Chapter Text
Ella parked her car on the side of road. From the outside it didn’t look like much, a dingy warehouse in the business district of town. But in side it was one of the best-equipped gyms in town, geared specifically for creating the top boxers in the area.
Ella grabbed the brown paper bag off of the passenger seat of her car and headed inside.
She always hated coming here. But her dad had forgotten his lunch this morning and her mom sent her to drop it off to him. she walked into the familiar scene. The place was deceptively big. There were two boxing rings, fairly close on the right side, running turf on the left with cardio sleds and battle ropes. The back of the gym had every piece of strength training equipment you could think of. Weights, machines, treadmills, exercise bikes, rowers, benches and squat racks; everything a weightlifter could dream of.
Ella walked back to the offices in the right corner of the gym. She knocked on the door as she opened it. Her dad was standing at the window looking out at the boxers in his gym.
“Hey angel, what brings you here today?” he gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“You forgot your lunch this morning,” Ella handed him the brown paper bag.
“Oh right, mom called and said you were coming,” He took the bag and opened it, “ looks like she packed enough for you to eat with me!”
Ella hadn’t planned on eating lunch with her dad, but her mom had a way of sneaking in quality time for them.
It wasn’t that Ella didn’t like to spend time with her dad; it was that her dad spent most of his time at the gym and Ella hated the gym. She didn’t like boxing. She didn’t like that it had taken her dad form her so much when she was a kid. Or how disappointed he was when she told him she didn’t want to box like her brother.
Ella took the extra sandwich from him and they stood by he window as they ate.
“I miss when you used to workout here, felt like I saw you more then,” He nudged her shoulder.
Ella looked over at the running turf. She had fond memories of training for soccer back in high school on that very turf.
Ella noticed a new face on the training floor. She watched as a woman she had never seen before flipped tires. The girl was tall, but not awkwardly tall. She was clearly built to be an athlete, and Ella could see the muscles in her arms flexing as she flipped the tires. She had brown hair that was held back by a piece of prewrap, and was currently only in a pair of leggings and a sports bra. Ella could see she had a number of tattoos, even from this distance.
“Who’s that?” Ella pointed a carrot at the running turf.
“That? That’s Erin McLeod,” He said around a bite of his sandwich, “She moved here from Canada.”
“She’s a boxer?” Ella was surprised. Women boxers were rare enough in her dads gym.
“No, a ballerina,” he laughed, “Yeah, damn good armature boxer. Lookin’ to push towards pro by the end of the year.”
Ella rolled her eyes at him and munched on her carrot. She watched as Erin flipped the tire, did a push up, flipped a tire and did a push up, over and over again.
Before the end of their lunch Erin had geared up and was in the ring with one of the coaches her dad employed. He used to coach all the boxers himself, but now there were too many.
She was doing a simple timing drill. Even Ella had done it before back when she boxed, but Erin made it look graceful.
“See what I said? She’s good. She makes easy look masterful,” Her dad said over her shoulder.
Ella hadn’t realized she was staring. She tore her eyes away, “I should probably getting going.”
“Well it was nice seeing you kiddo,” He gave her a hug.
“Love you dad”
“Love you too.”
Erin stopped to take a water break. As she took a drink she saw a girl, about her age, walking out of the back office She was short; with a stocky frame that you could tell was all muscles. She moved like an athlete, and with a purpose. She had brunette hair that was pulled up into a bun. She was beautiful, even in just running shorts and a t-shirt.
“Who is that?” Erin asked her coach, Antonio.
“That Ella, Masar’s daughter,” Antonio smiled as he watched Erin’s gaze, “I didn’t know you swing that way,”
Erin’s head snapped back to Antonio, “What do you mean?”
“Hey, I don’t care. You do you,” He held up his hands in defense, “But straight girls don’t look at other girls like you just looked at Ms. Masar over there.”
Erin followed his gaze and watched as Ella left. She then looked back at him, “Was it that obvious?”
“Like I said, I don’t judge. But yes.” Antonio put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
“She is pretty cute,” Erin admitted.
“She’s also my bosses daughter so I don’t get to have an opinion on that. But I think you’re out of luck, last thing I heard was she had a boyfriend.”
“Who says I was interested?” Erin gave him a look.
“You see Erin, the eyes can tell you a lot. And yours said you were interested. Now lets get back to work,”