Page 32 of Boxer Next Door

She looked surprised, probably that I was so trusting of her to handle my phone, but it wasn’t like I had that many secrets. I regretted it the moment I was out of the bathroom, and I found her sitting on the bed, frowning down at my phone. I’d forgotten the other secret I was keeping from her because most of my focus was on the news I was still waiting on from my friend.

“Who the hell is Kenji?” she asked, and my chest tightened.

“Um…”

Fuck, what do I say to her?

She didn’t look angry or anything, but I had hoped that this one thing would never make it on her radar. It wasn’t something I needed her knowing, but I’d grown so comfortable around her as to be careless. I took too long to reply, and she set the phone down on the nightstand, arching an eyebrow at me.

“Is there something you need to tell me?”

“What was the message about?”

“Someone’s messaging you about some woman called Ella. She’s getting married.”

I tightened my lips. It must have been one of my old friends. I could have told them I didn’t need any news about that woman. She’d already left me at the altar, what would I care if she walked down it for someone else? I wished the bastard luck with her, whoever he was.

“It’s nothing important, then,” I muttered, picking up the phone and deleting the message without reading it. I canceled the whole thread, and thought about deleting the idiot’s number, but decided to leave it.

“Are you going to tell me why this person called you Kenji?” Lydia asked.

I sighed as I sat down on the bed. I still had only a towel wrapped around my hips, but I didn’t have the energy to move around at that moment.

“I’ve been a little worried about this,” I admitted.

“About what?” she asked, frowning.

I took a deep breath and turned to face her so I could explain. “I’ve been going by Ken since I was a kid, but the name my parents gave me when I was born was Kenji.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s a Japanese name, though?”

“My parents are…” I started to explain, twisting my lips. “Hippies, you could say. They like to make their own rules instead of following the ones laid down by society. Around the time I was conceived, they were touring Japan. I was born here, but they were still in a bit of a craze over the country, so Mom named me Kenji.”

Her frown deepened. “Why did you hide it from me? It’s nothing bad; kids can't help what their parents name them. When I was younger, I didn’t like my name.”

I smiled, my chest warming up at her attempt to make me feel better. She placed one of her hands on my shoulder and rubbed gentle circles against my skin. Usually, when she touched me, I would be turned on. Right then, though, my mind was filled with the entire childhood trauma surrounding my name and my family life.

“I didn’t like my name either, but it was more than that,” I admitted. “Yeah, the name Kenji is Japanese. A lot of people surprisingly know this, and when I was a kid, I got a lot of heat because of it. My parents’ response to it all was that I should have ignored them. It’s not an easy thing to do when you go to school, though, not with so many people ganging up on you. My parents didn’t understand that I wasn’t like them. I wasn’t very happy with them for a long time.”

Her hand stilled, and when I glanced at her out of the corner of my eyes, she was looking at me with her eyes widened in surprise.

“You were bullied as a kid?” she said, tone incredulous.

I nodded. “It’s part of why I got into boxing. I had a lot of frustration to let out. Not that I beat people up. I just needed a release, and I found it in boxing.”

After a moment, she got back to rubbing those soothing circles that had my tense muscles relaxing. I could understand her surprise. Most people wouldn’t look at a guy my size and assume I’d been bullied in high school. It was because of stupid stereotypes, like only little guys had shit growing up. That wasn’t true at all.

“So, who’s Ella, anyway? A friend of yours?”

I scowled. “Not even close. In a way, you could say it’s tied down with the issue I had with my flighty parents. Ella was my attempt at putting down roots. I wanted to settle down pretty young because I didn’t want to be like my parents. We made plans to get married, but… she wasn’t very into it. I wasn’t the only boyfriend she had, and I didn’t even find out until she didn’t show up to our wedding.”

Lydia winced. “Oh, wow. That’s bad.”

“I know, right?” We shared a look, and I knew she understood.

“Why would someone message you to tell you she’s getting married, though?”

I sighed, shrugging my shoulders. “He’s a friend. He was a groomsman at the wedding that never happened. I guess he’s trying to tell me to move on? As if I haven’t already. Why would I stay hung up on a woman like her?”