laughter follows me as I enter Coach’s office.
I take a seat opposite Coach and put my feet up on his desk.
“Have you been doing the exercises you were given?” Coach doesn’t even look up from the paperwork on his desk as he knocks my feet to the floor. Every. Single. Time. Not once has he let me keep my feet up there but it doesn’t stop me from trying.
“Of course I did, it’s all I'm allowed to do. When can I get back to fighting? I'm so over this stupid shit.” Coach glares at me over the paper in his hand. I’ve been riding him about fighting for the last few weeks, I need to get back in the ring and pound on someone.
“You can fight again when your coach clears you and not a second before.” He looks back to the paper in his hand and I look at him in confusion. Sometimes I think he's losing his mind, maybe he’s been hit one too many times.
“Then fucking clear me already. I can’t believe this shit, you could have cleared me weeks ago.” I can feel a touch of anger towards Coach, he’s never mentioned before that he has power over my recovery. I sit forward in my seat and lean on my knees. I want to pretend that I'm relaxed, that I don’t want to go and punch something but I'm pretty sure it’s not looking that way.
“I said your coach can clear you, I'm not your coach. I already told you that I’d be getting a replacement for Ethan.” Not this shit again, I can’t believe he’s going to try and convince me to take on another trainee. The last one he sent to me made a huge mistake, and I still don’t know if I will ever be able to fight again.
“And I already told you, I don’t want another coach. It’s you or nothing, there is no other option.” I sound like a spoilt little brat having a tantrum but I don’t care. I refuse to put my future in anyone’s hands but his. There’s no one out there who’s as good as him and no one else I would trust.
He finally gives me his full attention as he puts the piece of paper he’s holding on the desk and crosses his arms.
“Look, Zeke. We’ve been through this before. I don’t have the time to give you the attention you need. I have too many fighters to look after, and with your skill you need one on one training. You are gonna need someone who can focus solely on you to get you ready for the championship. You have a rematch coming up and you need to be on form in order to win.” I hate when he makes sense . I know that running the gym takes a lot of his time, there are too many fighters now for him to deal with them all personally. There are a total of four trainers who share their time between fourteen fighters, I will be only the second fighter in the gym’s history to have their own trainer.
“Seriously? How can I tell you no when you make sense?” He laughs before leaning back in his chair, looking more relaxed than he did a minute ago.
“I'm glad you agree, he’ll be here tomorrow to meet you.” It’s my turn to lean back in my chair but I’m far from relaxed. A groan leaves me as I massage my temples. A part of me was hoping that after hearing about things with me and Ethan no one would be interested in the job. I go to speak but Coach holds up his hand silencing me.
“Before you start, let me just say that he's a perfect match for you. He's an ex fighter himself and knows his stuff. Maybe you won’t be able to push this one around, he might be the person to kick your ass for a change.” I snort at his statement. I doubt some fighter wannabe will be able to teach me anything I don’t already know. I sigh as I picture another Ethan turning up tomorrow. Ethan . I never liked that fucker. There was always something about him that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. He seemed to be more interested in the glory of being my trainer then actually training me. The bastard even had the nerve to use my name to get freebies and perks with local businesses and the more I won the more he got. When I told Coach about it he