Alpha Billionaire Series

GAVIN

I bounced on my toe; hands held at the ready. Jiles and I circled around the ring, staring each other down. Our usual basketball afternoon got converted to a boxing match at the gym due to rain and Nick bailed on us in favor of his new fiancé. I hadn't had the best week anyway but running into Madison as she visited Drew at his discharge from the hospital had set me off. It had been almost 48 hours, but I was still charged and ready to go.

Jiles took a jab at me, but I dodged it, ducking and sidestepping him. His left hook left an open shot for me, so I took it, jabbing his ribcage. After he recovered and got into position, I charged at him feigning a right cross, and smacking him with a left uppercut when he went to defend. His stance was wrong; his feet faltered, and he stumbled backward “Dude, harsh...” Jiles wheezed as he regained his center of gravity.

“You fight like a girl.” The trash talk between us was typical of a day like this, but the anger that laced through my words was not. I had been bottling up my emotion for so long, it was starting to seep out into every relationship. Even calls with my mother had become a thing of the past because I got so irritated with her that I just ended up making an excuse not to answer or hung up on her early.

“Well come at me then, pretty boy. A real man taps into his potential.” Jiles lunged with a solid left cross, striking me across the jaw so hard I saw stars. Whatever he did, unlocked my inner beast.

I stumbled backward for a moment, then came at him with all the fury inside of me. I unleashed a barrage of strikes, right hook, left uppercut, right jab. One after one, I pounded my blows into his torso, keeping our rule of below the neck in the back of my mind, but I was like a wild animal. He backed into a corner of the ring, protecting his body as continued to assault him.

Eventually, he shouted at me, his mouth guard making it impossible to understand what he said, but I gathered the context of his communication and backed off. The canvas felt tiny as I walked around it, punching the corner pads as I went. I was a caged animal, and Jiles was my prey, caged with me and easily accessible.

He tore his sparring helmet off and tossed it to the canvas, then spat his mouthguard out. “What the hell, man? This is supposed to be friendly!” Jiles wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his arm and yanked a glove off. As he lifted his shirt, I could see the damage I'd done. His ribs were aflame with redness and some deep purple already setting in. “F**k.”

I felt awful, but at the same time I still needed release. The rage penned up inside of me needed to come out, and I had no outlet. When a woman felt this way, they'd just cry and feel better, but a man had no way of getting things off his chest like this. So, I just felt like smashing things to feel better, and that had unfortunately unraveled on one of my closest friends.

“Fuck, I'm sorry, man.”

Tearing my own sparring helmet and gloves off, I headed toward Jiles who was nursing his injuries. He allowed me to lift his shirt up a bit farther to look. “Hold still,” I told him, feeling his ribcage. It didn’t appear anything was broken, but he was going to be sore for a while.

“What the fuck happened? I mean, what has you so angry?” Jiles stepped away from me and took off his other glove, bending to retrieve his items from the canvas. “It's still that girl?

“She's not just a girl!” I snapped, snatching my gloves and helmet. I regretted the tone I used, but not what I had said. Madison was not just some girl to me. She was the love of my life. This was different than any of the other women I had dated. Madii was my world, and I had lost her. I had let her walk out of my house believing I was pushing her away.

“I get that.” Jiles followed me as I ducked between the ropes and hopped off the apron to the gym floor below. The next sparring pair climbed up to take our place and we headed to the locker room.

“God, it's so fucked up, Jiles. Even though I didn't take Nick's advice, I was still a complete asshole.” Sweat dripped from my hair to my face and I rubbed it away. The gym wasn’t exactly the place I wanted to get into this, but this is where it was coming out, so I just let it out. “I f****d it up so bad. I told her I wasn’t going to be her second choice and to make her decision, and she walked out of my house and hasn't spoken to me since.”

“Oh, harsh.” Jiles pushed the locker room door open, and it swung wide. We strolled inside avoiding the backswing, and steam from the showers hit us. The light fog-like mist in the air made it difficult to breathe, but it was a necessary evil. “Gosh, man. Sounds like you just need to call her. Tell me you've tried calling?”

I shook my head. I hadn't and I didn’t know if I should. I told her what I wanted, but she hadn't reached out. The thought that she might not know if I wanted her to call did occur to me at one point, but I had been so upset about things, I hadn't cared at that moment. I had been patient and understanding for far too long; I needed to retain my dignity.

“Fuck. You're ruining your own chances by being an ass. I told you communication was the way.” Jiles stripped off anc tossed his sweaty clothes and sparring equipment into his gym bag before heading to the showers with a towel. I followed suit, not saying much. I was too stuck inside my head with the rage.

After we showered and dried off, we returned to our lockers and dressed. Jiles put on a nice button-down shirt and jeans.

“You going out or something?” I asked, returning to my work clothes, which is all I had with me.

“Yeah, the lady is out on a work trip, so I thought I'd hit up the club and have a few drinks.” Jiles shrugged. “Perks of married life when the wifey has to travel for work. I never get in trouble, but I don’t mind looking, if you know what I mean.” He winked at me, and I turned away so he didn’t see my disgust.

“Yeah!” The placid agreement was all I could offer him. If Madison was mine, I'd never do that to her, even if she was out. She would be my fucking queen.

“You should come. Get out there. Live a little. Maybe get laid or something, and it will take your mind off this shit” H sat to put his shoes on, and I pulled mine out of my locker. I didn’t want to go home and stare at the ceiling again, and it was still early, so I agreed to go.

“Yeah, okay. But just for drinks. I have no intention of “getting laid’ because my heart is taken.” I shoved my wet towe into my bag and zipped it up. If having some whiskey at a bar kept me from being alone for the next few hours, I'd take it. Madison wasn't going to call me magically and tell me she broke it off. I'd given up that hope long ago, along with a piece of my heart.

* kk

I was three drinks in and feeling fine before I felt relaxed enough to enjoy the evening. Jiles kept making eyes at women, and every time they'd come by to talk to him, he'd point them in my direction. Multiple times I told him to stop sending me women, but he continued playing wingman regardless.

“Just loosen up a little. Have some fun tonight. Flirt with them or something. It doesn’t mean you have to take them home or marry them. Just live..." Jiles raised his beer up to indicate to the bartender he wanted another, and then slapped it down on the bar. “I'm using the John. I'll be back.”

My drink sloshed as he pushed off of me and walked away, and I turned toward the bar, hoping to discourage any unwanted attention. Unfortunately, that didn’t work. Jiles had been gone for less than a minute when a hand smoothed up my back and fingers tangled in my hair. I spun the barstool around to see a salaciously dressed blonde cleavage bursting through the neckline of her top.

“What's a tall dark stranger like you doing all alone?” She sipped a brightly colored drink with a slice of lime perchec on the glass’s rim and winked at me.

“Does that line actually work?” I tried to make my voice sound as unappealing as possible, dry, moody.

The woman chuckled and sat down, resting her hand on the top of my thigh. She leaned forward slightly, giving me a more than ample view of her breasts, and I looked away.

“Really, though. Why are you alone? You're good looking and based on the shoes—" she looked down at my Sperry's “—you're wealthy.”

“Yeah, I'm not really alone.” I sipped the whiskey in front of me and set it back down, hoping to shoo her away quickly.

“Ah, the guy with you? Sorry, buddy. I didn’t know.” She raised her eyebrows in shock, and I cringed.

“No, I don't ride the stick, if that's what you're thinking. My fiancé is just not with me tonight.” I laughed at the absurdity of her assumption as relief washed over her features.

“Well, then... You want to go have a little fun with me? Maybe we can grab coffee in the morning?” The seductive way she sipped her drink made my body tense. She was hot; I'd give her that. But Madison was the only thing in the worl that I had ever treasured like this—enough to push away my boyish wild side and fly straight. If I didn’t have Madii there, if I wouldn't risk hurting her, the caged animal inside of me would pin this woman to the side of my car and f**k her until she couldn't walk.

But I would never do that to Madison.

“I'll pass.” Shrugging, I turned back to my drink again, and prayed she went away. After a few minutes, she turned anc walked away, likely pouting. I sat there until my drink was finished and Jiles came back. I could tell by the way he wa: walking he'd need an Uber, so I scheduled one and left a note to call him when they arrived.

As he sat down, the bartender brought his next round and I stood.

“Going?” He looked surprised, but I didn’t think he really was. He knew this wasn't my scene, and I just wanted to go to sleep and pretend my life wasn't in chaos.

“Yeah. I don't like breaking all these ladies’ hearts.” I faked a smile and he laughed raucously, despite my joke not being funny. “I'll catch you Monday. Tell Nick he missed out.”

“See ya, man.” I hadn't even gone and Jiles was absorbed in his drink and the flirty glances of a few more women.

I'd never understand men who did that behind their wives’ backs, but I wasn't judging him. I knew his heart and he'd never cheat on his wife; he just liked the extra attention. I, however, wanted the attention of only one woman, Madison Springer. And I had destroyed my chance with her.

Driving home in silence wasn't really the comfort I needed. I would have much rather been on a hands-free call with her. Or expecting a call with her when I got home. My mind wandered to what she might be doing tonight, but I quickly quashed that line of thought because of how much anxiety it gave me thinking what she'd do with him now that they weren't in a hospital.This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

I pulled into the gated community and down the long lane to my house. Everything was dark, except my house. I didn’t want to come home to a dark home. The lights on made me feel like someone was waiting, even though I knev no one was waiting. But no matter how many times I tried to build the illusion; it all came crashing down around me every time I lay in bed alone.

I parked my car, but couldnt bear to get out, so I sat there, staring at my phone screen and the last selfie Madison and I took together. It was going to be a hard climb out of this pit, and I was going to have to tell my mother she was right.