Fighting for Her

"Okay. Let's go." Riley skipped out of her room and into the kitchen where Anna was eating her cereal. She felt refreshed this morning, wearing her favorite chambray shirt. Her hair was up in a bouncy pony tail.
"Well good morning to you too!" Anna shook her head at her best friend. "What changed your mind?"
Riley wasn't quite sure. She must have watched that video over a dozen times last night, reading Tommy's face and body language over and over again. "Just curious, is all." She nervously chewed on her bottom lip.
"Curiosity killed the cat." Anna got up and rinsed her bowl in the sink. "Hey, Ryan kind of has cat like features, don't you think?" She smiled.
Riley rolled her eyes, clearly not amused. "Are you coming or not?"
"Sadly my dear, this is something you need to figure out on your own. I'm not going to give you advice on your 'relationships' anymore." Anna stood against the counter with her arms crossed.
"I'm not looking for another boyfriend An-"
"Look whatever it is, I just think you should do this solo." Riley stood alone in the apartment as Anna left with a loud slam of the door.
Feeling a little less bouncy, Riley left the apartment and got in her pickup. She got to Tommy's gym in under 10 minutes. To say she was speeding was probably an understatement. She was so anxious and couldn't understand the reason as to why she was feeling this way. She knew she loved Ryan, and she knew there was no way she could feel anything about Tommy. She barely knew him. But when she woke up that morning all she could think about was the face she saw in the video. The look in his eyes were raging with passion and intensity. She needed to see more, to know more.

A group of guys walked past her truck, waking her from her daze. She mused up some strength and walked into the gym, the stench of sweat smacking her in the face. Behind the desk she could see the rest of the gym and she suddenly felt extremely out of place. There were about 30 large, bulky men. All shouting, grunting, ducking, swinging and of course, punching.
"Hey can I help you?" The small, but still larger than her, guy at the front desk asked Riley.
"Um, I'm look for Tommy..." At that moment she realized she didn't know his last name, and how ridiculous this whole thing was.
"He's right back here." He started walking behind the black chain link fence that separated the front from the gym, looking back to see if Riley was coming. Startled, she tripped over her feet, catching herself on the desk.
"Right behind you." She closed her eyes in exasperation. 'This is so stupid. What am I doing?' She thought. He brought her to the corner of the gym where Tommy was putting the hurt on a punching bag. 'Maybe if I run now I can get away before he notices I'm here...'

The guy working the front desk had already walked away without saying anything to Tommy so she had a pretty good chance since Tommy's back was to her. She slowly turned around and took her first step, getting her foot caught in a strap from a gym bag that was laying on the floor, and fell on the ground. Scrambling to get up, she felt very large hands grab her waist and hoist her up.
"You okay there?" Tommy's voice sent the hairs on her neck straight up. She turned to see those blue eyes staring right back at her. His face was red and covered in sweat. The front of his hair was matted to his forehead. He took his gloves off and set them on the ground.
"I'm fine. Thanks." She didn't know where to look so she started at her feet. 'Dumb feet.' Her clumsiness was at an all time high today. She decided to blame it on her nerves. Her adrenaline was slowly depleting, and the stinging in her knee was suddenly throbbing. She bent down and rubbed it, but the pain shot up at her touch. She let out a low squeak and sat on the ground.

"Let me see." Tommy kneeled in front of her and without hesitation pulled her jean leg up to expose her knee. 'Good thing I shaved this morning,' she thought to herself. Her knee was really red, but there was no cut. "Looks like its just going to bruise up a bit, but you should be fine. Stay right here."
Riley watched as he walked to a cooler and grabbed an ice pack. He brought it back with a smile on his face. "What?" she asked. His grey shirt was soaked in sweat. She saw parts of tattoos that he had on his arms and wondered how many more he had.
"Nothing. Here, hold this on your knee." He pressed her hand onto the icepack, brushing against her knee with his fingertips when she had a firm grip on the pack. Goosebumps rose on her arms and she wondered if they were from his touch or from the ice.
"Thanks." She half smiled at him, feeling awful.
"Are you trying to join this gym? Because I don't think you started off too well." He laughed and sat on the floor next to her.
"Yeah, me work out here? Don't think so." She wished she had worn her hair down so she could hide behind it. He stared at her with intrigue.
"So you were just in the neighborhood?" He took a sip from his water bottle and offered it to her. She shook her head at the offer, and his question. She twirled her hair around her fingers.
"Stephen showed me a video yesterday." He sighed loudly, knowing exactly which video it was that she saw. "And I was just, curious I guess." He watched how nimble her hands were, twisting her dark hair. He couldn't believe she was here especially after watching the video. Tommy was surprised that she wasn't scared after seeing him knock a man unconscious.
"Well I'm glad you were curious."