"Bro, me and you should fight one of these days."

"I'm a lover not a fighter," I replied.

Hakim placed his right hand on his chest. "I'm a lover too. But I will fight for those I love and for family."

I nodded. "Yeah, fights are for only those who truly matters."

"And under circumstances that involves life too," he added.

It was a 15 hour shift, which wasn't supposed to be something stressful. After all, we could sit or stand, and walk along the corridor. But whether sitting, standing or walking, doing that for 15 hours takes it toll.

We were manning the doors to two dressing rooms that were at opposite ends of a corridor. Access to the corridor was via the lift or the stairwell. The lift was closer to the door on the right side, while the stairwell was closer to the door on the left side. I was by the door on the left, my colleague for the day, Hakim, was on the other door.

There were over 50 people that always come into the event centre for rehearsals. So they had to use the dressing rooms before, during and after rehearsals, which lasted over ten hours.

Our main duty was to ensure anyone and everyone going into the dressing rooms had an access card with them before gaining entry.

In the mornings, there was always an initial flurry of people arriving at the corridor, and going in and out of the dressing rooms to get dressed. Then things became quiet after about two hours when rehearsals started.

In order not to doze off where I sat, I got up and walked up and down the corridor to stretch my back and waist. Then I did a lil shadow boxing and kicks. This was what Hakim saw that prompted the fight talk.

Hakim stood up and moved closer to the centre of the corridor where I stood. "Do you still train?"

I shook my head. "Nah, been a long while. I only do workouts on my own from time to time. You?"

"It’s been a while that I trained too, about four months ago. I do more of body building now."

"What did you specialize in?"

"BJJ."

"Brazilian Jujutsu."

Hakim nodded. "Yeah."

"I did more of kickboxing and Muay Thai."

"I’m heavy now, so I’m not as fast I use to be. Besides, my body especially my back hurts cos of this job and the bodybuilding."

"Well, I promised myself a long, nice massage one of this days."

"You need to careful where you go for a massage, you could get more than what you bargained."

"Like what?"

"There is a place in Manchester I know where you can get a good deep tissue massage. But they also have a brothel upstairs. So you could get it mixed up."

I laughed and flashed my wedding band. "I won't want to do that."

"Been there, done that too. I want to also settle down."

"Have you found the right girl?"

"I think so. Just want to chill for a year or two before I propose."

"That's cool."

"I already have the engagement ring."

"Wow, that's nice.*

He smiled, "I bought the engagement ring before I met the girl."

"How come?"

"It's a £2,500 ring. I got it for £105."

I gave him a puzzled look. "I don't understand, how did that happen?"

"Crack head. I got it from a crack head."

"Oh okay."

"You know a crack head would do anything, or sell anything just to get a fix."

I nodded. "'True."

"I use to smoke, drink and even do weed. But I gave it up because my girl wanted me to."

"For real?"

"It took me three months to get her number. Another two months before I got my first kiss, and another three months before we made love."

"She was real hard to get. She must be special."

"Yeah, she told me she could not be with me if I did all what I did."

"You really must like her."

"I really do. And even one of my brothers asked me if I've ever calculated how much I spent on cigarettes per day, per week, per month and per year. I did the maths and I knew it was time to give it up. I've been off it all for five months now."

I smiled broadly. "You gave it all up for her. I'm impressed."

"Well, I guess I love her. I hope she loves me too."

"I'm sure she does, else she won't have stayed while you tried to quit."

"Yeah, I guess so. She even sent me this video."

He brought out his phone and showed me a Steve Harvey's video on Instagram.

The transcript of the video reads thus:

"I tell women this all the time. All men can change, and all men will change. But there's only one woman that we are going to change for. It's just one. We don't change for all women. We only change for one woman. If he ain't changing, it's cause you ain't the woman."

Video link - https://youtu.be/yYv1k-xVFTg?si=QD107VdPjSdE-iLB

Signed
Olumide Holloway (King Olulu)