They're tiny. You're tiny. It's so damn adorable. I want to protect you from everything."
"I don't think that's possible."
"I'll do everything to protect you from as much as possible." My eyes were starting to feel heavy, and I really didn't want to admit I was sleepy, but there was no way to hide the yawns. "Goodnight, Andy."
The first sound I heard in the morning was the front door slamming. It wasn't Simon leaving because he was still asleep. I got up and tiptoed to the doorway, peering around the side of the door.
"Mum!" I hadn't seen either of my parents in quite a while. I was used to it, but getting to see one of them was like a present on Christmas morning.
"Andy, love, how are you? And who's care is in the driveway?"
"I'm fine, Mum. And that's my friend's car. They're asleep in the living room."
"Mm, Andy, love, are you okay?" My eyes widened when I heard Simon's voice from the other room.
"It's a boy? Andy, dear, you didn't tell me that. What's his name? Are you dating?"
"Mum! His name's Simon." As if on cue, he walked groggily into the kitchen. He had yet to notice my mum, therefore proceeding to wrap his arms around me and kiss me. "Uh, Simon."
"Oh, um, hi? I'm Simon Minter, Andy's boyfriend. You must be her mum."
"I am. Call me Maria. It's very nice to meet you, Simon." I quickly steered Simon out of the room, pushing him towards the stairs.
"This backfired so badly."
"Was I that bad? Oh god--"
"No, she's been bothering me about getting a boyfriend for years. This is like Christmas and her birthday all wrapped up in one."
"So I didn't mess up."
"No, she'd have been fine with us having sex on the counter, to be honest."
"Well then."
"Andy, dear, I'm going to change out my bags and then I'm leaving."
"Okay, Mum, where are you going this time?"
"Your father and I have a conference in Italy."
"Okay, love you."
"Love you too." She didn't take long, so Simon and I were alone again.
"So, last night..."
"Which part?"
"At the fight."
"Simon, I--"
"I know what you've said, but I'm worried. Andy, you went for a bad boy. He's even worse than me, and I don't want him to get a hold of you."
"He won't."
"How do you know that?"
"How do you not?"
"What do you mean?"
"Simon, I've picked you multiple times. There have been so many chances I could've walked away or picked someone else, and I picked you every time."
"But--"
"Stop trying to argue with me. I'm not going to ever choose Dom de Laurentiis."
"How do you know that for sure?"
"Because I've been with you."