From there, he reaches around to my forearms, his fingers encircling around them, and pulls in and out, while explaining, “Unlike boxing, you want your arms wider apart. With a swipe of your arm, you can push away any punches coming at your face, and it also allows you to quickly block any blows to your body by pulling your elbow down and your leg up.”
With each mentioned action, he leads my body through the motion, and it grows difficult to breathe. A hot flush burns my skin, but this time not from embarrassment.I have to learn these moves fast if only to keep myself from spontaneously combusting.
Once I’m able to stand correctly, Donovan leads me through punches and kicks. Unlike the guys earlier, I’m wearing MMA gloves that are surprisingly small enough to fit my hands and padded guards down my shins. I aim for the taped targets, and he patiently corrects my form when needed and is quick to catch me if I lose my balance. This is a side of Donovan that I feel few people get to see, and I’m both sad and lucky because of it.
By the time we’re done, I’m panting from exertion and dripping with sweat. I pull my sweater up over my head and use it to wipe at my face. My T-shirt has dark stains where it sticks to my body.
“Good, now that you’ve finished learning form, get some water and walk around some, then we’ll start on grapples and throws,” Donovan announces with a smile. “You can take off the gloves and pads for this part.”
Luckily, the music switched a while back to something more light and upbeat that was full of wishes to live your life to the fullest. With each gasping breath, his earlier charm diminishes, but I do as he says. I retrieve a bottle of water from the mini fridge, then pace back and forth to keep my muscles loose as I sip at my water.
Nolan is already standing there, sweaty and chugging water. He dumps the last bit over his head, then grabs one of the white towels to dry himself off. He’s somewhere around nine inches taller than me and probably a good sixty pounds heavier than me. I have no clue how I’m supposed to throw Nolan anywhere, let alone to the ground.
Felix is leaning against the wall with a smirk. “Now the show begins. Watching Callie throw you to the floor is going to be awesome. It’s too bad I can’t eat popcorn, because this is definitely a popcorn moment.”
“You’re enjoying this too much,” Nolan comments while he rolls his head from one side to the other.
“No such thing,” he snickers back.
“Felix is right,” Donovan taunts from the gray mat. “Come on you two. It’s time for Nolan to kiss some mat.”
“Not my kind of kissing,” Nolan retorts as he heads over, tossing the empty bottle into a bin next to the fridge.
As I follow him over to the mat, I can’t tell if I’m nervous or emboldened with their surety that I’ll be able to actually knock Nolan down.
Felix parks himself on the open space nearby, leaning back on his hands with a way too excited expression on his face.
“Again, today is about you going through the different moves so you get a feel for what you’ll be learning,” Donovan explains, while positioning Nolan in the middle of the mat. “We’ll be going slow, and don’t worry if things feel awkward. It’ll get easier through repetition.”
“Repetition?” Nolan questions with a quirked brow. “As in, I’ll be reprising the role of grapple dummy? Is this payback for that time I pretended you KO’d me before you actually hit me?”
“It is now,” Donovan counters with a smirk. “Now quit your complaining, or I’ll be the one knocking you on your ass and have Callie watch.”
“There’s a naughty joke in there somewhere,” Felix teases.
“That’s what she said,” Nolan snorts.
“Aw man, that’s no way to talk about yourself,” Donovan ribs. “It’s not that much of a joke.”
Nolan presses a hand to his chest, like he’s experienced a deep wound. “Now you’ve just gone too far.”
“Also, what she said,” Felix hoots.
“Hey, some things can’t be helped,” Nolan leers with a suggestive grin.
I groan.Now I know why Kaleb always looks like he’s praying for patience.
“This ‘she’ is tired and sweaty, so are we doing this or not?” I interject with my hands on my hips. “Because I’d like to get out of these sticky clothes and into a hot shower sometime in the near future.”
Three sets of eyes turn and simply blink at me for a long moment, and I have a sinking feeling I’ve said something innuendo-y that I’m not quite catching.
Donovan is the first to recover from his stupefied blinking. “Right-- so uh, first, we’ll focus on attacks from behind.”
Felix kind of choke laughs, his face scrunching together like he’s trying really hard not to make another snarky joke, and Nolan rolls his lips while he shakes silently with laughter.
Donovan sighs and points to a spot on the mat. “Come stand over here with your back facing Nolan.”
I stand where instructed, and Felix gives me a thumbs-up.
