I’ve been so serious about the business for so long – so serious about working out and about maintaining my healthy lifestyle. I think it might be time to get serious about my personal life as well. For years, I wanted to grab as much of life as possible. I wanted to experience it all. Now I think, in doing that, there are some other things I’ve been missing out on.
Not that any of that explains the Samantha thing. She’s basically a total stranger. A very attractive total stranger, but one who I’m about to put out of business.
Still, there is something about her that surprises me so much. When she talked about growing up in the neighborhood, maybe, or when I’d read about the center’s charity work. It makes me feel – not guilty, but it makes me feel something that I’m not used to feeling. I can’t shake it, no matter how hard I try.
It should make me want to stay away from her. Instead, it keeps making me want to see more of her. I don’t know why. I shouldn’t be feeling anything but excitement about opening my new gym. Samantha’s fitness center isn’t doing anyone any good – not for their health, no matter how much charity work they do. I’m still sure of that.
She’s a business rival, and I need to keep thinking of her that way. We also don’t have a damn thing in common. She and her center are ridiculous, and I won’t be sorry to see the center go out of business. I won’t. I just need to focus on my new gym. I just need to not let some woman in yoga pants get under my skin.
I decide I need to go over to the new gym location and watch the progress being made. Seeing my new location being constructed will clear my head and help me focus on my own plans.
My gym and the whole development project are what’s good for the neighborhood – for its citizens and for progress and continued revitalization. I’m a part of something huge. I intend to make it even bigger.
Chapter Eight - Samantha
I’m coming back to the center from finalizing that deal with the health clinic and decide I need just a few more minutes to myself. The air today is beautiful, so I decide to buy myself a smoothie and walk around the neighborhood for a bit. I rarely take time to myself in the middle of the day, but sometimes I think it’s a thing I ought to do more often.
My staff says I need to relax more, that they can really handle things without me for a few hours, or even a few days. Last year for my birthday, they’d all chipped in to get me a gift certificate to a hotel and luxury spa outside the city. It’s still sitting on my bedroom dresser. I’ve never been good at doing that sort of thing.
It’s a little ironic, I suppose. My whole business is built on helping people take care of themselves, but I never seem to have the time to take care of myself. Maybe with the looming threat of the monster development across the street, taking more time to myself to clear my head is exactly what I need to do.
I buy my smoothie and start my walk, looping down by the water, smiling at the kids splashing each other along the edge. The neighborhood is busy today, and vendors are lining the lake, selling hot dogs and sodas to the people enjoying the weather. I watch for a minute, hoping that the new development hasn’t ruined it all by this time next year.
I walk back up to my street and pause outside the new development. It’s so large and imposing, and I feel small and more than a little powerless standing next to it. I hate that feeling. I like problems I can solve. This one feels nearly insurmountable.
The windows are large and reflective, making the building look even larger. Inside, I can see workers with tools and heavy machinery constructing the mega gym. I could fit my center inside the giant first floor at least three times over. I try to picture it as it will be in a few months, filled with people sweating on treadmills while they yell into their Bluetooths about business mergers.
I’m imagining the clients coming in wearing firmly-pressed blazers and leaving in the kind of designer workout clothes that cost more than a month’s membership at my center. I shake my head. I don’t understand the appeal at all. I’m about to turn to leave and get back to work when I notice a group walk into the room.
It’s led by Lucas.
The same Lucas who keeps showing up all around town is leading the group in an expensive-looking suit. I feel my eyes widen, and it dawns on me.
The owner of Invigoration Clubs was named Lucas. I’d seen it briefly while doing research the other day. I hadn’t thought anything of it until now, but all of a sudden, it seems incredibly obvious. Of course, Lucas is the Invigoration owner. Of course. That’s why he’d come to the center with all those questions the other day.
The more I think about it, the angrier I get. I turn and walk back to my center, seething to myself as I do.
Cheryl stops me at the desk.
“Hey, Sam,” Cheryl says, beckoning me over.
“Hey, what’s up?” I ask, still stewing.
“You okay?” Cheryl asks, “You look all wound up.”
“Do you remember that man, Lucas, who was in here the other day, asking me all those questions?” I ask, poking my straw into my smoothie, annoyed.
“The hot one? In the nice blazer?” Cheryl asks. I nod. Something about Cheryl calling Lucas hot annoys me even more.
“He wasn’t here to ask about classes. He was here to check out the competition. He owns Invigoration. I just saw him over there, leading a meeting,” I say, putting the pieces together more and more myself. His weird questions. The way he’s been there every time I turn around. He’s been spying on me. Gathering intel. Probably trying to figure out how to run me out of business. I would have at least thought somebody as rich as him could pay someone to do that for him, I think bitterly.
“I knew I didn’t like him,” Cheryl says, scowling.
I’m furious. I can’t believe the new neighbor is this much of an ass. “I’m not a huge fan either,” I say. “I’ve got to go look over some stuff in the office. Well, at least we know now.”
“Want me to tell him to leave if he comes back?” Cheryl asks. I shake my head.
“No. I think we’re going to have to get used to him. We can’t figure out how to beat him if we don’t do anything about him,” I say, heading back towards my office.
I should spend the afternoon pulling information for my landlord meeting. I want to scan in all my financial records, along with testimonials from the people who come here, about how important the center is. I’m hoping that if I make a good presentation and really sell it, he’ll back away from the rent increase.
I don’t get started on that right away, though. Instead, I type Lucas’ name into a search engine and spend an hour or so reading up on him online. A lot of it is the information I’d seen before, about how much money the gyms make, about his philosophy of fitness, about his staff of personal trainers. There’s also information about his college running career and a lot of photos from various events at the two gym locations. He’s annoyingly handsome in all the photographs. There’s not a lot of personal information, though. It seems to be a pretty intentionally-curated business image. Any private and personal accounts or information are probably locked down.
I shake my head, looking at pictures of Lucas with his team of overly-buff personal trainers. I know it’s not fair of me, but I can’t help but feel like they all look like huge jerks. I imagine them all as overly-confident, convinced of their own attractiveness, feeling invincible and untouchable because of how much they can bench press.
I’ve been trying to be optimistic in the face of the new redevelopment. Changes happen. Neighborhoods undergo transitions. It’s natural. I’d just been hoping to ride the wave and land on the other side with my business still intact. After all, people are always going to need a place to exercise, right? I’d even thought maybe it would all work out, new people mixing with the clients who have been coming for years, creating a whole new community.
Now, staring at Lucas’s face on my screen in an image where he and his team are celebrating a membership milestone I can’t even fathom, I feel discouraged and low.
The new people aren’t going to come here. They’re going to go across the street. To work out on state-of-the-art machines. They aren’t going to want to come to classes. They’re going to want personal trainers. The neighborhood isn’t going to come together. It’s going to be divided.
I know I shouldn’t think like that. I have to stay positive – for myself, for my staff, and for my clients. I have to stay strong and positive so I can make this presentation for my landlord and keep the center going.
Right now, though, right at this moment, it feels hopeless. So, I take ten minutes, I lock my office door, and I let myself cry.
Chapter Nine - Lucas
I haven’t seen Samantha in a few days. I think that’s probably for the best. I don’t need to be thinking about the competition right now, even if her fitness center isn’t really much competition at all. It’s honestly more like a minor inconvenience. A small annoyance that I’m sure will be gone soon. The more I think about it, the more I think it’s best to just watch her fitness center from a distance.
It’s best to keep that same distance from Samantha.
At the moment, I need to focus on the planning meeting I’m sitting in. The developers are ahead of schedule, and it looks like everything should go off without a hitch. Everything about the building is already up to code, and my new luxury apartment should be ready in two months or so. I’m really looking forward to moving in.
The gym is well underway. Plumbers are hard at work making the locker rooms and showers just as luxurious as the building itself. We’re covering the floor in the strength training area with floor pads that absorb shock and reduce pain, allowing people to push through their workouts. We’re adding a climbing wall and a ropes course in a back corner, and I’m going to be working with Paul to hire staff to manage those.
I’m excited about every detail: all the things that have the Invigoration signature and the standout features of this new location.
“Have you thought any more about naming each location now that there are three?” Randall from my marketing team asks.
“The best thing I can come up with is color names,” I say. “It matches the brand and the clubs. I like the idea of Invigoration Club Red or Club Yellow, but I worry that it’s limiting.” I’ve had this conversation with my team before. I would like the gyms to have club names, but I’m not sure what the best direction is. I don’t plan to expand outside of the larger region. Maybe the neighboring states, though, you never know.
I’ve read and studied enough about other businesses to know how fast things can grow. I genuinely think that it makes sense to concentrate on one day having a dozen locations or so at a maximum. I don’t think I want to franchise it out, and I don’t think dividing resources more than that makes much sense.
I don’t want to close the door on the idea of more forever, though. One day, I might change my mind. Maybe decades from now, when I’m retired, the business will still be going strong, and whoever I leave it to will have a coast-to-coast vision. I don’t want to limit that person, whoever they might be. Then again, maybe in two decades, we’ll be totally closed down, replaced with whatever the next big thing is.
“We could test market it, if you want,” Randall says. “And if in a few years, you want to change it, we could overhaul it then.”
“Maybe,” I say, nodding. I know Randall has a point. The branding makes sense, and if each club has a name, we can have merchandise for each location. We can do a launch of new shirts, water bottles, and other gear, distinct for each location. Maybe a line that encompasses all of the locations. It’s a smart move, and it will make a lot of money.
“For now, check out the new research we compiled. We’re going to use it to build a larger testimonials library on the website and for brochures,” Randall says, handing me a thick stack of information.
“Thanks,” I say, settling back to read it. I love reading client testimonials. It’s one of my favorite parts. This information is great, stuffed with the sort of success stories that make me love my job.
There are before-and-after pictures of clients who now look strong, healthy, and happy. There are stories from people who have totally changed their lives. A man who has lowered his blood pressure so much his doctor took him off of medications. A woman whose chronic pain has almost totally vanished now that she’s working out. A man who has gotten so healthy he’s no longer pre-diabetic. A woman who thought she’d never love her body again after pregnancy who now swears she’s never been stronger. A man who packed on weight after quitting smoking that he thought he couldn’t shake until he’d started work with one of my trainers.
The list goes on and on. Our clients are healthier, stronger, and more fit than ever before in their lives. That’s why I started Invigoration in the first place. To help people achieve that. People have said I’m a little obsessed with health, and maybe I am, but positively changing people’s lives seems worth it.
Several pages in is a fairly young businesswoman who had a heart attack and whose doctor warned she was at high risk for a second one says we’ve literally saved her life.
“Use this one, for sure,” I say, highlighting the quote and showing it to Randall. He nods.
“We’ve got a few more like that in here, and even a few doctors who say we’ve improved their patient’s prognosis,” Randall says.
“Use those, too. I want to push health benefits hard in the new stuff,” I say.
“You got it,” Randall says.
I keep reading through the testimonials, feeling more positive about my day and the progress of my company with each one I read.
Chapter Ten - Samantha
George, my landlord, doesn’t smile once during my entire presentation. It’s polished, slides detailing what we do for the community next to a numbers breakdown. I’d spent hours on it. I’d practiced four times before I left my apartment this morning. George doesn’t seem impressed.
“I’m sorry, Samantha,” George says, “I can tell you worked hard on this, but—”
“We’re a neighborhood staple. We bring business in!” I say.
George shakes his head. “You know I like the center. My niece takes classes with you sometimes. It would be a shame to lose you as a tenant in the neighborhood,” George says.
“I think a lot of people would agree with you,” I say, feeling almost hopeful for a second.
“But the neighborhood is changing. I have to charge you the market rate for space, and that just keeps going up,” George says. “I can renew you for six months at your current price, but after that, all that new crap across from you is going to be open, and it’s going to have to go up.”
“By how much?” I ask, wincing.
“At least a few hundred. A month. I’ll have to watch the market after that’s in. You know how much those apartments are going for, don’t you?” George asks.
“I’ve heard,” I say, taking deep breaths to keep myself together. A few hundred a month is thousands a year. I don’t have that kind of wiggle room in the budget. I just don’t.
“It’s not personal, but I’m not running a charity here,” George says. He does look like he feels bad about it, at least.
I nod. “No, I understand,” I say.
I do understand, and I know it’s not George’s fault. He’s right. Everything in the neighborhood is going to be worth more, and I can’t cost him money by being in his building. I just don’t know what to do. With a rent increase like that, I’d have to either increase the prices of our classes or let some of my staff go. I really don’t want to do either of those things. I can’t do either of those things. Increased prices would just send people right across the street, and letting my staff go would ruin our morale. Either one of those things could make the situation worse, not better.
Walking out of his office, I can’t help but feel like this is the beginning of the end. I plan to keep fighting as long as I can, but it already seems like a long, hard road.
***
Whe
n I get back to the center, I see Lucas coming out of the new complex. I feel myself getting hot and angry. I can’t help but think that if it wasn’t for him, my rent wouldn’t be going up nearly as much. Maybe that’s not fair, but it’s how I feel.
“Hey,” I say, making a quick decision and crossing the street to him. “You didn’t tell me we were neighbors.”
“Excuse me?” Lucas asks. He’s probably just coming out of a meeting about ruining the neighborhood, I assume. He’s got another expensive watch on his wrist and a pleased expression on his face. It looks smug to me – like maybe he’s pleased about ruining my life. I know that’s melodramatic, but it doesn’t stop me from thinking it.
“I know who you are,” I snap. He’s in a blazer again today, wearing a pressed shirt that fits him too well. It looks like it was made just for him. It probably was. “You own Invigoration Clubs. You’re the one building a mega gym across the street from me.”
“Look—,” he starts.
I shake my head. “Were you spying on me?” I ask, furious.
“No!” Lucas says. “The first day I went into your center, I was trying to get information. But after that, no.”
“Get information for what?” I ask. He crosses his arms over his chest.
“About the Fitness Center – about our competition,” he admits. The look on his face is smug again, and it makes me even angrier.
“So you could what? Look for weaknesses? Figure out how to shut me down faster?” I ask. I’m not normally this harsh with people, but I can’t help it right now.
Hot CEO: An Enemies to Lovers Romance Page 3
