Bruiser: A Lonely Housewife Embarks on a Passionate Affair with an Alpha Male MMA Fighter by Simone Scarlet Page A

freaked the fuck out when I told her,” he explained. “She said I had no business getting into the octagon, doing what I do.”
    “You’re a fucking martial arts instructor ,” Ava cried. “That is, like, literally your business.”
    “I know,” Brandon held up his hands. “That’s why I tried to tell her. And it would save my business .”
    Ava cocked her head on one side. “So…?”
    “So, what?”
    “So… Are you gonna do it?”
    “I already told you – Mia said no .”
    Ava snorted derisively.
    “She’s not your mom ,” she hissed. Then added, “And I should hope not , with what you’ve been doing to her.”
    Brandon’s cheeks burned red.
    “Seriously, though,” Ava continued. “So what if she says no? It’s your business. It’s your decision.”
    That was exactly what Brandon didn’t want to hear - because a voice inside his head had been telling him the same thing all along.
    The steaks arrived, which blissfully diverted them from having to continue talking about that topic. Brandon reached for the A1 and Ava unwrapped her cutlery and for a few minutes, the two of them sat and ate in companionable silence.
    The steak was think and juicy. The mashed potatoes were soft and fluffy. For a minute, if Brandon stopped thinking about everything going on beyond the license plate-adorned walls of that steakhouse bar, everything was perfect.
    But, like all perfect moments, it had to end.
    “Seriously,” Ava repeated, swallowing a mouthful of steak. “If it’s going to save your business, you have to do this.”
    “But what about Mia?”
    “What about Mia?” Ava growled. “You’re fucking her, that’s all. What gives her the right to make decisions like that?”
    “Because I love her,” Brandon snapped back. “I care about her. If this means that much to her, I need to respect that.”
    “ No ,” Ava snapped, angrily pointing at Brandon with her steak knife. “If she loved you, and if she cared about you, she’d respect that this is what you have to do .”
    Brandon saw Ava’s eyes flashed. He gulped dryly.
    “I mean it, B,” Ava pointedly used the sake nickname for him that Mia used. “If she says no to this, then fuck her .”

Chapter Twenty Three
     
    Ava
     
    It was cool and dark as Ava and Brandon stumbled out of Charlie’s steakhouse.
    They were both fine to drive, but the alcohol had loosened them up sufficiently to talk more bluntly than they would have done otherwise, and Brandon wasn’t sure he liked it.
    “If you love somebody,” Ava said, wrapping her arm around Brandon’s elbow as they walked towards the parking lot, “you support them.” She looked up at Brandon, who towered over her. “You know what Clark was doing when I first met him?”
    “I don’t even know what he does now,” Brandon admitted.
    Ava ignored him.
    “When I first met Clark, he was working in a bank,” she told him. “He was miserable . He used to dread getting up in the morning, and by the time he dragged himself home at night, he was already depressed about how he’d have to get up and do the same shit twelve hours later.”
    Brandon listened silently.
    “So one day, I asked Clark what he wanted to do – and he told me: He loved comics. He’d loved comics ever since he was a little kid.” Ava hiccuped. “Fuck, his dad even named him ‘Clark’ after Clark Kent.”
    “I had always wondered about that.”
    They were standing at their cars now, but Ava didn’t let go of Brandon’s arm. Instead, she just looked up and kept talking.
    “So I asked Clark, What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? He told me he wanted to sell comic books. He used to do it as a hobby, on eBay – but he told me that if all his dreams came true, he’d be doing that full time instead of the bullshit at the bank.”
    Brandon listened silently.
    “So I told him to go for it,” Ava continued. “I told him to quit his job, and do the comic thing full time. And I damn near killed him because