American Gan

Chapter 5

Boxing had been the only sport I truly took a liking to, I played others. Basketball, football, baseball. But boxing was the one for me. You got paid to fight, to beat the s**t out of another person. If you were good at it you had nothing to worry about. There wasn't a fight I didn't pass up on watching, I was at every Fight Night, local or a big name, it didn't matter. I had become friends with all of them. I trained with them. My diet, my workout. It was all as if I was a boxer. I had put money into many local boxers in the east coast area, a few in California, and a Puerto Rican kid in Miami. I put on events, sponsored them. I had become great friends with one of the biggest boxers of my generation, Floyd Mayweather. I was backed up by him. That was the cover-up, Charity. I was heavy in it. If anybody questioned my doings, all you had to do was look at my track record. But who was really going to question the doings of a black man from an inner city hood of Chicago who was trying to better his old neighborhood and get kids off the street!? No one. That's who. In fact, more sponsors helped me, I had charity events from New York to California and cities in between.

I got in heavy with The Children's Hospital and The Boys and Girls Clubs, made sure kids had school supplies every year, donated to schools sports and music programs that were threatening to drop them from their curriculum due to not enough funding. I made sure they had instruments, sports equipment. I'm not talking just your local rappers at my events. I rubbed elbows with big names. A-list celebrities, Hollywood actors and actresses, directors, producers. From Jay-Z to Vince Vaughn, I knew them all. I put on Black Tie Events, Balls, Dinners, it was like a Golden Globe red carpet, and not one of them knew that I was a drug dealer. 

Vegas had always been the place to be for any Boxing match. It brought in more money than anything. The MGM Grand Casino would sponsor any boxing match if the names were big enough. This time it was the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas that put on a huge UFC Friday Fight Night. I had paid attention to the fight all night until I saw her. It was one thing to see her from a distance, but it was completely different seeing her up close. She was a bartender, bottle girl, whatever you want to call them. All I know is she was too beautiful to be standing behind some bar pouring an assholes drink.

I watched her face grow irritated while she cleaned up as another man in a horrible fitting tacky suit took his time to hit on her, I assumed she was used to it, but I couldn't just sit and watch as he used the same pickup lines I'm sure he used on another woman an hour ago. I slowly made my way over to her smiling trying to hold in my chuckle, the closer I got the worse her facial expressions seemed, the more annoyed she looked. It was like the dude wasn't even staring at her, you'd think he took a hint, but judging how loud his suit was he probably couldn't see or hear her denying him. 

"Hey baby, you ready to go?" I said smiling and winking at her. She looked up and I'm pretty sure my knees buckled a bit but I held my ground, she was smart, she caught on quick. A sigh left her mouth and she stopped wiping the counter. 

"Yeah, you're late!" 

"Yeah, I know, traffic is a mess everybody trying to leave at the same time. I'm here though." I calmly turned to the man and looked him up and down, he was shorter than I thought. "Who are you!?" I frowned.

He paused for a moment, looking between us, as we both stared at him waiting for his name to be said. "Oh Uh, I was just thanking her for the drink." 

It was like smacking an ice cream cone out a kids hand. "Oh ok... Nice suit." I said as I waited for her to make her way from around the counter, he smoothed down the front of his suit taking my compliment seriously. She interlocked her arm with mine to make the sting hurt that much more. 

"Thank you." He voice was soft, softer than it was when I first heard it. I kept looking straight ahead leading her out the large bar area.

"Never a problem to save the day for you."

"Oh, saving me? That's what we're calling it?"

"Correct." 

She blushed and dropped her head. "I think you only helped a little, that's all." 

"I'm Michael." 

"I'm Jamila, but everyone calls me Mila." 

I nodded, keeping her body close to mine guiding her through crowds of people. My hand laid against her lower back as my other stayed interlocked with her fingers. "Everybody calls you that?" I looked down briefly to see her head nodding yes. "Then I'll call you Jamila."