Page 17 of Hiding for the Holidays
“Easier?” Grant asks in confusion.
“Yeah, if our target audience is men, then we can streamline our marketing plans for that demographic specifically.” She turns to the stack of papers she has and quickly flips through until she finds what she’s looking for.
“This was my idea for a male-focused gym. I’d do it up professionally, of course. I just sketched this as an idea to start from.”
She shows us the page and I see a logo sketched there featuring a barbell, a tree and some green army camouflage around it.
“We’ll lean into the green camouflage vibe for the whole place. Give it that army edge. What do you think?” She asks, biting her lip nervously as she looks at each of us.
I glance at the others, and none of us say anything for a few moments. I give them the slightest nod, then Grant turns back to her. “We love it.”
“Really?” she asks, her eyes alight with excitement.
“Yeah, go ahead and get started, just let us know what you need.”
“Okay, awesome! Let me figure out a few things. Do I have a budget for renovations?”
“Oh, I don’t know, what would all this cost? Is fivegrand enough?”
Her eyes almost bug out of her head. “Five thousand? Yeah, I can work with that…” She gathers up her papers and scurries back to the office, leaving the three of us watching after her retreating form.
“Five thousand?” I ask Grant, raising an eyebrow at him in question.
“I don’t know how much paint costs!”
Leo laughs as he stands and stretches out his limbs. “Do we even have that kind of cash available?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.”
I narrow my eyes on Grant. “You’re going to take it out of your personal account, aren't you?”
“I’ll pay myself back later.”
“Bull shit. We’ll split it three ways. We’re equal owners here, Grant. You don’t need to foot the bill by yourself.”
“I’m the one who agreed to that amount,” he replies, looking torn.
“We would have all done the same. We’re splitting it, and that’s final.”
He nods his head as Leo grabs her business proposal. “She worked really hard on this plan,” he says, flipping through it.
I look down at my copy and nod in agreement. She has been working really hard for the past two days. She spent that first day assessing everything, then yesterday, after Leo bandaged her hand, she spent the whole day on the computer, only coming out to take measurements or look at equipment before disappearing in the back again.
I think she would have forgotten to eat if I hadn’t brought us all subs for lunch and dragged her into the staff room to eat with us.
She seems at ease here. The only strange thing I’ve noticed is how she jumps at loud noises, like when someone drops a weight on the floor and sets a bar down a little hard. I’m notsure what’s causing it, because she doesn’t seem to flinch from sudden movements, nor did she seem to mind when I picked her up and put her on the countertop.
I’m not sure what’s going on with her, but I’m determined to figure it out. I still haven’t figured out where she lives. I tried to give her a ride home yesterday, but she outright refused, saying she had somewhere to be.
If she refuses again today, I’ve decided to follow her.
She is wearing some different clothes today, and she looks as though she’s been showering so I’m not convinced she’s homeless anymore, but I did wonder that after she showed up the first day in the same clothes she’d been in the day before.
Maybe she just doesn’t want us to know where she lives. I can respect her wanting her privacy, even if I don’t like it. It doesn’t mean I won’t follow her, though.
An hour later, Clara comes back out and seeks me out.
“Asher, can you help me rearrange some of the equipment?”
