Dante

I woke up the next morning feeling absolutely rejuvenated. The sleep from the night before had made this night two on a bed again.

The smell of something greasy immediately intoxicated my senses. Was that bacon? I thought to myself. My eyes flew open.

There was a thick cloud of smoke that floated through the air, carrying that glorious scent with it. I searched for some shorts underneath the duvet on the bed after I realized I was still pantsless (I must have pulled them off at night from the heat). Once I was able to find those, and my shirt, I went out to take a look.

Sammy was standing in the kitchen in some gym shorts and a gym shirt, making what looked like breakfast. Judging by his poor attempt at dinner, I was immediately alarmed.

"Ahh is everything okay?" I asked him. He glanced over, and gave me a grin.

"Good morning. Yeah I thought I'd start in on some breakfast for your first official day at the gym."

I smiled nervously back, then glanced at the sizzling bacon.

"Oh that's sweet. I thought you may have mentioned that, ya know, cooking isn't something you really do all that often..." I tried to word my concern as best as I possibly could.

Sammy chuckled. "Oh yeah, I can't do dinner and all that,but breakfast foods are simple perfection. So if you're good with breakfast for breakfast, lunch, and dinner- I'm your guy." He pulled out two plates for us, and set them down on the counter. "The most pressing question this morning is: how do you like your eggs?"

-

I think it was pretty accurate to say that I now liked my eggs the same way I would like more than half of Sammy's novice fighters... beaten and scrambled.

I have never, and I meant never, met a group of people with such damning cases of ADHD.

The day had started out fairly simple with easy exercises and basic skill work. When we got to combos, that's when I started to see lack of direction.

"You don't want to lock up that leg, Brian." I told one of the novices. You gotta be light on it." Brian gave me disheartening sigh but tried again. Once again, Brian didn't drive it forward and the punch fell short.

"How's it going?" Sammy asked, making me jump slightly. I hadn't even noticed he had creeped up besides me.

"Where exactly did you find this group?" I whispered to him.

"Well, this year we needed to take on new fighters who fit the less advanced bracket, that could also pay... so most of the guys we either picked up from the local street basketball game, or from a preppy academy- they could afford a year of classes in advance. Now that all my old novices are veterans, there isn't many experienced fighters left in the novice division." Sammy explained.

I glanced at him.

Then back at the fighters.

Well, that would explain a lot.

"I'm guessing Brian is one of the street b-ball guys, and that Kyle kid over there definitely has some prep to him." Sammy nodded at my words.

"Sometimes you gotta level with these guys. They've got some fighting experience but not a whole lot. Most of them aren't used to anyone barking orders their way. I'd argue some of them may get off on it."

My eyebrows raised at that statement.

Okay... I thought to myself. We just needed a different approach then?

"Brian!" I called out to the kid who was struggle to land a 6-5-2-1p. "You hoop right?" I asked him.

Brian turned to me with that same hopeless expression on his face, and gave me a nod.

"Think of the stance your knees are in just before you're about to attempt a three pointer. Don't drop them as low, but open up that power reserve in your legs when you throw that right cross. Push forward like you'd push the ball up." I explained.

Brian paused a moment to take in my direction, then he did what I instructed. The right cross wasn't perfect in the combo, but it was a hell of a lot better than whatever he was trying to throw earlier.

"Well done." Sammy smiled in my direction.

"Thank you." I replied sheepishly.

He gave me a nod before wandering off to start in on sparring with his veterans. I went back to work.

Brian showed improvement by the end of the day, but the one guy I kept butting heads with was Kyle. The entire time I was trying to have him work on a 4b-6-3-2. 4 was a right hook and 4b meant that first move was a right hook to the body. Kyle was having the most difficult time alternating from the right hook to 6, which was a right uppercut.

When I tried explaining to him that his positioning was off, the fucking brat wanted to give me attitude.

"Why don't you just jump in here and show me? Are you too much of a pussy to fight me?" He spat my way. I ignored it, explaining the combo for the ten thousandth time to him. He didn't even have the time to try it again because Sammy had called it a night at around eight that evening.

I waited until all the boxers had cleared out of the gym before I dashed to the locker rooms to take a shower. Sammy and Grayson were the only two souls still out there sparring with each other. I hadn't thrown a single punch today, but I was fucking exhausted... I had no idea how these two still had a shred of energy left to fight.

I showered quickly in hopes I would get to see Sammy and Grayson go at it, but by the time I emerged from the locker rooms, they were just about done.

"I'm gunna head to Tidal Wave, and see how Kas is hanging in there. You know how Tuesday's can be." Grayson spoke, as he finished packing his gym bag.

"We're all grown adults here, Grayson. You can be honest about who you're really going to check up on." Sammy wiggled his eyebrows.

And he wasn't wrong. It was clear as day how this man felt about Chris. It was also clear as day how she felt about him. What was the clearest, however, was Grayson's lack of confidence around her.

I was still trying to wrap my head around it because Grayson looked just as much like a god as Sammy did. I wasn't sure where all that lack of confidence even came from.

"Have a great night Dante! Great job today!" Grayson called on his way out.

Sammy

"Thank you! Take care!" I heard Dante reply with right before the front door slammed shut. He started to help me roll up the additional mats.

"Oh you really don't have to." I told him, but he just shook his head.

"I work here too now, remember?" He teased.

I stole occasional glances his way while he stood the mats up. There was something different about him today. Maybe it was being in the gym? I knew for me personally, this place- boxing, it always brightened up my shittiest of moods... maybe that was the same for Dante?

His muscles flexed beneath his shirt as he lifted the heavy punching bags off their chains. I watched that same shirt ride up a bit when he rubbed it against the leather bag. It showcased the inkling of a very well defined stomach.

My eyes hovered there heavily against my will, observing as the piece of fabric fell over to conceal what it had revealed moments earlier.

I forced myself to look away, but I couldn't get that image of Dante's perfect skin out of my memory- regardless of how hard I tried.

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