The Art of Being Tony (Tony Winters Book 1) Read online

  “Hey, Jen! This is Anthony.” He didn’t explain anything more than that. Not even why some strange kid was there, invading their space.

  She took a few deep breaths, smiled hugely at them and made eye contact. She had stunning green eyes, he noticed.

  “Hi! Did you get settled in all right? We weren’t sure how long it would take, or even if you were getting in today.” Instead of waving at him, the sweat covered woman walked over and hugged him. If she cared about being all wet, it didn’t show. It was a real enough thing too, though she leaned in carefully and didn’t touch him too much.

  Setting boundaries, probably. He got that one. Mainly because he’d seen an old program about psychology on PBS not that long before. If you were working with troubled people, it was important to set the conditions of what you were willing to do with them, right off the bat. So, with this woman, they could hug, but it wasn’t going to be cuddly or anything. That was fine with him. Not that she wasn’t nice enough looking. She kind of was. Not hot, exactly, but enough that she could probably get him interested if she tried.

  Which, she wouldn’t want to go for, since she had a boyfriend and he was both right there and a good looking, ripped, adult man. It made perfect sense that way. Really the part where she bothered to treat Anthony like a person didn’t so much, but he smiled anyway and just assumed that she was attempting to be a good human being. It happened, occasionally.

  “Hello. Yeah, traveling like that isn’t the most accurate thing in the world. So… Um…” He looked around and shrugged. “Do I start by sweeping?”

  He didn’t really know and Jen made a face at him, but Rick smiled. It was friendly, even.

  “Good plan, but we can do that later? We have a group in for some roadwork in about twenty minutes…” He looked at Jenny and winked. “Anthony is a runner, Cross Country, so he should be able to keep up on that. I was thinking that we’d start with boxing? I can get Denny to work with him?”

  The blonde woman went wide eyed and laughed a bit.

  “That works. We can alternate skill sets? If you want, I mean, Tony. Boxing is a useful skill in the ring, but the future is in a combination of things. Grappling and standing work. Even if you don’t want to be a fighter, getting the basics will let you help out in training others. That can be a useful thing, around here. We have some professionals that work here. A number of them, actually. You weigh in at what, about one-twenty?”

  He nodded, though he tended to be a bit lighter than that, to be honest.

  “Yeah. If I have a large meal first.” Part of him wanted to be shy, but making a good impression was important at the moment. So he smiled and looked her in the eye, for a bit. He wasn’t a very bold person, most days, but these people were just talking to him and trying to find a place for him in their weird world. That wasn’t a bad thing.

  She looked away first and started nodding a bit, clearly thinking.

  “So, a bantam weight? Tall for that division and you’ll probably go up as you train and grow, but it’s hard to find sparring partners at that range, so it can work for now. The same is true for MMA. Especially if you don’t mind working with women?”

  Anthony snorted a bit then and shook his head.

  “I can be beaten up by a girl just as well as a man, so I don’t think it will be a real issue. Remember, I have no clue what you’re actually talking about.” For a moment he wondered if admitting that was the wrong thing to do, but the slightly sticky woman just slapped him on the arm. Not even that hard.

  “That’s the spirit. You’d be surprised at how many guys are terrified that some woman will get a choke hold on them and make them look bad. Don’t worry, we can show you what to do. It won’t be today either. So, warm up first? Here, grab a rope…”

  Rick walked off, leaving them to skip rope like mad people. The handle of the one he took was wooden and had a metal bit where the plastic met the thing, allowing it to pivot without breaking too easily. That much was apparent. Just like the fact that he’d never done anything like that before. Not even in P.E. class at school.

  So Jen was skipping rope and he was tripping over it, over and over again, when other people got there and started doing their own exercises. There was very little stretching going on from the men and one woman, who were there. Three of the guys were kind of hard looking if in various ways. The woman that was there was too, sort of. She saw him looking and nodded at him, as if he weren’t about to fall down.

  When the timer behind them beeped, he got to stop and Jen took the rope from him.

  “Hey everyone. This is Tony. The new guy.” She didn’t introduce the others, though one of the men, who wasn’t that much bigger than he was, shorter, but more muscular, clearly sized him up. The guy was older, probably being in his twenties, but he nodded after a bit and smiled.

  “Hey, new kid. You going running with us?”

  He nodded, since that did seem to be the plan.

  “Yep. I’ll try to keep up.”

  That got nods from everyone there, but no one mocked him over the idea. The man who had bothered to talk to him so far just got a serious expression on his face and nodded a few times.

  “Right. I’ll lead today? Come on!”

  Then they ran like it was an actual race. Out the front door, with the Hispanic guy, who had a tidy little mustache, taking the lead. Thankfully he slowed down after they got to the end of the block, since they were losing everyone else in the group. The guy smiled as they jogged in place for a bit.

  “We’re doing six miles. That’s a lot for a new person.”

  The news got Anthony to smile.

  “I can do that. It’s probably the only thing I can do here, really. I don’t know how to fight at all.”

  “No problem. If you can keep up on road work, people will respect you. Especially if you don’t toss your cookies at the end.”

  Then, they just ran for a bit. It was fast, but not more than he could manage really. About like what he’d need for a race. The others didn’t say much, until they came around the other side of the building, about an hour later. They’d kept going until they were right up to the front door, but had to wait for the others to meet up with them. As they did, the friendly man stuck his hand out.

  “I’m Steve. Lopez. Good run. I’m in training. Boxing. Professional. Most people aren’t willing to work that hard.” He looked back at the other people, who were still moving and headed their way. The woman in the group actually got there first and glared at Steve a bit.

  “I get it. I really do. Conditioning. Man that sucks!” She bent over and put her hands on her thighs, as if she needed to rest. After a bit, she stood up though, not wanting to seem weak in front of the others.

  Oddly, that hadn’t been a problem in front of Steve or him, Anthony noticed. Just the three coming up behind them. As they closed, she even tried to not breathe all that hard. It wasn’t totally working, but she brushed her damp, curly dark hair from her eyes and pretended she was talking to Steve and had been.

  “We should spar, if you have time? I know that my hand skills aren’t that great, but…” She looked a little embarrassed, but the man just nodded.

  “Right, if you don’t practice, you don’t get better. I can stay a little late? Work with both of you? Tony here says he can’t fight, so that won’t be too hard for you, being an MMA type.” He was teasing the woman, who rolled her eyes at him.

  Then he explained, since they were, clearly, waiting for the others still. They’d started walking at the corner.

  “Ashley is actually good, but she needs someone to work with that isn’t too big. Or too out of shape.” That dig was for the three coming in, which got one blank faced nod, a smile and a pretty hard scowl.

  “Screw you, Steve. Some of us aren’t jockeys, which means that running takes actual work.” He was the biggest man and while the words could have been playful and even funny, he seemed to really mean them. At least the glaring didn’t stop as they all moved inside.


  Steve didn’t seem intimidated. Probably because he could outrun the larger, still gasping, man.

  “Sure, sure. Tell that to your opponents? Anyway, Tony, can you be around at three or so? Get trained up before that, or Ash will leave parts of you on the mat.” Then he went in, to get to his actual work out.

  The woman in the group did the same thing, going directly over to Jen, who was in the front space on the bottom and the others actually seemed to know what to do. One of them, who’d actually bothered to smile at Steve’s ribbing, was waved over toward the women. After a few minutes of talking to Jenny, he smiled and waved at Anthony.

  “Tony! You’re with me for the day. Up on two. Fundamentals of the sweet science. Come on, this will be fun.” He wasn’t that old and had a lot of energy. Also, poor run time aside, he was clearly in great shape.

  What he’d done to get stuck working with him, Anthony didn’t know. Still, the man jogged up the stairs and waved into the space where Steve was working with Rick already, doing sit-ups.

  “Boxing isn’t that hard. It takes a lot of conditioning and learning some basic skills. The trick isn’t in doing that part, since almost anyone can. You also have to be able to hold what you know together when you’re being hit in the head, over and over again. That’s any kind of fight though, right? The grapplers talk about the same thing. So that means what I’m going to do is show you some basic stuff, then have you do it over and over again, until it becomes part of you. Part of your inner being.” He grinned suddenly and looked around.

  “Deep. Right? Come over here and we’ll start at the beginning. How to stand.”

  Anthony just did what he was told and tried to remember it all. The man wasn’t kidding though. The first thing they did was get his feet in the right place and then work on balance.

  After that, it got a bit more complicated, even if Denny had claimed it was easy.

  Chapter two

  Denny, who was funny, seemed smart and nice, was also apparently not a bad teacher. They worked until noon and then went up to the top floor, which had a kitchen and a place to eat, as well as showers and changing rooms. The weights were in the back, on the first floor, which made sense, as soon as his new instructor pointed it out. Otherwise the floor would probably break at some point. Maybe not, but risking that kind of thing didn’t make sense. Old buildings fell down, if you weren’t careful.

  “We eat at one, but I do the cooking around here right now. I’m in a rest period, between fights. That means I have to stay in shape, but that I have more time than some of the others. I do MMA. Mainly. Though I’ve done some pro-boxing, too. Good work today, by the way. You picked that up like you’ve done it before.”

  The fighter started to putter around the big kitchen, pulling things out. Then, because they were working together, he waved for Anthony to help. He yawned, but nodded and scurried to do that. After all, no one there knew how lacking in sleep he was and being lazy wouldn’t help anything. No, it would just make it seem like he was a bad investment of their time and effort.

  Not that he knew how to cook. On the great side, it was clear that he wasn’t expected to. The other man showed him what to do first and explained how to calculate how much food they needed for each person.

  It was more complex than it seemed like it should have been, but everyone was eating the same thing for lunch that day, which was broiled chicken breasts, with plain rice and a salad. The dressing was the clear kind, that Anthony didn’t like. That was on purpose, so that no one would be tempted to eat much, even though no one was cutting weight at the moment.

  “If they are cutting, then that part is up to them. Normally they don’t come in at all and will hit the gym for that. Let me get the meat on…”

  Then they set everything on a little buffet along a bar at the side of the room. They just had everything set up, with a stack of clean white plates in place, as everyone else got there. If they minded two sweaty guys having handled their food, no one mentioned it. Then, they’d washed their hands constantly, so that no one would get sick. It had been pointed out several times, so Anthony had just started doing that, washing up every time that Denny did. That seemed to be enough for the man.

  Steve waved at him on the way to get a plate of food, but sat at the table to wait for everyone to get there before starting, even if he’d gone first. There were several pitchers of water and clear glasses for everyone. Denny gestured for him to sit, taking the last place for himself, though there was a spot left for him, between Rick and Ashley. Jen was set up on the other side.

  Steve was over by her, across from him as he settled into place. The plate in front of him looked… Odd. Very green and red, since the salad had stuff in it other than lettuce. He’d placed a single chicken breast next to that and didn’t take any salad dressing. Ashley hadn’t either and took a big bite of greens, pretending it didn’t suck horribly. It was a good example, but he waited, since Steve bowed his head and prayed, then crossed himself.

  That got a snort from the big man from earlier, who didn’t seem to be very nice. Everyone else ignored the implied derision though, so Anthony tried to do the same.

  Rick spoke between bites, looking at different people along the table.

  “Mark, how did the morning go?” That, apparently, was the large man. He shoved food in his face for a bit and answered slowly.

  “Not bad. I bit on the run and then bitched at Steve for pointing it out. So you know, I’m keeping it classy. It’s the diet. Freaking rabbit food.” He stabbed at the chicken and his plate seemed to be about the same as what Ashley had taken. Only with salad dressing, which gleamed a bit as he fought down a bite.

  Then a bit gruffly he looked over at Steve.

  “Sorry about that.” It didn’t seem heartfelt or anything, but the man wasn’t holding a knife while he said it, either.

  The smaller man just nodded then.

  “Da nada. We’ve all been there, man.”

  That got a lot of nods from around the table, from everyone except Anthony. Who hadn’t really. Except that he kind of had. There really had been times when food had been short in his life and that could make you a bit edgy. After thinking for a bit he nodded like the others had.

  Running on too little food was harder to do as well, which had probably slowed the man down earlier. You felt like your legs were made of lead and everything took twice as long to get done.

  No one was paying attention to him however and Rick moved from person to person, asking how their training was going. Interestingly, he did Denny last and the report was all about him.

  “Tony rocked the morning section. I showed him the basics and even ran some combo’s. He needs more strength conditioning and practice. I hear that Steve and Ashley are planning to beat that into him later? That’s a good first day.” He grinned, like it was a joke.

  Anthony shook his head.

  “I can only beg for mercy. Not that I’ll get it.”

  Denny had been honest about that, no doubt. Both of the others were training for pro fights. That meant they not only were going to come at him hard and with skill, but that he, newb or not, had to step up and give that back as well as he could. Even when it hurt. Doing anything else would be wasting their valuable training time.

  On the good side the man was nearly certain that he wouldn’t be touching either of them that often. So he didn’t have to worry about hurting them or anything.

  Mark, who was glaring at his salad still, cleared his throat. His voice was a little slow, but in a considering way, rather than a mean one this time.

  “We should send Riley over, too. For that. When is it?”

  Steve held up three fingers.

  “I’m staying a bit late for that today. He’s a middle weight? That… might not be bad for us, really. Muchado is strong, I hear. I need to get ready for that. How’s his speed?”

  Rick finished his bite and looked up.

  “Not bad, really. That sounds like a plan. I’ll see you a
ll there? Now, Anthony, what do you have planned until then?” He smiled and Jen grinned, but neither spoke about anything.

  He considered what would be best for a moment, since he didn’t want to piss anyone off. Especially given that playing moving punching bag might not do it for anyone, once they worked out how little he actually knew. He’d try, but that might not be enough.

  “Um… Clean up in here, dishes and all that, then I was thinking that I’d try to sweep and mop the rest of the place? If I can find out where the gear for that is?”

  Instead of laughing at him, the fighters just stared a bit, though Rick smiled bigger.

  “Good plan. Denny, can you show him that stuff? Regardless, make sure you’re ready at three, even if it means leaving the job half done. Second floor, by the ring.”

  Everyone chatted while they ate then, most of it being about fights, fighters and plans for different things. The next fight that anyone had was halfway through June, which seemed like forever to Anthony, but probably wasn’t to anyone else. Mark finished first and left his plate, which was nicely emptied. Then, almost as one, everyone else got up, just leaving things on the table. He had offered to clean up, so it made sense to him.

  Once everyone else walked away, to train or do their jobs, Denny laughed a bit.

  “Normally they scrape their dishes and put them by the sink. Consider this part one of the hazing, new kid. For most people it’s being run until they puke, but you sailed through that one already. It probably pissed a few people off. Here, I’ll help you get these cleaned up. This way.”

  They moved decently quick, since he had to drag himself through sweeping and mopping duties still. The place was large, so he could do one section at a time. They had real buckets and mops though, as well as spill kits, which were pointed out to him, in the supply cupboard.

  Denny pointed at the row of red fabric bags.

  “In case people bleed in the ring or cage. They have surgical gloves, throw away sponges and disinfectant spray. You mop the red up, then spray the mat or canvas. Then use a new sponge to clean that stuff up and toss all of it except the bag, in the dumpster out back. It doesn’t happen often, but you might want to bring one to the sparring later.” That was informative and also teasing.