Jordan walked into Iron Coast at 3:47 PM with his shoulders feeling lighter than they had in months.

The converted warehouse greeted him with its familiar symphony of violence. Fists hitting leather. Jump ropes slapping concrete. The grunts and exhales of people who came here to hurt something that couldn’t press charges. Industrial fans pushed around air that smelled like sweat and ambition and whatever cleaning solution the owner used to keep the mats from becoming biohazards.

Jordan loved this place.

He spotted Kyle and Leo near the heavy bags in the back corner. Kyle was already wrapped and working combinations, his dark hair plastered to his forehead with sweat, each punch landing with the kind of force that made the bag swing despite its weight. Leo sat on a nearby bench wearing what appeared to be designer athleisure that had never seen actual athletic activity, scrolling through his phone with the dedication of someone who believed gym membership meant proximity to equipment rather than use of it.

Jordan dropped his bag near the bench and started pulling out his wraps.

Leo looked up from his phone. His round face split into a knowing grin that immediately made Jordan regret walking over.

"Bro." Leo’s voice carried across the space with zero consideration for volume control. "Why do you look like you just post-nut clarity’d your way through a final exam?"

"What?"

"You’re walking different. All relaxed and shit." Leo waggled his eyebrows with the subtlety of a neon sign. "Did you get sloppy toppy beforehand or something? Chloe take care of business before you left campus?"

Kyle stopped punching. His intense eyes found Jordan’s face and started doing that thing where he read people like they were open books with large font.

"Hell nah." Jordan sat on the bench and started wrapping his left hand. The process was automatic now. Three weeks of practice had turned the motions into something his fingers did without conscious thought. "I had a study thing with Eliza."

The name landed in the conversation like a grenade with the pin already pulled.

Kyle’s expression shifted from curious to concerned in the space between heartbeats. His jaw set in that way it did when he was preparing to deliver uncomfortable truths.

"Eliza." Kyle said the name like it tasted bad. "As in Eliza Hartwell. The girl who took you for forty-five hundred dollars and then let Cameron feel her up in a parking lot while you watched."

"That’s the one."

"And you’re looking relaxed after meeting with her? Alone?"

"Library study room. Public space. Nothing happened."

"Define nothing."

Jordan finished his left hand and started on his right. The wrap felt good against his knuckles. Familiar. Grounding in a way that reminded him he had built something real over the past three weeks.

"She showed up dressed like she was going to a club instead of reviewing debate arguments. Low-cut top. Short skirt. Visible garter belt." Jordan kept his voice even as he recounted the details. "Brought me a Powerade she claimed to remember was my favorite. Except I’ve never mentioned Powerade to anyone in my life. I drink Red Bull."

Kyle’s eyebrows climbed toward his hairline. "She was trying to manipulate you."

"Obviously."

"And?"

"And nothing." Jordan flexed his wrapped fists. The tension felt right. "I didn’t look at her outfit. I didn’t react to her gift. I kept the conversation on the assignment and left when we were done."

Leo leaned forward on the bench. His designer sweatpants creaked against the vinyl.

"Wait wait wait." Leo held up both hands like he was stopping traffic. "You’re telling me Eliza Hartwell, the girl who destroyed your entire existence three weeks ago, showed up looking like a Victoria’s Secret model trying to win you back, and you just talked about homework?"

"It’s a debate project. We’re arguing about whether the American Dream still exists."

"That’s not the point." Leo’s voice carried genuine frustration. "The point is she was obviously trying to seduce you and you just ignored it? Who does that?"

"Someone who has two girlfriends and zero interest in going backward."

Kyle’s concern began to soften. The tension in his shoulders dropped by a few degrees as he processed Jordan’s words.

"So you didn’t fall for it."

"I didn’t feel anything." Jordan stood up and started stretching his shoulders. "She apologized for using me. For lying to me. For everything she did. And I just said okay and went back to the outline."

"You said okay?" Kyle’s voice carried something that sounded almost like respect. "That’s it?"

"That’s it. She asked what kind of person she was for not remembering anything about me after two months of me buying her things. I told her she needed to figure that out on her own. Then I left."

Kyle was quiet for a moment.

Then he smiled.

It was a small thing. Just a slight upturn at the corners of his mouth. But coming from Kyle, whose default expression was somewhere between disappointed father and skeptical detective, it meant something significant.

"Good." Kyle unwrapped his hands and grabbed his water bottle. "I don’t like what she’s doing though. Showing up dressed like that. Bringing fake gifts. That’s manipulation. She’s trying to get something from you."

"Probably regretting her choice now that I’m not a pathetic mess anymore."

"Exactly." Kyle’s expression hardened again. "Which means she’ll try again. Harder. Women like Eliza don’t give up when their first attempt fails. They escalate."

Leo made a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a cough.

"You know what I think?" Leo stood up from the bench. His designer sneakers were pristine and unmarked because they had never touched anything more strenuous than a coffee shop floor. "I think Jordan should make her fall in love with him."

Jordan and Kyle both turned to look at Leo.

"Hear me out." Leo’s round face was animated with the enthusiasm of someone presenting what he clearly believed was a genius plan. "She’s already regretting dumping you, right? She sees you got hot, got confident, got girlfriends. She wants what she threw away. So you lean into that. You make her absolutely obsessed. You let her think she has a chance. You lead her on until she’s ready to dump Cameron and beg you to take her back."

Kyle’s expression suggested he was reconsidering their entire friendship.

"And then what?"

"And then." Leo grinned with the satisfaction of a villain explaining his master plan.

"When she finally gets up the courage to ask Jordan to date her, when she’s put everything on the line and humiliated herself in front of Cameron and everyone else, Jordan looks her in the eyes and says no. Complete reversal of what she did to him. Poetic justice. Karma delivered with a bow on top."