MMA Meets MBA

To her immense pride, not one family member commented on the fact that Jeremy was black.

Mark hired a bus the next week, and took all the kids, and all the nuns out to the farm. For a little extra, the wife fixed a nice lunch with lots of milk and cookies. Sister Mary Elizabeth sat with Betty and watched as the children played, saying a prayer of thanks.

.................................................

She and Mark started the process, and Betty got appointed his foster parent until the paperwork was done. She and Alice went all out decorating his bedroom in their condo. They had already decided to look for a house in a safe neighborhood, she wanted a large yard. It needed to be at least five bedrooms.

"You know in few years he's going to have some brothers and sisters. I want two of each, so you owe me two girls and a boy. We're going to be very busy when I retire."

After they married they did a full page ad in all the magazines. It was a picture of them all together, Jeremy sitting on her lap.

"GOT LOVE? WE JUST DID!"

Jeremy was their ring bearer at the wedding. Her two oldest nieces were bridesmaids, her youngest the flower girl. Alice was the maid of honor. There were three hundred guests. It got so complicated sorting out who sat where they did away with the family sections. His clients, a few of his old friends, her family from the gym, some MMA officials she was fond of. It was an diverse crowd.

That didn't stop them from having a good time.

They left early, saying their goodbyes on the way out. Jeremy was staying with his Aunt Alice for a week, his grandfather the next. He would be no doubt be spoiled rotten by the time they got home.

They stopped to see Manny and Emile on the way out. Manny had decided to make Emile a minority partner in his new gym, and a full partner outside. She was happy to see they were openly holding hands during the reception and dancing together afterwards.

"Don't get too soft" Manny warned.

"Remember, you have to defend your title in four months."

She kissed him and promised to get lots of 'exercise' on her honeymoon.

They went to a gated resort in the islands. Thanks to her endorsements and commercials, as well as a two month cameo role in a popular action/adventure television series, she was being approached in public now to the point of distraction. Their ratings increased to the point they made her an offer for a permanent role, or possibly a spinoff.

She was thinking about it. They actually filmed in the city they lived in. There had been occasional long day, but the cast and crew had been together long enough to get things done in a timely manner.

An added bonus, the money she got from the series was almost triple what she made the first four years of her professional fight career. And as Mark was so fond of saying, she didn't get hit to earn the money.

They barely left their room for three days. They made love, often, basically every time they were awake. Even then, it wasn't unusual for one to wake the other with kisses and nibbles. They learned to play each others' body like a fine instrument.

Having almost no experience, she soon learned to love his tongue as it played across her body, lazily reaching her core and fanning it into flames. Good thing we don't have close neighbors she thought, as they lay in their little cottage in post orgasmic bliss. I've become quite the screamer.

Mark was surprised right before the wedding when he came in and found her watching porn.

"What are you doing?"

She giggled.

"Training films. If you want to be the best, you have to watch the best."

He was overwhelmed the first time, gasping with pleasure.

"How did you learn to do that?"

"I told you, training films, about two dozen bananas, and a few cucumbers."

He hugged her tightly.

Remind me to kiss the produce guy at the market when we get home."

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They settled into married life easily. Jeremy never went into day care. Betty would spend the morning with him playing, watching Sesame Street, and jumping rope. It had become his passion, and now at age five he could do almost all the intricate moves that fighters could do. In the afternoons she took him to the gym, where Mark or Alice would pick him up.

Alice had refused any more clients and had formed her own production company, in which Betty and Mark were part owners. They specialized mostly in commercials. Her very first one won awards from her industry, including Public Service Announcement of the year. It was for the First Lady's Fitness Program,

Shot in Mannys' new gym and the play yard of St. Agnes, It featured Alice and Jeremy doing the fancy footwork routine with their jump ropes, in perfect time, then fade to the play yard, where various children jumped ropes to different routines. The clip with the two youngest nuns doing an intricate Double Dutch was also a big hit. The First Lady and her daughters actually flew in to skip rope with the children, followed by her saying how much fun exercise could be if you let it. A group that tracked such things said jump rope sales rose twelve percent for three months, the length of the ad.

The only ugly incident in their young married life came at an awards banquet held by the MMA to honor it's own. Betty, along with Alice, were getting an award for their public service work.

Afterwards at the reception, one of the top heavyweights had a little too much to drink. Spurned by Betty early in her career, he harbored ill feelings. He didn't know Mark was behind him when he slurred Betty, calling her Betty Gang Bang.

Mark was furious and demanded an apology. The man laughed, and in a move surprising everyone, kicked Mark in the nose, breaking it and knocking him unconscious. It took three men to restrain Betty. Alice called 911, and soon an ambulance and the police were there. They took the fighter into custody for aggravated assault, confiscating several video cameras which captured the whole thing.

The fighter was up for a title shot, but had to miss the fight because of his legal trouble. In exchange for him being suspended from fighting for a year, Mark dropped the charges. He also had to pay Marks' medical bills. It forced him into bankruptcy. He ended up hating Mark with a passion.

Betty was furious and wanted to make him pay even more. Alice cautioned her.

"Let it lie, little sister. I know your husband, and he won't let it just go. He'll do something about it in his own time, at his own place of choosing. If you try to interfere it would be like questioning his manhood, a very bad thing for a wife to do. He'll handle it Betty, trust me."

It took another year before it happened. They were back at the ceremony. Everyone was watching, to make sure here were no more ugly incidents.

The man was drinking heavily, staring at Mark and brooding. He was surprised when Mark approached.

"How's the study going?"

The man had no idea what he was talking about.

"Huh?"

Mark smiled.

"I heard you were participating a medical study targeting fighters. They're trying to figure out which shrinks more among heavy steroid users, their brains or their cocks."

He deliberately looked at the Mans' crotch.

"I hope it's your cock. If it's your brain, you probably have the IQ of one of those little monkeys you see on television."

Everyone in earshot laughed. In a rage, the man swung. Mark, watching, easily sidestepped and the man punched the brick wall behind him. He screamed in pain.

"Damn, I bet that hurt. Your hand looks broken, you need to get that looked at. Didn't you have a fight scheduled in three weeks? Too bad, I hear you need the money."

In a rage, he swung his good hand with the same result. Mark finally stepped in and swung, timing it perfectly and breaking his nose. He looked down.

"Hurts like a bitch, doesn't it? You have a nice night."

He turned to see Betty staring at him.

"Ready to go, my love?"

She barely contained herself until she got in the car.

"Where did that come from?"

He grinned.

"Nine months of training with Emile and Manny. Mostly Emile. I needed all the tricks I could learn."

"You know you probably destroyed what he had left of his career."

Mark frowned.

"No, he destroyed it. I hope he learned something from it, and never talks about another mans' wife like he did you."

She was stunned.

"This was about me? Not your nose?"

"Yes, it was about you. No one insults my wife and escapes punishment. The broken nose was pretty easy to get over, and I do admit a little satisfaction when I broke his. The insult lingered, it had to be made right."

She held his hand and kissed his cheek.

"I've never seen that side of you before. I don't like it. It's not you."

"I'm sorry Betty. But it is me, just a side of me I hoped to never show. You'll probably never see it again, unless someone harms you or our children."

She had defended her title twice, winning both times. She was tentatively set to defend it again, but she developed a medical condition that forced her to retire.

She got pregnant. Her doctor wasn't too sure how it happened. Sometimes pills fail, sometimes other things like herbs and antibiotics negate the pills. When she found out, she was actually happy, Jeremy was almost seven and starting to hint he'd like a brother or a sister. Mark would have been more than happy to have her switch from fighter to mother.

She announced her retirement, and a scramble ensued to see who got the title shot. She was pleased to see one of her gym mates in the match. She lost, but won it the next year.

She went into acting, Alice worked a deal to co produce a spin off of the series she had been in. The show, Dangerous Beauty, was about a retired MMA fighter who was now a private detective and police consultant. Lifetime wanted it, something different showing a strong female lead.

They did the pilot and twelve episodes. It was an instant splash, and she ended up doing thirty nine more before she got pregnant again and decided to take on another role, full time mom.

At thirty two, they decided three was enough. They were pleased when their third was a girl, after two boys. She was of course, spoiled rotten.

Her first marriage had soured Alice so badly she didn't remarry until she was in her early forties, to a director who was tired of Hollywood.

He joined her on her production team and then in her bedroom. He was almost fifty, but that didn't stop them from adopting twin girls eight years old, from St. Agnes, of course.

Manny married Emile in a quiet ceremony with just Alice, Mark, and Betty attending. It lasted three years until he caught Emile cheating. Mark helped them settle things, the gym had been exempt from the common property, and Manny bought out Emile's thirty percent.

Manny now quietly lives with a former boxer almost twenty years his junior. He has a permanent smile on his face.

On their thirtieth wedding anniversary, her third granddaughter, now ten, found some old fight posters and pulled then out. She held her little fists up and yelled "BANG BANG!"

She fussed at her son Jeremy for letting her have the posters, but he just grinned and kissed her cheek. Manny, always looking for new talent, looked at her closely until Mark poked him in the ribs.

"No" he said, "I'm having enough trouble with one fighter in the family. If she wants to carry on a family business, I'll send her to Wharton and she can take over when Jeremy retires."

Age and responsibilities had slowed them down, but she was almost the same size at fifty seven she was when she was in her prime. At sixty two, he was trim and fit. She thought he looked better

now than then.

They had returned to the cottage where they honeymooned.

She handed him a little blue pill.

"Take this, I plan a long night for you. I reviewed my training films and wasted a few bananas. I want your honest opinion, an I still as good as I used to be?"

Twenty minutes later he was gasping, his erection still iron hard. As she slipped up and mounted him, he told her

"You're not as good as you used to be, all these years of practice had made you far better."

Just like the first honeymoon, they didn't leave the cottage for the first three days. They didn't think about their three children, or their seven grandchildren. They only thought about each other, and the loved they shared.