King of the Ring

6 | Awkward Massages

I was sitting behind the gyms front desk on Friday night, working on the accounts with Rey sitting beside me, talking about some party he was going to tonight. He was trying to coerce me into going with him. Three years ago I wouldn't have hesitated in saying yes, however these days I couldn't find it in myself to go to someones party whom I barely even knew.

"come on Dani, would you seriously rather be moping around at home than come to a party?" Rey asked me incredulously. It was sad that I actually would prefer being at home.

Before I could turn down his offer for the fifth time our father came storming towards the front desk. I paused what I was doing to take in his furious face. I had never seen him look so aggravated.

Mateo followed behind him, a deep scowl on his face. His muscles were bunched up tightly and stress radiated off of him.

"what's up?" I asked, forcing my tone to be cool and indifferent. I watched as my father shuffled through some business cards before throwing them down on the desk in a huff. He better clean them up.

"The therapist cancelled last minute and theres a fight tonight, I wont be able to get anyone else here in time! This is a disaster!" my father swore loudly, running a frustrated hand through his hair.

"Therapist?" I asked, confused.

"si, the physical therapist has called in sick. Sick!" my father was outraged at the fact that someone had the nerve to be sick.

Mateo stood in front of the desk, watching my father with his normal carefully masked expression, not giving away to how he was feeling about this whole situation.

"you know what's funny?" Rey began, I glanced at him to see a grin slowly forming on his face. My father gave him an annoyed glance, obviously saying that now was not the time for something funny. "young Dani here," he clamped a hand onto my shoulder, I raised a brow at my idiot brother, "has a degree in physiotherapy."

My eyes widened before I shot daggers at Rey, hoping to murder him with my eyes. Mateo and I hadn't spoken since the drunken guy incident. He hadn't even given me one of his signature chin nods since. For the past few days I had been forced to watch him and my father train in the front ring right in front of the desk I worked at as my father felt as though I couldn't defend myself. I didn't exactly want to spend an evening working as Mateo's physical therapist and I was pretty confident that Mateo felt the same way. 

My father seemed to perk up, as though he had just found the solution to his problem.

"Si!" he exclaimed, I could almost see his thought process going through his mind as he looked at me with excited eyes.

I began to shake my head, looking at Rey with barely contained wrath.

Mateo glanced between us and I saw the moment when Rey's and my fathers words clicked in his mind. His scowl deepened and he narrowed his eyes.

"No," the one word was spoken in a deep tone that left no argument.

"Mateo, I know you liked Clyde, but we need to work with what we've got," my father tried to reason.

"No," he repeated, looking at me with harsh eyes as though daring me to argue with him. Trust me, I didn't want to go as much as he didn't want me to go.

"Isn't there someone else?" I asked.

My father shook his head adamantly. "Its too short notice to get anyone else in, we need to leave for the fight in half an hour."

"I cant go, Rey and I are going to a party tonight," I tried. Mateo seemed to relax slightly at my excuse, his scowl lessening slightly.

"The party that you told me you weren't going to?" Rey asked, ever so helpfully. I glared daggers at him, promising with my eyes to kill him later.