Chapter Three #2
“I never asked for your name you offered it. You clearly aren’t going to give me my parking spot so I’m not about to sit here and keep wasting my time.
Have a pleasant evening Mr. Welsh.” I immediately turned around and walked off before I ended up on the evening news.
Some people were impossible and Mr. Welsh was one of them, I could tell.
The entire walk to my gym I could feel my blood pressure climbing.
By the time I walked through the front doors, Shelly looked up from the front desk like a guilty kid who was caught sneaking cookies before breakfast. She had a large bag of hot fries in her hands, and she was eating them like they were her last supper.
“Is everything ok? You look like someone just killed your best friend,” she smirked.
“That new neighbor next door just pissed me off and took my parking spot. He didn’t even have remorse.” I fumed as I walked up to her, grabbed the chips from her hand, and threw them in the trash can nearby.
“Those things will clog your arteries and kill you. Do you read the labels?” I asked her angrily.
Before she could respond I walked to my office and slammed the door behind me hard enough to rattle the glass.
The silence lasted approximately four seconds before my phone started ringing. I may as well have attached my phone to my hand because there was always someone on it.
Contractors, Investors, City and Code Enforcement, there was always something that needed to be done. I had a to do list that never ended. I understood why almost 80 percent of small businesses crashed. Unfortunately, I loved the gym, and I loved running it, so I wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
I looked at the screen and sighed loudly.
I didn’t have the energy to deal with my sister-in-law at midnight.
I ignored the call and called her husband.
My fraternal twin brother Cozart Walker had been a pain in my ass since he came out of my mother’s pussy five minutes after me.
Co was originally supposed to run the family business, but he was so damn irresponsible the only thing he knew how to do was workout, fuck women, and drive flashy cars.
He didn’t give a damn that he was married and a father, Co did what he wanted.
His phone rang two times before telling me that my call had been forwarded to voicemail.
That bastard sent me to voicemail. I called again and he did it again.
I called six more times, and he sent me to voicemail every single time.
I could imagine that he was sending his wife to voicemail as well and that was why she was trying to reach me.
I rubbed my temples and placed the phone on my desk.
My brother was thirty-five years old, and I had to fix his issues and ride his ass like we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Being Cozart’s twin was exhausting. Being older by five minutes meant I became responsible for all his nonsense.
He required more supervision than his son, my eight-year-old nephew.
I glanced toward the family photo sitting on my desk.
In Aspen in the winter, there was me, Co, and our parents.
This photo was one of my last beautiful memories of our family before we lost my mother.
Cozart wasn’t as reckless back then. I understood people grieved differently.
My father wanted to sell the family business because of his grief, Cozart started getting in trouble, and I became the fixer.
In this picture life was simpler.
I was in my freshman year of college, studying pre-med, dating a cute guy, and my biggest worry was if Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch were having a sale. When my mother got sick, all of that shit stopped mattering. When she died, I lost part of myself.
Suddenly a thought came to me. Why should I make it easy for the juice man to just take my customers?
If they wanted juice, I could give them juice.
I could start my own juice bar. I had plenty of empty rooms here in the gym.
I could turn one of those rooms into a juice bar.
I could even give the highest tiered members discounts on freshly made juices.
That would make people want to upgrade their memberships and bring in more revenue to the gym.
That bastard thought he was going to steal customers from me, but I was about to steal the customers back from him that he had stolen from me.
I would run his ass back to Mississippi with his loud colored truck and his parking spot thievery.
The more I thought about it, the more I liked it.
People were already asking for smoothies after workouts.
Why send them next door? The idea settled into my brain and I refused to leave.
I immediately texted my manager Trallis so we could brainstorm.
A minute later she walked inside my office carrying enough attitude to power the city of Atlanta.
“What’s up?” She asked nervously.
I pointed toward the chair and told her to sit down. She dropped into the chair dramatically.
“Whatever they said I did, I didn’t do it,” she shrugged and I rolled my eyes at her.
“This ain’t about nothing you did! The juice place next door, have you been over there? Have you tried any of the juice?” I asked her as I typed my password into my computer and began to research.
“That man is so damn fine I wish that he would put himself in a cup and let me drink him.” Trallis bit her lip. I narrowed my eyes at her, and she scratched her head and looked away.
“Trallis.”
“What?”
“Focus,” I groaned as I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Fine. Since you want to be so serious. Yes, I have been next door, and I have tried his juices. They taste amazing and-”
“Fresh.” I finished her sentence and she nodded really quickly.
“Yes that, absolutely that. They taste so fresh. Nothing like that overpriced, processed shit you get from the grocery store. It makes you feel like you are putting something good in your body. Do you know how most healthy stuff taste like horse ass? Well, his juices taste GOOD. I’m talking, you just finished the juice and want to order another one immediately!
It’s that type of good that makes you reach for another slice of pizza, just because it tastes good, not because you are hungry.
Plus, the names are hilarious.” Trallis bragged as I rolled my eyes and spun my desktop around.
The nigga had only been in the neighborhood for a week; there was no way he should have this big of an impact in such a short time.
“What would it take to add a juice bar to Brick &Co? I mean we could use one of our empty rooms and turn it into a juice bar don’t you think?” I asked her.
Immediately her posture changed and her eyes lit up, she was interested.
For the next twenty minutes we bounced ideas back and forth.
How we could add it to membership perks.
The different types of juices maybe even some protein smoothies, meal replacement shakes, pre-workout juices, and recovery juices.
The deeper we got into the conversation, the more excited I became.
Maybe this wasn’t a terrible idea, and I could keep my members spending money inside my business instead of walking next door.
When my phone rang it startled me, but I expected it to be Co, so I reached over to grab it. It was his wife Kaliyah. I groaned but I knew I couldn’t keep ignoring her, I had to face the music and fix whatever my brother had fucked up.
“Hold on for a second let me take this it’s family,” I told Trallis before hitting the green button to answer.
“What’s up Sister-in-Law,” I greeted her. The second I answered, I knew something was wrong.
“Hey,” Kaliyah sighed heavily.
“Have you heard from your brother?” She asked angrily.
I was tempted to tell the truth, but I had to protect him.
It was my job as his big sister to get him out of the mess he put himself in.
He had left the gym hours ago. As one of the personal trainers at the gym, he had clients that loved him and if they were women, he was usually fucking them.
I looked over at my trainer schedule and saw that the last person he trained was at six o’clock.
The session lasted one hour, and it was currently midnight.
I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth.
“Yeah, I talked to his big head ass like an hour ago,” I lied through my teeth.
“He is at the house with daddy helping him paint the kitchen. Have you tried to call my father’s phone?
” I asked her. The best lies were laced with truth, and it was true my father had woken up one day and decided that he was tired of the kitchen being the color that it was, so he painted it.
He had been painting all day and taking back and forth trips to Home Depot for painting supplies.
That part was the truth.
The lie was that Cozart was with him.
If my father was still painting, he wouldn’t answer the phone. If he had tired himself out and gone to sleep, he wouldn’t answer the phone. It was the perfect alibi for my lying, cheating, piece of shit little brother.
“Yes, I tried to call your father, and he didn’t answer so that explains it,” she sighed and my heart broke. As a woman, I hated lying for my brother and aiding in another woman’s heartbreak. I was caught between a rock and a hard place, and I hated Cozart for putting me in this position.
“He was supposed to pick up the kids tonight. I start a new nursing job tomorrow at nine in the morning, and I don’t have anyone else to keep these kids.
Your brother is a shitty husband, but I refuse to allow him to disappoint our children the way he has disappointed me.
I’m going to the courthouse and getting full custody, and he won’t be able to see them at all.
I’m sick of Co.” Kaliyah wailed, and I covered my face sadly.