Stupid Cupid (14 Days of Love and Lust Bikers & Mobsters)

Prologue

I’m struggling to figure out my math homework when the doorbell rings, interrupting my thought process.

Tossing my textbook to the side, I get out of the recliner and stretch my tight muscles from sitting in one position for so long before I head to the front door.

“I got it, Granny,” I yelled as I looked through the peephole.

Seeing the caseworker that handles any kids coming to stay with Granny, I opened the door. “Hey, Mrs. Henderson, how are you today?” I asked.

“Good, good, Eli. How are you?” she replied as I caught a glimpse of a small statured girl standing behind her, basically invisible unless you were looking for her.

“Okay, I guess. Algebra is killing me, though. Why do I have to know how to use it when I probably won’t need it once I’m out of school?” I wondered as I allowed her and the timid girl to come into the house.

Granny, who appeared right behind me, smiled and asked, “Hello, Joyce. Who do we have here?”

“This is Rosa Cortez, Virginia. Can we go into the kitchen to take care of the paperwork?” Mrs. Henderson questioned.

“Of course. Eli, take Rosa into the living room while I meet with Joyce,” Granny commanded. She was already walking away, knowing I’d follow her instructions to a T. I might be a smartass teenager, but not around Granny.

Never around Granny. She and my pops were the reason I was still around, after all, and I owed everything I had and who I was to the two of them.

“Follow me,” I instructed the mousey girl, who still hadn’t uttered a single word. She was either shy, or scared half to death.

Once we made it back into the living room, I sat down in Pops’ recliner and said, “You can sit anywhere you want.”

She glanced around taking in the space before muttering, “Thank you.”

Her voice was soft, almost hesitant and I looked at her far more closely than I had when I first opened the door. While she definitely looked scared, she was so pretty my voice caught in my throat. “How old are you?” I asked.

“Thirteen,” she mumbled.

“Well, you’ll like my school, especially if you participate in any sports,” I replied. “I’m on the wrestling team, but I go to a gym and am learning about mixed martial arts.”

“That sounds… cool,” she murmured. “I don’t know how long I’ll be here, though, so it’s probably not a good idea to commit to anything.”

I shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not, but even if you’re only here for a month, it’ll give you something to do.”

“That’s true.”

I didn’t ask why she was in foster care; that was rude, and Granny had impressed on me that the kids she helped needed kindness and grace, as well as a family environment so when they did return home, they went with the understanding that they had value and worth.

Since I loved my granny, I chose to just let Rosa be.

If she wanted to share things, she would.

But it was okay if she kept her mouth shut as well.

Prophet (age 17)

“Rosa, we can’t,” I groaned out.

While it was okay that we were dating as far as drawn lines were concerned, there was no way I was going to cross the line she was trying to erase. She wasn’t legal and I was, and I knew what could happen to me. I wasn’t going to fuck up the rest of my life just to have sex with her.

“I don’t see why not,” she grumbled, pushing back from her position on my lap. “We’re dating, we love each other, and it’s what I want.”

“Yeah, well, what you want could get me thrown in jail,” I retorted. “A tumble in the sheets with you isn’t worth it, Rosa. Not yet. We have to wait.”

“Nobody will know,” she insisted, trying to lure me onto her side but her way of thinking could have drastic consequences… for me.

Shaking my head, I tried to reason with her, make her think of someone beside herself. “Yeah, they will. You know Granny will ferret that information out of one of us in less time than it takes you to pour a cup of coffee.”

“I hate when you’re all logical and shit,” Rosa sneered.

My girl, she can be selfish at times, but I refused to let this day and situation be one of them. “Well, I hate it when you don’t think of anyone else but yourself,” I rebutted.

She rolled her eyes at me, but I remained firm.

I wasn’t willing to throw my life away just to have sex with her.

I knew she had friends who were already sexually active, and that was fine for them, but growing up, my grandpa made sure I understood that every action had a consequence.

Some of those friends of hers were playing with fire, but in the long run, their choices didn’t impact me.

“It’s not a big deal, Eli,” she persisted. “Everyone’s doing it!”

“No, everyone is not!” I yelled, suddenly sick of the constant back and forth that our relationship had become. “I’ve got goals, Rosa, and quite honestly, you’re being pretty fucking selfish not to consider what would happen to me. I think… I think we need to break up. I’ll take you home now.”

“What? Why?” she cried. While I used to be fooled by her tears, I knew that she had the ability to turn them on and off on a whim. She’d done it to me plenty of times when she was still living at my grandparents’ house, and it had only gotten worse now that she was staying with an aunt.

“I’m not going to repeat myself, Rosa,” I replied as I put my truck in gear. “Get your seatbelt on.”

Prophet (age 21)

“I should’ve never started dating her again,” I muttered as I headed into the small studio apartment where I was currently living.

Over the course of the past few years, I found my passion in mixed martial arts, specifically kickboxing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

I started going to classes in high school after continuously being bullied for being ‘gawky’ and a ‘string bean’.

Gramps found a school and I took to it like a duck takes to water, as if I’d been doing it since I was a little boy.

I’ve been on the amateur circuit for several years now, pitting my skills against others within a three-state radius, and I’ve only lost two bouts. Considering the guys I went up against were a lot bigger than I was, I still managed to hold my own when the dust settled, losing on points.

Rosa, though we’ve gotten together and broken up more times than I can count on my fingers, has been by my side for the most part.

The biggest issue I have with her is how fucking selfish she is sometimes.

I’ve been toying with going professional in my chosen disciplines, and it’s not fear that holds me back, it’s the knowledge that once I cross that line, I can’t go back to the competitions where I can go up against others and see if my skills are better than theirs.

Granted, being paid would prove that as well, but I also enjoy mentoring new students.

If I focus on the professional arena, I’ll have to put the kids I’ve been working with on the back burner.

Which is what our latest fight was about; Rosa sees dollar signs, not the blood, sweat, minor injuries, and sometimes tears that have gone into honing me into the athlete I am today.

Gramps’ voice whispers, “She’s in it for a good time, son, not for a long time.

You’re gonna want someone who’s willing to refill the bowl with ice when you come home after a competition, regardless of whether you remain in the competitive circle or go pro. ”

It probably hasn’t helped that when I’m actively focused on an upcoming meet, I won’t have sex with her.

She’s accused me of cheating on her, which I’ve never even considered doing, even when we have been ‘taking a break’ according to her.

Yet, I know for a fucking fact she’s not faithful when we’re apart.

Tonight’s argument pushed me to the proverbial wall and as I angrily cleaned my small home, grabbing my dirty laundry so I could take it down to the laundromat in the basement, I replayed her parting words like a fucking loop.

“Now’s not a good time,” I cautioned Rosa as she stood there, tapping her high heel on the pavement while we waited to go into the restaurant she just ‘had’ to eat at despite me telling her I had an online class project I needed to submit.

“I don’t understand why not, Eli,” she retorted. “It’s a natural progression in our relationship. We’ve been together for years!”

“Actually, Rosa, if we subtract all the times we were broken up, we’ve only dated two years, tops,” I replied. “So, no, getting engaged and having a baby is the furthest thing on my mind where we’re concerned right now.”

“Whatever,” she growled as we were finally allowed into the restaurant. “We’ll talk about it later and you’ll see why it’s a good idea.”

“No, we won’t,” I insisted. “Because in case you’ve forgotten, I’m trying to finish up my degree, then I need to start actually getting paying clients who want my tattoos.”

She rolled her eyes at me. The date went downhill from there and by the time I dropped her off, I had already sent an email to my professor asking for an extension of a few hours.

I still had to scan my designs I’d drawn, then upload them, and my stupid scanner had been acting up.

With this project counting for a large portion of my overall grade, I needed it to go off without a hitch.

Once everything was straightened out, I sat at my desk and turned everything on so I could get ready to wrap this up.

I was so fucking close to graduating, and no one, not even Rosa, was going to derail me.

As my mind continued to wander, I worked on my project, finally getting my scanner to cooperate.

When I finally hit the send button, I had two minutes to spare.

Prophet (roughly eighteen months ago, give or take)

“Well, that settles that,” I mused as the door slammed, a cloud of her perfume still wafting through my apartment.

While I spent the majority of my time at the clubhouse, I kept my studio apartment, even all these years later, something that Rosa and I had fought about many times.

She never understood why, after I went professional, I didn’t enjoy the fruits of my success.

Again, her selfishness kept her from grasping that even though Granny didn’t remember me any longer, as long as I had breath in my body, Granny was going to have the absolute best I could give her.

The house had long been sold, first to pay the bills left after Gramps’ sudden health decline then death, with the rest going into an account to take care of Granny.

Initially, she stayed in my apartment since I was at the clubhouse or at Rosa’s place, but when she was diagnosed with dementia, I made sure to find the best senior care facility money could buy so she was safe and well taken care of.

Thank God for Data, who vetted the places thoroughly for me while I busted my ass on the circuit to earn as much as I could to ensure she wouldn’t go without a fucking thing.

I saw her several times a week, which was one of the reasons I retired, but over the past six months, she’d started declining.