The Bullfighter

I’m lying on the floor, wearing only my gray Hylete shorts and a shine of sweat that’s starting to leak into my eyes. Not all of it is mine. Another man is on top of me, our naked torsos pressed slickly together. The man is gripping my right arm with both hands, fighting me for control of my own body. Once he has that control, he’ll use it to inflict pain on me until I’m forced to tap out.

After I tap out, he's going to fuck my wife.

The man’s name is Salvatore Drake, just Sal to his friends. It's not the first time that Sal has had me pinned on the floor. It's not the first time our sweat has mixed on our skins, and not the first time that bits of saliva and blood had been in the mix as well. We’d fought each other many times, and I had never won.

I met Sal in a bar in the bad part of town. I was there to celebrate a new construction project, a mini-mall my investment group was building that would hopefully bring both more businesses to that part of town, and more money flowing into our own bank accounts. I showed up, cut the ribbon, said some words, then went for a beer in the nearest bar. The mistake was taking my wife with me.

Long story short, a couple of local assholes were impolite. I objected, and ended up on the floor. It didn't...