Euphoria

A Fresh Start

"Hey, hows Bria? I don't really see her around these days but I know the baby's due soon, I wanted to see how she was doing and send her my regards." Jennifer says, watching Adonis direct his attention back to her.

"Uh, she's doing great." Adonis lies, knowing he hasn't talked to her in weeks. "She's just resting you know, trying to stay off of her feet." He clears his throat, feeling uncomfortable talking about her.

"That's good to hear, I have a few things I want to send for her and the baby since she didn't have a baby shower can you forward me her address?" Jennifer asked him.

"Yeah, of course." Adonis nods.

"Thanks, I'll see you around D." Jennifer says before walking towards the main floor where her clients were waiting.

After leaving the gym, Adonis made his way to Rocky's restaurant. Outside the front door's sign said closed, but he knew his uncle was there, he saw his car parked in the street in front of his. A staff member from inside recognized him while he was waiting and ultimately let him inside.

"You looking for Roc?" The worker asked him.

"Yeah," Adonis said, turning his head to look at the family portraits and photos of his famous celebrity friends and athletes along the wall inside the family style establishment.

"Alright, I'll go get him for you. He's doing inventory," the worker said before walking off to the back to get him.

While Adonis was waiting, he took the time to look at the family photos aligned along the walls of the Italian family establishment.  As he walked further inside of the vacant restaurant, he took notice to the large framed photo of his father and Rocky laughing which was titled: 'My Brother's Keeper'.  After reading those words he held his head down low, feeling horrible for the way he's treated his Uncle. 

"It's always good to see a familiar face," Rocky said, taking Adonis out of his thoughts and watched his nephew turn around to look at him. 

"You ready to talk about what's been going on?" Rocky asked him, sitting inside of the booth and gestured Adonis to follow.

Adonis nods slowly, obliging to his slight gesture and sits down in front of him. 

"I wanted to come and apologize to you face to face for the way that I've been acting.  I haven't been a really good nephew or a friend recently.  I figured I'd start with you." Adonis says sincerely, folding his arms in front of him and rests them against the table. 

Rocky nods, intrigued.

"I guess when I was first given the opportunity to fight I wanted to be able to prove myself." He sighs and scratches at the stubble underneath his chin. "But I wasn't ready, and I ended up making a fool of myself knowing I could do better. For a long time I felt, humiliated and embarrassed to even go outside afraid that people would belittle me because of it. I mean I could've died but I was lucky. I should've listened to you in the first place and I'm sorry I'm just now seeing that you were right all along." Adonis said sincerely, looking into his uncle's eyes to let him know that he meant every word that he was saying.

"I'm about to be a father, and I don't want her to grow up without knowing you."

"Her?" Rocky said with a smile, not knowing what they were having.

"Yeah, Bria's having a girl." Adonis smiled, but it quickly faded knowing that he messed things up with her too.

"I accept your apology, It takes a man to admit his faults. I know you were hurt that I didn't want to be apart of the fight so you went your own way. I saw it coming," The Italian man sighed, leaning back in the booth to look at his nephew.  "But you're back now and that's all that matters."