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As she sat there, still trying to cal She hadn’t ierously hard for Abel This was further proof that she was too far gone to continue with this arrangeed Last night Abel hadn’t wanted to stick around for even another uy, and suddenly Abel was yesterday’s news? But once he calmed, he realized there was otten about her sister and nephew, it was blatantly obvious she wasn’t in the greatest odda viral were the reason behind her "twenty questions" retort, because it was so out of character for her But then again, he wasn’t used to asking personal questions, so he wouldn’t know exactly how she’d nor he’d crossed the line, or could he actually be right and the photos were the cause of her badwith the winery rep had been weird again He ran into her in the parking lot of 5th Street She’d worn one of her business skirt suits, but more than sexy, beautiful was the only way he’d describe her now As much as he yearned to kiss her, he’d refrained--too afraid she’d reject hiht: thatMaybe Sa to do with her decision There was definitely so different about her demeanor toward him--colder--distant

They made s safely in Seattle She’d avoided eye contact for the ot the text froht outside And that was it Abel had been quickly caught up in training again The fight was only teeks away now He’d be going into virtual training lockdown and conditioning soon and for sure would have little to no tiood thing With things definitely going in a new direction, he gave into Noah’s pleas to concentrate on this fight and nothing else He’d had every intention of doing just that before beco involved with Nellie Of all five of the noners of 5th Street including their silent partner, Felix, Abel had always been by far thedrea that had always irritated hiirl So this aardness and sudden distance couldn’t have happened at a better ti that started in the wee hours of thehiered Mid-week he’d given into temptation and texted her to simply say that heschedule was endless and would continue to be, up until he left for Vegas He hoped it answered the unasked question of why he’d suddenly disappeared

To his relief, her response to that see to the answer of her unasked question She said that she could only iine then mentioned that Roni had told her that Noah had hardly been hoer relief was that she never once as with him As far as he knew, that was still on, but he orried Clearly, the day those photos of hied He only hoped the newer grainy photos that had been leaked of hiain by touching his hair and face weren’t going to be the cause of es The only reason he even knew of the photos was because Andy and Noah were pissed that obviously so the Nellie the opportunity to cancel driving out to Vegas with hi in to the te her all week It’d been over a week since he’d last spoken with her It was really beginning to feel like torture What had she been up to? He hadn’t dared to ask Noah about it, and he knew Noah wasn’t about to bring it up on his own If anyone knew better what a distraction this could be, it was Noah Good or bad, his good friend and trainer was not about to let hi As it was, Abel was trying his damnedest to concentrate, and he still felt off No doubt Gio and Noah had picked up on it too

Now he lay there, losing the battle against the temptation to call her and just talk to her for a few minutes--hear her voice one time before he went to bed so he could sleep better But would he? Or would it keep hi for just aLying back down on his bed, he held his breath What if she wasn’t alone? Now he squeezed his eyes shut, his insides fully engulfed in fla her voice calh that he actually s up slowly "You busy?"

"Not really," she said, exhaling heavily "I was just about to call it a night Thethe hint of stress in her voice, he frowned "Everything okay?"