I froze. “No. Fucking. Way.”
“Eight rounds. Fifty K. Philadelphia. Saturday night.”
“I swear to God you better not be fucking with me right now.”
He started laughing as he handed me a manila folder. “Lacy’s just out of a yearlong stint in rehab and trying to make a comeback. He was supposed to be going against Pryor, but he pulled out yesterday for reasons that were not disclosed to me. And quite honestly, I didn’t care enough to ask.”
I flipped through the pages of the contract, and sure as shit, everything was there in black ink. My eyes homed in on the four zeros on the second page.
Fifty thousand dollars.
“Holy shit. This is incredible.” My heart was banging around in my chest.
“This is a big break for your career. The sheer amount of promoters who will be watching this fight is going to be ridiculous. Everyone is dying to see what Lacy can do now that he’s sober, but I want them to leave that arena talking about Till Page.”
“Hell yeah,” I whispered.
“Now sign that shit and get in the ring. We need to develop a new strategy for Lacy.”
As I pushed to my feet, I swear my whole body was numb.
“Thanks, Slate,” I called out as I left his office. As I headed down the hallway, I bypassed the main locker room and made my way to one of the dressing rooms in the back. I needed to make a phone call.
“Holy shit. I literally just thought about making twice-baked potatoes for dinner and you called me. That is some kind of serious obsession, Till.” Eliza laughed.
“I’m going to be on ESPN,” I rushed out, and her laughter stopped.
“What?”
My hands were shaking as the shock and exhilaration threatened to overtake me. “Slate got me a fight on ESPN. Fifty thousand dollars.” I broke out in manic laughter. “Oh my God, Doodle. This is so fucking huge.”
“Wait. When?”
“This weekend!” I yelled as I bounced around the dressing room like a kid on Christmas morning, throwing fist pumps in the most non-badass way possible.
“Shut up!” she screeched into my ear.
I knew Eliza, and I bet she was throwing a few fist pumps of her own.
“Till! That’s amazing! Congrats!”
“There is a really good chance my chest is going to explode before I make it home today.” I continued to pace around the room.
“Ew. No exploding. So, are you good freaking out or bad freaking out?”
“I honestly don’t know. I’m not nervous about the fight, so I guess maybe the good kind? Hell, I don’t know. I don’t get to good freak out enough to know the difference.” I laughed, but it wasn’t a joke.
“This sounds like a really good thing, Till. Don’t muddle it all up.”
I could hear the warmth in her voice, and it calmed me immediately.
“I love you,” I said quietly, even though it deserved more emphasis than I could ever give with words alone.
“I love you too. I’m really proud of you. ”
I breathed a content sigh. “I have no idea what I would do without you.”
She giggled. “You’d probably be emaciated from your all-ramen diet and stuck hanging out of the third-story window.”
“Why the third story?”
“’Cause if we ever break up, the boys decided they want to live with me. They told me they liked me better than you.” She giggled. “And I lived downstairs for enough of their one a.m. Royal Rumbles to know I’d want my bedroom on the third floor this time.”
I grinned as I sank down on the bench. “Wow. This sounds like a big house, moneybags.”
“Yeah. My boyfriend was a big-time heavyweight boxer. He bought it for me.”
“Jesus. I want to do that,” I whispered.
Suddenly, her laughter disappeared. “I don’t need that, Till. I was only joking around.”
“I know you don’t, but I’m going to give it to you anyway.”
“I just need you. It doesn’t matter where we are.”
It was a sweet sentiment that anyone could recognize, but to me, it was everything.
She was everything.
I cleared my throat to cover the intense emotion and then changed the subject. “You’re right. This is a good freak out.”
“I’m always right.” She laughed, and it eased my entire world.
“So I’ve been told.”
“What time are you coming home?”
“Probably late. New fight needs a new plan.”
“Okay. I’ll see you then.” She paused. “I might even be naked when you get here.”
I let out a groan. “Mmm . . . I love the way you think. Now, talk dirty to me and tell me you’ll be holding a plate of twice-baked potatoes.”
She burst out laughing, and my lips split into a smile. I listened for a while, savoring the sound.
Finally, she got quiet again. “I love you, Till.”
“I love you too. I’ll see you tonight.” After a quick goodbye, she hung up, but I was left staring at my phone for several minutes.
I’d just gotten a fifty-thousand-dollar fight that would be televised for the entire world to see. Yet, somehow . . . it wasn’t even the best part of my day.