A Life Worth Fighting Read Online Free PDF

don’t think I can stand back and keep watching him fight.”
    “Oh, Leah. You don’t give yourself enough credit. You are one of the strongest women I know.”
    “I don’t know about that, but thank you.”
    My phone rings — it’s Robert. I let his mom talk first. When she’s done she hands me the phone. “We’ll be in the kitchen if you need us.”
    “Thank you. I love you, both.”
    I talk to Robert and he tells me that he has no fractures and no permanent injuries. He does inform me his eye is badly swollen and he has six stitches above his right eye. I know he is trying to prepare me for his return home. My anger has passed and now all I feel is relief. My Robert is going to be fine. I vow that if Robert continues to fight, then he’s going to start training as a warrior. He worries about me and therefore he sometimes does not concentrate on his own training.
    Robert
    After the fight, we decide to dine at a steakhouse. “Table for three,” my father says as the hostess greets him.
    “Follow me.” She smiles and leads us to a round table in the center of the room. The table is covered with a white linen cloth. A red rose and white salt and pepper shakers sit in the center of the table. A small candle is burning. Gus leans forward and blows out the candle. Dad and I laugh.
    “A little too romantic?” I ask.
    “For a table with three guys, just a little bit,” Gus says. The room is large and elegant. Red carpet, white linen tables, and red velvet cloth-covered chairs. The walls are adorned with large framed photographs of the city. Leah would like it here. I browse the menu and decide to stick with my no-bad-carb meal — veggie carbs are good carbs, and starch carbs are bad carbs. An 8oz. filet, a double order of snow peas, and a double salad with oil and vinegar dressing. Dad and Gus order double-stuffed baked potatoes as I knew they would. There is a saying, ‘Practice what you preach,’ yet they never do. They preach to me to eat healthy foods and stay away from bread and potatoes, but look at them.
    During the dinner, a few people come over to ask me for my autograph. They tell me they were at the fight and thought it would have lasted longer. Six rounds was plenty long enough for me. One guy jokes about what took me so long for a knockout. He also tells me from now on, he’ll be placing his bets on me.
    After they leave, I say, “I wish people would wait to ask for autographs until I have eaten.”
    “You have it easy,” Gus says. “Bestselling author Stephen King was sitting on a toilet at a restaurant once when someone appeared with a notepad and a pen and asked for his autograph. Stephen gave it to him.”
    “That’s when I would have to get rude. Once when Leah and I were dating, a man came up and asked me to autograph a dollar bill. He told me how his wife will always treasure it. After dinner, when I paid the bill, can you imagine my surprise when I got the same dollar bill in my change? I laughed and didn’t expect Leah to ever go out with me again.
    “Leah also saw a server wearing an origami ring made out of a dollar bill, and she asked, ‘Are these for sale?’ The server said, ‘No, these are priceless. We have a customer named George, who comes in every Saturday night with his family and makes them exclusively for his waitress. We fight over the table so we can get one of those rings — and the big tip that comes with it.’”
    After dinner, we do a little site-seeing and I buy Leah a souvenir of Chicago. She loves postcards and key chains, so I buy her both. She is a very simple girl. Before we get home, Leah sends me a text.
    Leah: Good night, Ace.
    Robert: Good night, Sweets. I love you.
    Leah: I love you, too. I am so proud of you.
    Robert: Thank you. Sweet dreams, and I’ll be home around noon.
    Leah: Sweet dreams. I miss you and I’ll see you tomorrow.
    I stare on my phone at a picture of Leah kissing Jamie before I place it back in the phone holder attached to my