Her Strength, His Weakness

• Chapter Sixteen •

It's been two weeks since the 'moment' with Archer. We've continued as we were since it all went down. Archer gives me a kiss on the head or on the lips every now and then, but he mainly does these things when we're alone. We seem to have an unspoken agreement to keep 'whatever it is that's happening between us' to ourselves. He will put his arm around me, hug me and, not very often, place a kiss on my head in front of our friends. They refrain form asking too many questions.

We all continue to hang out as a group, Archer and I stealing a few moments to ourselves every so often.

I have found myself to be calmer and less anxious, because of his presence. He makes me nervous and gives me butterflies don't get me wrong, but he keeps my anxiety at bay. He feels safe. If that even makes sense.

Archer decided that it would be a good idea to give me a self defense lesson, aka 'beginner's boxing'. I agreed to it, because it's an excuse to spend time with him.

So we're on our way over to the club instead of our usual Tuesday gym session. I'm flattered that he took time out of his training to spend time with me and teach me a few things.

"As long as I'm aground no one will touch a hair on your head." Archer informed me. His statement struck me like a tight hug to the heart. He's honesty so protective, but I enjoy it. I always feel safe and comfortable around him. "But unfortunately I cannot be at your side 24/7 365 (and a quarter) days a year." He said, "so you need to be able to defend yourself, because I don't want you going anywhere anytime soon." If that doesn't make your heart melt, then I don't know what will. That, or you're a robot and don't have one.

"That's probably the best thing anyone has ever said to me." I said. He smiled next to me, saying nothing else.

We pulled into the parking lot of the warehouse slash boxing club and got out of the car. I went to Archer's side at the boot of the car to retrieve my gym bag. After we locked the car, Archer took hold of my hand and we walked toward the entrance.

I've never been inside this place outside of match night, so this was a new experience. The lobby was empty, beside from the one man stood inside behind the front desk.

The man looked big behind the desk, with dark hair, a scruffy short bear and a face that told people about his being in many fights before.

He looked up at us and noticed that it was Archer. "Hey Arch. It's not your tainting day today, so Garry went out. Hopefully you won't be needing him." The man's voice suited his face. He had a rough way of talking and his voice was croaky.

"Hey Steven." He greeted. "Yeh I'm here with Blondie today for a quick 'beginner's class'. The gym open for that?"

"Oh great. Yeh it's always open for you, go right on ahead." He said smiling at the two of us.

"Thanks Steve." He said as we walked through a different door to our usual. It was a white wooden door that lead off to the right of the lobby. Inside I saw that this 'gym' had punching bags lining the one wall to the left, there was a large cabinet that had a lock on it, probably containing supplies and the center of the floor was covered with mats.

Archer let go of my hand and took my gym back from my other hand, walking over to the bench that sat against the wall by the door. He placed the bags down on the floor and motioned for me to join him where he stood. I did.

"Because it's a 'beginner's lesson', you will be using Bag gloves to learn how to throw a proper punch." Archer informed me.

He walked over to the supply cabinet and reached into his pocket for a large set of keys. Archer unlocked the cabinet and all of its contents were exposed for me to see. There were many kinds and sizes of gloves packed away neatly on the top shelf and there was a clear container that had rolls of hand strapping, like the kind Archer uses when he fights. There were many other things that I didn't get to have a proper look at, because Archer shut the doors after retrieving a, smaller than usual size, pair of cloves. It must be a smaller size for my smaller hands.