I should feel good about all that. Ecstatic, even. But there was still something off, something riding me. I needed … absolution. I needed to get all this weight of guilt and anxiety fully off my chest.

Sex with Parker had relieved a lot of tension. Being with her made me feel whole. But Parker couldn’t help with this particular brand of atonement. I couldn’t work this out by losing myself in her arms.

I needed someone else for this. For a hot second, I thought about telling Parker, confessing. But I couldn’t. I had to do this or I’d never be able to fight well. She’d understand that. She’d get it, even if she thought less of me.

She had to. Because I couldn’t do this fight any other way.

Twenty-One

Parker

It was nice to escape the office for lunch. With only a week to go until the charity fight, I was preoccupied. However, not preoccupied enough to not be worried by how quiet Jackson had been lately. He was spending a lot of time going to meetings that he never explained and talking on the phone with his office door closed.

Moreover, I still had to deal with Creepy Pete and his petulant attitude. He no longer crossed the office to speak with me when he had a payroll question about my overtime. I received an email. And whenever there was a discussion amongst our colleagues, he deliberately acted like I didn’t exist.

The man was like a five-year-old.

That morning he’d asked a mathematical question that I’d answered.

His response was to keep searching the room. “Anyone?”

My patience finally snapped. “I just answered your question, Pete.” I glowered at him. “I’m getting a little tired of your attitude toward me, the only female member of staff in this office. If it doesn’t stop, I’m going to consider this a problem I’ll have to report.”

Pete’s shocked expression was almost funny. “No need, there’s no problem here.” He held up his hands in a surrender gesture and returned to his desk.

Xander shot me a proud look but the tension in the office was awful after that. Deciding to use the extra hours I’d accumulated with overtime to take a long lunch, I departed the office with a relieved sigh. Leaving the building, I tried to call Rhys but got his voicemail. I sent him a text just before I got on my bike.

ParkerB: I’m on a long lunch. Do you have time to join me?

Rhys’s training had only escalated and the times I did see him, we mostly spent in bed. As far as I was aware, there had been nothing from Fairchild yet and Rhys was completely focused on the upcoming fight.