Page 31 of Atlas
Chapter 17
True
I haven’t had this much fun since, well since last night and my face hurts from smiling and laughing so much. We literally spent the whole day at the fair and ate everything we could get our hands-on. I am so full I am waddling to the car. As soon as Atlas begins driving I am out like a light. He wakes me up when we get back home and all I have the energy to do is shower and faceplant to sleep. I do not bother with pajamas and neither does Atlas, both of us are too tired to do anything but look before sleep claims us.
The next morning I wake to find myself alone in bed, I get up and take care of my morning routine, get dressed, and go looking for Atlas. I found him in the gym on the heavy bag. I come up and give him a hug from the back, he doesn’t flinch letting me know he was aware of my presence. He hands me some boxing gloves and I take up position beside him and begin hitting the other heavy bag. We work out on the bags and move to the treadmills, bikes, row machine, and finally the ring. At first, Atlas takes it easy on me until I roundhouse kick him in the face splitting his lip. Then all bets were off and he whoops my ass. I held my own but I am in no way as skilled as Atlas is. Even though he beats the hell out of me I know beyond a shadow of a doubt he was still handing me with kid gloves. Does that piss me off? Hell no I would hate for all that six feet nine inches three hundred and thirty-five pounds of killer to be directed at me full force. Once again I find myself on my back in the ring breathing hard as hell as Atlas stands over me.
“You’re pretty good True, a little tuning up and you’ll be more deadly than you already are,” he says as he kneels down in front of me.
Deadly? Yeah deadly like a common house fly.
“Come on baby I wanna show you something,” he holds his hand out to me and helps me up.
We walk to the other side of the subterranean level to the weapons room and indoor firing range. They have damn near every type of gun, knife, explosive, and the like down here. Atlas and I practice knife fighting, ax throwing, sword fighting, which I am not that great at but Atlas moves like he was trained by a master Samurai, throwing stars, and eventually going to the shooting range. He turns on the sound system and as Yella Breezy Is Bacc at it Again, Atlas and I show off our shooting skills. Before we realize it half the day is gone and we are starving.
“You and Savvy are two women I would have at my back anytime,” he says as we ascend the stairs.
I smile so big I am sure all of my teeth are on display, that high praise coming from him. At one time I doubted Savvy was anything but a pampered princess but Nerf night changed my mind. That chick has serious skills but I should have known none of these brothers look like they will ever be able to tolerate a weak woman. And Joshua is larger than life, intimidating is not a sufficient enough description for the man.
There’s no Jaasiel meal when we reach the main level so we have to fend for ourselves and it seems like we are intruding on Jassiel’s private space being in his kitchen, however, Atlas doesn’t seem to care as he makes us a salad with chicken breast that is in the refrigerator. Once he is done he takes a couple of containers out of the freezer and sets them in a pot of water to heat it up. I realized after a minute that it was frozen soup. So lunch was a salad with chicken and homemade Zuppa Toscana soup, so damn good. He pours me a glass of wine he selected from the wine refrigerator. I am not much of a wine drinker but this wine is amazing, sweet, and tangy so good.
“What is this wine Atlas,” I ask after taking another sip.
“It’s ice wine,” he says. “I usually have a few cases shipped from Niagara Falls, I’m glad you like it.”
“It’s delicious, '' I say.
“What are we doing today?” he asks.
“Um, I’ve never been bowling,” I say.
“Bowling,” he says with his face scrunched up like he is trying hard and failing to figure out what bowling is.
“Well let’s get dressed and go bowling.”
So that’s what we did.
Atlas
How much shit had I missed growing up? Bowling? I know what it is but I have never been and have not taken the time to even pay attention to the rules of the game. But here I am at a bowling alley.
“I am not putting my feet in a pair of shoes someone else has worn True, not gonna happen,” I tell her.
She looks at me and shakes her head like I’m embarrassing her. I pull my phone out,
“Anson, where are you? Can you do me a favor? Can you go buy me and True some bowling shoes and drop them off to us?”
I give him the name of the alley and thirty minutes later the whole crew walks in.
“You should have known this was going to happen when you called one of your brothers,” she says like I’m dense.
“Well all of them aren't here, where is Asher?” I ask.
“On a date,” Aryan answers as he sits putting on his shoes.
“A date? I say.
“Yep,” told us not to wait up for him. Aryan says as he waggles his eyebrows.