Quest texted me on Wednesday, telling me he'd pick me up at seven on Friday and that he'd made reservations for dinner at ten. In a strange way, I was looking forward to seeing Quest fight. When we'd been dating and he began fighting once he turned eighteen, he'd never let me come see him fight, wanting to protect me in case he took a hard hit.
I don't want you to see that, Til. If you had a panic attack because I took a hard hit or got knocked out, I couldn't get to you right away.
The story of our lives, actually, with Quest always trying to protect me and shield me from anything unpleasant. He'd had no objection to Benjamin coming to watch his fights, and my brother would come home full of stories of how hard Quest had been hitting his opponent, how relentless he was in the ring. Later, as my future husband became bigger and better, I'd hear about how quickly Quest had won by submission.
Then Quest would walk into our house not too long after my brother did and I'd look him over carefully to see if he had any visible bruises or cuts. He rarely did because he was becoming somewhat of a local legend as the man who barely allowed his opponents to hit him.
But he never relented and let me come see him fight, so I was really looking forward to seeing Quest in action tonight.
Mama came in and sat on my bed next to me as I pulled on my boots. They were red and they looked cute with my denim-blue dress. She'd come over to dog-sit Spring for a few hours and was looking forward to having some girl time with her granddog.
"What?" I asked Mama when she continued to sit there saying nothing.
"I didn't say anything," she protested.
"Mama," I said, fixing her with a disbelieving look, "you not saying anything is like someone else giving a whole entire speech."
With a smile, she pushed my curls off my shoulder. "Are you looking forward to tonight?"
I considered her question seriously.
"I am," I said. "I'm not sure if I can explain it, but this date already feels different. Quest never wanted me to see him fight before and now he's invited me to. And for the second time, he's picked the restaurant instead of leaving it to me and doing whatever I wanted and going wherever I wanted to go. And that sounds stupid when I say it out loud, but I've been realizing that it's not necessarily just the big things that we need to watch out for, but the little things, too."
"It doesn't sound stupid," Mama said. "It sounds like growing up."
Then, after patting my cheek gently, she went and leashed Spring to take her for a walk so she wouldn't be in the way when Quest arrived. Right at seven, Quest rang the doorbell, giving me a long look when I answered my door.
"You look gorgeous, Tillie," he said, an appreciative gleam in his eye. "You ready to go or do you need to do anything? Walk Spring, maybe?"
"No, Mama's walking her right now. I just need to grab my purse."
He watched while I locked up -- Mama had her own key -- and we walked down to his truck. This time, it was less awkward and easier to talk as he drove us to the gym where the fights took place. He asked me about my classes and I asked him about his fight tonight. At one point, he looked over at me and just smiled, and the smile stayed on his face. I looked away because Quest Sullivan smiling was a thing of beauty.
When we walked into the gym, they had chairs set up all around the cage and people were already occupying almost all available chairs. Tickets were ten dollars each, a fairly steep price for this small town, but that didn't seem to stop people from filling the seats and making the gym standing room only. I would have been worried that Ray, the gym owner, would get busted by the fire chief for being over capacity, but both men were standing at the back of the room, talking quietly with the chief of police and a local judge.
With his hand at the small of my back, Quest guided me carefully through the crowd. People brightened when they saw him and patted his back or said things like Gonna win me some money tonight, Quest? or How you feeling tonight, Quest? Lucky? He ignored them all and didn't stop until we were in front of a chair in the front row that said Reserved for Quest.
He took the paper off the metal folding chair. "Here's your seat, Tillie. You good?"
"I'm fine." I also noticed that on either side of me, the chairs had similar signs: Reserved for Fire Chief and Reserved for Chief of Police. This had Quest written all over it, to put me between two men who knew his family well and would protect me while he couldn't be with me.
"Please don't leave here without one of the chiefs with you. The crowd can be kind of rough."
"I won't. I'll be fine, Quest."
He looked down at the floor then back up at me. "Sorry. This isn't just me being overly protective, just wanting you to beware of the crowd. Some of them are from out of town and don't know what would happen to them if they bothered you at all."
"I'll be fine, and I'll be careful."
He nodded. "As soon as I'm done fighting, I'll shower real quick and come get you. The chiefs will stay with you until I get back to you."
Then he took off, and not long after, the first fight was announced just as the chiefs slid into their seats. They each welcomed me warmly.
"It's good to see you and Quest in the same room again," the police chief said simply. Then he and the fire chief leaned forward as they followed the fight. We sat through six fights in total before we got to the main event that everyone was here for. The fire chief tapped my hand.
"Prepare to be amazed," he said, grinning. "Quest is one helluva fighter."
The announcer called out Quest's opponent, who got a nice cheer, but when the announcer called out Quest's name, the crowd screamed. His opponent was totally showboating, trying to play to the crowd, but the spectators were solidly behind Quest. He walked into the cage calmly and stood waiting.
His demeanor changed the minute the fight started. Quest's face drew tight, and he went after his opponent with an intensity that soon overwhelmed the man. Quest dropped him to the mat in no time, and the crowd was going nuts.
"That's Quest's unbeatable move," the fire chief said to me. "The armbar. This should be over soon. I've got five hundred on him finishing the fight in less than two minutes. COME ON, QUEST!"
I was watching Quest's powerful body move and twist and strain, every muscle taut as he worked to win his match. Then his opponent was tapping the mat, and the match ended faster than I'd expected. The referee was holding Quest's arm in the air, declaring him the victor.
"He won by submission," the police chief gloated.
"And in under two minutes," the fire chief crowed. "Hell, yeah! You better come every week, Tillie, because I think you're his good luck charm."
Quest smiled at me, then left the cage, walking back to what was the locker room, I assumed. The chiefs talked excitedly about the match, throwing out terms I didn't understand but didn't need to since they had the conversation under control without any input from me.
In less than ten minutes, Quest was back, wearing his jeans, T-shirt and well-worn boots. The chiefs stood up and congratulated him, shaking his hand heartily, before they said good bye to us and left.
"Ready for dinner?" he asked.
"Quest, that was amazing. I mean, I didn't understand anything that happened, except that you won. Congratulations, by the way."
That got a huge smile from Quest. "Thanks, Til. You have any questions, let me know and I'll answer them for you."
"I'll let you know," I promised him.
"You've got to be hungry by now, so let's get going."
We walked out of the gym, people trying to stop Quest to congratulate him, but he didn't acknowledge them other than with a nod or a brief thanks.
Quest opened the truck door for me, and watched while I got settled in my seat and buckled my belt.
"Tillie," he said, "Thanks for coming to see me fight. Had my best fight in the cage tonight because you were there. Having you there makes all the difference to me."
"Well, I'm glad I got to see you fight," I said lightly, feeling like this was about to get deeper than I was ready for. "Now let's get some food."
Quest waited a beat. "Let's get some food."