Is He A Lover or A Fighter? (Part 4) WF+GF

Jake laughed a little. "I think it would be hilarious. We could start a scandal. "Jake and Adriana caught out together in New York."

"No but I don't want to look like a slob either." He told her and watched Owen. "Hey...that's mama's." He grabbed a small cup and handed it to Owen. "I knew you'd that." He tickled his tummy.

"He ate already...I swear he must be growing." Jake went up and put on a pair of athletic pants and a tight shirt. He made sure his bag was packed and ready for the gym and his training session. When he came downstairs he threw in a couple amino energy drinks and some protein powder in a shaker bottle. "Alright babe, I can watch him so you can get dressed."
 
“If it was after the gym, we would have a problem. You do ever look like a slob going to the gym.” She told him. “Just west the LuluLemon gear. You’ll be fine.”

When Jake came down Adri managed to finish half of the pancakes and smoothie with Owen’s help. She really wasn’t all that hungry to begin with so it was good she got that much down.

She went upstairs and put on a matching jogger set and went back downstairs with a designer purse. Janice came over after about ten minutes to watch Owen.

“I’ll call mom in the way and see if she can watch Owen. If she can’t will you call your dad? I don’t want to ask Amy and Luke right now. That’s a lot for them.”
 
He looked her over when she came down. "You look good." He smiled at her as Owen helped Jake pick up his toys.

"Yeah I can ask. The only thing is, if Amy has the baby, he's going to want to go to the hospital. Are you okay with him going with dad if he has to go?" Jake looked at her.

Jake thanked Janice and headed out to his truck to put his bag in the back. "I'll see you there babe."

He drove to their therapist's office and waited for Adri to walk in with her.
 
“Thank you.” Adri smiled. “If Luke and Amy are fine with that, then I am. He’s not sick anymore. So he should be fine to meet his cousin.”

Adri got stuck with Owen for a few minutes after Jake left because she picked him up and he didn’t want to be put back down. Once she got him into Janice’s arms, she was out the door. She parked next to Jake and and walked in with him.

She thought therapy would go much smoother now that they were on better terms. For the most part therapy was easy. They could answer questions without cutting or sniping at each other.

“So Adri said that she wants to pause on the wedding. How long is a pause to you Jake?” He asked. “Realistically when do you see yourself getting married?”
 
"Well we can ask them if your mom can't do it or if she can but needs dad to take him a day." He didn't want to stress Amy out if he didn't need to.

Jake was glad that therapy could go smoother now with them getting along better. Maybe they can make some really good progress now.

Then a question like that comes up and he has no idea how to honestly answer it. "Um...I mean I'd be happy getting married whenever. Earliest within the year. The latest, a few years I guess. I'm okay pushing it back but I don't want to wait forever."
 
“I think it’s been established that you aren’t getting married this year.” He looked at Adri for confirmation and she nodded her head.

“Would you really be happy waiting a few years to get married?” The therapist asked Jake.

“I don’t want this to become another argument in the future. So it’s best to have a clear conversation about when a good time would be.” He reasoned.

“Adri, when do you see yourself getting married?” He asked.

“Maybe in a year or two. Probably no later than that.” She looked at Jake to see if he was okay with that.

“Jake, two years from now, will you be okay with waiting that long?”
 
"No I know not this exact year. But just saying I love her enough I'm ready when she is." He explained.

"Happy about waiting? Not really happy I'd say. I mean I'm okay waiting. I want her to feel comfortable and not rushed and because of that I'm okay waiting."

"Just give me a second to do some math." He smiled a little and looked at Adri. "I'm just processing how long it is." Jake was figuring how old Owen would be, the twins, both of them. Then he sighed and put his hand up like he didn't know what to say. "I don't know why I'm even calculating things. We're practically already married. We love each other. We live together. We have kids on the way, Owen. I don't NEED to get married. I WANT to get married. So a time...time doesn't matter to me to be honest. I want to see her in a sexy dress. I want to stand before all our friends and family and declare my love and devotion to her. I want her to have my last name. I want to be...one entity. I want a ring on both our fingers to tell the world we belong to each other. I know it probably sounds dumb but, it's the truth."

Jake thought about it a moment. "My parents didn't work out when we were kids. My mom and step father...well that...was a dumpster fire. But Adri's parents, they've been married for a long time. They are happy. Make it work. Her grandparents...same thing. Why wouldn't I want the same thing for us?"
 
Adri smiled at Jake and reached out to hold his hand. “I want those things too. We will get married in the future. There is so much going on right now though. There’s so much I wanted to get done before we had more kids. I wanted to be in a house that we built and lived in. You wanted a puppy. I wanted to get married and all of these other things. It just happened really fast and I got anxious.” She told him. “And it didn’t come out right.”

She wheezed his hand gently. “We will get married and everyone will be there.” She promised. “And we don’t have to wait until the house is built, but I don’t want to be pregnant either.”

Their therapist nodded his head, “I think you two are moving in the right direction. Talking about feelings and working through that communication is hard. You two are getting through it.” He praised. “We can meet in a week and see what else we can work through.” He told them.

Adri scheduled the next appointment with the front desk and they went outside.

“Have a good time at the gym.” She said softly and pulled her phone out, she saw messages on her phone and a voicemail and listened to it. “It’s never ending.” She said softly.

“The Biltmore released our wedding date and rumors are rampaging.” She warned him. “I’ll release a statement through my management.” She sighed.

“Maybe..since your documentary touches on your mental health struggles we can touch on this in it and get it to the editors. You have a fight coming up. That’s a good time to release it. Especially is ESPN30 wants it or HBO. They can release it after if you are recording some of your training and preflight rituals and stuff.” She told him.
 
Jake sort of understood what she meant and why she was wanting to wait. It was a lot. He got that. "I don't have to get a dog. There's time later for that. Years down the road. It's not a big deal. It's not the best time anyway. The fight. The babies. Owen."

His thumb caressed her hand. "Okay..."

It was nice they were making progress but it would probably take more time to be back to normal.

"Thanks..." He waited until she was done on the phone. When she mentioned the date was released he sighed. "I'll just have my press team say something."

"I'm not understanding? What should we touch on in the documentary?" He asked. "I'm also pushing back releasing it. Maybe shelf it for a bit. We can discuss that later."
 
“Us. The drama while you’re preparing for a fight. Your crazy ass fans. Wedint have to go into detail, but we can’t pretend like the kiss didn’t happen or the wedding didn’t get delayed. We have to talk about it.“ She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t think you should. I think it will help people. We can talk about it later though.“ She agreed.

“I’m going to get lunch and go home. How long are you training?” She asked and kissed his cheek.

When she got home, she had a couple meetings with her design team to see what they came up with logo wise. It was mostly different fonts but the same general idea. The logo was the easy part. she would have months of testing products and formulas to see if she liked shades and how it set and testing the wear of a product. She wasn’t holding back on her end, she didn’t think Jake should hold back on his.
 
He looked at her confused. "Drama while I prepare for a fight? What do you mean by that?" Yeah he has fans that were a bit crazy. And yes they should address what happened but not on his documentary. "If we address everything during that documentary it's going to come up every time we watch it and that's what everyone will talk about. They will ask about us...and what happened. I'm sorry I don't want that documentary to be about you kissing someone else and us pushing our wedding back. That wasn't exactly an easy trip for me..." He told her softly.

"Few hours. Then I'm going to check in with Luke." He told her softly.

He went to the gym and they worked on a lot of endurance and then defense. This guy was good and he needed to be on top of his game to defend. He was doing fairly good but then he let his hand down when he tried to punch his training opponent and got hit.

Rich had them stop and came over to Jake. "Whats going on? You seem distracted..."

Jake looked at him annoyed. "Well you have a meeting with the therapist before training...that happens."

"I need your head in this Jake. Or pull out."

"I'm fine. This is what this is for...let's go again." He grabbed a quick drink of water and went again. This time was a lot better.

Jake wasn't holding back on his endeavors. He was just focusing on the important ones first. He had gotten a call about a possibility but didn't know when to bring it up to Adri. And he never knew Adri to hold back if anything she dove head first into work when shit got complicated.

After training he called Luke, filled him in on the session and checked with how Amy was before driving home.
 
“Okay. That’s fair.” She said softly. She still felt like they should talk about it publicly. Just to clear up the worst of the rumors. It was her mess. She could clean it up on her own if she had to but if he wanted to be a part of it, she was trying to give him the chance.

After her meeting, she spent some time with Owen. She took him to the park and let him run around and tire himself out. There was another kid there that played with him for a bit.

Since they seemed to be home and steady for a while she figured it was time to get him back in his daycare routine. She really did like the place she picked before and even though it got them sick, that’s as a part of growing up. He needed to get sick to get his immune system back up. So she called the school to get him back in the roster the following Monday.

She got Owen home and they took a nap on the couch.
 
Jake came home and it was quiet when he walked in so he assumed that they may be laying down. He grabbed some milk out of the fridge and his protein powder and made a shake before warming up some chicken. He needed to push the protein.

He quietly went in and sat down in the chair and looked at stuff on his phone. They would need to discuss how to publicly address everything. He was fine doing that with her but not with his documentary. It was something he was excited about before but now he was hesitant letting people into their world.

While they slept, he looked up potential locations for his gym. He even put some design ideas and lists of things he wanted to have. The more he thought of it, having it on the same property as their house didn't entirely feel safe for his family.
 
Owen moved his head on Adri’s chest, which made Adri wake up and rub his back. She opened her eyes to make sure he stayed asleep and noticed Jake on the chair. She yawned and kept rubbing Owen’s back to get him to keep sleeping.

“How was your workout?” She asked and slowly figured out a way to sit up without waking Owen up. She transferred him so he was laying horizontally in her arms and then laid him down where she was laying so he was against the pillows on his back. She used a blanket as barrier to stop him from rolling off the couch, but she wasn’t leaving him there.

She yawned again and picked up her tumbler to get a drink. “I called his school and got him back in. So he starts again on Monday.” She told Jake and leaned back. She looked at Owen and held his little hand.
 
Jake looked over when they moved but kept his left side from her just slightly. Not meaning to keep the little red mark on his cheek from her a bit longer. "It was good. Worked on defense and endurance. How was stuff here?"

"Okay. Is there a reason you put him back in or just since we are home you thought it was a good idea?" They hadn't discussed it so he was just asking.

"When should we discuss how we are going to address things publicly?" He asked softly putting his phone down. "Do you really want people really know what's going on in our lives? You want to keep the babies a secret why address this?" He asked, trying to understand.
 
“It was fine.” She said softly. “We went to the park.” She told him. “There was a kid there. He wanted to play. I think he wants to play with other kids. That’s the best place for him to make friends his age and play.”

She put her elbow on her knee and her chin on her hand. “That issue, the wedding being pushed back, all of that is very public. It’s a damned if we do, damned if we don’t situation. I’d rather address it and move on. We don’t have to go into specifics. We just have to say I made a mistake, we are working on it. The wedding was pushed back. We are still prioritizing our relationship and the wedding was something that could wait.” That probably wasn’t the best way to put it though.

“They don’t know about the babies so we don’t have to include them in on that. We don’t have to talk about that.” She told him. “I don’t want to tell them about that. I was attacked by some of your fans in ways I would never want my kids subjected to. I’ve already been called a host of awful names, I don’t want anymore added to the list.”
 
Jake nodded. "I do think he misses his little friends there at daycare. It also is best for him to have other kids around considering we are having the twins. He isn't going to be the only one much longer." He agreed it was a good idea.

Jake nodded to what she was saying. "I didn't mean mention the babies. I was just trying to understand the need to address is publicly. We could also say we pushed the wedding back due to busy schedules. It's not a lie entirely."

"I'm addressing that. That pisses me off. There isn't an excuse for the things they called you. If I didn't call you names they have zero business calling you names." He looked at her. "Come here?"

"Maybe we can make a video together or something? People can see for themselves we are solid and together." He suggested.
 
“That’s better. Yeah.” She said softly. “If we address it once together. And then establish clear boundaries and remind them that there are two people in this relationship and we don’t need their input on what’s happening. Once we put it out there we don’t have to talk about it again.” She sighed.

She moved closer to Jake and put her head on his shoulder. She nodded her head to making a video. Then they were releasing it in their own terms and their words couldn’t be twisted into something they weren’t.

“When do you want to do it?” She asked.
 
Jake shrugged, "Whenever we have it figured out what we want to say. It doesn't matter to me when we do it. I think this is going to just give them all something else to talk about and pick apart though."

He put his hand on her leg. "I was going to have you sit in my lap but that's okay. Sorry I got a little defensive with the documentary but they are picking apart everything we do right now. They will slaughter the documentary. I'm just not in the head space to prepare for the fight, handle everything else publicly and then the documentary. Adding our statement into the documentary would just make everything worse."

Jake just sat there a moment thinking. Everything seemed such a mess. But it fueled him to just be even better.
 
Adri nodded her head understandably. “We will figure it out and do it tomorrow or something. Eventually they’ll talk about something else. Another scandal will rock the world.”

“I don’t want him to roll off.” She explained and nodded her head towards Owen.

“I think you should still record the training. That’s part of your job and kind of one of the more interesting parts. I just hate feeling like I’m effecting something you were really excited about.” She said softly.

“I’m sorry Jake.” It was a mess because of her but she would get them out of it.
 
Jake nodded, agreeing something else will shock the world and they will be old news. "I don't know if I told you, but I forgive you..." He told her softly and kissed her head. "It can't happen again though...And you have to talk to me..." He said softly, rubbing her leg before grabbing her hand. "I love you..."

"He's tough, he will be fine." He teased with a smile. "He's hard headed like his old man."

"I could record the training, my diet, thing like that. That's easy enough to do." He told her. "It's not just you... I'd be letting the world into my past. There's a lot of skeletons in the past... I got past the nightmares I just...need to be smart about releasing it all." He explain. It was a very intimate part of his life and he didn't want it ran through the mud.

He nodded to her apology. "I know."

"I wanted to talk to you about some things....I've been looking for a chunk of land for the gym. I don't want a public gym on our property. I want our house to have a gym for family and friends. But only who I want there. This gym I want for anyone to come to. I've also thrown some design ideas together as well."

"I've also been contacted by Under Armor. They want me to come out with a clothing line. They have the Rock but they want different faces of sports to help represent their brand. It's cleared with the UFC. I just can't wear them for fights cause of the mandated Reebok contract. But UA is willing to link the brand with the gym and even sell the clothes through the gym. The gym would get a chunk of the profits as they would as well."
 
It definitely wasn’t going to happen again. And she agreed on no more secrets. She smiled at him, “I love you too.”

“That’s why you have creative control.” She said softly. “It’s your baby. Get as much content as you need and then you can remove the parts you are uncomfortable with. Explain the parts that need explaining. And maybe at the end we go back to Denver and burn that damn house down.” She bumped into him and kissed his shoulder. “Whatever you need. I’m here for you.”

Adri raised her eyebrows and smiled, “Damn Boo, that’s huge. You’ve gotta do it. That’s amazing for you and your brand.” She smiled. “What do you have to do? LA or New York or can they send the samples here for you view?” She asked.
 
She was right. Jake had full control on how it was edited. But he didn't need his step father in his head right now. But he could safely record the prep for a fight. "May need to record some when I told you about where the fight is. I think it's cool adding your grandparents potentially coming. We don't have to record them but talk about them would be cool."

"Well first I need to come up with a logo. I want to go with Fortitude like the name of the gym. That way they know it's all connected. I need to start with a few item ideas to start with. Like pants, shirts, a gym bag, shaker cups. I was thinking my style of cut off shirts. Do you think people would buy those? They buy holey jeans..."

He smiled. "Their headquarters are actually in Baltimore. They can either send it to us or we can take a trip out. They'd like to do a meeting to really discuss designs and ideas."
 
“Yeah. We can have that conversation again. I’ll try to act surprised.” She teased. “If you want them, I will see if they are willing to be on camera. See if we can get your first meeting on camera. You gotta learn some German though. Put that Christmas present I got you to use.” She smiled.

“I think people will buy anything with your name on it as long as it’s reasonably priced. But UA is a good brand and people are bound to buy it. They may not know you, but if the design is there, they know the brand, they will buy it.” She smiled. “I’m excited for you.” She told him.

“Are you going to help sponsor the gym?” She asked. “I see why you want to use the same name for both, you should own both though. If your partnership ends, I don’t want them saying you can’t use Fortitude as a name you know? Make sure it’s all yours forever.” She said and rubbed the red spot on his cheek when she finally noticed it. “That’s going to bruise.”

“Do you want me there or do you want me to see the final design?” She asked.
 
"We don't really have to redo it but discuss it and film it. That's up to whatever you think they'd be okay with. And only if they are comfortable with it. It's not something we have to do. But it would be cool to at least make note that we are trying to get your grandfather who was a boxer to the fight." He smiled. "I'll try my best."

Jake moved his head to the side. "The only thing is some of UA merch is a little expensive for the normal person. I want something a bit more affordable. Even if I have to take a smaller cut of the profits, I want them to be affordable for kids like me growing up." He explained. "I don't want them to have to pay $80-100 for a shirt. I never could afford that in school."

Adri made a valid point that he should get the rights if the partnership ended, he should be allowed to use the same logo and name. "I'm not sure if they will go for me getting the name and logo. But if I design it myself...maybe. I'll have to get my legal team on it." He thought about it a moment. "What if I keep Fortitude for the gym. But the apparel, my song is about Kings...I call you the queen. What if...it's something with a shield or suit of armor with JD and a crown." He grinned a little. "I need an artist to draw it up."

When Adri found his mark on his cheek he groaned a little. "It's alright." He said softly.

"I mean, if you want to go with me to Baltimore we could make a trip out of it. But I kind of want to do this one on my own..."
 
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