The Ultimate Fight (18 page)

“Baby boy! It’s seriously packed out there. You ready?” Ebony came into the bustle of things in the locker room.

“Fa’sho!”

“Mom and dad wanted me to wish you luck. They said they will be watching.”

“Thanks sis.”

“No problem. Oh and before I forget I have message for you.”

“From who?”

“Just look at it.” Ebony passed Barron her Galaxy Note with a picture on the screen. Taking a closer look, Barron could clearly see a big round caramel stomach that instantly put a smile on his face. There was a message written across it with some sort of glitter letters.

KNOCK EM’ DEAD DADDY!!!

“When did she send this?” The caption under the picture said not literally but figuratively with lots of hearts and kisses.

“About five minutes ago.”

“I asked her to come you know?” Barron stated sadly.

“I know, she told me. She wanted to come when she came back from her trip but she figured the offer was off the table.”

“Why would she think that?”

“Maybe cause you got your sideline hoe walking around here like she
is the Queen of Sheba. Taking picture after picture representing for you or at least that’s what she is telling anyone who will listen.”

“What does Naomi have to do with her coming to support me?”

“She is doing what she does best. Let me go to my seat. Do your thing!”

“You already know,” was his response as Ebony left the back area headed to the arena. He was pumped, riled up, and ready to beat the snot out of the competition. The picture Mya sent was a sweet sentiment even if he would have preferred her presence instead, it was still a heartfelt gesture.

B.A. entered the cage to screams, applause, whistles, and more. He was near the top of his ranking, only two fights away from taking away the
championship title. His competitor of the night was a hot head who fought off of emotion. Snapping at him like a snap dragon but retreating faster than a groundhog seeing his shadow. His name Dirty Bastard, explained his fighting style to the very last detail, his style was
dirty boxing
. However the messiness that his opponent displayed didn’t deter him nor distract him, he delivered a series of hooks, jabs, and threw him off balance with the superman quickly followed by the guard.

While off kilter B.A. went in for the jugular by administrating a Sweep. A move where a competitor who has an opponent in the guard takes away the opponent’s balance, turns him over, and ends up on top, frequently in the mount. Sweeps are dependent upon the sweeper’s ability to remove all of the opponent’s supports on one side, by making it impossible for the opponent to “base out” with a hand or a foot. 

He treated this fight like a dog or wolf treated its prey by giving a little and taking a lot. Prolonging the inevitable to further get some of his aggression out of his system, instead of ended this fight he waited until half way through the third round. Some folks in the crowd booed while others cheered wildly when Dirty lost his balance giving B.A. the advantage to Ground and Pound. A strategy where a competitor takes his opponent to the ground and unleashes a flurry of punches and elbows to try to finish a fight.

Whistles were blown as the match was called, B.A. was the winner once again. He was one step closer to be
ing the champ, it was within his grasp. Stepping out of the cage with only a scratch above his right eye along with some reddening to the left side of his face. Numbly he walked back to his area surrounded by microphones, reporters, and photographers. Mindlessly answering questions about the night’s event, the only thing he wanted to do was hop the first thing smoking back to Atlanta.

“Great fight baby boy!” Thomas said. “Where do you want to go to celebrate?”

“Home!”

“HOME?!” Toby and Davey shouted gaining a growl from B.A. They held up their hands in surrender.

“Home it is.” Thomas walked away with a knowing smile on his face. ‘Baby boy has been bitten by the
love
bug and don’t even realize it yet,’ Thomas thought as he booked four first class flights back home. The tickets were for Barron, him, and security. Ebony already had her plans, that only left the other bastards and they could figure it out.

Mya thoroughly enjoyed her week away even being six and half months pregnant. They enjoyed an array of different foods, lots of fun activities, and relaxing times on the beach. Even being big as
a beached whale didn’t falter Mya’s attempts at being sexy in her one-piece maternity swimsuits. Damon had convinced her that she was beautifully pregnant, far from fat so that was all the encouragement she needed. Besides the nights when Damon would steal away to hang out in the night clubs or late night parties around town they spent all their time together. He never complained about her constant whining about Barron, wondering what he was doing while she was away. She started to feel bad that she didn’t accompany him to Miami but her plans with Damon seemed more important to her.

Explaining to Damon about Barron’s demanding that she limit her time spent with him had intrigued him to know more about their conversation. Upon listening he came to the conclusion that Barron had a valid point about the amount of time they spent together. He too was having a hard time settling down with anyone and one reason was because he refused to discuss his relationship with Mya. True Mya was a platonic friend but others always doubted that it would remain that way. In truth, Mya really wasn’t his type by a long shot. She was and will always be his sister from another mister no matter how anyone tried to dissect their dealings with one another. He loved her more than anyone could understand and would slaughter anyone who hurt his girl. So overprotective, he could be that, but attracted to her on a deeper level, NEVER.

“I understand where he is coming from Mya.”

“You what?”

“You are not deaf by a long shot so I won’t repeat myself but hear me out just the same. Deal?”

“But…”

“Deal?”

“Fine, deal.”

“Barron is fighting his feelings for you.” Mya went to cut him off and he simple gave her pointed look. “He has developed feelings for you on a deeper level than just ‘we are having a baby.’ It’s the way he looks at you when he thinks no one is looking. You said it yourself, he elicits a certain passion behind his intimacy towards you. Intimacy is that special, humph, that every person in a
serious
relationship longs for. Holding of your hand, cuddling, soft caresses, and all this without looking for sex in the least bit. Not to mention that the sex is through the roof when it comes down to that but it’s so much more.”

“When a male shares intimacy with a woman on high level, the sex between them is more on the lines of making love. I don’t mean just penetration. It’s the touches before, during, and after that causes those partners minds to explode not just their organs. Specialists seem to believe you have a total body orgasm which involves mind, body, soul, and spirit. Have you had such an encounter with Mr. Anderson?”

“Wow…” Mya fanned herself and flagged down the waiter walking along the beach to bring her a new bottle of water. She drained that one in a minute flat listening to Damon’s excellent description of how she had started to feel about Barron.

“That deep huh?”

“Damon you have no idea how you just sent my mind on an adventure thinking of the possibilities. So far we haven’t reached that level yet and I am truly fearful of reaching that level. What if I’m there alone? Some of the intimacy is truly there though but I don’t know if I want to experience the rest yet. I don’t know if I can withstand that heart break. Seriously.”

“Baby girl, you will never know the power of
true love
if you never allow it to come in. Welcome these new feelings and quit fighting.”

“Damon I’ve fallen in love with just smelling his signature cologne. His natural scent after he’s had a shower, the aura of his presence when he walks into a room, his voice sends shivers down my spine, and I can’t get enough. Every thought about him sends me into a nympho frenzy. At first I thought I was just hormonal and filled with lust but I slowly figured out that I was sadly mistaken.” Mya said all of this to release a frustrated breath. “Damon I love his sweaty funky self after an intense workout and even his damn morning breathe before he hits a toothbrush.”

“DAMN, now that’s too damn much.” Damon cracked up laughing at her distraught face. “Morning breathe? Sweaty ass?”

“His breath isn’t funky like most people have in the morning.” She tried to explain as Damon raised an eyebrow at her rambling. “And he doesn’t have a funky body odor, his hygiene is just immaculate.”

“Mya… Mya… MYA!” Damon had to yell to get her attention. She had started to daydream, damn near drooling over the thought of Barron, he guessed. “Although it’s about time you found love like this and I am over the moon happy for you but you can keep some of the explanations. The candid details of B.A.’s ass I just don’t care to hear or ever know about. Hell the fact that I have to scrub my mind of what you already said is enough for me to not be able to look him in the eye for a little while.”

“Ugh, I love you.” Mya said hugging him tight.

“I love you too girl. Always…” He laid a simple kiss to her forehead.

Mya thought about making a detour after leaving the Bahamas to stop off in Miami to possibly surprise Barron. She really wanted to be there with him and for him during his fight. If not for anything but just to show him how much she supported his passion. Fully prepared to change her flight plans once they reached Florida
a magazine cover caught her attention. On the cover, there was a picture of the model Barron was supposedly dating while he was away at the beginning of her pregnancy. Purchasing the gossip magazine from the news stand, she took a seat to read the details of the article.

According to the article,
Naomi
was in Miami to support her
man
. The more the article went on the more she realized how stupid she must have been to actually think that he would want her when he had someone as glamorous as Naomi. Damon had stepped away to take an important phone call with his business manager so she was left with some serious questions. Insecurities that she didn’t know she had surfaced and did on number on her self-esteem.

Somehow a lone tear had escaped her eye, splashing the page that displayed a beautiful Naomi talking animatedly about being cage side for the infamous B.A. That alone was enough to shatter the thoughts of surprising him with her presence instead she decided that he no longer wanted her there. He had his
girlfriend
, the baby-mama would only make things tense and she didn’t want him to feel that pressure going into the ring. Acknowledging how important his fights were to his career, she decided Atlanta was where she should be for everyone’s sake.

~

“Hey girl. How are you doing? How’s my niece?” Ebony asked a series of questions before she could get a word in.

“Whoa…” Mya laughed. “We are both good. I just got back three nights ago.”

“How was your trip?”

“Great. Relaxing. Beautiful. Peaceful. Girl I could go on forever.”

“I hear that. You didn’t overdo it did you?”

“Never that. Not that overprotective Damon would have allowed that anyway.” Mya laughed and Ebony joined in.

“You two are so close.”

“Yeah we are. We go back to middle school.”

“Can I ask you something on a more personal level? If it’s too personal you can just tell me to mind my own business.”

“Sure go ahead.” Mya had an idea on where this was going and she was fully prepared to answer.

“Why are you there and not here?”

“Huh?” That wasn’t what Mya thought she would hear.

“I apologize. I swear I’m not trying to be messy but it just seems like since you are back from your trip, you would want to support Barron.”

“There is no place I would rather be right now but I don’t think it would be helpful to be there. If anything it may add stress.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Ebony I know his… whatever the Naomi girl is to him, is there. Adding a man’s baby-mama to the mix would just be asking for drama. There are a billion camera’s waiting to catch some action. I don’t want to be the cause of adding
tension. He needs to focus, I don’t want to be a distraction. You know?”

“I swear I love you more after what you just said.”

“Umm okay…” Mya laughed.

“Our mom was right. You are different.”

“Thanks I think.”

“That was definitely a compliment.”

“How is he doing?” Mya asked solemnly. She heard Ebony huff before she attempted to speak.

“He’s intense. Don’t get me wrong, the fighter B.A. is always intense but Barron is like, missing right now. I don’t know if I’m explaining myself properly.”

“I get what you’re getting at Eb. I have an idea.”