Chapter 21: Practiced Focus

Paul’s POV.

“Are you ready for this?” Mo asks me as I walk into the gym.

“Is anyone ready for this?” I ask him, slinging my bag onto the floor.

“Is Eleanor coming tonight?”

Mo had been a nonstop flood of questions since I asked him to pick me up from the apartment. In an attempt to distract myself this morning, I had asked my cousin to take me to the tuxedo shop, ending us up at the location of the pickup fight.

I had decided to keep the actual details of the fight from Eleanor, knowing that the less she knew about things, the more protected I could keep her. But the overwhelming and nagging guilt of keeping such a big event from her was eating away at me the entire day.

“No,” I bark out. “And I’m not going to tell her—”

“Not smart to keep things from us women.” A tall, caramel-skinned woman spoke as she sauntered out of the locker room. “We always end up finding out… And when we do… It always ends up being worse than if you just told us.”