“I looked for you,” he said. “Before the fight, after the fight, hoping you couldn’t stay away, hoping I hadn’t really fucked up the best thing that ever happened to me. But I didn’t find you, and I felt empty, Julie. Totally empty.”
Her stomach fluttered. She’d been wrong. He hadn’t been enjoying the crowd’s cheers. He’d been looking for her. She tightened her grip on the doorknob.
He’d felt empty. So had she. But that didn’t change things.
“You didn’t call,” he whispered hoarsely. “I waited and waited, but you never called. I went back to Mac’s, paced around his place, and waited some more. I couldn’t believe you wouldn’t call.
So I got in my car and came here. I’ve been stalking back and forth to my car trying to convince myself to leave for the last hour.”
She stared at him. “Tommy, you should know I was proud of you. You didn’t need me to call to know that.”
Hurt seared across his face as he jerked back. “Jesus, Julie, did I fuck up so badly you didn’t even watch the fight?”
“Of course I watched the fight.”
“And that is all you have to say?” Again hurt flared sharp.
“I’m not sure what you’re looking for. Congratulations?”
“I tell the entire arena, and millions watching at home, how much I love you, how much you mean to me, and congratulations is all you’ve got?”
Gasping, she clamped her hand over her mouth. Her eyes stung. “You did what?”
His gaze narrowed. “I thought you watched the fight.”
“I did, and I did not see that.”
He stepped forward, crossing the threshold, an almost frantic expression on his face. “During the interview. You didn’t see it?”
“No. I—I turned off the TV after you won.”
He shoved his hand through his drenched hair. “Fuck. I can’t even make up with you right. No wonder it was so easy for you to let me go.”
At his words, pain compressed her chest. “Easy was the last thing it was,” she whispered.
But he wasn’t listening; he was messing with his phone. After a few seconds, he tried to hand it to her. When she hesitated, his eyes pleaded with her. “Please, Julie. I need you to hear this. I need you to know.”
Hands shaking, her heart pounding, she took his phone to find a YouTube video pulled up. The title read MMA FIGHTER %^$%S UP, BEGS FORGIVENESS.
She pressed play.
Tommy took the mic from the official. “But there is someone even more important I need to thank. A woman I realized too late I’ve never thanked or even mentioned, though she has been there for me every second of every day. Stood by me when bleep got real. Never wavered in her support of me. I never thanked her. I took her for granted. And now I’ve lost her.”
He looked into the camera. “Julie, baby, I love you. You have been my world since we were ten. You are my everything. I have never met a woman I wanted to hold hands with. Hold. Wake up beside every morning. Until you. I bleep up. I made you feel unwanted.” He looked around the arena. “I made the woman I love feel unwanted.” Boos came from the stands.
“Yes, I’m a complete bleep for doing so.” He looked back at the camera but was motioning with his hand to someone in the background. A second later, the Braves cap was thrust at him.
Tommy held it up. “The moment I realized all the things you’d given me were about to be destroyed in that fire, I rushed headlong into the flames to save them. No hesitation. No thought. I couldn’t lose everything I had of you. That was before I knew I loved you, Julie. I failed in saving that box of memories. I lost every cheesy gift you’ve ever given me, and it was one of the most painful moments of my life. Then you gave me this hat”—he held it up—“and that’s the night you became more to me than just my best friend.”
He tugged it on his head. “That’s the night I realized that, yeah, it sucked losing the little mementos of our friendship, but as long as I have you I don’t need a damn box of…things.” He stepped forward, his face tight with emotion. “I’m so sorry. If I have to walk through flames again to show you how much you mean to me, I will cross hell and back to prove it. I bleep up. I’m still new to this relationship stuff, Julie, but you are the one I want to make mistakes with. You are the one I want to become great for. I want a future with you. I want you by my side. I want the entire world to know you are the woman I love, and who I want to make a whole lifetime of memories with. And most important, at the end of each and every day, I want to come home to you. Please let me come home. My life is empty without you.”