The lunch area in the back of the gym was nothing special. A table, some chairs, a refrigerator that Coach kept stocked with water and Gatorade. Kyla set the bag down on the table and started pulling containers out and the second the lids came off I could smell it and whatever it was smelled like somebody actually knew what they were doing in a kitchen.
“What is that,” I said.
“Salmon. Wild rice. Broccoli.” She set each container down as she named it.
“And mixed fruit.” She looked up at me. “I did my research on what fighters eat during training. I wasn’t about to bring you something heavy that was going to mess up your workout.”
I looked at the food and then looked at her.
“You cooked this.”
“I cooked all of it. Before I got dressed and headed up here.” She sat down across from me and folded her hands on the table.
I sat down and opened the salmon container and took a bite before I could say anything else and my eyes went straight to her.
“Kyla.”
“Yeah.”
“This is good as hell.”
She laughed and it was genuine. “Thank you.”
“No for real. You seasoned this just right. This doesn’t taste like a healthy meal either.”
“Because I made it with love, so it’s gone have that extra umph to it,” She reached across and opened the fruit container for me. “Eat, I know you been going hard today.”
I ate while she sat across from me and we fell into a conversation that had been happening every time we were together. It was easy, real, no performance behind it. She told me about her upcoming meetings, I told her about where I was in training. She asked real questions about boxing that showed she had actually been paying attention and not just nodding along. I answered them and found myself going deeper into it than I usually did with people who weren’t in the sport because she was actually listening.
Everything felt natural in a way that I was scared of. Women weren’t made like her. Especially powerful women who had all of that going for themselves.
After a while she leaned her elbow on the table and looked at me with a small smile.
“Can I ask you something without it being weird.”
“Go ahead.” I responded, still eating the good ass meal that I didn’t even know that I needed.
“Would it be completely inappropriate if I asked for us to stay together again tonight?”
I looked at her across the table.
She held my gaze and something in her eyes was doing that thing where she was being completely serious while also leaving room for me to laugh it off if I needed to.
I didn’t need to.
“My place or yours,” I said, while still chewing and keeping eye contact. I needed her to know that it wasn’t weird at all. I wanted that too.
Her whole face changed. That smile got bigger and she looked down at the table for just a second.
“Yours,” she said. “I want to see how you live, and be all up in your personal space.”
“I’ll send my driver to pick you up at eight. Have yo spend da night back.”
“Eight is perfect and it’s already packed.”She nodded like she was confirming it to herself. I had to laugh.
We finished eating and I walked her back through the gym toward the entrance. A few of the guys looked over as we passed and I didn’t miss the looks they exchanged with each other but I kept moving. I’m sure they recognized Kyla from the billboards and news. At the door I pulled her in and hugged her properly this time, the way I had wanted to when she first walked in before I was worried about the suit.
She hugged back and it lasted longer than a regular goodbye hug and neither one of us rushed it.
