Fight or Fall Read online

  Without further ado, he hefted me up in his arms bridal style, firmly planting kisses on my mouth as we entered his bedroom. It took him less than a minute to dress me up to his liking – which was naked – and then in a few quick seconds he stripped himself of his sweatpants and boxers. Inside the house, Milo barely wore anything which was fine, more than fine, with me. He was the most comfortable when he was shirtless and well, I was the most comfortable watching him shirtless.

  When he entered me after donning himself with a condom, I was already slick and wet. Tonight he was gentle, extremely gentle with me. Milo’s my first. All the experiences I’ve had of sex, I’ve had it with him. Only him. I wasn’t shy around him. From the first time he had me with his fingers or in his mouth, he hasn’t pushed me into doing anything I wasn’t comfortable with. He was keen on my body’s signals, always watching me, stopping when he saw a tiny grimace, a flicker of pain or doubt. I had to reassure him many times that I was okay and enjoying myself. Doing everything with him, experiencing new heights of passion with him, discovering how my body can burn, ignite, and explode in his masterful strokes was everything to me. Since then, he didn’t hold back.

  I bit my lip and moaned as I reached my peak and he let out a grunt as he swelled up and climaxed inside of me. He slowly removed himself from inside of me to dispose of the condom and came back with a small towel to clean me up. He was a consummate lover, giving himself to me, taking from me, but never hurting me. There’s a fine line between pleasure and pain. I’ve read books and I’ve seen movies that described how the production of pain, the use of force blinding pleasure, can stimulate orgasms. I wasn’t born in the 17th century. But as much as I know of how pain heightened the sexual experience, I know I’d never want that for me. Milo’s testosterone was undoubtedly off the charts. In sports, he lets it all out – the energy, the power, the aggression. In the bedroom, however, he’s attuned to my every need, my wanting to be savored, cherished, taken care of, as a woman, lover, sexual partner, an equal.

  He’s a dichotomy.

  Irreverent good looks, respectful to women.

  Overall bad ass, great brother.

  Raw male, gentle lover.

  Fighter, protector.

  Trust him enough to make that decision for himself.

  Daria, as usual, was right.

  We talked for a few minutes on how his day went and before he could ask me more about mine, I found myself yawning. Satiated and completely relaxed, he tucked me in his arms, keeping me safe in his hold, and I slowly drifted to sleep.

  Tomorrow I’ll tell him.

  Jeez, what time is it?

  With blurry vision, I squinted my eyes to the clock against my wall. 7:30.

  Fuck, I overslept.

  I should have completed two miles by now. I blame it on my woman. She exhausted me last night.

  Nah.

  Where the hell was she anyways?

  I really liked having Ava over at my place. I had no problems hanging out at her place, but I liked my gym here. So when I slept over, I left before the sun rose and we’d meet up later in the day. Her schedule varied. Sometimes she was really busy. Sometimes she was able to spend time with me the whole day. She’d said that it was a lot better now ever since she quit her per diem nursing job. She’d revealed to me that the day she came into my house, the day she screamed my ear off, the first time we kissed, was the day she put in her resignation letter to Nevada State Medical Center. She’d worked there for almost two years, but with all the increased responsibilities she had for her father’s company, she decided it was best to leave nursing for now.

  Ava didn’t have to work. At all. She was born into a world of luxury. Her diapers had been probably covered in diamonds. I remembered seeing her mom when I was younger; she was a beautiful lady, who from head to toe looked like she came from money. Obviously Ava carried her mom’s genes and expensive taste, but she’s never been outspoken about how much things cost. When I gave her a box of Tic Tacs as a surprise, she had hugged me and kissed me as if I had given her a Cartier watch or earrings from Tiffany’s.

  I’m not poor. I’ve enough money saved up to live comfortably, with or without my swimming sponsors. My car was fully paid for. It was the only luxury I rewarded myself with after getting a bonus from my former sponsor, WaterTech. I’d invested wisely, with the advice of Leif. He might talk shit about unnecessary things but he was mad genius in anything related to business. I called him my German W.B., short for Warren Buffet, obviously a younger, better-looking, and less intimidating version, but Leif has never steered me wrong in investments. His business acumen was worthy of respect. His crazy antics in and out of the pool, not so much.

  The flood of video and text messages brought my thoughts to the present.

  Reaching over the night stand, I sat up against the headboard. Ignoring my morning wood, a total waste since I had no idea where my woman ran off to, I scrolled through the messages.

  6:52 AM Leif: Ur fucking old. You up yet? Prolly not. Drool on your pillow gramps. Happy birthday!

  6:55 AM Jeff: I hear your back breaking all the way from here. Oh wait, that’s your ass…unable to control the release of gas. Happy birthday dude! Your gift is in the mail. You’ll get it sometime next year.

  I grinned. What a bunch of assholes.

  7:10 AM, a video message from my sister, I opened it up and there she was, in a light blue shirt that matched her eyes, her smile was big as she said, “Happy birthday to the best brother in the whole world. I’m sorry I’m not there to greet you in person. As you can see,” she moved the phone to show the background; the rolling greens, the tall, glass-paned buildings, the sun shining brightly, reflecting over the Coal Harbour, I’ve been there once for the Pan Pacific Meet, “we’ve arrived safely in Vancouver. Kieran’s competing in a few hours so he’s with his coach right now. He wanted me to tell you happy birthday.” Moving the phone’s camera to focus on her face, she continued, “I love you Milo. I wish you all the best on your birthday. I hope you got my gift. I promise to bake you your favorite chocolate chip birthday cake when you come to visit. Enjoy your day.” She lifted a small glass containing something bubbly inside. “Cheers to you, and say hi to Ava for me.”

  I got a few more texts from college friends, Dia, even Daria, Ava’s assistant, all wishing me a happy birthday.

  After sending text responses back, I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and grabbed a shirt from my drawer before stepping out of the room.

  Now where could Ava be?

  I have no doubt she knew today is my birthday.

  She hadn’t mentioned it at all which makes me suspect even more that she’s planning on something for me. The thing with Ava is, when she’s excited about something, she talks non-stop about it. So for her to not say anything about my birthday, she was putting up a smokescreen and trying to pretend that she didn’t know about it.

  Wait, what if she had forgotten about it?

  It’s alright.

  As long as she spends the day with me, I’d be happy. She didn’t need to buy me a gift. Spending time with her was more than enough for me. In less than three months, Next Gen’s first fighting champion will be crowned. Along with three million dollars. As soon as I get that championship, I’m going straight to her father and telling him that whether he liked it or not, I’m with his daughter. The main reason why I wasn’t all up in arms about telling him right now was because of I was still under his claws; as long as I was fighting, he’d have something to hold over me.

  I walked out to the garage, peering outside, seeing that her car was here.

  She was somewhere in the house.

  I walked in the living room, in the kitchen, inside the guest room, in the gym, in the small office; she was nowhere to be found.

  My girl was playing hide and seek with me today.

  Fine by me.

  “Ava…duchess…” I’d renamed her duchess because she hated princess. I had googled that shit. Apparently,
duchess had a better connotation than princess. Sure, I could’ve stuck with princess, but what was the point in calling her something that she didn’t like? Plus, now that we’ve gotten the chance to get to know each other, deeply and intimately, Ava was fond of nice things, but she was never mean to people. She wasn’t like any of those pretentious, highfalutin members of Maxwell’s society. Her assistant Daria really liked Ava. And that type of respect, admiration, could only originate from genuineness. Ava was kind to everyone. She treated servers the same way she treated Hollywood royalty.

  Climbing up the stairs, I made sure my footfalls were heavy, hoping she’d know I was coming.

  The bedrooms upstairs were mainly unoccupied. Bee’s room remained as is. When we’d moved into Aunt Margie’s place, sometimes we spent the weekends here at my parent’s house. Aunt Margie had her own place. She could’ve sold our parents’ house, but she’d asked Bee and me if it was okay with us. At the time my parents died, Aunt Margie had informed us, after meeting with the lawyers to get a hold of my parents’ assets, that the house only had three years’ worth of mortgage left. With the amount of life insurance, liquid assets, and retirement money they had, she’d told us that if we wanted to keep it, we could. My sister was too young to make that decision, so I’d decided for us that, yes, I’d wanted to keep it. In hindsight, if I’d known my sister was going to be diagnosed with osteosarcoma, I probably would’ve said no. Bee’s treatments cost a lot of money, even with health insurance. It was because of the generosity and charity from both private and public funders that my sister was able to get the best treatment she had.

  I heard small footsteps in the guest room by the end of the hallway.

  “Okay, I’m going back down. I guess I’m eating breakfast alone today…” I spoke loudly, switching strides, pretending to go back down but stopped at the top of the stairs. Keeping my feet close together, I walked stealth mode. Upon reaching the end of the hallway, I opened the door, the sight that greeted me was…crazy awesome…fucking crazy awesome.

  In the middle of the room, against the hardwood floors, a glossy red mat lay flat. Inside the 3.5 by 9.5 ft mat was a black race track. Two miniature, robotic-looking cars were at the starting line-ups. The blue one was emblazoned with TANNER RACING on the side, the red one didn’t have any words or logos in it, but looked just as cool. It was the latest Japanese game invention – a mix of racing, online gaming, and artificial intelligence. I’d been checking it out for months now. I never mentioned it to Ava. Leif, my game buddy, was the only one who knew. Apparently he’d squealed on me and now it was sitting here in front of me. She even had it customized. Damn.

  “Happy, birthday boy?” Coming out of the tiny closet, Ava was still in her red silk pajamas. Her gray eyes lit up with mischief and her mouth quirked into a smile.

  Reaching my side, she tilted her head. I lowered my lips to hers, kissing her, lingering on her lips, savoring her warmth, her scent. I couldn’t get enough of her. Before I forgot what I was going to say, I touched her right cheek with my thumb, murmuring, “So happy.”

  She dropped her gaze to the floor where she had laid out her present for me. “I have no idea how to connect these things…it took me some time. I was going to call Leif, but it’s too early.”

  “Hey.” I grabbed on her waist, pulling her closer to me. “This is the coolest thing someone’s ever given me.”

  “I don’t know about that…” she said, her mouth smirking. “You haven’t seen what I have for you tonight. And you’re going to have to wait until tonight…”

  Okay, my morning wood was now rearing to be tamed. I adjusted myself in my boxers, willing myself to hopefully last throughout the day. Could you blame me? My girlfriend was the sexiest woman alive. Just the sight of her toes gave me a hard-on. And after months of self-imposed celibacy, can you really fault me for not wanting to be inside of her every minute of the day?

  “Why can’t I enjoy it now?” I negated, sounding like a kid who’s just been denied the last piece of cake.

  Yep. I’m a friggin’ pussy.

  “Because it’s for tonight, silly.” Her long, dark locks framing her face, her brows wiggling, she looked like she was set on this. “Do you like your gift?”

  Finding my hands in her hair, I responded contentedly, “I’m stoked! I’m sure I can beat Leif’s sorry ass in this.” I bent down to touch the blue race car. “How did you manage to have this customized?”

  Giggling, she sat on the floor. “I met the game designer in Japan a few months ago. I don’t remember getting his contact information, but I had tracked him down after Leif gave me an idea on what to get you.” Thanks Leif. “I called him about a month ago and he was more than happy to do it for me. Of course, I told him that I’d love to meet him for tea when I go back there to thank him personally.”

  I leaned over and kissed her lips again. “Thank you, this is amazing. It’s not even out in the market yet. I was gonna have Leif’s lazy ass line it up for me when it came out…” Leif enjoyed camping out days before a hotly anticipated video game was available in stores. Many times in college he called me so he could eat, relieve himself, and take a much-needed shower and not lose his place in line.

  “You’re welcome.”

  I fiddled with the racing cars, admiring the craftsmanship, the brilliance behind the game. There’s a lot of work and creativity in designing games. I have the utmost respect for these creative thinkers. Video games allowed me to remain a kid and make my mind work as an adult. It allowed me to think of strategic ways of winning, to be ahead of my opponents, see things from different angles.

  Finally, after chatting idly about the game, I heard Ava’s stomach rumble. Gotta feed my woman.

  “Let’s go grab some breakfast and then I wanna show you something.” Helping her stand up, my hands may have lingered on her ass for more than a few seconds.

  Before getting out of the room, I recalled her words. “While I’m extremely happy to get this custom present from you…there’s no way you’re meeting Gabe Kobayashi for tea. Alone.” I’d seen pictures of the dude. Not only was he a young genius, he also has a reputation for being Japan’s number one player – not just in games. At twenty-one and having most of his life locked up in a computer room to create these games, there’s no doubt in my mind that he had a boner for Ava.

  She let out a few tiny giggles before saying, “I need food. I’m starving. Let’s go, birthday boy.”

  Since it was the weekend, no one would be here.

  “So this is the front desk, Tina mans all the calls from the 800 number. In the beginning we didn’t get a lot of requests, but through the years the requests have more than tripled. There’s such a great need.” I pointed to the small desk with a bunch of papers on top. I had bought every piece of furniture in this place. Opening those credit accounts with Staples, Home Depot, and Ikea made this endeavor a reality. It took almost two years to pay them off because I’d wanted most of the funds to go to the recipients and to the employees. Somehow Dia had managed to make everything work. With all the things she’s done, Dia was invested in children’s lives too. Coming from a middle-class family, she’d seen how difficult it was for her own parents to get the help that her younger brother with autism needed. We might not be together anymore, but she understood where I was coming from.

  I held Ava’s hand as we walked inside the 2200 square feet, the office space I’d been renting for almost four years now. It wasn’t much. Everything inside it was simple, but as long as the employees and volunteers were comfortable, it was all that mattered. Rent had skyrocketed in the last year because of the new mall being built on Sahara Avenue.

  Ava listened while I explained what the employees did. Tina was the front desk. Joe, a college student and Tina’s nephew, helped with the web page, and Jill was the one who communicated with Dia about the recipients and expenses. She was wearing sunglasses since it was so bright and sunny outside, and she hasn’t taken them off since we stepped inside th
e building. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. I figured if I kept talking she’d ask me questions if she didn’t understand.

  A few steps away from the bathroom, I guided Ava into a large room. This room made everything worthwhile for me. She stepped inside and walked to the wall. A wall Tina had labeled MILO’S BABIES two years ago. Tina was a mother whose little girl was one of the first few that The Children’s Foundation had helped. At age thirteen, Jaynie was diagnosed with leukemia. I was coming back from Arizona at that time and wanted to check on my parents’ house in Nevada before leaving for the Nationals when I had received the call from Dia. Tina had sent a letter to our foundation and was asking for whatever help and support we could give. I had met with Tina, and while the foundation didn’t have the money to fund the treatment, we were able to assist her with her monthly groceries and utility bills because she had to take a lot of time off to stay with Jaynie in the hospital. When a family member is sick, there are things that are put in the back burner and left on a standstill. The Children’s Foundation’s goal was to provide assistance to make life a little easier for the parents and siblings in small, impactful ways. Jaynie is now in remission. She’s back in school, and since then Tina has been working for me in gratitude. We had her as a part-time volunteer, and initially she had refused to get paid because she also had a full-time job. After talking with her that her administrative skills were much-needed and that I could not accept her as a volunteer, she had agreed to be a part-time employee.