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“Dee Dee, I don’t know what you’re on about. Disastra isn’t here. I think your match is a bit off. You read too much into Disastra’s last show.”
Dee Dee’s low shoulders shrug, but the smarmy grin doesn’t disappear. At this point, the swampster willingly drops the subject to my utter relief.
“Listen, would you be willing to check out some of my new moves? I’ve been working hard cementing my show.”
“You’re still looking to get out of training and into the ring, huh?
“You bet ya! It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
I smile once again. Who knew? I thought her sole motivations were hooking up with Ronan and screwing other wrestler’s chances by telling on them to their agents.
I’m doing a bit of math myself. Is this some kind of tit for tat going on? My advice for her is to keep shut about our moonlighting.
Before I can say anything, a loud metallic bang interrupts my thoughts. Dee Dee throws herself against the lockers in a side-swipe attack move. I nearly bust a gut suppressing a laugh.
“See? I do that. Stun my opponent, then go into the full-body slam. I weigh a ton, literally. Nobody is getting out from under my body slam. What do you think? If you want, you can lie on the floor, and I lay on top of you. Show you what I mean.”
I shake my head. “No, I’m good, Dee Dee. I believe you.’
“Hey, look, if you want pointers on that rope four-point slam you do, I could critique? Or like when you body check to flip your opponent. It’s all about body torque, right?”
Dee Dee twists herself into a corkscrew, trying to demonstrate her shocking move. Again, I gulp down a laugh. I’ve never seen a swampster be so flexible. I picture her in tights teetering on a balance beam in the Olympics.
Okay, no, I don’t. I see her falling off a balance beam in the Olympics, with a great big slimy thud. My stomach is in knots, sequestering the laughter. I have to hold my hand to my mouth. My lips aren’t obeying.
“Dee Dee, your moves look great, but you really have things all wrong with Ronan and me. There is nothing between us. Not as trainer and wrestler or in any other way. And on a more personal topic… You hanging around, following Ronan wherever he goes? It’s not doing what you think it’s doing. That’s no way to get close with a wrestler. We kind of look at that as stalking.”
“Stalking? Oh, God, no. That’s not what I’m doing!”
Dee Dee’s eyes widen even larger. Perfect. That got her off my scent. Thank God.
“Oh, okay, my bad. Anyway, I really have to run. But Dee Dee, if I were you, I’d stop this nonsense about me being Disastra. You’re only spreading lies no one is interested in hearing. And if you want to be a wrestler, being a gossip hound on unsubstantiated rumors is the last thing you should have on your resume. If you get my drift.”
Dee Dee wipes the grin off her mouth, lowers her head, and slithers to the side. Her huge swishing tail makes me shiver all the more.
I grab the door, but before I leave, I turn around and look deadly serious. “And one more thing. Ronan Bronson is not, I repeat, not interested in me. We are simply two wrestlers bumping into one another in the gyms around town and at the shows. It’s a tight community. You know that. Okay? Are we clear?”
I flash her a sober expression with raised eyebrows and steely eyes. Dee Dee might be a swampster, but when I mean business, my look can kill.
Dee Dee slithers back and raises her tiny arms. “Yeah, Cheyanne. You made yourself crystal. I was only trying to help.”
“Great. Now, you have yourself a nice day.”
I close the door and walk directly to the ring. Help, my ass. Help herself to Ronan and my career, is more like it.
I gulp air and ball my fists. My nerves are so on edge.
All Ronan and I need is that blabbermouth heralding all over Briarwood about Disastra, about Lawless, and about Ronan and me in some kind of romantic tryst that involves breaking contracts and moonlighting lies.
I hit the jump rope and let all my frustration out, not missing a beat with my feet.
Today will be a good practice. I’m angry enough to hit all my marks.
It’s a shame it takes frustration or anger these days to get me on my game as Archimedes, but right now the way things are going, I’ll take whatever works.
Pummeling the nosey Dee Dee Dauterive into tomorrow would slap a smile on my face, too. But that would screw up everything for Ronan and me. We need to keep under the radar, not have the needle fly off the chart.
Disaster averted on the Disastra front. For now.
