Desire Uncaged: An MMA Romance by Ina Anielka Read Free Book Online

flooded with questions. Why had she quit? Did I have something to do with it? Did something else happen to her? I hope she’s alright .
    * * *
    That evening, Ethan found himself bored at home, flipping through channels when the door slammed. Joe walked in.
    “How was sitting on your ass, slacker?” He chided.
    Joe sauntered to his room, and Ethan heard the shower run as Joe washed after practice. Joe emerged dressed and began to make food in the kitchen. He yelled over to Ethan.
    “How’s your weight?”
    “Good.” Ethan responded apathetically.
    “Guess who quit at work today?”
    “Who?”
    “Sara.”
    “No shit! She up and left? Did she say why?”
    “No,” Ethan said , speculating, “I don’t know. Maybe it was me, maybe she had some personal thing going on that made her fight with me, and bail on the job. I don’t know.”
    Joe seemed to regard Ethan thoughtfully. Ethan continued.
    “She was better than Emily.”
    “I know, man. I liked her more than that bitch. Is she still texting you?”
    “I haven’t gotten anything from Emily since Friday. Maybe she’s stopped.”
    She’ll be at the fight though , Joe thought to himself, I bet they both will be. That won’t end well.
    But Joe reasoned that Ethan didn’t need to be troubled with any of it. He had the biggest fight of his career coming up, and he needed to be focused, 100% on it. No distractions. And as Ethan’s friend, Joe wanted to make sure that stayed true.
    * * *
    The week wore on and Ethan soon found himself consumed with the fervor of the upcoming fight. A few national websites and podcasts wanted him for interviews, and so for the first time in his life, Ethan felt like a quasi-celebrity. Still, when under the burden of a weight cut, the obligations quickly grew exhausting. Often, he found his mind wandering off, wondering where Sara had vanished to. What had made her up and quit. But she was a big girl, mature in her decision making. She was fine, where ever she was.
    In a blur, the week passed. Etha n took Friday off for the weigh-ins. He had a brutal final workout, where he sweated out the last of the water before he stepped on the scale. After sweating out what felt like gallons of water, Ethan dried off and made his way to the site of the weigh in.
    The weigh- in happened in two parts. One was an official affair run by the state’s athletic commission. It was strangely anti climatic. The dozen or so fighters on the card all gathered, and one-by-one stepped on the scale. Ethan saw in the corner of the small room was his opponent: LC Roberts. The man’s face looked older than Ethan remembered it, though Ethan had watched him fight on TV several years prior, and the TV always had a way of hiding age.
    Roberts was wearing a baggy hoodie and sweatpants. Ethan was curious to size of his physique. Sometimes you could infer how well a fighter was prepared based on how he looked. Roberts, in his own interviews, and trumpeted a number of changes to his own training regimen. Ethan and his coaches were curious to see if it was true.
    The commission called Ethan’s name, and he rose to the scale. After stripped down to his underwear, he unceremoniously stepped on. He had done this a dozen times before. He made weight with no issue. Thirsty, he sat and began to sip water gently. He watched as Roberts’ name was called. Ethan’s opponent stepped to scale and stripped Ethan was surprised, Roberts looked good, his body rippled with thick, hard muscle. Roberts had more muscle mass than he ever had in any of his prior fights. Clearly, this new training had paid dividends. Ethan wasn’t sure how to react. His coach whispered in her ear. “Don’t worry, he looks like he didn’t cut that much weight.”
    Somehow Ethan didn’t believe it.
    * * *
    Ethan always found seeing his opponent to be an anxiety-filled experience. Somehow it made everything more real. He had difficulty sleeping that night. He tossed and turned. When he finally found sleep