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She immediately accepted. After all, she had a good impression of Alex, despite his repeated warnings that he was a bad guy. And she also considered Alex to be attractive, at least enough to get a second date. Thus, the two of them were seated in a local restaurant that was quite renowned for its food and atmosphere.

Alex was dressed up rather nicely for the occasion. He was wearing a blue three-piece suit, with a silk tie, and a pocket square. His watch was worth at least 300 grand and was one of many that he commonly wore out in public when he wanted to look wealthy.

Maria however was a simple woman, and didn’t know any luxurious watch brands other than the Rolex, which Alex was not currently wearing. Thus, she just assumed it was a nice watch worth at least a few thousand dollars.

Instead, she was more excited over the fact that Alex had managed to secure them a reservation at a restaurant that was well known for being virtually impossible to eat at unless you were a big shot. And she was quick to comment on this.

“I can’t believe you got us a reservation here! How did you manage to do that? From what I understand, the only way to do so is if you know somebody!”

Alex was a bit cheeky in his response, refusing to admit he had just thrown cash at the owner until the man gave him a table, at the expense of someone who had been waiting months for their reservation mind you.

“Hey where there’s a will there’s a way…”

Maria slightly pouted at the comment, realizing Alex was in no way going to reveal how he managed to get their table. But she was quick to make a comment in an attempt to dig out the answers from him.

“You didn’t do anything immoral to get this table, right? Because I don’t date thugs!”

Alex chuckled, while he could have very well done such a thing. He had not even thought about doing so. It was one thing to fight, kill, and intimidate the cartel. But Alex had no interest in “civilian casualties.” He would never use his status as a Zetas Sicario to frighten the locals into doing something he wanted. Not when there were better alternatives to do so.

Thus, the man couldn’t help but laugh at Maria’s comment before sharing this sentiment.

“Oh believe me, I easily could have done so, but that’s just not my style… Nope, you’re going to have to sit there and think of how I got us this table, because I’m not saying another word about it.”

Naturally, the only other conclusion was that Alex was rich, and thus paid for the reservation. But Maria didn’t say a word, and simply smiled. Perhaps this was her objective all along, to find out whether Alex had money.

If this was her goal, then she definitely succeeded in doing so by making the man admit he had not done the only other alternative. Or perhaps she was genuinely interested in whether Alex was a thug or not, because if he was, she would have walked out on the date then and there.

Whatever the young woman’s intentions were, she did not make them known, and instead continued to make small talk with Alex while the waiter served their chosen dishes. Interestingly enough, Alex was eating quite a lot. Like several plates worth of food, and Maria chose this as her topic of discussion.

“Alex… If you continue to eat like that with every meal, then you’re going to get fat…”

But Alex had a smug smile on his handsome face as he shook his head and denied this.

“Nah… Maybe if I was a normal man, but I train as much as an Olympic athlete. I burn so many freaking calories the only way to maintain my weight is to eat like a land whale. Although, unlike them, I choose a more healthy alternative to high sugar food and drinks…”

Maria had not thought about this. It had entirely slipped her mind that Alex was a professional fighter. But this caused her to have another question. One that deeply bothered her. After all, due to her experience with the cartel, she deeply abhorred violence, and Alex was a guy who engaged in it for a living. Though he wasn’t actually murdering people, as far as she knew, she still didn’t approve of his choice of occupation, and was quick to ask why he had chosen it.

“Can I ask you a personal question?”

Alex was sipping on a beer when he heard this, and quickly nodded his head before answering the question she had just asked.

“Ask away. I’m an open book.”

Maria bit her lip for a moment as she averted her gaze from Alex before asking the question the was most important to her. A question that regarding his work. It was not until several seconds of awkward silence had passed that she finally gave voice to her internal thoughts.

“Okay… I wanted to ask you why you chose to become a professional fighter? I mean, if you’re athletically gifted enough to do that, couldn’t you have done any other sport? You obviously could have made a lot more money that way!”

Alex sighed. He knew sooner or later the woman would ask him this. Thus he answered honestly, whether or not she would lose affection for him that was up to fate to decide. But lying to her outright was not the solution Alex had planned to conquer this heroine.

“Honestly? I enjoy it… There’s nothing in this world quite like engaging in a test of hand to hand combat with another trained killer. It’s exhilarating. Throwing a ball around just wouldn’t cut it for me. Sure I might be good at it, but what exactly would the purpose be? It all seems so… pointless…”

Maria was slightly taken aback by this answer, but before she judged Alex too harshly, she decided to further dig into his reason for liking fighting.

“So… You like the violence? The Competition? What aspect are you most drawn to, honestly?”

Alex scratched the back of his head. If he was being honest he hadn’t thought too much about why he loved fighting so much, so he had to think about it for a few moments. Which after coming to a conclusion, he once more spoke his honest thoughts.

“I think it’s a little bit of both. I do enjoy the violent aspect of it, striking another man, making him bleed, knocking him out and standing over his unconscious body as the victory. All of this is something few men will ever experience. But as for liking violence itself, I don’t believe I would necessarily derive pleasure from beating a defenseless person.

Take a woman for example, unless she seriously did something to piss me off, or if I were checking an ego that was out of control, I wouldn’t take any pleasure in inflicting violence upon her, because there’s no real challenge to it. I could do whatever I wanted with any woman on the planet if I actually felt like it. There is literally nothing an unarmed woman can do to stop me from doing whatever I damn well please.

And it’s because there’s no real challenge to that, no real competition as you put it, that I wouldn’t get a rush of dopamine from smacking her. Not unless he did something really stupid, like telling everyone she could kick my ass, and then challenged me to a fight. In that circumstance, yeah, I’d get pleasure from smacking her around, but that’s less to do with violence, and more of putting an arrogant idiot in their place.”

Alex could tell by the look on Maria’s place that she was not the least bit pleased with this answer, and in fact he took a minor hit from it.

[Maria is disgusted that you gain pleasure from violence… But she does not outright despise you as you do not appear to be a full-blown sadist…”

[-5 Affection from Maria]

[Maria’s Affection: 10/100]

Alex wore a weary smile when he saw this and sighed heavily before trying to drop the subject in a way that still manage to make him look a little bit better.

“Listen… I don’t expect most people to understand where I’m coming from. I had a pretty fucked up childhood, and we are all a product of our environment are we not?

I try not to let it affect my daily life, but while I’m in the gym, or in the cage, I let it all out. If anything fighting it me is therapeutic… I can see you aren’t too happy with my choice of career, so how about we just call it a night…”

Seeing how Alex was about to signal for the bill, Maria immediately latched onto his arm and stopped him, before pleading with him to stay.

“Please stay… I’m sorry if I came off… How do we say… Looking like a bitch… You’re not the only one with unresolved childhood trauma… You could say that’s why I responded so harshly to your explanation. How about we have a few drinks and get to the root of our issues, huh?”

Alex was indeed surprised that the young woman had stopped him. He thought that would have been enough to call it a night. After all he didn’t have much affection with her to begin with, and he just lost 1/3rd of what he had. But she genuinely seemed interested in what he had to say, and thus Alex forced a smile as he sat back down in his seat and motioned for a fresh bottle of wine.

“Alright… But I’ll warn you many a shrink have tried to fix what’s wrong with me, so don’t think you will succeed too easily!”

This remark caused Maria to giggle as the waiter poured them two glasses of wine. She immediately smiled with interest as she responded to Alex’s challenge with one of her own.

“Ditto…”