Page 7 of Seduced at Stevens Street
She laughed.
Chapter 3
Logan
Andy and Kenzie called me to the office as soon as they returned. All they had said before they left was that they were going to an important meeting regarding expanding programs at the gym. I knew it wasn’t at the bank again because of how they were dressed. And I knew that their purchase of the building next door was a done deal. They were just a few weeks away from closing on it. I knew the gym did okay. I didn’t understand why all of a sudden, they were so hell-bent on expanding things. But Kenzie had a business mind, and shesaw opportunities where Andy never had. The changes she’d made so far were good; I’d admit that. With her new marketing campaign, she’d already doubled the numbers in my boot camp program.
Andy started by unrolling the blueprints of our space and the building next door, aligning them side by side. He explained that the boot camp program was a big portion of revenues and Kenzie considered the market not tapped out yet. There was more potential there. They planned on making a large portion of the new building a new boot camp area, nearly doubling my square footage. Fuck, yes! And they were going to let me design the space, choose new equipment, all of it. Awesome! There would be a yoga studio and a dance studio in those front spaces, and there would be no public pass-through from those spaces to the back, boot camp area. Entrance to the boot camp would be through the main gym area only as a safety precaution as dance classes for children were planned.
Then, they showed me the plans for the remodel of our existing space. When the new building was finished, the area I currently utilize would be made into women’s and men’s locker rooms with showers, cool! I knew that would attract many more women. This would cost him a bundle. But he and Kenzie were sure the revenue would be there. They were looking at special corporate membership pricing for local businesses, like Cheshire, across the street. That pricing would extend to the new children’s program that Kenzie wanted to develop. She wanted to turn the gym into a family space, hence the addition of the yoga and dance studios. A daycare area that would be located upstairs above the new dance rooms was in the works too, which would attract parents to work out if they had a place for theirchildren to be watched. I wasn’t sure about how that would work, but I would reserve my judgement until it all played out.
“We’re going to build a few apartments over the back of the new space,” Andy said. “I think it’s time I got you a one-bedroom unit, rather than the studio you’ve been in. Trina’s getting older, and you should have a separate space for her when she stays,” he said with a laugh.
“Thanks, man, whatever,” I said. “I don’t need a whole lot of space, never have, but if you want to build me a larger place, I won’t turn it down.”
“So, here’s the thing, Logan,” Kenzie then said. “You know the yoga studio a few blocks over that Ashley and I have been going to?”
Yeah, I knew. I nodded.
“The owner is closing down at the end of the month and moving out of the area. We just spoke with her and the yoga instructor, who will need a job, and we made a pitch to them that neither will turn down. We will be absorbing her business and bringing that yoga instructor on under the Stevens Street umbrella next week.”
“Cool,” I said. “I know how much you and Ashley have wanted to have our own yoga program.”
“The timing is tight,” Andy said. “Unfortunately, we’re taking them on before we get possession of the building next door, sowe have to do a quick remodel of the front of your boot camp area to make a smooth transition from their yoga studio to ours while the members are locked into their contract and purchased classes.”
“I’m not following you,” I said. How could they remodel my area when I had no place to relocate to yet?
“We’ll do as fast of a remodel as we can of your boot camp area in the new building as soon as we acquire the building but for three weeks, a month, maybe two, your boot camp space is going to be cut in half, and then some,” Andy said.
“Yeah, we need to rough in a changing room behind the yoga studio for the women too,” Kenzie added.
“My classes are full. How in the hell am I going to be able to operate in half the space?” I demanded.
“I’ve already talked with Mason and Blake. The MMA area in the basement will have to conform to a set schedule, and you will have access to that area when they aren’t using it. It’ll give you access to the punching bags and other equipment down there. Between that and using the machines and weights in the general gym area, that’ll have to do,” Andy said.
He was dismissive in how he said it. It pissed me off.
“You're creative; you’ll figure it out,” he added, pushing me further into angry territory
“Fuck!” I swore as I pounded on the desk. I exploded. I knew I did. “You have got to be fucking kidding me!”
Kenzie and Andy exchanged glances. “Kenzie, will you excuse us a minute?” Andy said as a command.
He was pissed. I haven’t seen him this pissed in years. Kenzie stepped out and closed the door. Andy had me against the wall faster than I knew what hit me.
“Not another fucking word,” he warned. I could take him, probably, but I wouldn’t try. He was my best friend. I wouldn’t be this side of sane had he not taken me in and taken care of me after we got out of the Army. My head hadn’t been on straight back then. He’d put up with a lot of shit from me.
I surrendered. “Sorry, man.”
“You will never show that kind of anger near either of my girls, you got it?” He snarled in my face.
“Man, I’m sorry. I am,” I repeated.
“Fuck, Logan, you haven’t erupted like that in a long time. What the fuck? I thought your sessions with your therapist were helping.”
He still held me against the wall. “Do you mind?” I asked, glancing at his hands on my shoulders. He released me and stepped back. “Dude, I’m sorry. I really am. I promise I’ll never let that shit out again.” I definitely had to schedule a session, andsoon. It had been a couple of months since I had gone to one, but Andy didn’t know that. Shit!
There was a time when I couldn’t control my anger. It just erupted wherever, whenever. I got into a lot of bar fights, spent a lot of time drunk trying to numb it all. It got me arrested a few times, but I’d gotten past all that after working with a therapist who was an expert in her field when it came to PTSD. Trina was also one of the reasons why. Andy would not let me near her, being the mess I was. I didn’t want to go back to how I had been then. Andy was watching me expectantly. “Everything has been going great. My total numbers enrolled in my boot camps has doubled. I don’t want to lose numbers, man. I have great plans for the program. You know that.”
