XXV
"So what now?" coach asks me as we drive through the city, getting rid ourselves of paparazzi.
It's starting to snow pretty hard outside, so I turn on the windshields and the heating up in my baby, exhaling out.
Breathing free air as a free man.
"The plan now is," I glance at him, a smirk on my face, "to get your ass back home, get some fucking flowers and ... well, you know."
"Sophie." he answers and I nod.
"Sophie."
She doesn't know that I'm coming, I asked everyone not to tell her that I've been freed to surprise her. I'm kinda hoping that it won't come off as too much of a shock to her, especially because of the baby.
The baby...
She's pretty heavily pregnant now, her due date is in a few weeks and I'm not exactly sure whether that makes me happy, excited of fucking terrified, but it's gonna happen soon.
"Is her stomach... big?" I ask coach and he shakes his head. "No, not really. It's pretty small considering she's in the eighth month. She's really cute though, Beatrice can't stop taking photos of her."
I smile at that, picturing the image. "How are you guys?" I ask and he nods absentmindedly. "Good. Fine, I guess."
His tone told me there was something off and I mentally groaned. Great, now I'll have to play a fucking therapist.
"You sure? You don't sound convinced."
He scratches his head, and looks out of the passenger window. "Well, the thing is that she's been around Sophie a lot, and I've helped you with the legal issues and, well we didn't have much time to spend together."
I glace at him. "Wha-?" Is he talking.... He isn't talking about sex, is he?
"Ew." I make a grimace and he rolls his eyes. "You're not a child, Axel."
"Still. Ew."
He rests his elbow on the beige door rest and leans his head on his palm. "You're a child. You have a lot of growing up to do. Speaking of-".
"Training, I know. I have a shit load to improve."
He nods while I mentally hit my head repeatedly against the wheel. "Precisely. Since Soph's pregnant, I can agree to ten hours per day, two times 5 hours, but that's the absolute minimum."
He looks surprised when I simply nod to do, without arguing with him. I' probably going to hate every single muscle in my body the next day, but I miss boxing.
If there's anything I was sent to this world to do, it's boxing and even if I'm not really a dedicated type of a person, it still means a lot to me - enough, at least, to not complain about having to do it 10 hours per day.
"Impressive, boy. Maybe you don't have so much growing up to do, after all."
* *
I rub my hands on my black pants nervously, observing the door handle.
The door handle leading to the love of my life.
Why the fuck am I nervous? I should be excited, thrilled, happy, and instead I'm...
Scared, I guess.
Or whatever the fuck is the name of the emotion I'm feeling, I've always been shit with understanding those.
I try to keep the thoughts out of my head, but...
She hasn't seen me in a long while. What if she lost feelings for me during the period? What if she hates me for getting myself into jail again?
What if she decided she doesn't want to be with a screw-up that I am?
What if she doesn't like how I look anymore?
Cursing quietly, I rapidly make my way to the restrooms, frowning at my reflection and his messy ass hair.
Splashing my fingers with water, I attempt to calm it the fuck down, make it look a bit better, slightly more presented - I never gave a fuck about how it looked, honestly I kinda liked that it gave of the vibe of not giving a fuck, but I don't wanna look like I don't give a fuck right now.
Giving up on hair, I straighten down my white button-down with my hands, making sure it's nicely tucked into my pants and picking off hairs and shit.
Coughing out a bit, I focus on my reflection. "Hey."
Shit, that sounds terrible.
I try it again, this time a bit lower. "Hey."
Better.
Breathing out deeply for the last time, I rush out of the restroom.
And almost crash into her, stopping at the last milisecond.
"Oh my god." I breathe out shocked, fuming at myself for almost knocking her over. "Sophie."
Her gorgeous enormous eyes are wide open, looking at me in shock. She's wearing a hospital gown and still somehow manages to not look like shit in it. Her beautiful dark hair is washed, flowing down her shoulders in waves and she looks like a fucking miracle with a small bump that is her tummy.
She's so small yet so precious to me.
She is my five feet big entire world, worth more than five tons of diamonds.
She shakes her head, looking at her ground, placing her hand on her tummy and rubbing it. "Great, I'm seeing things now."
"No, no, it's me. Axel." I reach for her hand, carefully touching it.
She frowns, taking a few long seconds to examine me. "Axel?" she whispers. "But, you're dressed up. You did something to your hair."
"You don't like it." I ruffle it immediately. "Fuck, I knew-"
Suddenly her small arms are tightly wrapped around me, so tight that I can barely breathe. "Oh, my god! What- Nobody told me you were coming! You didn't escape or anything, right? Cuz then we need to move fast-"
"No, baby," I chuckle, "I just wanted to surprise you."
I let out a relieved breath that her feelings still seem to be there and it feels as if burning fire is slowly spreading from my heart to my veins.
She starts to shake and I lift her into my arms, kissing her on the cheek. "Goddamnit, I love you." she whispers and I look at her shocked.
"You cursed."
She grins. "Yep."
I frown at that. "I don't like it."
"Well, you'll have to get fucking used to it."