Sucker Punch (The Submission Fighter Book 2) (4 page)

Micah continued to stand there, frozen as the two girls tried to navigate the situation. He was aware that he was not supposed to be seen or found. Yet, here he was, right in the line of fire and exposing all of Alice’s lies from the past month.

“Alice, I have to go. Walk with me.” Micah’s voice was low and soft, yet he was ultimately commanding her to follow. Alice turned back into the bedroom and slipped on a pair of pants she had discarded earlier.  When she returned, Caroline was still in the living room, bat in her hand.

Micah led the way, silently stomping down the apartment building’s stairs. Alice was ten steps behind him, unsure of what to do next. When they got the bottom, he waited for her, facing the door nearest the street.

“Micah… I don’t…” Alice wasn’t sure exactly what she wanted to say. Should she apologize? Should she blame him for waking her roommate? What was their next move? Her half asleep daze was not helping her focus on the situation at hand.

“It’s—it’s fine. We’ll talk tomorrow.” He spit the words out harshly, as he opened the door and took a step outside.

Alice caught the door as it slammed inwards. “Will I see you? Will you call me?” She felt so weak, as she practically begged him for an answer.

“Yeah. I’ll call you after practice. I just need to go.” He continued to walk towards his car, his head down towards the pavement.

Barefoot, she raced after him, grabbing his leather coat by the arm. He stopped and turned towards her reluctantly. She reached her tiny hands up to grasp his face as she threw herself into an awkward, unreciprocated embrace. He leaned down, kissed her on the forehead, and continued towards his car. She watched him get in and speed off in the darkness without a glance back her direction.

Alice was left alone in the darkened street with nothing before her.

It had been five days—five days since Micah had left Alice’s apartment, five days since Caroline had spoken to her, five days for Alice to feel like her world was slowly closing in on her. Micah had kept his promise to call her after his practices, but it was more to give her excuses on why he couldn’t see her. He was too busy, too preoccupied with the ring and tonight’s preliminary rounds of the Invitational.

But Alice could hear it. She could hear the sound of his voice fade in and out, as he searched out how to keep her at arm’s distance. She wasn’t going to be blind to his actions, nor would she forgive him. Instead, she chose to continue her life as it was before him. She preoccupied herself by taking up extra shifts at work, by painting landscapes and dreamscapes, and by attempting to reconcile with Caroline.

Her first attempt had not gone well. When she had returned to the apartment that night, Caroline was already back in bed, pretending to sleep. The next morning, Alice’s shift had started too early for her to confront Caroline in person. On the second day, the two had worked together, but Caroline had made it abundantly clear that she was not ready to hear from Alice.

Today, however, Alice had a plan. She had switched shifts with one of the other waitresses, which guaranteed that she would be getting off as Caroline would be starting her work. As she handed off her apron to Pete, she grabbed her coat and purse and sat down right in Caroline’s section waiting to be served.

When Caroline noticed, she looked at Alice with such contempt. She even attempted to get the second waitress to switch tables with her, but Alice played it smart and simply switched seats. A put off Caroline finally came to her side, tossing napkins, a glass of water, and some silverware her way.

As she walked away, Alice spoke up, “You cannot ignore me forever. You have to talk to me, or I will just sit here all night making your life hell and stealing this seat from real, tipping customers.”

Caroline froze and turned around. Her face was nearly purple from frustration, as her fists balled by her sides. She slid into the booth across from Alice and waited for her roommate to continue.

“I am so sorry I didn’t tell you about getting back together with Micah. It was for a good reason.”

Caroline snorted sarcastically, as she crossed her arms and looked out towards the windows. “I bet. Do tell…”

Alice sucked in a quick gasp of air in an attempt to keep her voice firm, but calm. “We cannot tell anyone. Micah’s career depends on him keeping up appearances. And I thought it would be easier to keep you out of the loop, as well.”

“So, you didn’t trust me? How sweet.” Caroline had made an excellent point. Why hadn’t Alice felt that Caroline could keep her secret relationship to herself? She had always been a reliable friend in the past.

“You’re right. I suck. I should have told you. But everything was so new, and with photographers following him around, it just felt like we had no other option.” Alice let down her guard, hoping it would make a difference. “I have never felt like this with anyone before. It’s so new, and I just cannot stand the thought of jeopardizing it right now. He’s good to me. He’s good for me.”

“Good for you?” Caroline's voice suddenly raised, as she turned her head to face her friend for the first time. “Girl, you have no idea what that man has done to you.”

“What? If you’re talking about the break-up earlier, that was me.” 

Caroline cut her off from rehashing the events in which his coach had basically manipulated her into leaving Micah. “I’m not talking about that. I am talking about what he did to Pete a couple days ago.”

Alice looked towards Pete. His head was down, obstructed by the same baseball cap she saw him wear just four days ago. Suddenly, a cold, uneasy feeling crept over her. Whatever Micah had done, she did not want a part in it.

“He punched Pete, Alice! He claimed that Pete was getting too close to you or some other jealous bullshit like that.”

“When?”

“Last week. Pete told me it was while you were working and before he came in for the afternoon lunch rush. He was waiting in the parking lot, and he approached him and just knocked him. He told Pete he had to stop going after you or he would kill him.”

Alice’s green eyes bulged, as she played the incident out in her own imagination. While it sounded out of character for Micah, she could believe it. Just a month ago, he had punched his own coach for daring to insult her. After she had told him about how Pete had come on to her aggressively, hurting her in the process, she could see him going even more nuts.

Suddenly, the reason for the shift changes and vacation days came to focus. Pete had been treating her better. He had stopped uttering comments under his breath about her. He had allowed her to change shifts and to even leave early yesterday since it was a slow day. Alice hadn’t noticed, at least, she didn’t want to notice. She just thought that things were coming around for her. 

Alice’s hands trembled as she took a sip of her water. Struggling to swallow, she choked the liquid back and returned to Caroline who waited for her to process the news. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Pete told me yesterday. I had mentioned the whole thing with Micah, and he pulled me aside to show me where Micah had hit him.”

Alice began to panic. “Who else knows about this?” she demanded

“Honey, your secret is safe,” Caroline chortled. “The only people who know are him and me. Oh, and Jace. Jace was there, too.”

“What did Jace say?” Alice had a sinking suspicion that Jace would cause more problems than Pete or Caroline could ever dream up. Jace had always been the seedier of the three, the one willing to go to every length to make his own agenda known.

“We all agreed actually. We kind of admire you. You managed to nail yourself a millionaire. And not only nail him, he obviously is willing to be a jackass for you.”

Alice was taken aback. While she had enjoyed some of the perks of dating a man with money, his net worth had never really come to her mind. “It has nothing to do with money.”

“
Seriously
? How fucking naïve do you think I am?” Caroline exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. “Jesus
Christ
, Alice, you’re no better than those skanky-ass groupies that spread their legs for him so they can get a taste of that fat bank account.”

Alice stared at her, mouth agape. “Wow,” she said after a few moments. “I’m glad to know
exactly
what you think of me.”

Caroline had crossed a line, and she knew it, but there was no backing down now. Instead, she softened her tone just a smidge. “What’s the endgame here, Alice? You fall in love? You get married and have babies? He’s a fucking
fighter
, girl. Sure, he’s all good for a screw when
he
wants it, but you just wait—he’s gonna ditch you as soon as a hotter piece of ass comes by. And if you keep this up, you’re gonna have to pick up the pieces all by yourself.”

The two women sat in silence, the anger burning equally between them. Caroline looked out to the empty diner, spotting Jace as he entered. She smiled at him as he took his seat at the counter across from Pete. She turned back to Alice who had remained frozen in time. “You know,” she sneered, “Jace said we should call some reporters. We’d probably make a fortune selling your story.” She winked at Alice.

Alice had heard enough. She slipped out of the booth and headed straight to the door. As she walked quickly away from the diner, she passed Caroline still sitting at the booth. She could swear she saw her red lips draw up to a smirk.

The walk home had given her ample time to calm down, but as she attempted to unlock her apartment building’s door, she could feel something was wrong. There was no place on Earth that she wanted to be less than the apartment she shared with Caroline. Going there for refuge, even while her roommate was stuck at work for at least a six more hours, was just not something she could allow herself to do.

Alice pulled out her black cell phone from her coat pocket and dialed the first number on her phone’s call list. As she predicted, it went to voice mail. Her voice was speedy, almost unrecognizable to even herself as she left her message and said, “Micah. It’s me. I know you don’t want to see me. Whatever. But I have to see you. I am coming to your match tonight. I’ll buy my own ticket. I will see you afterwards. Good luck.”

If Alice had called only moments before, Micah may have been able to answer or even listen to her message. Instead, he turned his phone off as he entered the staging area. Dean had lectured him on clearing his head and becoming distraction-free. Instead, he slipped his headphones on and turned up the volume of his pre-fight playlist. All the world faded out as Micah concentrated completely on the work ahead of him.

But as the hours ticked down to the match, he found himself more and more surrounded by the craziness that was the big ticket Invitational. First on the docket was checking with the match officials, heads of the MMA organization who insisted on checking every bit of his equipment, administering a blood test, and running him through the gauntlet with a list of pressing questions.

Second up was the announcement of the order of fights. With the Invitational, there would be twenty MMA fighters from the USA. Micah represented his area, and he was therefore being called the “hometown hero.” His match was promised to draw a record breaking crowd, and by the look of the packed room that had come to watch him do his staged weigh-in, he knew he had a lot riding on his shoulders as the runaway favorite.

Flashes fired to his left and right, as the media clamored to ask him question after question in his pre-match interview. Everything from his training schedule to his history were on the table. Dean took the bulk of the questions, justifying his spotlight grabbing by saying it kept up Micah’s mystique as the mystery fighter. Micah was more than happy to let Dean handle the heavy lifting.

Alice had arrived just in time to catch the last half of the conference. She had managed to sneak in a back entrance and stood in the corner of the press room, watching Micah passively. She was still heated from the information Caroline had given her about Micah’s handling of Pete. In her mind, the only way he could be absolved was to hear it directly from him.

As Micah wrapped up his last question, he quickly made his way out of the room, allowing for his opponent and their staff to come in next. Alice followed the crowd of reporters trailing behind him. She was unnoticed, even by Micah, who had walked silently to the dressing room with his head down and headphones planted in his ears. He failed to hear Alice cry out to him as he slammed the locker room door behind him.

The press pool largely dispersed, looking for another fighter to follow. Alice made her move as she used the same name and line she had given at the last match. She wasn’t entirely sure that Micah had made the efforts to put her on the list or even if he had the time to. But she had to try.

As the security guard searched his paper lists of approved guests, a man approached her from behind. “Are you trying to get in?”

“Yeah. I am supposed to be on the list. Press, you know.” She turned her face away from him, not wanting to be given away.

“Really? What paper are you with? Where are your credentials?” The man seemed overly concerned about Alice’s position, but she remained silent waiting for entry. The security guard spotted her alias on the list and opened the door to the locker room.

As Alice entered, a rush of press flooded towards her, surrounding her. The man began shouting questions at her. “Who are you? How do you know Micah?”

Another one joined in and asked, “Are you seeing him? Is he paying you?”

More shouts rose. “Are you the girl he’s been dating for the last month? What is it like to date Micah Anderson?”

Alice’s head spun wildly to face each reporter as cameras went off in her face. The noise, the shouts, the lights overwhelmed her, as she struggled to find the entry to the door. The security guard did his best to push them away, but the amount overwhelmed him.

Suddenly, Alice felt a quick grab on her arm as she stood frozen in the center of a media mob. She was yanked forcefully backwards towards where the locker dorms once were. She lost her balance, falling into the cement wall, as she heard the thud of the door shut and the voices growing farther away.