How Did I Ever Here?

'Snap out of it boy, I thought, she's also deadly.'

Round two started the same way as before. Then Kris began to pick up the pace a little. I felt good, although I hadn't really landed any significant shots, I had been able to block most of hers with my gloves and arms or had been able to slip or duck out of harm's way. Near the end of the round, I got hit with two quick jabs and a right cross which sent me staggering sideways into the ropes. She seemed to take it easy for the remainder of the round and when the bell sounded my head was clear. When I got back to the corner, I grabbed a mouthful of water. I thought,

' You were getting over confident last round; be careful.'

Round three began with Kris coming out quickly. She began throwing more combinations, which were beginning to wear down my defenses. I did, however, land a couple of hard jabs and a right to her stomach. It appeared to have no effect on her, her abs absorbed the impact. After that she began to hit me with jabs to the head and hooks to my sides. I was hurt several times from her wicked hooks to the body. I realized that she had been just toying with me the first couple of rounds, that if she had wanted to she could have ended it in the first. The thought of her total dominance over me, combined with her continuing pummeling of my head and body was having another effect on me. I was getting aroused. I could feel my cock growing hard in my shorts. I lost my concentration at that point and got hit with a left hook that had me seeing stars. I was really hurt, my legs suddenly went rubbery, and I had to grab hold of her to keep from falling down. I'm sure she could feel my erection as I hung on her shoulders, my body against hers. The bell saved me. She turned and walked back to her corner, while I staggered back to mine. I should have quit right then and there. I was way out of my league, but my male pride would not let me quit; I was not getting beat by this woman.

Round four was going to be the last; we both knew it, even though I couldn't admit it to myself. She didn't even put in her mouth piece. She calmly walked to the center of the ring and began to throw light jabs to my face, hitting me at will. She blocked my feeble attempts at offense and began to speak.

"Let's go over some of my rules. Number one; Kris is always right."

I never saw the left and right hooks to my head. My head turned from side to side and my vision blurred.

"Number two; always be considerate of others."

Whack; thud, two more shots this time to my sides.

" Rule number three; take good care of the equipment."

A left to the head and a right to my side almost put me on the canvass.

"Rule four; clean up after your workout."

Two more hooks to the body.

I think she had five other rules but I never really understood any of them, I was out on my feet just fighting on instinct at that point.

"Finally, rule number 10; when in doubt, refer to rule number one."

With that, I saw her right shoulder muscles tense, her body twist a little, and her right hand come straight at my head, I tried to block it, but my arms would not respond. I felt the impact on the left side of my jaw, and everything went black.

___________________________

It must have been the cold water of the shower that brought me back to the present. I looked around the shower room, and realizing where I was, I turned and shut off the shower. I grabbed my towel, dried off and headed back to my locker. When I got there I saw a note from Kris taped to the door.

"When you finish here, come up to my apartment, the staircase is behind the front desk. I have something I think you'll want to see."

I know what I'd wanted to see, but the invitation had me curious. I got dressed and walked out of the locker room. The gym looked deserted, only the lights over the front desk were still on. I found the stair case that lead up to her apartment. It was a straight staircase of about twenty five steps. I realized that there must be a second floor to this building. The apartment was situated over the gym, which had fifteen foot ceilings; thus the length of the staircase. I reached the top of the stairs. I found myself on a small landing; the door to the apartment was open. I walked into the foyer, knocked on the door and called out,

"'Kris."

"Hi Jack, I'm glad you decided to come,"

I heard from a room to my right.

"There's beer in the fridge or if you prefer, I have wine and an extra glass here."

I skipped the beer and headed to the right. The hall way ended at the entrance to a large living area. Kris was sitting on a sofa, with her legs stretched out, her feet on the coffee table. She looked stunning, dressed in a short white robe, her legs and feet bare. I took the glass she handed me and poured myself a glass of a wine, a fine California chardonnay. I sat down on the opposite side of the sofa and waited for her to begin.

"First of all, I'm sorry about before, sometimes I get a little carried away in the ring. How are you feeling?"

"I'll live," I offered.

"Well, I am sorry. If you want, I will refund your membership fee and I hope we can part as friends."

" No, that won't be necessary, I said. I deserved what I received. I've been acting like an ass lately; taking out my problems on your members and your equipment. It won't happen again."

" Good, she said, I hate to lose good members. I'm glad that's settled. Now for the reason I asked you up here."

With that she grabbed a remote control from the end table beside her and turned on the TV and the VCR across the room. I dreaded what I thought we were about to see. I was all set to see one of my videos come on, instead after a few moments a scene from inside a gym filled the screen. It appeared to be an amateur movie possibly made on an old Kodak movie camera that had been transferred to video tape in order to preserve it. It was the beginning of a boxing match; the boy in the fore ground was bouncing up and down, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. His opponent was hidden by the back of his corner man, who appeared to be giving him last minute instructions. The ref walked to the center of the ring and called the fighters to join him. The corner man stood up and turned. We got our first look at the other fighter. I recognized my father first, then saw that the other fighter was me. I turned to Kris and started to speak,

"How......?"

"Shhh." I'll explain later."

There I was, aged fourteen, looking like a midget compared to my father and the ref. The other fighter, my opponent looked to be about a head taller than me.

Of course I already knew the outcome, but I just couldn't stop watching. I could feel each shot that I got hit with and felt the frustration of not being able to land some of my own. When the fourth round began, I just stared at the screen. It was like a train wreck, you see the trains coming together, you know what's going to happen, but you can't look away. I watched as I hit him with a straight right in the chest. I saw him move to the side appearing to be hurt. Then as I came in to follow up on my temporary advantage I watched in fascination as he appeared to almost wind up and throw an over hand right. The punch landed solidly on the left side of my face, my legs seemed to continue out from under my body and I collapsed to the floor. I laid there on my back, not moving a muscle as the ref removed my mouth piece and my Dad rushed into the ring. My opponent jumped for joy into the arms of the guy in his corner, then got down and walked over to me. Looking down over the doctor's shoulder, he had a worried expression on his face. Suddenly a thought popped into my head; I experienced an epiphany.

"Oh my god, it was you!"

With that, she picked up the remote and shut the TV.

"Yes, it was me. Let me explain. My mom died when I was five, and I was raised by my dad and my uncle, he was the camera man. My dad had wanted a son and I tried to be that son. I played baseball, basketball, and did things with him that any son would love to do with their Dad. He had been a Golden Gloves champ when he was young and had a successful career as an amateur. He never really gave it up and used to train after supper as a way to keep fit and calm down from a hectic day at work. I started training with him, and soon, found I had a natural ability for the sport. I loved it, but when my dad tried to get me into a local tournament, the officials running it looked at my name, Christine, and refused to let me fight with the boys.

The next time he saw an amateur tournament advertised, he told me to change my name to Chris and to act like a boy. That wasn't too difficult for me, after all, I had been raised like one. I entered the event and won my first two matches on points. I was faster than my opponents and just as big as they were. Then in the afternoon I faced you in the ring. My dad told me just to continue doing what I had done before. I knew I was well ahead when we got to that final round. My instructions were to just stay away and I had the fight won. Then you hit me right in the breast. It hurt like hell, even with the extra support I wore under my shirt.

In my mind you did it on purpose, that somehow you knew I was a girl. I saw red, I wanted to kill you. As you walked in, I saw an opening, and threw an overhand right with all my might. I was shocked when it connected and down you went. I was thrilled, until I realized that you weren't moving. In my inexperienced mind I really thought I had killed you. I was scared and started to cry. My dad tried to hold me back; that's when I saw you open your eyes and look up at me. He pulled me away at that point, the ref raised my hand in victory and I got out of the ring."

"I wondered why you were crying, I was the one that had gotten the crap kicked out of me. Man it's a good thing I never knew you were a girl, I laughed, I don't think my male ego could have handled that back then."

I poured another glass of wine for each of us and settled back on the sofa. I was really falling for this woman. She was truly fascinating.

"So, she asked, what's happened in your life since then?"

Not wanting to turn her off to me and not being extremely proud of some of my choices in life, I gave her the bare minimum of facts. That I had, after high school, I had gone to UCLA, graduated with a degree in business, had worked in sales in California, until I was promoted to my present position as a senior account representative.

"So, I said, enough about me, I'm really interested to hear about you!"

"All right, let me just say one more thing about that day. I was so upset, that in between fights I spent much of the time in the bathroom. As I was coming out to rejoin my dad I bumped into a woman, who I later found out was one of the event officials. She recognized me and after a brief meeting with me and my father I was asked to forfeit the final bout. I left the gym in tears and vowed never to fight again."

"After high school, I went to Berkley. I majored in physical education. I wanted to become a physical education teacher. I lost my father to cancer during my senior year. My girlfriends talked me into going to Las Vegas for spring break to try to get me out of the funk I was in. On the second day there, we were lounging by the pool when a guy came around with a flyer advertising a fight club on the outskirts of town. Tonight was lady's fight night, it said, and offered one thousand dollars to any woman who could last three rounds with one of the club's female fighters. I'm not really sure why I did it but I convinced my girlfriends to come with me to the club that night. They thought I was nuts and would ruin the rest of my vacation."

" In school, I was a real jock, I worked out all the time. I did a lot of weight lifting and had taken karate for several months. That night I climbed into the ring with a woman who was about five years older than me, but I was bigger and stronger than her. After a round of trying to keep from getting hit and throwing a variety of punches, I began to get back my boxing skills. By the end of the third round I had her set up for a knock out. With a right upper cut, I put her down for the count. I collected my prize from the manager of the club, who gave me his card and told me that I would have a job waiting for me any time I wanted after graduation."

"I was bitten by the boxing bug again. I wanted to prove to everyone that I had what it took to make it so I put off going into teaching and went back to Vegas to start my career, even if it was only as a club fighter. Soon, I had fought every one of the club's female fighters and had beaten every one of them regardless of weight class. I was the featured fighter on the ladies nights. I had a big following. It became harder and harder to find any females to fight. Nicky, the manager, started setting me up with lighter weight male fighters. I really enjoyed that, I was getting even for those days when I was fourteen and no one would let me fight because they were scared that I would get hurt. I wasn't the one who was getting hurt now. Nicky started a second special night, this one was for amateur men who wanted to test their skills against a woman, me. I was restricted to fighting men who outweighed me by a maximum of thirty pounds and could decline to fight anyone who appeared to be too skilled; an experienced amateur, for example."

"One night, we interviewed this guy who had been talked into fighting by his buddies. He was a gym owner from Arkansas, who had no fight experience but I could tell the guy was extremely fit and probably was just around the maximum weight. I agreed to the fight. When we climbed into the ring, I could tell this was the last place he wanted to be. He removed his robe, and I fell in love."

"This guy was not just good looking , he was an Adonis. The fight started and I threw a couple of jabs to his face, which scored easily. I could tell he had never been hit like that before. I didn't want to finish him off too quickly, that's not what the paying guests want. They are after blood and knockouts, but they want to see a lot of action first. I took it easy on him for the next three rounds, hooking to his arms and shoulders; occasionally to his midsection, which I knew could take a lot of abuse before it failed."

"Finally, in the fifth round I hit him with a couple of left hooks to the head, which knocked him down. He got up, slowly, took an eight count, and resumed the fight. A good ref in other circumstances would have stopped the fight right then and there. It was obvious that he could not defend himself against me and had no chance of winning. I moved him into a corner and threw a couple of body shots. I had him draped over my shoulder up against the ropes. It looked like he was trying to tie me up, but in reality I was holding him up. I whispered in his ear."

"When the ref breaks us up, I'll step back to the center of the ring, the next time I hit you in the gut go down and don't get up. If you do, I'll put you out for good."

I let the ref separate us and he did exactly as I told him. I threw a left jab to his eye just to give him a reminder of the fight, and then hit him with a left hook to those beautiful abs. He crumbled to the mat at my feet and was counted out. When he got up the ref took us to the center of the ring and raised my hand in victory. He turned to me and hugged me saying,"

"Thanks I know you took it easy on me."

"The next night, I was in my dressing room after knocking out some loud mouth punk who thought he could box; I was interrupted by knock on my door. I had just finished dressing, so I opened the door. There was Mr. Adonis, black eye and all, holding a bouquet of red roses. I accepted the flowers and after thanking me once again for going easy on him, he asked me out to dinner. I wasn't seeing anybody; it seemed that guys don't like it when their girlfriend can kick the shit out of them when they get out of line. So I accepted. He was charming and a smooth talker. He told me that he owned a gym in Bentonville, Arkansas. That he was single, that he had come out to Las Vegas with a couple of friends from school, they found out about the club and after seeing my picture in the lobby they talked him into the fight. No girl, they said, could beat a guy that was in as good shape as he was. He found out it takes a lot more than a great body to fight. I took him back to my place where we screwed each other half to death; god he was good. I didn't let him out of my sight until the day he had to leave. He promised me that he would come back to Las Vegas as soon as he could."

"He called and wrote frequently. He told me the gym was going ok but needed something to get to the next level. Six months from that first meeting, he returned to Vegas. He surprised me at the club. That night, I fought some guy who was a lot bigger than me and knew how to fight. I took a pretty good beating that night. I won, but I had to wear sunglasses to cover the black eyes that he gave me and my body felt like I had be run over by a truck. We went out to dinner that night and he offered me a fifty/fifty partnership in his gym if I would come back to Arkansas with him. I told him I'd have to think about it."

"Later that night after looking at myself naked in my full length mirror I knew the answer. It was time to get out of club fighting before I got really hurt. I told him, yes, I would move to Arkansas, and that I had some ideas about how to grow his business and improve the gym. I told him that I had to give notice here and tie up some loose ends and that I would meet him in Arkansas in a couple of weeks."

"I called him when I made it to Little Rock, Arkansas. He gave me detailed directions to the gym. When I got there, he took me upstairs relax. He had a small apartment over the gym; I could shower and change, then come down and he would give me a tour of the gym. It was a typical old style gym, geared to body builders and boxers. Some guy even had the nerve to make a pass at me when his back was turned. I knew then why the gym was not growing, this place was a turn off to half the guys who came there just to work out to get in better shape, and all of the women who probably stopped at the front desk and ran for fear of getting molested."

"I stayed with him that night and after some great sex, I told him about my plans to improve the place. At first, I think he was horrified at the prospect of losing his 'man cave', however when I explained that he could probably double the size of the membership in six months if we incorporated even half of my ideas, he jumped on board. I saw so much potential in the place that I invested my life's savings into the company for my 50% share. I saw so much potential in him that I said yes when he asked me to marry him."

"We shut down for about a month, renovated the entire gym, painted and install new lighting. We decided to section off the boxing ring and the weights into their own smaller rooms and set up a large aerobic area, with trend mills, steppers, and elliptical machines in the main room along with a complete nautilus circuit. We then advertised in all the local papers, put flyers on all the cars in the parking lots of all the companies around us. The new and improved Kris's Gym was the finest co-ed facility around for a complete workout experience."

" In order to accomplish our goals we had to remortgage the facility, the bankers were encouraged by our business plan, but insisted that we take out life insurance with the bank as the beneficiary on each of our lives until we had paid down a substantially portion of the debt. Our first year of marriage was a blur of activity. The gym was a huge hit, even surpassing my wildest dreams. We lived above the gym so it was easy to split the work day. I would open up at 5:30 in the morning, make sure the gym was ready for the day, one of the staff would get in at seven to help with the morning rush. It would be the two of us during the day until Kris would come down at 3:00. I would help out until four, when the night staff came in. They would handle the after work and evening crowds then Kris would close up at eleven."