Fight For You

Chapter 10

I never slept in. I was always up early, training before work and ready to face the day. Since today was a Sunday, I should have met my family for Mass and breakfast. Instead I woke up to my phone buzzing on my nightstand. I would have ignored it, but the number was Jackie's.

I grabbed it and slid it up to my ear. "Hey."

"Hey. Oh god, I'm sorry, did I wake you up?"

"No. Not at all." She had, but I wasn't going to tell her that. I didn't want her to think I was some sort of low life that slept in half the day. I turned over onto my back and glanced at the clock. It was already noon.

"Sorry about last night. Some shit happened with my ex and I had to get out of there. I hope you understand, but, um, are you free today? Can we maybe hang out?" She hesitated with each word. She was nervous. I imagined her biting her lip and I instantly wanted to see her and nibble on that lip.

"Yeah. That'd be great. Do you want to come here? I can give your name to my doorman and he'll let you up." I sat straight up in bed. I had a bad case of morning wood and it was even worse since I was thinking about her lips.

"I would, but I don't know if I'd have a ride. I can maybe see if Haley can drop me off ..."

Now I was definitely at attention. I slid out of bed and walked toward my window. "What do you mean you don't have a ride? What happened to your bike?"

"That was part of the problem with my ex. One of his gang brothers heard that you gave it to me, so they took it and crashed it." She sighed, choking on her words. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get you involved in my fucked up life. I shouldn't have even called you. I-I-I just really wanted to see you again and I didn't know what else to do and—"

"Don't worry about it." I cut her off. "Give me your address and I'll pick you up. We can figure out the bike and douche bag ex-boyfriend thing later, okay?"

She sniffled. "Are you sure? You don't have to do any of this."

I clenched my free hand into a fist, glad as hell I took care of Emilio the night before. "There's nothing more that I want today than to see you."

"Really?"

"Of course. I didn't get to see you at all after the fight last night. I'll pick you up, make you lunch, or whatever."

"Wait," she interrupted. "You cook?"

"Yeah, what good Italian boy doesn't know how to cook?"

"Okay, this I have to see. You can definitely pick me up if you're going to cook for me."

I took down her address. I wasn't expecting her to live out in the suburbs when I offered to come get her, but I'd make the drive. Some time behind the wheel before seeing her to clear my head couldn't hurt. "All right. It may be awhile since you live out in butt fuck, is that okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine. Just call or text when you get here and I'll come out."

"All right. See you soon."

"Bye, Nick."

"Bye, Jackie."

***

The suburb Jackie lived in wasn't one of the nicer ones. Most of the shops were boarded up or replaced with places where people traded their car title in for cash. It was almost a worse neighborhood than my gym was in. Almost.

I slowed my car once the smooth voice of my GPS informed me I was approaching Jackie's street. It was a one-way road with cars parked on both sides in front of a line of crumbling brick townhouses, each one more weathered than the next. I stopped at 1010, Jackie's address. A cracked sidewalk led up to cement stoop with a rusted railing and faded white storm door. Like all the others, her lawn needed some watering.