Prize Fighter

I also found myself lying there in bed with Patty on top of me, yet I would think of the way Lee was when she was with me on those trips. She had always acted so happy those times.

Nothing about that registered on me, not really.

Patty figured out the deal with Lee in short order, after that she ignored her like she was beneath her or something. Then she asked me if I had ever been with that "slut" that hung around the gym.

I admitted that, which started an argument. That ended when I told her there wasn't a hell of a lot of difference between spreading your legs for money, of doing it for free which pissed her off and she left.

She knew damn good and well that jab was aimed at her.

But she was back later that afternoon, acting like nothing had happened at all.

Two months later I was scheduled for a heavyweight match, no way out of it since I ballooned up to 240. Patty loved to eat out, go to fancy restaurants, so we did, almost nightly.

I worked like a fool and skipped eating lunches but was losing ground anyway. Water we can sweat off, blubber we can't.

My shot at any 205 championship match was out the window.

"Man, you need to stay off the damned Cheetos!" Tim told me bluntly one day at the studio. He sounded really pissed off.

I didn't say anything.

"That broad isn't good for you." He added, which pissed me off.

"Mind your own fucking business!" I growled. For a moment there we almost came to blows but he turned and walked away.

During that period I don't know exactly what happened, Patty had shown up, we were right back at it and for some reason my anger at her had faded.

She showed no signs of being like she had been before except she still dressed in a manner that without fail turned heads.

Then one day her brother came by to see Patty about something, and I was there. He looked at me with some nervousness, completely different than the sneer he had given me that day years before.

But I smiled and shook his hand. I saw the flash of pain in his eyes as I set right down on his hand, holding it for far longer than I needed to.

Then I sat and stared at him as he was talking to Patty about some house they owned jointly that was being sold. He kept looking my way, getting more and more nervous as I just stared at him intently.

"What?" He asked finally.

"I was just remembering the day you spit on me." I told him.

"Danny! Don't you be like that!" Patty said, getting into the middle of what she probably knew was about to happen.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean anything by it." I got up with a smile, stretched out my hand. Her tubby brother stupidly took it, I clamped down and pulled him in nice and close and spit in his face.

"Wanna do anything about that, asshole?" I growled to him with a grin, retaining his hand easily even though he was struggling to pull it loose.

Then I set down even harder, feeling the bones in his hand let go. He managed to not let out a howl but his face showed it.

I saw the fear in his eyes, then suddenly I no longer cared about him, so I let go. I was done with him. It was a lot like the feeling I got when something landed dead square on an opponent.

Things are over when that happens, I had handled the brother and I was now simply done with him.

Her brother left quickly after that, then Patty took me to task. We had one of our fights, and she yelled that she was moving back to her mother's.

"So fucking move, then, I don't give a shit." I went over and sat down in my chair.

All of what had happened before came flooding back.

"You were an asshole then and you are an asshole now!" She yelled as she threw her things into a suitcase. She might have been quieter if she had known what I was thinking. That old fantasy of wrapping my hands around her neck had popped right back into my mind.

"You just want to go fuck some other guy!" I snarled right back. But I stayed right there in my chair because I knew that if I got up....

She didn't answer.

"But your Mom is just as good a piece of ass as you are!" I added in a rage.

"What?" She stared at me.

"You heard me."

Patty stormed out, I was fairly sure that was the end of that.

Tim was right, she was fucking up my life.

Again.

+++

"Two hundred and forty four pounds, Hammerfist Hanson!" The announcer introduced me. There was a sprinkling of cheers, I glanced over and there sat Lee right up close to the ring. I smiled at her, gave her a little wave, she waved back.

Then he introduced the other guy, "Killer Kawolski."

296 pounds, they said, the guy looked to be closer to 400.

Hey, even I couldn't make up a name like that, he was a big Polish guy.

I had heard of him, he was already up to 12 and zero, and not a single match went past the first round.

The guy just waded in and smashed everyone he came up against.

It was all grating on me because he was getting all the publicity and he was being touted as getting the next championship match.

I knew damn good and well I was there as fodder, just another rung for this asshole to step on, on his way up.

Well, we would just see about that, I thought.

We went in circles for a solid three minutes, jabbing at each other, getting closer and closer. I managed to land a jab, a bone jarring straight right hand that had no effect at all, then he made his rush which I expected.

My right hook caught him flush on the forehead and I had everything in me behind it.

Nothing happened, he didn't even blink, he grabbed me and lifted me off the floor like I was a fifty pound grain sack and threw me down on the mat so hard my breath went in a whoosh.

Then he was on top of me. It might as well have been an Elephant, I tried everything I knew to get loose and nothing worked.

I was hitting him up side the head as hard as I could, that was the last thing I remember doing.

+++

There were lights in my eyes when I came to, a couple of men were standing there saying something. All I could think of was to get up before I was counted out, then it struck me I was not in the ring.

"Man! What in the fuck happened?" I asked.

"You lost, it was 4 minutes into the first round." The guy told me.

My head hurt like hell and I could taste blood in my mouth. I managed to sit up.

"What does the fat bum expect, coming in like that?" Someone said on the way out.

I managed to stand up, Tim was sitting there looking at me.

"Hey, tough break, Dan." He said.

"Yea." I stood up, then went into the showers. I was in there for a very long time.

There was just one guy in the dressing room when I came out, he was there to keep an eye on me, I knew.

But there sat Lee, her hands in her lap.

"Hey, Bud, I told her to leave but she wouldn't..." The man said.

"No problem." I answered. He just shrugged.

"Hi Dan. I'm sorry you lost, but I thought maybe....?" She said.

At that exact moment, nothing on the planet would have pleased me more.

We left and went to my hotel room. I could say we made wild and crazy love but we didn't.

Instead, she rubbed lotion on my lumps and stroked me, comforting me and somehow all of that felt good in a way I can't explain.

Then we went to bed and she slept cuddled up in my arms. Lee was someone to be with, to share my misery with.

The next morning I woke up to find her sitting in a chair waiting. She was fully dressed in a pretty beige blouse and slacks.

"I have a flight back home in a few hours." She told me.

"Tim and I are driving back, why not ride with us?" I asked.

"Really? I think I would like that." She smiled.

"Good. That gives us a few hours, come here." I grinned.

There was only the one part of me that wasn't sore and we both made very good use of that.

Then it was more sleep.

+++

I woke up to Lee plastered tight against me.

"I know you are...were..involved with that woman, but I really have missed this." She smiled as she lay there nibbling at my neck with her lips.

"So have I." I answered, and it struck me I was telling the truth.

The long drive home was uneventful, Lee mostly listened as Tim and I talked about doing something to get me back into reasonable shape.

How I had managed to get to nearly 250 pounds in such a short time was beyond me. It was a combination of things, one of which was the bad influence of Patty.

We even talked about that, I told him the rest of the story which I had kept bottled up inside for years. He sat and listened, then told me if I wanted to commit again like I had before he would help.

Back home, Lee was still with me when I got to my house. She had asked to come along because I was still pretty beaten up.

That evening she went into my kitchen and dug around until she found enough stuff to prepare a meal.

"I didn't know you could cook." I told her as I waded in.

"There are lots of things you don't know about me." She smiled.

+++

Work. That is what I did, work. I lost 20 pounds the first month and another 15 the second month. I was now back into my 210-215 pound range and I could have taken a match or two with some added effort but for some reason I did not want to.

Tim and Lee and I sat and watched the closed circuit TV show where Killer Kawolski became the new champion, dispatching the existing champion in just 3 minutes of the first round.

I watched that closely, I could not believe that I had even been inside the ring with something like that. The man was huge, fast and relentless.

Tim laughed when I mentioned that.

"I can see why you might not want to fight any more." He said.

"But at least you have this little lady here." He grinned at Lee, who blushed.

I just looked at Tim. Then I looked at Lee.

It struck me, over the last two months she had been around a lot like always, but I had not seen her go with anyone at all. She also had not asked me for money which I had noticed but instead of just going up to her apartment we had been driving out to my house where she would spend the night.

The few times she didn't go with me made my house feel...cold?

With all the other crap going wrong in my life I had been thinking of Lee as a...friend?

It must have shown on my face, because I looked over at Tim with a confused expression.

"Damn, you are slow!" He laughed again and got up and left.

+++

"I want to talk." I told Lee that evening at my house.

"OK." She came over and sat down.

"What are we doing here? I mean, don't get me wrong, I...uhh...appreciate you being..you know." I managed.

"A prostitute? Available? It's OK, I understand. I know what I am." She turned her head but not before I saw a tear well up.

"Hey, look. I don't think badly of you, you are fun to be with and I like having you around."

"I guess that is it, isn't it?"

"You haven't...I mean..I noticed that you haven't been...?"

"Hooking? No, I quit. I have been living off my savings. I think I will need to go find a real job soon."

"Oh. But you and I...You are here..with me?"

"I guess...I just want to...take care of you, Danny."

"I can take care of myself."

"Yes, I am sure you can." She looked me right in the eyes.

After I dropped her off at her apartment that night, I was headed back to my house and I almost turned around and went back.

Almost.

+++

"I'm sorry you lost." Were the first words out of Patty's mouth when I picked up the phone the next morning.

"What do you want?" I asked her. I had no idea at all why she would be calling me.

"I just wanted to ask how you are, that was awful." Then she launched into a long string of being nice, she even told me she forgave me for that deal with her mother.

"Mom is just that way, it's not your fault." She told me.

God help me, I started to relax and talk to her. Finally I told her I needed to go down to the gym, she mentioned she would stop by and watch me train for awhile.

I wasn't there for more than 30 minutes when Patty walked in, looking nasty like she always did and acting almost like she owned the place.

She spotted me, and headed right over.

"What the fuck? You aren't going to start up with that shit again, are you?" Tim said, then he turned and walked away, acting disgusted.

Patty and I talked a little bit, then I went back to the mat again. One of the heavy weights on the way up was working with me, starting out on top and I was working on getting loose.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lee walk in, she was nearly over to me when she spotted Patty sitting there. I saw the unhappy look on her face as she turned to leave, I tucked a shoulder, came to my feet as I spun out of the hold my helper had on me.

"Lee!" I called out, heading after her. She stopped and turned.

I had barely reached her when Patty came up to us.

"What are you doing?" She demanded.

"I need to talk to Lee." I said.

"Why? What do you want to talk to this fucking bitch for?" She growled.

"Look, honey. Watch who you are calling names!" Lee told her, her face darkening.

"Yeah? What are you going to do about it? Danny and I are trying to work things out, we don't need a whore like you interfering."

"I might be a whore but at least I pick and choose instead of spreading for anything that comes along!" Lee snapped right back.

With that, Patty reached for her hair. Patty had a solid 30 pounds on Lee's slight frame, she got a fistful of her hair and yanked.

Lee dropped down, hooked the back of Patty's knees with both hands and drove forward. Patty went down flat on her back, Lee was on top and she scooted up to press her arms down with her knees.

Then she began to pound, finally dropping a half dozen elbows down on her face. All of the fight left Patty, it was over in 30 seconds.

Lee stood up, looking down at Patty.

"I told you about calling people names!" She stepped back, looked at me.

It struck me at that moment that I was proud of her. Patty got up, tried for a few moments to regain her composure, then she hurried out the door.

Right then I knew I didn't care.

"Where did you learn to do something like that?" I asked Lee.

"I have been watching you guys here in the gym for ages." She told me with a smile.

"Come on, let's go." I told her. Everyone in the place had come to a stop, staring.

"OK." She answered meekly.

+++

Lee nearly dropped her cup of coffee when I asked her if she would come and live with me full time.

"Oh, Danny." That was the first time I ever remembered her calling me Danny.

"I don't know. You know about me? You know what I am...was?"

"I don't care, I want you to be with me, be mine! Just me, nobody else, forever!" I blurted out.

"Some of the guys at the club...I have been....?" She asked. I knew what she meant.

She was also beaming.

"Not one of them will ever say a single word about anything." I told her.

I was fairly sure nothing would ever be said.

After all. I am Hammerfist Hanson, I might have some troubles with that Gorilla named Kawolski but I knew I could whip any of the rest of them.

Well, I thought so anyway.

Back at the gym a couple of hours later, Tim was just coming out of the massage room, followed by a smiling lady that looked to weigh about 180 pounds.

She looked a bit flushed, I just grinned at that.

Tim glanced over and saw us, we were holding hands. A few of the guys looked over too, then they went right back to their workouts. I reached out with one arm and pulled Lee closer to me.

"OK. Good. About time, too! Now, let's work on getting rid of your fat gut." He grinned at me.

"Maybe I can help with that!" Lee said with a laugh.

We all laughed and I went to work.

That big championship match? Who knows? Maybe I would get it, maybe not. It didn't matter, not that much.

I already had what did matter.