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Nineteen years old/May
To say my life changed after my fight with Carlos Agustin would be a major understatement. Things changed overnight. By Monday afternoon I had received a wire from TCF into my bank account. It was more money than I had estimated would be coming to me. Contractually, I knew that win or lose, I’d get a certain amount and that for winning, I’d get another amount. There would also be bonuses along the way. Patrick was also making money as Corey’s assistant.
Right before Christmas, I landed a huge bonus from TCF for bringing in a new, younger crowd. Suddenly, more women were interested in what had been a predominately male audience. TCF said that I was incredibly good for business and rewarded me for just being me.
Ginny’s words about being selfish still crossed my mind often. So when I received the huge bonus before Christmas, I gave my parents and grandparents money to pay off their homes. I also set money aside for them to live off in case my parents no longer wanted to work, or in case my grandparents wanted to travel more. My parents and grandparents encouraged me to spend the money on myself or put it toward a house. I would buy myself things after my family was taken care of.
After the first of the year, Corey helped me negotiate several endorsements. I had no idea how much money these would pull in. I had endorsements with sports drinks, protein bars, athletic apparel, two car companies, a soda company, and a sunglasses designer. The money from those was what I felt comfortable spending on myself.
I wanted a place of my own, but I didn’t know the first thing about having a home. I was also at the gym every day for hours, so a huge house didn’t sound appealing. With some help scouting places out, I bought a penthouse in a Los Angeles high-rise. Steve said the security there was already top-notch because there were other athletes and celebrities who lived there.
Of course, I didn’t really want to have the whole place to myself, so Patrick moved in too. The place was perfect for two bachelors, with two huge bedrooms with full-sized bathrooms attached. The bedrooms were on opposite sides of the penthouse and separated by a huge open great room and kitchen. We also had another room that I thought was originally designed as a guest room with a bathroom right next to it, but we decided to turn it into a home gym. That way for cardio and basic weights we could do those here without having to go to the gym.
Being artsy, my mom loved helping Patrick and me decorate the place. We decked it out in a mid-century industrial look that we both loved. He and I were still putting things away here and there, as we didn’t move in very long ago.
“Hey, I remember this,” I said as I touched the felt of the pennant Chase made for Patrick when we were in tenth grade.
“Chase was the first person who ever made anything like that for me. I was so shocked when I saw your family at the promotion ceremony.”
“I remember,” I said as I let go of the pennant he had in a Team Dragon mug on his dresser. Everything changed for Patrick that day for the better. And my brothers gained another big brother of sorts.
I jogged to the kitchen when the phone rang and picked up the cordless phone.
“Hello,” I said into the receiver.
“Hi, sweetie. How are you guys coming along with the unpacking?” Mom asked.
“Good. I was helping Patrick get some stuff organized.”
“Okay, I won’t keep you long. I called to see if you or Patrick were bringing dates to Morgan’s graduation tomorrow. Your dad is making dinner reservations and needs the number of people.”
“No, I don’t want anything to detract from Morgan’s day. And neither of us would bring just anyone to his graduation.”
“I figured as much but wanted to make sure. Are you guys coming over here and we’ll all ride to the graduation, or do you and Patrick want to meet us there?”
“We’ll meet you there. I have some training sessions in the morning and will come home and get ready. Plus, Patrick and I are having some people over tomorrow night from the building. Kind of a new place kind of party.”
“I’m glad you two are getting settled and meeting people in your building. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.”
I hung up with her, went back to Patrick’s room, and went over the list of things to get for the party. We talked about getting some alcohol for tomorrow. I was pretty sure no one hosted parties in this kind of place without alcohol. I had no intention of drinking to the point of getting drunk, but a drink or two wouldn’t kill me.
“Why don’t we just give the money to Avery?” I suggested. Avery was a makeup artist for a motion picture studio. She was older than us, and every time we saw her, she looked at Patrick like she’d drop to her knees and blow him if he asked her to.
“Okay, I’ll try to catch her this afternoon by the mailboxes. If I can’t catch her, what about Levi and Mateo?”
Levi and Mateo were a couple and lived a few floors below us. Both were coming to the party, and I knew for a fact they were at least twenty-one. Mateo played soccer for a league in Europe but lived here in the offseason with Levi. Levi was a graphic artist or cartoonist.
I worked out for the rest of the afternoon and then watched some tapes on my upcoming opponent, Adam Novak. The fight was scheduled for late June, and though it wasn’t a main event, Novak was much higher in the ranking system than Carlos Agustin had been. There were guys who had been around a lot longer than I had who were still trying to get fights with fighters who were in the top five. Novak was ranked as number five overall, so I couldn’t complain. Corey said I was moving very fast.
Patrick and I planned on going out this evening to pick up a card for Morgan’s graduation and get the food for the party tomorrow. Whenever I’d go out I would wear a baseball cap and kept my head down as much as possible so no one recognized me. Things were still so fresh, and Steve didn’t like it when we’d go out without him, but Patrick and I still did from time to time. When we’d go out alone, we’d go out at odd times so there’d be fewer people out in the stores.
Patrick had gone to see if he could catch Avery and ask her about picking up some alcohol tomorrow. But he’d been gone a while now. I got in the shower to get cleaned up so I could go to the store. We wouldn’t have time tomorrow with my workouts in the morning, then Morgan’s graduation and dinner, so I decided to go without him.
As I was leaving, Patrick was walking down the hallway toward our place carrying several bags. I held my hands up, silently questioning what took him so long while I walked toward him. One of the bags started to break, and he stopped to set it on the ground as I hurried over.
“Did you go to the store without me?” He was grinning from ear to ear, and he handed me a brown bag that he had been holding between his arm and body. The contents clanged around, so I knew there was glass inside.
We walked back to our door as he explained.
