AllFreeNovel
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“Hey.” I stand up and put my shirt on. “Sorry, I’m just leaving.”
“No, no.” He shakes his head, putting his hands in his sweatpants pockets. “This is your home, you can be here whenever you want. I just thought everyone was gone.”
I nod, shoving my shorts into my bag and closing my locker. “They are.”
“You joining them for dinner? Rosa was practically drooling over some kind of gourmet burger as they were leaving,” he chuckles.
“No,” I mumble, putting my jacket on. “Heading home.”
Max nods, pressing his lips together and observing me for a moment.
I sigh, knowing where this is going. “Look,” I sling my backpack over my shoulder, “I don’t need to be buddies with anyone. I’m good. I can show sportsmanship in the gym and do what I need to do here to be a part of the team, but I have my personal life all figured out. I’m not in the market for friends.”
He holds a hand up, nodding again. “Alright, that’s fine.”
Fuck. I’m a dick.
“Sorry,” I mutter. I put my hands in my jacket pockets and sigh again. “I’m just... I’m good.”
“Ok,” he says with a slight shrug. “So, I just want to check in with you about how everything is going here and how you’re feeling about training, after the first day.” He then quickly adds, “Which I’ll be doing with everyone.”
“It’s good. The gym is amazing.” I nod as I look around the fancy locker room, still not quite able to believe that this is really my home gym now.
Max smiles. “Glad you like it.” He pauses for a moment. “And training with Luca?”
Tension enters my body again at just the sound of his name, and Max sees it.
“Listen,” Max takes a step closer to me, “I understand rivalry. I’ve had my fair share of it. But like I said before, you two can learn a lot from each other. I’m not asking you to be friends, or to even like each other. Just be open to learning together. There’s a reason you were both constantly riding number one and two in the rankings. You’re the missing pieces to each other’s puzzle.”
I exhale forcefully. I know what he’s saying… and I know he’s right. I’m mad at myself for letting him win against me today, but… as much as this fucking pains me to say… I do think I could learn from training with him. I let him get to me tonight, when I needed to focus. But I can also recognize that training with him can help me be more in the moment when fighting, so I can let go and feel the fight for what it is, and not get stuck in what I want it to be.
“I’ll let you go,” Max says, taking another step closer to pat my shoulder as he walks by me. “Have a good night and see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, thanks, you too.” I offer him a small smile which he returns, and heads towards his locker.
As I head out of the gym and towards my car, I take a moment to think on all of this. I need to learn how to work with Luca, and not let my hatred for him take over. I have a job to do, and I can’t let anything get in the way of that.
I don’t need to like him.
I just need to tolerate him.
But even that sounds impossible.
NINE
“This is probably the best burger I have ever had,” Rosa mumbles around a bite of food, eyes closed.
I chuckle, popping a fry into my mouth. “Perhaps a weekly tradition?”
“Oh god.” Rosa rolls her eyes. “I’ll need to double my training if so.”
Seb laughs. “Doubtful, love,” he says in his hot as fuck Irish accent. “If you keep going as hard as you did tonight, I think you’ll actually have to decrease the amount of training to make it fair for the rest of us.”
“Yeah, girl, you’re a fucking menace on those bags.” I smirk at her. “I’ll go a round with you in the ring.”
Rosa cocks an eyebrow at me. “Think you’ll have enough energy after facing Ty? Talk about being a menace. You guys went hard.”
My eye fucking twitches. “Yeah, well. What can I say, he brings out the best in me.” I pick up my burger and take an aggressive bite.
