Chapter 2
Chapter two
Mateo
I couldn’t believe I’d agreed to Jake Porter’s offer to help.
He was a client, a customer at my dojo. It would be one thing to hire him, if I’d been able to afford that, but it was something else to allow him to do it for free.
Swallowing down my pride to agree had left a bitter taste in my mouth, one I was all too familiar with.
I’d tasted it every time someone offered to help me, even when I was younger.
My dad had always said that my pride would be my downfall, and I didn’t want to prove him right.
Not when it came to the dojo or the children I taught.
The karate school and the children were two of the most important things in my life.
I’d given up a lot to take over the dojo when my old sensei retired.
Some people thought I was too young, and I wanted to prove them wrong, too.
I sighed as I looked through the glass doors to the empty parking lot.
The dojo was quiet, and the chemical smell of cleaners lingered in the air.
Normally, we were closed today, but I had an important meeting.
Jake was coming by so he could discuss marketing.
I wondered if the rush came from desperation to save the dojo or worry that I might change my mind.
The latter might hold water, because I was already struggling against the urge to text him and tell him that none of this was necessary.
I’d figure something out, and he could have his Saturday night to himself.
I reached for my phone just as I saw his car pull into the parking lot.
Too late.
I stood up and unlocked the door, opening it just as he reached it so he could come in. It was strange to see him without his little blonde shadow. “How jealous is Emerson going to be that you went to the dojo without her?” I asked.
He gave me a crooked smile and shook his head. “I haven’t decided if I’m telling her or not,” he admitted. “Luckily, she’s with her mother this weekend, so I don’t have to worry about it until Monday.”
I didn’t know the arrangement between him and Emerson’s mom.
I’d met her only once, at Emerson’s belt test where she’d gotten her yellow belt nearly three months ago.
Emerson was almost a spitting image of the woman, and the woman was my polar opposite.
That was not a thought I needed right now.
I wiped the palms of my hands on my black sweatpants and motioned toward my desk.
He took the same seat he’d used two days prior, and I sat in my usual chair behind the desk.
I watched him as he pulled a laptop out of the slim black bag he carried.
“I’ve got a few thoughts on where to start, based on research I’ve done about other karate schools,” he started as he opened the laptop and began maneuvering it around.
“Most of it is the marketing, but there are a few things I thought we could try in-house as well.”
My eyes drifted down to the computer screen.
When he’d said a few, I thought maybe he’d have a list of three to five items. I hadn’t expected to see a long list—each item laid out with points and sub-points, bulleted with links and explanations.
I skimmed the list before bringing my eyes back to his. “That’s a lot.”
“This?” His eyes drifted down to the laptop, and he shrugged. “This wasn’t a lot of work, really. About an hour or two of research and writing down thoughts. Not all of it will work for your dojo. Some of the suggestions might even be things you don’t even want to do.”
I studied Jake for a few moments, wondering what was on the list that he thought I might not want to do. I wanted to save this dojo. There were very few things I wouldn’t actually do to accomplish that. “Let’s go over the list and figure out what will work and what won’t.”
He started small. He suggested a revamp of the website, something to make it look more modern.
I didn’t know the first thing about redesigning a website, and I couldn’t afford to hire someone.
I mentally put it in the maybe list, but he said that it would be a big one.
He told me about drag and drop design options, and after a few minutes of him trying to convince me, I told him I’d look more into it.
He started talking about social media and paid advertising options, listing out the ones he thought would work best. Some of the terms he tossed out confused the hell out of me.
Like SEOs. I didn’t know what they had to do with advertising a small dojo.
“I don’t want to give someone else control of my school,” I told him after he pounded on about the importance of good SEOs for about five minutes.
Wasn’t he supposed to be there to help me save the dojo, not give it to someone else?
He looked confused for a moment before he burst out in laughter. “That’s a CEO. I’m talking about SEOs. Search engine optimization. They’re terms that get more hits online.”
Oh. I was a dumbass. “Maybe explain that better next time? You’re used to dealing with people who already know this stuff, aren’t you?”
It was his turn to look sheepish. “Fair. Sorry.”
He kept going, and after an hour, we had a list of things we wanted to try.
Social media marketing and the new website were his biggest priorities.
We couldn’t keep depending on word-of-mouth marketing and taking information to the local schools.
While it worked to get some people in the door, the scale wasn’t large enough.
It wasn’t bringing in enough students, and we needed more registrations to stay afloat.
This all sounded overwhelming, but Jake assured me that it wouldn’t be.
He even said he’d have a mock-up of the website done by the next time Emerson came to class.
He walked me through the steps of giving him the proper permissions on the site I used so that he could get it all going.
It had only been an hour, and even if I was overwhelmed, I was also optimistic.
He was a professional, and that gave my dojo the best possible chance.
I was just finishing my workout a few hours later, long after Jake had gone home, when my phone rang.
For a moment, I hoped it was Jake. Maybe he had other ideas.
Maybe he had thoughts on how to really get this thing started.
Or maybe he just wanted to chat. I didn’t like the way that made my stomach turn.
He was a parent of one of my students, and while I’d been crushing hard from the moment he stepped foot into my dojo, I knew he was off limits.
I had a few personal rules for myself, and that was one of the biggest.
I didn’t shit where I ate.
But the butterflies in my stomach swooped and dived as I reached for my phone and then withered away when I saw Sophia’s name on the screen. It was stupid. I hit the accept call button and put the call on speaker, because no way was I going to put that phone up to my sweaty ear. “What’s up?”
“Where are you?” she called out, her voice echoing in the empty dojo. I could hear people in the background shouting and laughing.
“The dojo,” I answered back, wiping sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand. “Where are you?”
“The Rusty Nail. Where we were supposed to meet for a few drinks?”
Fuck. I’d completely forgotten that we’d made plans.
“Shit, I’m sorry Soph,” I groaned. “I can be there in thirty? Just need to run home and grab a quick shower. I’ve been training.”
“Of course you have,” she teased. “You better get your ass here. I wanna hear about your meeting.”
That was the reason we were going to get together.
That and a few drinks. Sophia had been one of my best friends since we were children, both of us starting out in this same dojo under the old owner.
We’d gotten our black belts on the same day, and she’d been my biggest supporter when I said I wanted to take it over.
She’d been the first person I hired. She was my second-in-command, the person I depended on for everything.
She’d also been the first person I’d come out to when I realized I was gay in high school.
I hated that I’d stood her up.
I grabbed my bag and sped to my small apartment a few blocks away. After the world’s quickest shower, I pulled on jeans and a dojo tee shirt I’d had for years, the logo faded with age. Less than thirty minutes after I hung up with Sophia, I was stepping into the Rusty Nail.
I spotted her immediately. She was sitting with a few of our other friends, all crowded around a small table with drinks in their hands.
Her head was tilted back in laughter at something someone had said, and I felt the smile form on my face immediately.
I rushed over to the table and leaned against it, grinning even wider when Sophia noticed me. “Okay, I’m here. The party can start.”
“Oh, the party started an hour ago,” Sophia teased. “But I guess we can let you join the party. Since, y’know, we’re all here for you.”
I fought the urge to stick my tongue out at her.
She brought out a juvenile side of me that others rarely saw.
Well, besides the other people at the table: a group of people we’d either trained with over the years or picked up at school.
It was a total of four people, myself included, all of whom I trusted more than anyone else in the world.
They’d stood by me through everything. We’d survived high school together.
We’d survived the distance of college. We’d survived going into the real world.
Hell, we even survived Kevin’s terrible first marriage exploding and helped him through his divorce.
Of course they’d be there now, when I was working on saving my dojo, eager to listen and probably help.
Kevin passed me a bottle of beer from the silver bucket in the middle of the table. “Did I miss anything?”
“I’m proposing to Melanie on Christmas Eve,” Kevin told me with a grin.
“Pretty sure I helped you pick out the ring, so I already knew that,” I teased.
He narrowed his gray eyes at me, a playful smirk on his lips. “You knew I was going to propose. You didn’t know when.”
He had a point.
“That’s not the point of this gathering,” Sophia declared, nudging me. “Tell us how your meeting went. You can catch up on everything else later.”
I sighed. Why did my best friend have to act like a dog with a bone about this?
I wanted to settle in before I dove into recapping the meeting, but I knew Sophia well enough to know that there was no way that was happening.
She would continue to poke and prod until I finally broke, and I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of goading it out of me. Better to just tell her now.
“Jake had some good ideas,” I started. “A lot of it I didn’t really understand at first, but he broke it down in a way that made sense.
Marketing and advertising, mostly, but he had the idea of some kind of major Christmas event at the dojo.
Something that could raise money and maybe get some new people in the door. ”
“So, like recruitment and fundraising in one?” Sophia questioned.
“What kind of something was he talking about?” Kevin asked, talking over her. He didn’t even react when she fixed her piercing glare at him.
“We haven’t gotten that far,” I answered him. “But yes, recruitment and fundraising all at once. Getting more people in the door means more money.” And it would come without raising rates too much for the existing members. “If you guys have any ideas, I’m more than happy to hear them.”
“Silent auctions have always gone over really well when we’re raising money,” my friend, Paul, suggested.
He worked at an animal shelter in King’s Bay, and he was always fundraising to keep the doors open.
I really should have thought to ask him before I met with Jake.
Hindsight was twenty-twenty, as they said.
“You could incorporate that into whatever event you organize. Auction off donations from local businesses or different karate themed things.”
“Like what?” I asked. The only karate themed things I could think of were different types of gear, maybe a new bo staff, and most of my students already had gear.
“Karate movies,” Paul suggested. “You do private lessons. Maybe auction off a series of them? Weapons or…” He trailed off.
He’d been one of the friends who we’d picked up in high school.
He’d never had the same interest in martial arts that Sophia and I had.
Kevin had tried, but Paul? He’d declared it not for him almost immediately.
He was content to cheer me and Sophia on at tournaments.
“Those aren’t bad ideas,” Sophia stated with a grin. “If we got sponsors, we could maybe cover tournament fees for a year or something as one of the prizes.”
That could be expensive. The goal was to raise money, not spend it. “I’ll put it down as an idea and run it by Jake?”
“Did he have any other ideas?” Kevin asked.
“He thinks we should update the website.” I gave them a rundown of everything else that Jake and I talked about before the conversation moved to the next fundraiser Paul had organized for the animal shelter.
Some kind of Christmas pictures with Santa for families, including their pets.
It was something the mall didn’t offer. I wished I had his brain for ideas.
At least I had him in my corner, promising to think of other suggestions.
By the time the night ended, I had a small list of ideas on my phone and lighter spirits. My friends always had that effect on me.