35. Muscle Movers – Sihn
CHAPTER 35
MUSCLE MOVERS
SIHN
Originally Mar said yes to the moving-in thing, but that was just because I was holding her orgasm hostage, which was a dick move on my part.
After we settled in for the night and ate, she told me that her parents were leaving her their house and that she wasn’t ready for me to move in there with her just yet. She assured me that she wanted me to in the future. All I’ve ever wanted her to do was to admit there was a future for us, so I’m happy.
My second interview for the local factory is Monday, but Ruin has been blowing my phone up about some idea he has for us to make money. I’m meeting him at Valley Sportsman Club now.
Ricky serves me a beer as soon as I’m seated. “Ruin’s on his way,” I tell him.
“He’ll have to fight to find a seat, you took the last one,” he jokes.
The place is empty. It’s a Sunday night, so not really a bar happening night unless drinking is your hobby. “How do you keep this place going?”
“Gives me something to do,” he says as he wipes down the counter.
When Ruin walks in, I’m watching UFC on the one television the bar has that works. There are three others mounted around the small room, but they haven’t worked as long as I’ve been coming. UFC is not my favorite combat sport; I prefer wrestling, MMA, boxing, and kickboxing. I’d never admit it, but I lowkey like sumo, as well.
Ruin sees one opponent hit the other so hard that blood spatters across his face. “Ehh, he’s getting the shit knocked out of him.”
I finish my beer and wait until the end of the fight before I say, “There’s no real way to work this into a conversation, so I’m just going to come out and say it. I know I allowed us to cross a line with Mar, but now that we’re getting serious, I think it would be better for all three of us to not mess around anymore.”
Ricky puts a beer in front of both of us and removes my empty.
Ruin says, “It’s cool. I’ve been talking to a chick and wasn’t sure how to tell you all that I’m not comfortable doing that while I’m trying to have a relationship with someone else.”
Genuinely surprised, I say, “Really?”
“Yep. Her name is Gia. She’s tall and doesn’t mind at all that I’m shorter than her. She looks like she could be Halle Berry’s younger sister, and she’s actually fucking cool. Like doesn’t beg for my attention, but lets me know when I’m not doing what I should be.”
“Maybe we could double date sometime. I’d have to ask Mar how she feels about it, but my hope is we can all still be friends, but I understand if not.”
“I’ll always be your bro, Sihn. We’ll see how it goes. With my track record, once this thing with Gia gets too serious, I’ll find something wrong with myself and bail.”
The whole bail before they bail tactic. “If she’s the right one, you’ll do whatever it takes to make it work.”
“Spoken from a man who’s in deep.”
I lift my beer, swish the contents, and reply, “Yep,” before knocking back the remaining liquid. I’d do anything to make it work with Mar. “I can’t continue to do Dine on Demand deliveries forever,” I confess. “I never thought I’d be working in a factory. Not that it’s the worst job, and we need factory workers, but I just thought I’d do something more to help improve society.”
“Yeah, I can’t continue down the path I am either. Sometimes I sit in my room wondering when I’m going to start being a man. I got an idea on the way here. It could be good for both of us, really. A business venture.” He shows me his phone. “They’re doing this in the bigger cities. Look.”
There is a quote from a customer on a hotguysmoving site, ‘Made moving fun and stress-free. Cheaper and hotter than expected. Neat gimmick, bravo!’
He continues to scroll. “There’s more. I could use my online marketing expertise, and we could make a few videos of moving boxes and furniture around. It will get so many hits!”
I never even thought about moving stuff for a living. “Do you think there is much of a demand here in River Falls?” The town is small. People move in and out all the time and from trailer to trailer, but there aren’t people with any money to spare for movers.
“We can offer full-service, junk removal, an hourly rate, or donations to haul things away. Anything we want really, and we don’t have to do it all. We can see what works and go from there. We could expand out to some of the nearer cities for an extra charge. The worst that happens is they don’t want to pay the fee, in which case, we don’t take them on as customers.”
“The worst that happens is we go all in with this business venture and it flops,” I tell him. I don’t think I can afford to waste any more time figuring out a career path for myself.
He turns on his stool to face me. “Would it interest you if I told you I already have our first paying customer?”
“How do you already have a customer lined up for a business I haven’t even agreed to…”
He smiles. “By sheer luck. I was walking down the street when this older lady asked me to move her couch. It’s how I got the idea. She paid me a thousand dollars and it only took me ten minutes.”
“Huh? If she already paid you, and you did the job, how would she be…” I point between the two of us, “our first customer?”
“Because she asked me to come back next week and move it again. She asked me to bring a friend.” He raises his eyebrows suggestively.
Bring a friend? “What kind of a lady did you stumble upon, Ruin?”
“A lonely, older lady who just wants to ogle at some young men with muscles, and she offered to pay us both one thousand dollars a week to just watch us move her couch from one room to the next.”
“There’s got to be a catch. Does she require us to be shirtless or something?” I am not getting it on with an old lady. I will stick with the factory life.
If eyes could sparkle, his do as he says, “I moved it today with my clothes on. I sure hope there isn’t a catch. I hope she tells her other older lady friends!”
“I wonder how much it would cost to start a legit moving business…”
“I’m not sure, but I bet Mar’s mom would know. I’d say we need a name for sure and a bank account associated with it. We don’t really need any start-up money. We can use my truck to move things until we get more business and then maybe invest in a box truck.”
“You’ve put some real thought into this, haven’t you?”
“I told you, I’ve got to do something else. The pictures and videos of my body are one thing, but the industry keeps pushing me to film with other creators and I don’t want to do that. I like staying in my own bubble. And now that I have a real girlfriend, I’d like to get away from being a content creator.”
I go to ask if Gia knows anything about his online presence, but it’s none of my business. “I need to see what Mar thinks. I have my second interview at the factory and need something stable to prove to Mar that I’m growing up.”
“Man, did she tell you to grow up?”
“No, it was a thought that occurred to me after the fire. Kind of like how you feel about content creation. I think it’s time for me to step away from the childhood dreams of wrestling.”
“Are you giving up wrestling for good?”
“I think so. I’ll still support my buddies, but I needed to end it at some point.” Most of the boys from POW! are moving to Bigger Better Wrestling, and I plan to go watch their matches as often as I can. They even offered Colonel a position as showrunner, and he jumped at the opportunity. He’s got a gift for creating wrestling storylines that fans love. Willy Lee told me they didn’t offer Nikki a job, so she’s waitressing at a Waffle House.
“I’m sorry, man. I know you wanted to go out a legend.”
“You win some, you lose some. I’ll give the moving thing some real thought, though.”
“You’ll need to continue to work out. I plan to name the business Muscle Movers. Gotta keep those guns looking nice.” He taps his bicep.
I shake my head. “I said I was giving up wrestling; I didn’t say I was giving up my physique.”
“You know now that you’re in a comfortable relationship, you’ll gain weight.”
“That’s a myth.” I hope it’s a myth. Mar has agreed to be my girlfriend, but other than that, she still is bucking on living together.