The Side Project

Chapter 32: Kyle

Chapter 32: Kyle

Humble Public Servants

Humble Public Servants

Author's Note: The gang starts to see a plan come together, and I hope you, as readers, see what is coming here and like the direction.

"You look pleased with yourself," I said to Reed once I climbed into the passenger seat of Allie's car.

"Let's just say I'm confident Allie and I are on good terms again," Reed said smugly, patting the pocket of his jeans.

"Good, glad to see you got your head out of your ass," I said. I knew Lexi would be pleased too. I'd been briefly concerned Reed had reverted to the negative behavior I'd warned him against when I saw Allie enter Lauren's house, but her demeanor had strongly suggested she was pleased, not upset.

"I do actually want to talk to you about something potentially interesting though," Reed said. He handed me a manila folder. I opened it and began scanning the contents.

"Garrison gave me this earlier this evening. He obviously bought our bit about representing investors," Reed explained.

"This is a property he's proposing we invest in?" I asked as I looked through the documents.

"Right. I haven't had a chance to properly scan things, but if you can navigate us to the address I was thinking maybe we could check it out," Reed said.

I agreed and punched the address listed - 69 Tuna Run - into my phone.

"It's close, only about a half mile away. Interesting that it's in their neighborhood. Quick drive-by?" I suggested. Reed put the car in gear and we backed out of Lauren's driveway.

We pulled up to the address and immediately realized where we were: the abandoned fitness club we'd seen the previous day.

"Want to check it out?" Reed asked.

"Let's give it until tomorrow when it's light out and all these LIMP jackasses are gone," I suggested.

"Good call. This is intriguing though."

"Yeah, for sure," I agreed. I read more of the paperwork as Reed navigated us back towards the interstate to head downtown.

"This paperwork is incredibly shoddily put together," I commented as I reviewed the documents.

"Makes sense, think about who we're dealing with here. Them owning the club and keeping it closed does suggest they're up to something though," Reed said.

"You think they're the ones who bought it with the intention of shutting it down?" I asked.

Reed thought for a moment. I could see his lawyer brain at work. "I suppose they could be, that's a hell of a lot of money to drop just because you don't like your wives going there. What do they want for it?" he asked.

"Over a mil. But they may not have paid that. I know Allie had great things to say about it, but you have to admit trying to operate a fitness club out here doesn't seem like the best business model," I noted.

"Right, there's not that many people living out here, and you're competing with a free clubhouse in this neighborhood," Reed said.

"Exactly. Ol' Gary's prospectus here works from the assumption we would tear down the club," I said.

"Hmmm so that price is just the land?" Reed asked.

"Yeah. Seems high. Sure this is a 'nice' neighborhood if you don't know about the Alphas but it's inconvenient to everything. I don't think the land is worth that much," I said.

"Well you could probably fit at least five or six houses on the footprint of that club right?" Reed asked. I shuffled through papers until I found a document that showed the property boundaries.

"Probably," I agreed. "Although the frontage to the street is kinda narrow. So even though the property goes back a ways the driveways seem like they might be tricky. Not sure."

"Right, and I can't imagine the cost to demo a building that size is cheap," Reed noted.

"Good call he does have that in here. This doesn't seem like a great investment," I observed.

"So what's Garrison's game then? I didn't trust that assclown even before that bizarre rally, I'm sure he's got an angle," Reed said.

"Could be as simple as he's hoping to rip us off. Maybe there's HOA rules we don't know about that would prevent us building more than one or two houses. It's kind of notable this thing mentions costs to tear down the club but nothing about potentially subdividing the lot," I noted.

"Yeah, if he was trying to make it more appealing as an investment he should have at least included like a sketch or something of that, I would think," Reed said.

"So...a thought," I said, thinking out loud a little bit. I was starting to feel a concept that might be viable. "Maybe as the price of the land, particularly considering we would then have tear down and construction costs, it's a rip off,butif we were just buying it with the intention of operating a fitness club it might not be a bad deal."

"Uh, didn't we just discuss why it would be tough to make money with this location?" Reed asked.

"So yeah, the location is shit, but what if we created something that would make people want to come?" I asked.

"Huh, and yeah I guess even if it doesn't work out, if it helps us meet more women like Allie, do we really care if we lose money?" Reed asked.

I laughed. "Fair point, plus if we buy it out from under their noses and reopen it? That'll piss them off," I said. The idea of messing with these arrogant idiots had a sort of intrinsic appeal for me.

"I like that now I'm the one reminding you what the side project is really all about," Reed said.

"I didn't forget. I just don't want to be stupid. We have a lot of money but it's not limitless. And some of us suddenly have no income," I pointed out.

"By next weekend once the money is moved around I'll be generating more passive income than I was making at work," Reed said dismissively.

"We'll see. You got that meeting set up for after Thanksgiving with the finance people?" I asked.

"Yessir. So what do you think next steps will be?"

"Whoa, we're not going to move forward just like that. I know we have money and I know we want to mess with these guys, but we don't want our first investment to be a total dog," I said.

"Ok, so what's your big idea to do this right? To make it at least break even?" Reed asked.

"So kind of leaning into the same idea as before but even harder," I said. "We make it totally designed around it being a great place for women to escape. Make it more than just a health club too. Have a cafe and shit. Build a community. Make it a reason people from like these suburbs - Hendersonville and Gallatin - will drive an extra 10-15 minutes instead of just going to the local Gold's. Let's float it by the girls tonight, get their input."

"You know, if we could get Miss 23,000 IG followers to endorse it, that could move the needle too," Reed noted.

"Great call, maybe we can give her a small ownership share to endorse or something," I said.

"Outside of Lexi none of them know about the money, right?" Reed asked.

"Correct, although they all sort of have to know we're not exactly hurting at this point, right?" I pointed out.

"Yeah true. And I guess it's not like we have to say we'd drop a million in cash on it or anything. For all they know we'd be financing it," Reed said.

"Alright, well it's at least worth checking out tomorrow. I mean for all we know the place could be falling apart or condemned," I pointed out.

"Agreed, but if it's not...well we'll just have to see about things," Reed said. I could tell he was getting excited by the possibility.

"I would not have thought our first investment would be in bizarro Alphaville," I mused.

"Me either, but it's perfect in a way. A nexus for all the ladyfriends of those fucking losers," Reed said.

"Indeed, we're really just providing a service for the public good," I joked.

"That's all we are brother, fucking humble public servants."

- - - - -

- - - - -

We decided to meet back at our rental place, leave the vehicles there, and get a rideshare to the restaurant. We all wanted to enjoy wine with dinner and didn't want to worry about driving afterwards.

The restaurant's vibe was more hole in the wall than fancy, but the smells wafting from the kitchen were wonderful. Lauren struck me as the sort of person who would not have vouched for a place she thought was anything less than excellent, so I was anticipating a quality meal. We were seated at a large circular table and had a playful argument over what wine to get, ending up subdivided into two camps. Team red - me, Brandi, Lauren and Rose - went for a high end bottle of Barolo. Team white - Lexi, Reed, Jackie and Allie - stuck with Pinot Grigio.

"So Allie, just curious, when did you learn about red and white wine?" Reed asked once we'd placed our orders.

That earned him a strange look from the blonde. "Uh, I dunno, sometime in high school I guess, why?" she asked, obviously confused.

"Garrison informed me that you did not know the difference when you met him, when you were what, 23, 24?" Reed asked. He was smirking a little.

Allie chuckled. "And I'm assuming you enjoyed your Macallan 18 for cocktail hour?" she asked sarcastically.

Reed and I laughed. We had to explain to the other women how Allie had served the three of us bourbon and Garrison thought it was high-end scotch, but the others were soon chortling away at what an idiot Garrison was. Allie got a thumbs up from Jackie and a fist bump from Brandi at her little prank.

"I wish I could say he's some sort of outlier but I think they're all like that," Allie said of the Alphas. "And the more of them you put in a room the stupider they get, no offense Lauren."

"Oh absolutely none taken, I assume you recall my husband dancing around naked like a deranged ape at last sighting," Lauren said, laughing.

"I was actually trying my best to expunge that from my memory," Rose joked and we all lost it laughing.

Most of us hadn't eaten since brunch and I wasn't sure if Brandi and Reed had eaten at all that day. Our decadent spread of appetizers reflected that. We ripped through an antipasti board, and two orders each of beef carpaccio and arancini. The conversation and passing of plates felt natural. I had known Reed and Lexi for years, but the rest of the group I had known for no more than 48 hours. Despite that, we all just seemed to have a natural rhythm. It was a good feeling. Energizing.

We ordered our entrees - Lexi and I were sharing veal piccata and branzino in a lemon sauce - then I noticed Reed subtly flex his bicep as he lifted his wine glass, an eyebrow raised at me. I nodded. This seemed like a good time.

"So ladies, Kyle and I were presented with an interesting proposal by Lord Gary this evening. Well I was anyway. Gary has correctly identified Ky here as a beta incel for awful crimes of putting fruit in his drink and conversing with females," Reed said, unable to suppress a grin.

"To be fair, had I not intervened I'm fairly certain the lovely Lexi here would currently be facing first degree felony assault charges," I pointed out.

"Not entirely wrong," Lexi admitted. "Sorry Allie."

"Yes, you always were an uppity little staff member," Allie said, adopting a fake aristocratic tone, sipping from her wine glass with her pinkie raised presumptuously and giggling.

The others demanded an explanation so we took a moment to explain how Garrison had concluded Lexi was a servant rather than a guest.

"Right, anyways, so after Ky had shown himself to be a beta by saving Lord Gary from grievous bodily injury, Ky and I told him we work on behalf of wealthy investors. Gary became quite excited and presented us with an investment opportunity," Reed explained.

"Oh lord, you talked money with them, they're fucking obsessed with money and power, right Allie?" Lauren lamented.

"Uh, I guess, honestly I thought it was just Garrison, but maybe it's more widespread," Allie replied.

"It's all of them that I've seen," Lauren said. "Anyways, so what was this brilliant proposal? Beachfront property in Oklahoma, perhaps?"

"It was actually the lovely property at 69 Tuna Run," I said, trying to keep a straight face. Most of the table was cracking up at all this back and forth.

"Stop! That's not real, right? Please tell me there's some sanity in this world and that's not a real address," Rose exclaimed.

"Nope, very real. Saw it with our own eyes. It's the abandoned fitness club you told us about, Allie," Reed said. We had to take a moment to fill in the Sigmas on what Allie had told us yesterday.

"Allie's right, that place was fucking awesome," Lauren opined. "I have no idea if it's a viable business, and maybe that's why it closed, but I was a huge fan like Allie."

"Wait hold up, the Alphas somehow own it?" Allie asked.

"Yeah," I said.

"Do you think they bought it to cut us off?" Lauren asked, realizing the ugly implications.

"No idea," Reed said. "We weren't given a history, just pitched the idea."

"In a comically juvenile attempt at a prospectus," I added.

"Look I'm the outsider here, but that's some pretty fucking chilling shit if they bought it just to cut you guys off from your escape," Lexi pointed out.

"Yeah, no shit. If they did that's fucked up. I'll see if I can tease the answer out of Garrison," Allie said, her face darkening a bit. I could see the anger bubbling if what we suspected turned out to be true.

"Please be cautious," I requested. "I'm sure he expected us to keep this quiet. Could mess things up if he knows we told you."

"Got it, I'll be careful," Allie said.

"I can poke around with Tanner a little too. Very carefully. So you guys actually considering recommending this to your bosses?" Lauren asked. We didn't correct her that we had no bosses.

"So that's sort of what we wanted to pick everyone's brains on," I said. "The location isn't ideal, again no offense, Allie and Lauren, but your neighborhood of however many houses is nowhere near enough potential members for us to even just break even, I don't think. Unless we just charge some insane membership fee. Obviously I'm just speculating about costs at this stage, but seems logical.

"Anyways, my thinking is that if we want to make it a viable business we need to be able to attract people because it's unique, not just another health club. This is somewhat leaning into the shit in your neighborhood with the Alphas, but what if we positioned it as a female-forward club? Not necessarily for women only, but designed with women in mind," I suggested.

"First, I would like go on record as supporting all alliteration," Allie said and all chuckled. "You'd probably get what, 30-35 people from the neighborhood who would sign up yesterday. Like I told you guys, the clubhouse is terrible and a lot of us have good memories of that other club before it closed." Lauren nodded her agreement.

"Outside perspective, but I love the idea," Brandi said. "I'm hardly shy about showing off, but when I'm working out, that's what I'm doing, not trying to be ogled and hit on. I recognize that some of it is how I dress, but fuck it, I like to wear what makes me feel good, it doesn't mean I want to get hit on every two minutes while I'm trying to get my cardio in, ya know?"

"Fucking preach, girl!" Allie agreed.

"I'd add that for ladies like me that might be a little more curvy, a non-judgmental environment would be a fucking dream. When I hit the gym I feel like every part of me that isn't 100% tight muscle, which is, well, most of me, is highlighted by bright fluorescent light," Jackie said.

"I think it's a viable business angle. I'd be down to help you guys with some marketing shit to pilot the concept. I do miss having that place as a sort of a refuge a ton," Allie said.

"Plus there's tennis courts, right?" Lexi asked. "I really want to work on my game so I can match up with big bad Reed."

"You're such a little shit, I'm taking you down next time," Reed said good naturedly. We had to recap the details of our game from the previous weekend with Katrina, and Lexi's little maskirova to win the first set for the group. Reed took some good-natured ribbing at having fallen for it, but bore it with grace.

"So, you know I have a little bit of a social media following. I bet if I start posting about it and showing myself in the space that might help you guys," Lauren offered.

Bingo, we hadn't even had to ask her.

"That could be big for us, thanks Lauren," Reed said.

"We need to think it over a little and dig into the financial aspects, but we'll keep you both in the loop, Allie and Lauren. And I guess you three too if you care," I offered to the Sigmas. Even though I was trying to practice restraint, I knew Reed was going to push for us buying. Lexi probably would too, although her motivations would be slightly different. I would play the good soldier trying to be disciplined, but I sort of knew the truth of the matter: we were buying the club.