KNOCKOUT

by Nikki Wild

  “You made it,” he said, throwing his big arms around me.

  “It was close. I didn’t think it was going to happen for a second.”

  He planted a strong kiss firmly on my mouth.

  “I’m sorry all of this happened. I should have called you sooner.”

  “No. I overreacted. Don’t think about that anymore. It’s in the past.”

  Luke was wearing dark red shorts with white trim. There were sponsor’s patches adorning each leg. His shoulders were covered by a heavy hooded robe. It was satin like the ones Rocky wore in the movies.

  “Are you ready?” I asked.

  “Now I am.”

  I climbed into his lap on top of the table.

  “You can do this. Go win the fight. There’ll be all the time in the world for us after. I’ll be in the front row.”

  “You better be.”

  He picked me up and walked me to the door. I could hear his people nervously chatting on the other side. Someone called out.

  “Luke, it’s time!”

  He exhaled through his nose and set me down.

  “When this is over, you’re all mine.”

  “Be careful.”

  I planted another quick kiss on the corner of his mouth and slipped out through the door without looking back. I didn’t want him to see how nervous I was.

  The woman from the jet was waiting outside the locker room to lead the way. We got to our seats just as Luke started to make his way toward the cage. A heavy rock song played over the audio system. The place absolutely erupted when he appeared from behind the curtain.

  There were so many people around him as he walked down the aisle. There were security guards and Luke’s trainers and members of the medical staff. It looked like a small army taking their warrior into battle.

  He stopped just in front of the cage for his final preparations. One of the guys helped him pull the robe off of his shoulders and over his gloves. Another one rubbed him down with what looked like Vaseline; first on his brow, and then over his chest.

  His cut musculature glistened under the spotlight. His hair was wet and slicked back from his warm-up.

  The other fighter was on his way to the ring now, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of Luke. He bounced around the inside of the cage on his toes while shadow boxing. It seemed as if he thought he was the only one in the entire building. He was in the zone.

  His opponent was a monster of a man. He cut across my view of Luke as he entered the cage. I’d seen pictures of him online but they didn’t do justice to his true size. He stood a brutish six and a half feet tall. His frame carried the bulk that only dangerous amount of steroids could provide.

  They looked like two completely different animals in that cage. Luke was calm and fluid while his opponent made hasty movements and was clearly nervous.

  Every one of the thirty thousand plus in attendance was on their feet. The public address system crackled and the walls of the building seemed to tremble at the crowd’s response.

  “Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaidies and gentlemen, welcome to our main event!” The announcer’s voice blasted out of the speakers. The fans hit another level of excitement which I didn’t even think possible.

  “This is a scheduled five round fight for the M.M.A.C.S. light heavyweight championship of the world!”

  The lights dimmed and a hush fell over the crowd.

  “In the blue corner is the challenger. Weighing in at two hundred and five pounds, fighting out of the Greer Mixed Martial Arts Fight Club, he’s a two-time national kick boxing champion and a freestyle fighter, Luuuuuuuuuuuke Greeeeeeeer!”

  The crowd responded with a chorus of baritone “Luuuuuuuuuuuke’s” back at the cage. The people were clearly in his corner.

  He stayed light on his feet, bouncing from side-to-side. Every now and then he shake his head to each side and roll his shoulders. His tan body almost glowed beneath the fluorescent lighting. The determination and focus he maintained was hard for anyone to match.

  “And fighting out of the red corner is our champion. Also weighing in at two hundred and five pounds, a mixed martial artist fighting out of the great city of Chicago, Illinois, he’s our reigning, defending, light heavyweight champion of the world… Eric “Super” Simmons!”

  Simmons raised both hands in the air. The cacophony of boos from the crowd drowned out any applause he received.

  The referee brought both fighters to the center of the cage to read the rules of the bout. And that was it. Without any further pomp or circumstance, they were each directed toward their corners and everyone else aside from the ref exited.

  It was time.

  Luke crouched down like a Lion preparing to take down its prey.

  “Blue corner, are you ready?” shouted the referee.

  “Red corner, are you ready?”

  “Let’s fight!”

  Luke sprung forward out of his stance, covering the distance between the two fighters in an incredibly short amount of time. Simmons squared up to him tentatively.

  Luke let go with a barrage of strikes that sent his stunned opponent back against the cage. He landed a kick to the body and then a series of upper cuts.

  The crowd reached a fever pitch as the action built.

  Another right hand to the body and a left over the top had Simmons on wobbly legs. My heart was in my stomach. If this thing ended in the first round, I would be the happiest girl in the world.

  But Simmons grabbed on to Luke, tying up his arms. They wrestled with each other against the cage and the crowd’s energy dropped a level as it was apparent that the champion had regained his bearings.

  I was so close to the ringside commentators; I could hear what they were saying.

  “Greer came out of the gate with a vengeance,” said one.

  “Let’s hope he didn’t just blow out all of his energy trying to get an early stoppage,” said the other.

  That didn’t scare me. I knew Luke had energy for days. Simmons landed a heavy right hand that sent Luke’s head snapping backward. I cringed.

  The two fighters circled each other as the bell rang signifying the end of round one.

  He came to the near corner and sat down on the stool. His trainers were telling him he was doing great… that it was close, but he won the first round.

  The bell rang for the beginning of the second round. I couldn’t stand to watch anymore so I closed my eyes and listened to the commentary.

  “Greer circles to his left. He’s doing a good job at keeping Simmons away from him with the jab.”

  “Simmons shoots in to take him down. The fight moves to the mat.”

  “Greer lands a big right hand. Simmons counters and sends the challenger reeling.”

  The rise and fall of the crowd’s screams gave me enough insight into just how hard they were going at each other.

  That’s how I followed those next three rounds. I hated to see him get hit.

  By the time the fifth and final round started I had to force myself to watch. From what I could gather by listening to both the commentators and the guys in Luke’s corner, the fight was close. It was all going to come down to this.

  Luke had a gash over his left eye that seeped blood. His body was red in some spots from the punishment. His opponent looked to be in far worse shape.

  “Simmons lands a big left hand! Greer goes down to his backside to try to recover but the champ is all over him. This could be the end!”

  Oh no!

  “Simmons is throwing punches from the top. The ref might stop this fight!”

  “Greer is swinging from his back. He’s trying everything he can to keep the champ off of him.”

  C’mon Luke. Get up!

  “Greer is able to tie up the champ’s arms and he’s leveraging himself back to his feet!”

  Go.

  “Both men are up now. The crowd is going wild. Luke Greer seems to have recovered but that exchange may have swayed the fight towards Simmons in the judges’ eyes.”

>   You can do this.

  “The fighters separate and each takes a big deep breath. There’s less than a minute left to go in this fight!”

  The crowd was back on their feet.

  “Greer comes forward first. They trade punches but each man misses his mark. Time is ticking and if the challenger wants this fight he can’t allow it to go to the scorecards.”

  “Simmons finds his mark with a kick to the front leg! Thirty seconds now!”

  You have to go for it.

  “Oh! Luke Greer connects to the chin. He follows up flurry to the body! The champ is having trouble getting his legs under him. There’s twenty seconds left. This is a fight for the ages!”

  “Another right hand. Now a knee to the body! Simmons is down! Simmons is down! The referee is stopping the fight! Luke Greer is the new light heavyweight champion of the world!”

  The ground shook beneath my feet from the roar that came from the crowd. Everyone in the building was jumping up and down and screaming their lungs out.

  I opened my eyes to see Luke standing defiantly over his downed opponent. He raised his arms high above his head. When he turned, our eyes locked on one another’s.

  “I love you,” he mouthed from within the midst of the chaos.

  “I love you too.”

  Thirty-Two

  Bria

  Luke was supposed to stay for the post-fight question and answer session with the media but he blew it off. He said he would probably get fined for it but he didn’t care.

  We drove Las Vegas Boulevard with the top down on his rented Mustang. The warm air blew my hair back from my face.

  “Are you really going to wear that ridiculous thing all night?” I asked.

  He had his newly minted championship belt sitting around his waist.

  “Hell yes. I earned this thing. Look at my face.”

  His face actually wasn’t bad. Aside from the cut above his eye, he was no worse for wear. The doctor had done a really good job of stitching him up in the locker room after the fight. Somehow, it made him look even sexier.

  “What’s it feel like?” I asked.

  “What does what feel like?”

  “What does it feel like to be the best at something?”

  “No different. It’s how I feel every morning when I wake up.”

  “I thought you might say something like that.”

  “Where are we going anyway? I thought you had a suite back at that hotel.”

  “Are you complaining?”

  “Just wondering.”

  “Good. Sit tight. You’ll see in a minute.”

  We rode together in comfortable silence as I admired the lights along the strip. We had such a great time in this city just a few short weeks ago. It was a special place for us.

  Luke turned off of the main drag and down a street on the south end. He pulled into a small parking lot.

  “Okay…,” I said. “What’s this?”

  A crooked grin crossed his face. He nodded toward the building across the street.

  “Look.”

  A huge sign adorned the exterior of the building. It read: Graceland Wedding Chapel.

  My jaw dropped.

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “Will you?” he asked.

  “Oh my God. You are serious.”

  “Of course I am.”

  I sat in stunned silence.

  “I get it,” he said. “This is fast... But I feel like fate is telling us to do this. And I’m sure. I don’t need time to tell me what I already know in my heart.”

  He pulled a little box from beneath the seat.

  “Will you? Will you marry me?”

  The box flipped open. Inside was the most beautiful diamond ring I’d ever seen.

  “I… I…”

  His grin widened. Everything bit of logic told me to wait. To think it over. But I’d done the logical thing my whole life. It was time for me to trust my instincts.

  He was everything I’d ever wanted.

  “Yes!”

  I threw my arms around his neck, letting him pull me close.

  “Yes! Let’s get married.”

  “You’re on,” he said. “Just you and me. Right here, right now.”

  “I have to call… I have to call-”

  My brain struggled to keep up with everything.

  “You don’t have to call anyone,” he said. “This is about us. Here. Tonight.”

  He waved his arm toward the city behind us.

  “This is ours. We’ll do one for everyone else when we get back home. The church, the guest list, whatever you want. But tonight, it’s about us.”

  “Luke,” I asked. “When did you know? When did you know that you were going to ask me to marry you?”

  His eyes fluttered and he nodded again toward the chapel.

  “Let’s go.”

  My cheeks flushed. I felt lightheaded. It was like floating on a cloud.

  We ran to the front, laughing and pushing each other. There was a big warning sign on the door. It said something like ‘use caution when combining alcohol with you impending nuptials. This chapel, including its proprietors, are not responsible for your choices.’

  We were greeted by an overweight man in a sequined Elvis costume. He’d given up on trying to make the hair look the part long ago.

  “You kids ready to do this?” he asked, enthusiastically.

  We looked at each other and nodded. Neither one of us could contain our exuberance.

  The place was all ours. Apparently, we were the only couple in Vegas feeling the allure of an impromptu Elvis wedding tonight.

  I threw on a gaudy white dress from their selection in the back. Luke came out wearing a hilarious lime green tuxedo. He still had his championship belt around his waist.

  I jumped into his arms. I let him cradle me so Elvis’s wife could take a picture.

  “Just the two you?” asked Elvis.

  “That’s right,” I said. “Just us.”

  “Well, alright then pretty mama, why don’t you and your beau step on up to the alter so we can commence with this momentous occasion.”

  “You got it, Big E.”

  I took Luke by the hand and led him to the front. He was trying not to crack up.

  Elvis’s wife shoved a bouquet of fake flowers under my arm and kept taking pictures.

  I got lost in my own thoughts while our wedding official gave his little spiel. I still didn’t quite understand how my life had gone from zero to a hundred in less than a month. It was better than any fairytale.

  There wasn’t a question in my mind that I was doing the right thing. Luke gave me something that I never thought I would have.

  “Now, would the bride and groom like to share any of their own words before we put a seal on this thing?”

  Luke made me blush with that look. The same one he gave me that first night in my condo.

  “We’re going to have a lot of time to say a lot of things to each other,” he said. “But right now I just want you to know, Bria, that I’m madly in love with you and I’ll always do anything for you.”

  I started to cry.

  “It’s kind of hard to talk right now,” I laughed, “but I want you to know that I’ll always be there for you.”

  Elvis placed a big hand on each of our shoulders.

  “Beautiful,” he said. “Now let us say the words.”

  “Do you, Luke Greer, take this woman to be your hunk of burning love?”

  “I do.”

  I never thought that watching my future husband laugh his way through our wedding would be a good thing, but in this case it was perfect.

  “And do you, Bria Hudson, take this man to be your hunk of burning love?”

  “I do, too.”

  “Then by the power provided to me by the state of Nevada, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

  We wrapped up in a tight embrace, letting our lips linger on each other’s.

  “Now you
two hound dogs get out of here and have one hell of a night!”

  Elvis’s wife threw flower petals over us as we thanked them and headed for the dressing rooms. After a quick change we were back out in the warm night air.

  “Did we just get married?” I asked as we headed back to the car.

  “Damn right we did.”

  I ran around to the passenger side while Luke jumped over the door and into the driver’s seat.

  “Where to now?” I asked.

  The buzz I had going from the wedding had me feeling like I could do anything.

  “Time for the honeymoon, of course.”

  I liked the sound of that.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he said. “We’ll just drive until we feel like stopping.”

  “Really? We can just do that?”

  “We can do whatever we want.”

  Luke dropped the car into gear and peeled out of the parking lot. We let the stars be our guide as we drove away from the strip.

  “We’ll go east and see where we wind up.”

  “For how long?”

  “Until we feel like going home. Hell, we might just drive all the way home.”

  “But what about our clothes? We’re going to need clothes. And a toothbrush.”

  “Bria, relax. We’ll pick up whatever we need along the way.”

  I was satisfied with that.

  “Think about it,” he said, “we can turn off our phones and no one in the world will have to know where we are.”

  I pulled my phone from my person and shut it off.

  “Like that?”

  “Yep. Now toss it in the back.”

  I did and he followed suit with his own phone.

  “Find a place to pull over,” I said.

  He stopped at a wide spot in the road. We were on a two-lane highway that had next to no traffic. The light pollution of Vegas was now miles behind us. The twinkling stars were surreal. I’d always heard about the midnight view in the desert but this was my first time experiencing it.

  “I’ve missed you,” he said.

  “Me too. I’ve missed you too. The last couple of weeks have been so-”

  Luke leaned across the gear shift. Those deep dark eyes focused on my neck under the moonlight.