Oh, and she was being relentless.
Had it been a person, she would have killed them. What worried him was that she was bare-knuckling it, and he could see the smears of blood from the pure rage landing with each punch.
Well, this wasn’t good.
This was the first time he’d seen her do this.
Instead of saying anything because,AGAIN, he could read a room, and there was no way she wanted to talk, he just did the next best thing.
He just held the bag.
And he stayed with her.
As she was bleeding, that had Ivan’s attention. It was likely the streaks of red she was wiping on her sweaty, white running attire.
As the door opened, Gene looked over, and he knew the man was batshit insane.
He had clearly lost his mind.
Ivan approached, and she said one thing to him without even looking over.
“DON’Toffer it up. It’s been a week. Love yourself,” she warned.
Apparently, he was going to offer to fight with her, and Gene knew the Marine took a few too many hits to the goddamn noggin.
Elizabeth.
Was.
Pissed.
Instead, he backed up, returning to the door to stand sentry like she’d asked.
Never let it be said the crayon munchers didn’t have a little bit of common sense.
As for the lady in the room, Elizabeth only went a few more rounds with the bag, and when she was done, she cleaned her blood from it, again, without saying a word.
Then, she walked into the women’s locker room leaving him behind.
That’s when Ivan sighed.
“She’s now in the‘burn it to the ground’phase of her rage. One more thing, and she’s going nuclear. It’ll be scorched earth, and I don’t know if she can come back from that.”
Yeah, tell him about it.
Only, Gene had to have faith. He believed in her, and he believed in this family. Elizabeth wouldn’t only bounce back, but they’d all bounce back better.
“I’ll go in,” Gene offered.
Ivan stared at him.
“Uh, you’re a dude. That’s a ladies’ room.”
He laughed.
Well, thank God he’d learned the difference between dudes and dolls all those years ago.
Only, he was forgetting something.
