Free Evil Of Love by N.L. Echeverria

one that doesn’t consist of all the shit that surrounds me. I loved you Eric which is why I had to le t you go. I didn’t deserve you,” I exclaim.
    Now the tears fill my eyes and I can’t hold them back. Too many years of bui lt up sorrow from losing him, a tear roll down my cheek. His hand is instantly cupping my face as he wipes the tear drop away. It’s strange how natural his touch feels after so many years. As if it was just yesterday he was holding me in that abandoned library, comforting me.
    “Look… I’m sorry. Let’s not worry about what happened ten years ago. You’re here now. I didn’t mean to upset you. Please tell me about your life Steph. You’re married? Tell me about that.”
    I sigh, wiping the rest of my face feeling ridiculous that this man has seen how weak I am and we’ve only been sitting here for a few minutes. I almost laugh at what he says. My marriage! Only if he knew.
    “I don’t want to talk about me right now , Eric. Tell me about you. Are you living in town? What do you do for work? Are you married? Give me some insight to your now adult life.” I watch as his lips curl up into a smile.
    “Well… let’s start with the marriage question. No. I’ve had a couple serious relationships over the years, but nothing that ever amounted to much. I don’t know if it was them or just the fact that I couldn’t get over my high school crush.” I blush shaking my head. Why is he taking it there? “As for where I live, yes, I live in town and anytime you want to come over to my place just let me know. I’d love to show you around.” He winks and it makes me smile. “As far as work… well… I’m a UFC fighter. Now before you say anything let me explain how this came to be. After high school I developed a lot of rage, I’m not going to say what caused it, we can discuss that another time, but let’s just say I was not happy. College is where everything started going bad. I got into a lot of fights and started participating in underground fighting for extra money. Let’s just say I’m good and it didn’t take long at all for me to get noticed. I still finished college but started in the MMA fighting rings bringing in money and decided that this was the best outlet for me and I could make a living doing it. I know it’s something I can’t do forever so I continued on with school during the night and passed the BAR exam. I figure once I’m done in the ring I can have my fights in the court,” he explains and I’m completely intrigued. A fighter? I don’t know that I would have guessed that. “Anyways… if you ever need someone’s ass kicked just call me,” he winks, again placing his hand on top of mine and I nervously take another sip of my coffee.
    “Wow… that’s amazing, Eric. I can’t say that I’ve ever watched one of those fights, not even on TV. They’re so brutal and plus Travis wouldn’t allow it,” the words slip my mouth before I can take them back and his smile disappears with a frown in its place.
    “Travis?”
    “My husband,” I respond bluntly, not really sure what else to say.
    “What do you mean he wouldn’t allow it , Steph?” He takes my hand in his from across the table.
    “Nothing. I didn’t mean it like that.”
    “So, how did you mean it ?”
    “Can we not talk about Travis?” I plead. The last thing I need is for him to know how fucked up my life still is after all these years. He wouldn’t understand.
    “Okay, but I seriously want to know more about you, Stephanie. Can we meet up again?”
    “Umm… I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
    “Look, just coffee again or a lunch?”
    “Okay, but I don’t have a phone so it’s hard to reach me. I can give you my email.”
    “Great! That works just fine. I have a fight coming up in a month so maybe we can get together before that?”
    “Okay. Just email me what day works for you and I’ll let you know.”
    I pull a pen from my purse writing my email down on a napkin