Might as well start now (costs an activity)

You're already beaten and bruised. You're already guaranteed to wake up tomorrow morning aching in every muscle in your body. You figure you might as well do some training, get banged up more, and take a couple of Ibuprofen.

"What the hell. Why don't we start now?"

Jackie gives you a look. "You're not too beat up?"

"Not sure I'll long I'll last," you admit. "But I also don't figure I can afford to wait long."

"You're probably right about that. They don't sound like patient people."

She takes you to a rundown gym on the second floor of a nearly abandoned strip mall, leading you past rusting weight machines to a padded floor area.

"Okay," she says. "I'm going to hit you. Try to block my punch."

You raise your hands in a boxing stance... and she laughs at you. "Here. Let me at least show you how to make a fist."

Well, that's embarrassing.

Her fingers feel cool as she reshapes your hands into fists, then tugs those fists into a defensive position.

"Not too close to your face. You're not wearing boxing gloves so you don't have the big cushions boxers have."

Then she hits you. Just hard enough to sting a little. And you didn't even see the punch coming.

"Uh, I wasn't ready."

"Oh. Do you think they'll warn you next time they come after you?"

"Probably not."

"Okay, I'm going to hit you again."

Which she does. This time you actually saw the punch coming but somehow your body froze and you weren't able to react.

She sighs. "Fine. Let me guess. You never got into any fights when you were in high school."

You shake your head.

"At least we don't have to unlearn any bad habits."

"What about takedowns and pins," you suggest. "In MMA, it's the grapplers who win, not the strikers."

She laughs. "Want to wrestle with the girl, huh? Can't say as I don't admire your ambition. But that should be a low priority for defending yourself. Grappling is fine when the fight is one-on-one. When you're outnumbered, you need to keep your mobility. If you grapple with one, the other ones will kick you in the head."

Bummer. She saw through your devious plot with no problem. You had this fantasy in high school that you were mysterious. Apparently you were just being ignored.

"But give it a try," she concludes. "Take me down. Show me those MMA moves you've learned.

You hadn't actually learned any MMA moves but how hard can it be. You probably weigh close to twice as much as she does. And when it comes to upper body strength, even a strong woman is unlikely to be as strong as a man. Plus, you've been working out. You're not the weak-ass dweeb you were a few days ago.

You decide to follow her example and grab her without warning. Two can play at that game.

Except... she isn't where you grab. Instead, what's there is her foot and it's in your gut.

"In a real fight, you need to control distance," she says. "You can use kicks and punches to rock their concentration and to **** them away... which can give you time to run away. You don't always have to hurt someone to defend yourself."

Then she steps toward you, reaches for your arm... and all of a sudden you're flying through the air.

She doesn't let go, though, and, although you hit the mat pretty hard, you would have hit it a lot harder if she hadn't controlled your fall.

"You'll learn to fall... and roll," she says. "Laying on your back wondering what happened isn't the most effective tactic."

"Just trying to build up your overconfidence."

She laughs. "Nice try. Now I'm going to go for an arm bar. When you decide you're helpless, tap out. I don't want to actually break your arm to teach this lesson, it would make the next lesson harder.

She drops on you. Which doesn't hurt. What straight guy wouldn't like a pretty girl lying across their body. And, knowing that she's going to be going for your arms, you wrap them around her where, hopefully, she won't be able to use her own arms effectively.

Except she does this little wiggle move and slides out from your grasp, then grabs your arm, and all of a sudden your arm is stretched out between her legs.

It's not comfortable. In fact you're pretty sure she could break it across her thigh if she wanted. Still, you can feel the warmth from her crotch. It probably wouldn't be worth it to suffer a broken arm to get a feel of that pussy but you have to admit the vote will be close.

"Now might be a good time for you to tap out." You're not sure but you think there may be a little huskiness in her voice. Is she feeling it too?

"Yeah, I give. You tap the ground with your free hand and she lets you go.

"Okay." She stands, then pulls you back to your feet... tugging on the arm she didn't nearly break in half. "Here's what I want you to work on. Keep stretching every chance you get. You need more flexibility to get your kicks up. Knee kicks are great but not enough. If you can kick them with hard thrust kicks, you can keep them away from grappling and, hopefully, run away. Don't think you have to be macho and fight. Your job is to stay alive, not to win fights. Got it?"

You nod. "Got it."

"Good. We'll work more on punches and blocks next time. For now, though, I think that's enough."

"Uh, want to grab a bite?"

"Sounds fun. Want--" her phone chimes and she looks at the text. "Oops. My next client is ready. Got to go. I'll take a raincheck if that's okay."

"Sounds good," you say.

Crap. You almost had a date with her. You hope the raincheck is a real thing and not just an excuse.

Oh, well, back home to get on with your day... although you're completely dragging.