“Who’s the trainer?” Fiona replied, hands on hips.
Owen raised his eyebrows a touch. “You.”
Fiona replied in a harsh, loud tone. “And don’t you forget it, maggot. Or else I’m gonna shove the Sydney Scorpion’s stinger right up his arse!”
Owen stood staring at her for several seconds before cocking his head to the side. “Was that your tough trainer pitch?”
“Yah. I’ve been working on it,” Fiona said, voice now normal. “Whattya think?”
“Terrifying.”
“Fuckin’ oath it was... I’ll come at you like a spider monkey. Now, let’s go,” she said, holding up the pads.
Owen set himself and began to hit the pads. One-two combos with his fists. And a spinning kick for the seventh movement. They had only gone two sets when they were approached by a couple.
“Excuse me, sorry to disturb, but can we get a picture with you, please?”
Owen turned to possibly deny or postpone the request but Fiona got out in front of him. “Sure, you got a phone? I’ll take it for you.”
Fiona deliberately didn’t look at Owen’s stunned face as she reached for the newly unlocked phones the man and woman held out to her, camera apps open on both. Owen, after a moment of almost dumb shock, recovered enough to give a big, genuine smile as he placed an arm around them each. Fiona handed the phones back, and the couple made their way along, wishing Owen good luck for the match.
When they had moved a few feet away, Owen walked up to Fiona, about to speak, when he jolted at a touch and looked behind him. He lowered his gaze. A girl with down syndrome, no more than four, wearing a pink one piece and a wide-brimmed bucket hat stood by his right leg. In her small fists she held a cap and a texta.
“Excuse me...” she squeaked, straining her neck to look up at him.
“Hello, sweetheart,” Owen said happily, lowering himself to his knees.
The tiny tot walked forward and placed her arms around as much of Owen as she could, patting his biceps affectionately. The sight truly warmed Fiona’s heart and made her ovaries explode. She had always known the way Owen was with kids. A lot of his charity work focused on kids with disadvantages or disabilities. She was wondering if this girl had been a beneficiary at some point when an older woman, perhaps her mother, walked over.
“Hi, sorry to interrupt your work out. I’m Kate; I’m her mum,” she said, holding out her hand which Owen shook. “And this is Tegan.”
“Tegan?” Owen replied, lowering his chin to look at her. She in turn looked at him like he was the greatest thing since sliced bread. “What a beautiful name.”
“Can we say thank you to Mr Gasnier?” Kate asked softly. But young Tegan may as well have been wearing ear muffs, still content to gaze at Owen and smile. “I was just telling my friends that I thought it was you over here. They weren’t sure. But I pulled out my hat and texta, saying, ‘I bet it is’. I laid them down next to me just so I could pull out my phone and search for your picture to convince them, and a sneaky little so and so decided to wander over with them.”
Owen tickled Tegan under the chin, bringing a giggle. “Are you the so and so... is that you, is it? Did you want me to sign this for mummy?”
“No, it was for her! She saw your poster on a wall at the doctor’s office last year. You were a sponsor or a guest at a conference our GP went to. Now Tegan loves watching MMA, can you believe it?” Kate said, laughing. “But only you. She calls you ‘Gaz’ and wants one of your shirts for Christmas. It’s crazy.”
Owen smiled, signed the cap for her, and gave one final hug before both mother and daughter walked away hand in hand.
“This is why you brought me out here, isn’t it?” Owen asked, turning just his neck to look at Fiona. “To get amongst the people?”
“Yes. Despite everything, you still have this aura around you. Your dad can focus on the technical aspects. But this shit is my territory. You’ll be in the Cage against that freak of nature, one-on-one, but you won’t be alone. You’ll never be alone. Even if you lose faith in yourself, you have so many people that would give anything just for a brief moment of your time. People that love you. That you inspire. It’s a long and lonely journey... just don’t ever forget about us.”
Fiona gestured with her chin for Owen to turn around. The friends Kate mentioned were coming over. After a few minutes, Owen had taken selfies with them all. His arm around shoulders and waists. Shaping up as if to fight some of them, etc. The girls had given their phones to Fiona and asked nicely if she could do the honours. As Fiona clicked away, more and more people surrounded them, phones out. Excited chatter. Exactly what Fiona wanted. In the slow swell of the crowd, Fiona managed to get a few photos, with her own camera, of different women with Owen without anyone noticing. There was too much going on. Too much excitement with a world celebrity.
Fiona walked about ten feet away to sit down. Content to leave Owen with the salivating, bikini clad, tanned honeys. Now came the other part of her plan. The extremely risky, and quite possibly illegal, part. Where, if Owen knew what she was planning to do, he’d most definitely stop her.
Just as she worked up enough courage to begin, a tattooed, buff islander came and sat next to her, plastic cup in hand. “Hey there, how are you?”
“I’m fine, thanks,” she replied, not taking her eyes off her scrolling screen. “But my penis fly trap is drier than an Arabian desert and not accepting guests at this time. Thank you for registering your interest to visit. Kindly, fuck off.”
Thankfully, he took the hint and kind of slithered away, allowing Fiona to concentrate. She opened her social media and created a new account with a fake name. Finding the most active tabloid account, Who Daily, she typed a private message. “I have information and proof of more Gasnier scandals.”
It took less than ten seconds for the reply to start typing. “Hi there. We would be very interested in anything you could provide us. If we run the story in either our published magazine or blog, we will pay a lump sum as remuneration.”
Now. How best to sound convincing? “I don’t want money. It’s a story that few people know, but it will come out eventually. Here...” She opened the gallery on her phone and blacked out a woman’s face in a picture before sending it through. “My bestie and Gasnier. Ditched her like yesterday’s news after a few nights.”