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I didn’t care, but I knew Chris did. I was going to have to explain to everyone what happened. Well, maybe not the truth because the last thing I needed was the media learning that I was almost knocked out by a woman who might be five foot four and that was stretching it. Hell, even my manager would have a field day with this.
I needed to do some damage control, fast. It meant getting the good ole doc out of here fast. I rushed through my shower, and pulled on a clean pair of shorts, and a T-shirt. Before leaving the bathroom, I checked the cut on the right side of my head. It looked worse than I thought it would. Thankfully it wasn’tbleeding any longer, but was it going to be fully healed in the next five days? Not so sure.
She had cleaned the wound thoroughly before I had showered, and she didn’t seem overly concerned any longer. Didn’t actually say it looked good, but since she didn’t insist I go to the hospital or her clinic anymore, I took that as a good sign. But she had no idea what was coming up in a few days.
Two things could happen. Either the doctor would pull me from fighting because he thought I had a prior head trauma, or my opponent would see it as a weakness, and use it to his advantage. I’d like to avoid either from happening.
I knew she hadn’t meant it, but damn it, the timing of this couldn’t be worse. Walking out of the bathroom, I found her sitting on the couch, leaning back, with her eyes closed. I stood there watching her for a moment, expecting her eyes to fly open and yell at me for staring. But she didn’t move. Was she asleep? Funny, she was so insistent about coming here to take care of me, and now I needed to leave the room, so that I didn’t disturb her.
Although she was beautiful, and I was enjoying the view, I had something else that I needed to take care of. Grabbing the keys to the apartment, I headed back down to the lobby. Might as well see if I can talk my way out of whatever trouble I had caused for Chris. When I arrived, the doorman was speaking to another one of the tenants. Their expression made it apparent that I was the topic.
Walking over to them I said, “Excuse me. I wanted to apologize for my appearance when I entered a short while ago. You all know that I’m training for a title match in a few days. I hadn’t expected the cut to re-open on my way back to the apartment. This has never happened before and I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The doorman nodded and said, “Thank you.”
I could appreciate the fact he was a man of little words. Too bad the guy who was standing there wasn’t the same.
“I’ve done some research on you, Giampietro. Do you really think you can win?” he asked. “I mean, it looks like you lost in training and that was just a sparring partner.”
Arrogant ass.
He probably couldn’t last thirty seconds in a ring with a sparring partner, never mind in an actual fight.“If you want to lose your money, feel free to bet against me. But trust me, I’m ready.” I wasn’t going to waste my time trying to convince him otherwise. All it was going to do was piss me off, or worse, create a doubt within me that I couldn’t afford to have.
Turning away before either of them could continue with the conversation, I headed back up to the apartment. When I entered, I saw her standing there, looking stressed.
“Where did you go? I’ve been worried,” she said.
“Sorry. I forgot something in my Jeep. I would’ve let you know, but you were sleeping soundly.”
She let out a long exhale and nodded. “I’ve had a long day at the clinic, and then what happened after, well, it took more out of me than I thought. I’m sorry. I meant to stay awake and check on your wound when you finished showering.”
I turned and showed her my head. “All clean. And it didn’t bleed when I washed it. You did a great job on it.” It had been a little more than an hour since she’d whacked me with that board. If it were still bleeding now, she wouldn’t need to tell me to go get it checked. I’d be doing that myself.
She walked over and gently touched my cheek, so my head turned to the side. “Oh, it is swollen and looks like it hurts.”
What hurt more right now was the physical need to pull her into my arms and feel that gentle touch on the rest of my body.Fuck. Don’t think about it.
“It does. But it was an accident,” I said, pulling away. I needed to keep my distance.
“A foolish one. If I wasn’t so afraid of the rats that were chasing me, it never would’ve happened.”
“Why don’t we sit on the couch, and you can explain what made you go into the alley in the first place,” I suggested.
I sat on the other side of the couch and waited for her to answer my question.
“I hired a contractor to do some work for me. When I left the clinic, I found that he hadn’t cleaned everything up. When I called him to ask him to return, he explained why he couldn’t. Since I own the property, it is my responsibility to handle it. I was concerned that someone might trip on it and get hurt.”
“And you had no one you could call to come and do it for you?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I just wanted it done so I could go home and rest. Hence why I fell asleep while waiting for you.”
“I hate to say it, but I’m glad I was in the alley. Not that I’m worried about the rats because they were probably more scared of you. But it is not safe for you to be there alone,” I warned.
“You were there. Why?” she asked.
“I had gone out for a run and was cutting through the alley on my way back to my Jeep.” I had stopped running when I saw her by the dumpster, backing up, slowly. What I hadn’t planned on was her turning so suddenly with that damn wood in her hands because I was so focused on trying to see what had her so scared.
“Mr. Giampietro, I can’t say it enough, I’m sorry.”
