8
Lowe
My muscles burned in a good way as I I swung out towards Oliver, hoping to make contact with one of my heavy, red boxing gloves. I didn’t have many releases for my pent-up frustrations, so whenever I got the opportunity, I liked to engage in my favorite past time, boxing. I was thrilled to learn that at least one of the other dads liked boxing as well, so Oliver and I made it a point to get together to box once a week. I flattered myself as a better boxer than him, but I knew that, in reality, he could kick my ass.
My punch swung wide and Oliver ducked out of the way, swinging his own fist down into my gut for a low blow. “Fuck,” I grunted.
“Come on,” Oliver hugged between breaths. “I know you can do better than that.”
I stood upright and backed away from Oliver. I sniffed in, recovering from the blow, and then went back in. I was determined to land at least one solid hit against Oliver before we ended our match for the day. He always got the best of me and I wanted the upper hand for once.
I swung out, but Oliver threw up his forearm and blocked it with expertise. I threw my other fist, but he parried and stepped out to the side.
“Fuck. You move quick for a guy with a stick so far up his ass,” I growled.
Oliver relaxed his body, and dropped his fists. “What the fu–” I threw a punch and made hard contact with Oliver’s face. He stumbled back and dropped to his butt. He tilted his head back and then started laughing. “Well played.”Oliver had one overarching weakness: his ego. I didn’t like to exploit things like that unless I needed to, but I was getting tired and I wanted to take Oliver down. Mission accomplished. I used my teeth to peel off the velcro of my right glove and then reached out a hand and pulled Oliver to his feet. We each pulled off our gloves and then climbed out of the ring.“Fair match,” Oliver said with a smile, holding out his fist for a bump, “but you won’t get me like that next time.”I met his fist bump with my own. “Sorry. I had to pee.”
Oliver rolled his eyes and then we made our way over to our bags. I pulled out my phone and saw that I had a couple of missed calls from Cade. I looked over at Oliver and saw that he had his head cocked to the side in confusion as well.
“Hey,” I called over. “Missed calls from Cade?”
“Yeah,” Oliver replied. “That’s weird. He never calls.”
Cade was a religious texter. He did so much talking all day, every day at his job, so when he was off the clock, he preferred to save his voice and text.
“Get dressed and we’ll call him from the car,” Oliver said.
I changed out of my workout clothes, and met Oliver at his pristine, silver Lexus in front of our gym. I climbed into the passenger’s side of his car, and then Oliver got in and started his car.
He pressed the phone button and his car blinged to life. “Call Cade,” Oliver told it, and a second later Cade answered.
“Where the hell have you been?” Cade barked.
“Whoa,” Oliver replied. “Hey, Cade, it’s me and Lowe. We were at the gym, boxing. I kicked his ass, obviously.”
“If by ‘kicked his ass,’ you mean fell flat on yours, then I would say that’s an accurate depiction of what happened today,” I cut in.
“You cheated,” Oliver spat back.
I gasped. “What? No, I–”
“Hey guys, fun fact, I don’t give a shit who won your little means nothing boxing match. I had my fingers up Jordan’s pussy last night,” Cade said.
