Awful. It's going awful. I don't know what this guy wants me to do because I'm basically a dummy here, and everything he's asking, processes in my brain correctly but I do the wrong thing.

"Oh my Jesus Christ, Francesca you're honestly so frustrating." He says and I giggle as he walks behind me. He runs his fingers down my arms, and butterflies erupting in waves as he slowly wraps them around my wrist. His breathing is slightly uneven but I'm unsure if that's from laughing. "The bag does not feel anything, okay? And the person you're going to be hitting, you are wanting to hurt because they're either going to be mugging you or attacking you."

"I'm sorry but you were the one that called him Jim." I say, turning my head to look at him and his face is dangerously close to mine.

"Every predator has a name, a family, a life, but you're still going to hit them." He says and I sigh, turning around.

"Is it so bad that I am not the violent type?" I ask, hoping this is over.

"I saw you push Matt into so many different things the other day, you can't convince me of that." He says with a smile and I groan, getting back in place.

I don't know why I can't hit the stupid bag. I just know that for some reason, I can't.

"Your feet are perfect, we've got the whole front toe, back heal thing done. You just need to get the courage to actually hit the thing." He murmurs, holding my wrist and putting me in place before moving. Sad, I kind of liked him behind me. Wow, dirty thoughts go away.

Making my first – very sad – attempt at punching the bag, I finally hit it and do a little victory dance making him burst out laughing.

"You're something else, I swear." He says, shaking his head.

"Can't I kick it? I like kicking things." I ask, looking at the kickable bag. Yeah, I could kick that.

"Move out of the way, and I'll show you how to kick it but remember I'm not a kick boxer." He says and I giggle, taking a seat out of the way.

This is fun. I like seeing guys do the work.

My eyes immediately widen when I see him kick it, the heavy-ass bag literally swings from side to side, not stopping when he walks away from. How powerful is this guy?

"Yeah, I can't do that either." I say, crossing my arms.

"Look, I brought you here today so you could have some fun. I have not once seen a sad face of yours whilst you've been here. So if you come out of this amazing at self-defense, that's great but it's just fun, okay? Today at work you didn't look very happy, and you needed some fun. And since you apparently don't want to have sex with me, this is the next option." He says and I smile, lying down on the mats.

"It's not that I won't have sex with you, it's that I won't have sex with anyone." I say and he frowns, towering over me, his legs either side of my body. Well this is a... position.

"Are you a virgin?" He asks and I burst out laughing, like really laughing. "Okay, that's a no."

"No, I'm not. I've just sworn off boys and sex to protect this thing called a heart." I say, pointing to my chest and he raises his brows at me.

"You can still have sex without getting your heart involved." He says, and I scoff shaking my head.

"No, you've got it wrong. Having sex is easy, we could get naked right now and have sex all day with no string attached but who is to say that it would be worth it. In my history the only person that has been relatively good in bed was my ex-boyfriend. All the other guys just want a quick fuck which means no pleasure on my end, and I'm sorry if I want that." I say, and he looks down at me with pity.

"You live a very sad life. You've not have great sex before – that's sad." He says, and I push him away so I can get up, and that's what I do .

"Ethan, one quick question, how do you make a girl orgasm?" I ask, crossing my arms and he smirks at me.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" He asks.

"Yes, answer." I say, finding amusement in this.

"Clitoral stimulation, Francesca, that's how." He says and I gape at him, he's the first guy to answer that correctly. Obviously, you can through penetration but it's highly unlikely.

"That still doesn't mean you're good in bed." I say and he chuckles, shaking his head as I make my way towards the bag again.

Without thinking too much of it, I hit the bag right in the middle where I envision the nose to be. I don't know exactly whose nose it is but it's someone's.

"Bend your legs a little more and elbows down, there you've got it." He murmurs from behind me, and I smile as I take another hit. "Relax and just breathe. Don't overthink it, okay?"

"Are you trying to distract me?" I quickly turn around, catching him check my ass out. "Ethan!"

"You can't blame me." He says with a grin.

"You're supposed to be helping me not being a fucking pervert and checking me out." I whine, but inside I'm secretly screaming. Ethan checked me, Francesca Salatino, out.

"You have a good ass, are you sure you've never been to the gym before?" He asks and I stare at him, completely dumbfounded. Is he serious?

"I would be careful; I know how to hit you now." I say and he laughs, giving me a look as he sits down on the end of the boxing ring.

"You're talking to a soon-to-be professional boxer who has won most of every match he's ever fought in." He says making my heart beat a little faster. "I wouldn't go around saying that, Francesca."

"What's with that?" I ask and he looks at me with a frown. "Calling me Francesca. Literally no one, not even my parents called me by my full name, but you do. Why?"

"Because it's a beautiful name, why wouldn't you want to be called it? Sure, Fran and Frankie are equally nice nicknames, but you have a beautiful name and you should use it. And you suit it better than the others." He says, wrapping his hands in some kind of bandage.

"It's a weird adjustment, it's kind of foreign to me." I mumble, looking around.

"Get used to it, damsel because I'm going to continue calling you by that name." He tells me.

"Says the person that still calls me a damsel. And anyway, who says that you're seeing me again?" I ask.

"I hope to see you again, you're really good company." He tells me. .

"You think I'm good company? Do you have no friends?" I ask earning a chuckle from him.

"Yeah, I do, so I know you're good company. In fact I'm waiting for Felix to walk through that door any moment." He says and I look towards the door. I'm kind of nervous to meet this guy.

"Felix." I mutter under my breath.

"Yeah, he's Scar's brother." He says, standing up with his wrapped hands. "And I'm going to fight him."

I don't know why but hearing that just excites me. I need to go out more, I think.

"So, is my time finally over at the gym?" I ask, sounding like I hated every moment of it even though I didn't once. I honestly loved being here.

"Nope, we're going to work on the bag a little more since we don't open for another ten minutes." He says and I smile, hoping straight into it.

Who knew that I would enjoy this?

"Think of someone that you so badly want to punch right now." He says and I giggle thinking of a few people. "Are you thinking of an ex?"

"Yeah, why?" I ask, looking back.

"Your shoulders are tensed. Here, relax and elbows down. Protect your face and hit." He says and I do, making the bag swing only slightly but that's progress. "Okay, now again until you've knocked the guy out."

"Seriously?" I ask with knitted eyebrows.

"Yep, I'm going to go open the doors. Are you good on your own for a couple of minutes?" He asks, and I nod with a slight smile. "Okay, see you in a few."

Once he leaves, my confidence builds so I actually find myself getting some kind of rhythm as I picture my stupid ex-boyfriend in front of me. This isn't a healthy way but it works. I saw Chris cheat on me with my own two eyes, sex does not look pretty from a third person, let me tell you. What's hilarious is I actually took him back after that and believed him when he said it was a mistake. I'm such an idiot.

I'm an idiot for a lot of reasons.

I let a man- a boy walk all over me and treat me like shit, over and over again.

The incident was all my fault. That stupid incident. Why did I go out that night? If I hadn't, none of what happened, would have. I would be happy; I wouldn't have to mask my true feelings. I wouldn't be having the same nightmare on repeat in my mind; awake or not. I ruined so much that night.

That's when I grew up, that's when I had to.

Arms wrap around me and I'm brought back to reality, I curse under my breath as I wipe the tears that must have escaped. I look up to Ethan's eyes, and he pulls me into my chest as my knees give way.

"No one's here." He whispers and I try to steady my breathing but a sob escapes. "You're okay."

"I'm sorry." I say my voice croaky, and he moves my hair out of the way before he takes my boxing gloves off. "I'm so sorry."

"Stop apologizing, you're fine. Cry if you want to cry, I have done this exact thing plenty of times." He assures me and I frown up at him. "It's a great way of expression."

"It's humiliating to me." I whisper and he shakes his head with a little smile.

"At least you're a pretty crier at the end of the day." He says and I drop my head onto his chest, hiding my face. "Did your ex really mess you up this bad?"

"No, he was my first thought, but it soon moved on to... much worse things." I say and he notices that I don't want to talk about it.

"Stick to the awful people that are no longer in your life, or even a fictional character. Have you ever read a book or watched a movie, and you really wanted to punch a person but you couldn't?" He asks and I giggle, nodding. There's been many of times that I have wanted to jump into a page. "Think of them or think of me."

"Oh, I may not like you very much, but I wouldn't punch you." I say and he rolls his eyes before brushing my tears away from my face. "I'm an ugly crier, you were just being nice."

"Oh, in comparison to me, you are. You don't want to see me when I cry, it's awful; there's snot everywhere." He says and I screw my face up, that's a picture. "Exactly."

The loud bang of the door echo's around the room, and I immediately get up, off of Ethan, wiping the rest of my tears.

"Kane-y boy, where are you?!" A voice yells, and Ethan sighs.

"Felix." He tells me.

"Oh, okay." I mutter, letting my hair down because my hair must be a right mess.

"Are you staying to watch me beat him?" He asks looking hopeful, and I want to say yes but I need to be alone right now.

"Sorry, but another time though?" I ask and he nods, giving me tight lip smile. "I'm going to get my clothes from the office and I'll be on my way."

"So, am I worthy of your number yet?" He asks and I shake my head with a grin.

"Maybe next time." I whisper, and he nods giving me the keys. "Thanks."

I can't believe this, and what just happened.

It's been a weird day, a very weird day but a good day, nonetheless. 

~~~~~

A/N

Okay, I love Ethan. But he has his secrets too, okay? And I promise, we will see his bad boy side soon enough. He's just trying to charm her as of right now.

Life update: I've wrote 2 chapters today, go me and I'm so happy with them! I remember with my first book, I could write like 1 chapter a day and every day. I'm honestly jealous of old me. Right now my motivation is really good since I have no Wi-Fi currently, so I'm going to continue writing.

Question of the chapter:

Where in the world are you from? I'm from England, West Yorkshire!

Thank you for reading! Please comment your thoughts, vote by pressing the little star, and if you want, you can like follow me too. Xx

2125 words!

~B