Cable not her

The thing about the welt is I chose it. The swivel caught Jules's wrist and the cable came at my head and I caught the cable, not her. Half a second either way and she'd be the one with the red line on her face. I think I'd choose the same way again. I don't know what that says about me.

She didn't say anything when they taped her. I didn't say anything when I iced mine. She's young — twenty-two maybe — and she looked at me the way I looked at people when the water stopped being mine and they were trying to be kind about it. I know that look. I wish I didn't.

Voss's people are offering comp tickets for inside footage. Danny told me at noon. Inside Rob's gym, the pad room where I learned to hit again. My hands went cold before my head caught up.

Danny and I stood at the front desk and we locked the doors. We didn't talk about it.

Then ninety minutes. Complete silence. I held pads, he hit them, neither of us said a word. I don't know if that was prayer or if I just couldn't open my mouth because the wrong thing would've come out. Danny didn't need me to talk. The pads knew.