Last Round Romance

Meanwhile, Curtis and Maria were waiting out front for Andy to come and pick them up to go back to the gym. Curtis skidded to a stop right next to her, “Hey,” he said while bouncing back and forth on the balls of his feet. Maria smiled at him, “Hey, you look awfully excited.” He shrugged, “What can I say? I’m in a good mood.” She nodded in approval, “Well good. That’s always a good thing.” They stood there in silence for a few minutes, but it wasn’t awkward surprisingly. It was just a relaxed silence. The each had an earphone in and they stood there just looking back and forth between each other and their iPod screens.
When Andy pulled up, he rolled down the passenger side window. Maria smiled at him, “You think you could drive Curtis back too? I kinda already told him that you would haha.” Andy laughed, “Then I guess I don’t have much of a choice do i?” He looked at Curtis and chuckled, “I’m just kidding man, hop on in.” Curtis tossed his stuff onto the back seat and sat down and buckled himself in. Andy looked at him through the rearview mirror, “So,” he started as he pulled out of the school parking lot, “Little Greene here hooked you into going back to the gym?” Curtis smiled and nodded, “Yea she did. But it didn’t take too much to be honest haha.” Andy laughed and looked at Maria who was in the passenger seat next to him, “Yea, she can be pretty convincing.” Maria smiled as she looked out the window as they drove through the town and out to the highway that led to the gym. She loved looking out the window as the view changed from country farms to city buildings.
When they pulled into the parking lot at Schott’s, Maria hopped out with her bag already slung over her shoulder and headed up to the door with the key she had pulled out of her pocket on the ride over. Curtis chuckled to himself as he got his things off the floor of the back of the car. Andy walked over to him, “Well, at least she’s eager haha.” Curtis laughed and nodded, “Yea, I think that’s a bit of an understatement.” They were laughing and joking around about her when Maria poked her head back out of the building with a huge smile plastered on her face, “Come on Groff, let’s go!” Curtis smiled as he jogged up to the door and into the building.
Andy stayed outside for a minute, just leaning against the hood of his car. Hearing Curtis’ last name made his stomach clench a little bit. Andy had known Curtis’ father and they never really thought very highly of each other. Andy didn’t want that to effect his opinion of Curtis. “He seems like a nice enough kid,” Andy thought to himself, “And maybe this could keep him from ending up like his dad…or either of his parents for that matter.” He wanted to give Curtis the benefit of the doubt and give him a chance, but he was still skeptical. Especially since it seemed like Maria took a liking to him, and the last thing that he ever wanted to see was Maria get hurt by anyone.
He looked down at the ground and started to remember the whole timeline of when Maria had been coming to the gym on a regular basis before. She started when she was only five or six years old. He remembered the first few times that she came she didn’t really do much; she kind of just hung around and waited for her dad to finish his classes and training sessions. Then one day, her dad had talked to Andy before class and asked if Andy could teach her some of the basics just so she wouldn’t be so bored while she was waiting there. Andy had happily agreed. “Any time I can get anyone into boxing, I’ll do it,” he had told her father with a clap on the back. And after that, Andy had taught Maria a few times a week for a few years and she kept getting better and better as time went on. She was growing up and getting stronger in every possible way. She would walk in with her dad with her gloves, wraps, and water bottle all hanging from her hands. She’d smile and wave to all the instructors and people that were training there during that class. Everyone got to enjoying having her around. She would bounce around the gym before her sessions and classes and talk to everyone and hit the heavy bags with an amount of force that always ended up surprising everyone that was there. “It’s because she’s a Greene,” her father had once told Andy and the co-owner, Rick. They had all laughed about it but they couldn’t deny the fact that it was probably true. She had stuck with it on a regular basis for a long time, until she was about eleven or twelve. She was really good, and she had a lot going for her in and outside of the ring. Andy always told Maria that she could go professional if she stuck with it, but she always laughed and shook her head, “I’m a girl, I’d never be able to stay in the ring.” He wondered if now that she was older she’d consider it. He knew that ever since everything happened with her father, the gym has been a bit of a bittersweet place for her, but he hoped that she would fall back in love with it the way she had when she was younger.
When he walked in, Maria had already wrapped Curtis’ hands and they were back in the ring practicing the punches again. Andy called over to them, “Radio preference?” Maria shrugged and looked over to Curtis and waited for him to answer. “Oh,” he stammered, “well, umm, it doesn’t matter really. I usually listen to 99.1. But I’d get it if you didn’t want to haha. Not everyone is in to rap and hip-hop like me.” Maria nodded to Andy, “You can put that on; I’m good with that.” Andy chuckled as he turned the dial on the radio, “Last time you were in here you were listening to the Jonas Brothers…talk about change.” Maria smiled and shrugged and went back to working with Curtis.
Andy was sitting behind the counter in the front of the gym going through paperwork and making sure that all the money in the cash register was in order. He was flipping through all of the forms of the new people who had signed up that week for regular classes and he nodded his head in approval. More and more people were starting to come to the classes and actually sticking with it. There were always those few people who tried it once or twice and then left, but there hadn’t been as many of them lately. He looked up into the elevated ring where Curtis and Maria were; she was going through all the punches that she had taught him that morning while they were working together. He smiled and went back to flipping through records and paperwork.
Maria turned so she was facing Curtis, “I think you’re actually starting to get this.” Curtis chuckled, “You sound surprised.” She shrugged, “I never know how quickly someone will catch on to all of this. For some people you’d think I was trying to teach them rocket science or some shit like that,” she paused, “But then again, it might have been the fact that I was only like, twelve years old haha.” Curtis smiled and shrugged but didn’t say anything. They practiced all of the punches on the heavy bags that were hanging in the ring with them. At first Maria just had Curtis go through the punches in chronological order, but after a few minutes she started calling out combinations for him to do. She stopped and took her gloves off and was watching him as he threw each punch. You could see the thoughts going through his mind as he threw out each punch; it was written all over his face.
She was walking around him and the bag and watching his form as he threw the punches that she called out. She told him to throw a left hook and when he did, she put her hands on his shoulders and pulled him back a step from the bag. “Here,” she said as she pulled his left shoulder back, “you want to put your right shoulder forward first and rotate your back foot. Then,” she brought his left shoulder forward again, “that’s when you want to bring your left shoulder forward again and turn your front foot. But you’ve gotta have that leverage from your back foot first or your punch won’t be as useful.” Curtis’ eyebrows furrowed slightly as he tried to process it all. He tried it again but his front foot didn’t turn when he did it. Maria smiled at him, “Don’t worry. Like I told you this morning, three is the hardest punch to learn. It took me forever to learn it. You’ll get it though.”
She turned and walked back to the bag that she had been using and set her gloves on the ground in front of it. She made her way to the front of the ring and slid between the ropes with ease and glided down the steps. Curtis stopped for a minute and watched her as she walked over to the row of chairs where she had set her things. She picked up her water bottle and took a sip before setting it back down and undoing her ponytail. She tousled her hair and flipped it over so she could put it back into a ponytail again. She pulled the hair tie tight again and started making her way back up the steps into the ring. When she had looked up Curtis looked away quickly so she wouldn’t see him looking at her, but he hadn’t averted his gaze quickly enough. Maria smiled to herself but didn’t say anything to him.
Just as she was moving between the ropes to get back into the ring again, Curtis’ phone went off in his short’s pocket. He took one of his gloves off and pulled it out to check and see who it was. He let out an involuntary sigh as he hit the accept button. He took off his other glove and mouthed sorry to Maria as he held the phone up to his ear and slid out of the ring and jogged across the gym and went outside to talk to the person in private.