For every question Alaysia asked, Khalil answered with scripture. By the time we finished our three-hour brunch, I felt like Alaysia knew as much about Christianity as I did. There were things Khalil talked about that I had never seen in the Bible. I’d practically lived in church all my life, but sitting here listening to Khalil made me feel like I didn’t know anything.
I had to repent for being jealous of Alaysia. It seemed like she had everything a saved woman could want in Khalil, and she wasn’t saved.
Yet.
37
After weeks of meeting with Alex, I was finally satisfied with the business and marketing plan we put together. Alex and I had spent many hours together, and he didn’t charge me anywhere near what he should have for all the time he put in.
It was fun working with him. We laughed and joked a lot. He stopped flirting and we relaxed into being friends. He was almost as excited about the business as Alaysia and I. He said the numbers looked great and if we did our marketing right, we’d be turning a healthy profit in no time.
The only problem was we couldn’t find a building in the price range that fit our business plan. Alaysia said she would ask her dad for more money, but Alex was convinced if we waited, we’d find what we needed.
I awoke early one Saturday morning to the phone ringing. I peeped at my nightstand clock and groaned. Saturday was the only morning I didn’t get up early to go to the gym, so I was mad at whoever was calling. After four rings, I figured Alaysia wasn’t going to answer it, so I rolled over to grab it.
“Hello?” I put on my groggiest voice to let this person know they woke me.
“Monica? It’s Alex. Are you sitting down?”
“Actually, Alex, seeing that it’s seven on a Saturday morning, I’m lying down. What’s going on? This better be good.”
“I have a huge surprise for you.”
“What is it?”
“If I tell you, it won’t be a surprise.”
“It’s too early to be playing games. You got two seconds, then I’m hanging up.”
“Let’s just say I found the building for your gym, and it will be available exactly when you’re ready to move in, and it already has most of the equipment you’ll need, and it’s less than the price we planned for.”
I sat straight up in bed. “What? Where? How did you find it? How much is it?”
“Uh-oh, my two seconds is up. Goodbye.”
“Alex, stop playing! Give me the details.”
“Nope, that’s all you get. You have to leave me something for the surprise. Meet me at my office at nine.”
“Wait! At least tell me where it is.”
“Nope, see you in two hours.” Click.
I screamed and jumped out of the bed and took off for Alaysia’s room. She must have heard me scream because she met me in the living room.
“What’s wrong?” She looked scared that something bad had happened.
“Alex found us a building.” I jumped up and down.
“What?”
“That was Alex. He said he found the perfect building for us and it’s already got a lot of the equipment we need. We’re meeting him in two hours.”
“Where is it and how much is it and—” Alaysia jumped up and down with me.
“He wouldn’t tell me all that. He said it was a surprise.”
Alaysia screamed. “I can’t believe him.”
“I know. Let’s get dressed.”
We both put on some jeans and sweaters and ate a light breakfast. It was still only eight o’clock. We sat around and fidgeted for a few minutes, then decided to leave early just in case Alex got there before nine.
When we pulled up at his office at eight-thirty, he was driving up. We jumped out of the car and bumrushed him with questions.
“Where is it? How did you find it? How much is it? When can we look at it?”
Alex laughed. “Ladies, calm down. First of all, you’re early. I told you nine o’clock. Second of all—”
“Stop playing, Alex. You ’bout to get jumped. Give up the information.” I held up a threatening fist and threw a few air jabs.
Alex held up his hands to block my imaginary blows. He looked at Alaysia. “Your friend is violent, isn’t she?”
Alaysia held up her fists. “Yep, and she learned it from me. Come on, Alex. Tell us or we’re gonna double-team you.”
Alex smiled a mischievous smile. “Only in my wildest dreams.”
I punched him for real. “Stop playing. Come on.”
“Dang, that hurt.” He rubbed his arm. “Okay. A friend of a friend of one of my boys from school knows of this gym that’s going bankrupt. The owner is about to get foreclosed on, and unless he sells everything real quick, his property and the equipment will go to the highest bidder at an auction. If he sells, he can avoid the foreclosure and not lose too much money.”
My excitement faded. “Why would we want to buy a business going bankrupt? If it didn’t work for him and we’d be doing the exact same business, why would it work for us?”
“That’s the thing. The business was very lucrative, but this idiot was taking all his profits and funneling them into another business he was trying to start and not paying the loan on this business. This business will work because it’s been successful for the past five years. The owner can’t afford to make the payments anymore. You’d get to keep all his current clients, and can probably keep the employees if you want to. It would be a seamless transition.”
Alaysia said, “We wouldn’t want his employees. Almost everybody from the gym we’re working at now will be defecting with us when we leave. They’re as sick of our boss as we are. They’re taking Alaysia and Monica’s underground railroad and leaving the plantation for freedom.”
I was still skeptical. “How do you know this insider information?”
“I told you, my boy’s friend’s friend. It’s all about the six degrees of separation, baby.”
“How does this friend’s friend know?” I asked. It sounded too good to be true.
“He’s the gym’s accountant.”
My eyes widened. “When can we see it?”
“Right now. Let’s roll.”
We piled into Alex’s Expedition to go take a look. When we turned onto Piedmont, Alaysia chuckled. “Looks like I might get my wish. We’re gonna be in the same vicinity as Jim’s Gym, and we get to take his business. Serves him right for being a slave master.”
As we continued and turned on Ponce de Leon, Alaysia bounced in her seat. “We’re getting close to his gym. We’ll put him out of business. See, God don’t like ugly.”
When Alex pulled up in front of Jim’s Gym, Alaysia and I looked at each other, then looked at Alex, then looked at each other again and screamed.
“Are you serious? We get to take over Jim’s Gym? We get to keep all the equipment? We get to keep all our coworkers? We can actually afford it?” Alaysia and I asked questions at the same time.
Alex held up his hands. “Wait a minute. Slow down. Let me answer your questions. Let’s see, yes, yes, ummm, yes, yes, and . . . yes.”
We both sat for a second, thinking, then screamed again, bouncing in our seats.
“I can’t believe it.” I reached to give Alex a big hug and kiss on the cheek at the same time as Alaysia.
“Mmmmm, I should give you two good news more often.”
Alaysia frowned. “Jim would never sell us his business. He’d rather foreclose than sell to us.”
Alex smiled. “Trust me, I got this. I knew you guys had some bad blood, so I told him I had an overseas investor who would be purchasing the club and hiring managers to run it. That’s partially true.”
“Alex, you’re brilliant,” Alaysia said.
“I know.” Alex wore a smug look on his face.
I said, “Let’s get out of here. I don’t want him to see you with us. You have to do the negotiations for us.”
“Does he hate you guys that much?”
Alaysia said, “The slave
master has no reason to hate the slave as long as he’s under his control. But when the slave rises up and claims his freedom . . . It’s the same mentality that kept our forefathers enslaved and continues to enslave—”
“All right, Sojourner Truth. We get the picture.” I rolled my eyes at Alaysia.
We went back to Alex’s office to look at the numbers and saw that between Alaysia’s condo money, my savings, her dad’s contribution, and a small business loan we had already been approved for, we could easily take over Jim’s club. The best part was we could subtract what we planned to spend on new equipment. Jim’s club already equipped cost less than we projected for a building alone.
This was the most interested Alaysia had been in looking at the numbers since we started the whole process. She scratched her head. “I want to be able to pay the employees more. I refuse to rob people like Jim has been robbing us. Can you guys calculate in market rate for everybody and a little more for our best employees?” She smiled. “Employees. Ooh, I like that. We have employees.”
Alex frowned. “You guys didn’t plan to open such a large establishment, so we didn’t figure for as many people working there as he has now. We could fire a few people and give everybody the amount of money you want to pay.”
I didn’t like the idea of firing anybody. “Why don’t we take the money we allotted for marketing? The gym is already packed, so the money we planned for advertising can go for salaries.”
Alex nodded and smiled. “See, that’s my girl. You sure you don’t want to ditch this gym stuff and come work with me?”
Alaysia smacked his arm. “Stop trying to steal my partner.”
We talked a little more then made plans for Alex to start the anonymous negotiations with Jim.
We got back into Alaysia’s car to head home. Alaysia’s eyes sparkled. “Wow.”
“I know. It’s exciting, huh?”
She nodded. “This prayer thing really works.”
38
Alex got a taste of Jim’s shrewdness first hand. The negotiations went on for weeks with Jim playing hardball. He didn’t know Alex knew the position he was in, so he tried to make it sound like he wasn’t willing to sell for the price his accountant told Alex about. Alex was patient because he knew the foreclosure date was fast approaching, and the accountant told him no one else was biting. Apparently, Jim had cheated his accountant too.
Alex finally got Jim down to the price we knew he’d take and scheduled the closing. The night before, Alaysia and I could barely sleep. Alex took us to a lawyer ’s office the next day. After we signed a huge stack of papers, Alex announced that we were the proud owners of the former Jim’s Gym, now Synergeez Health and Fitness.
We remained professional until we got out to the lawyer ’s parking lot, but once the door closed behind us, Alaysia and I jumped and screamed then hugged Alex.
“You did it. I can’t believe it’s ours. We own a gym,” I said.
Alaysia started making plans. “I can’t wait to hire painters and a decorator and—”
“Wait a minute, now. We budgeted for painters, but we didn’t say nothing about no decorator. We will not go broke on this.”
Alex laughed at us. “Monica’s right, Alaysia. You have to stick to the plan.”
Alaysia pouted, but then started jumping up and down again. “I have to call Khalil.” She pulled out her cell phone and walked toward the car.
Alex turned to me. “Well, my work here is done. You guys are gonna do fine.”
“Alex, thanks so much for all your help. I’ll be sure to refer anyone I know looking to start or improve their business to you. I’ll keep you updated, and you’ll definitely have a seat of honor at the grand re-opening.”
“So that’s it?”
“What?”
“I do believe you promised me a dinner after we were no longer doing business together.”
“I said nothing of the sort.” I had to give it to him. That was smooth.
“Come on. One dinner. That’s all I’m asking.”
“My life is far too complicated for you to be dealing with me, Alex. Trust me, you should run while you can.” I looked over at Alaysia, talking a mile a minute on her cell phone, and silently willed her to come rescue me.
“I didn’t propose. I asked you to have dinner with me. What’s wrong with you black women these days? A brotha asks for a simple dinner and you start rearranging your life. I could just use some intelligent company for a change.”
“Give me a break, Alex. This is Atlanta. There’s a plethora of intelligent black women here.”
“Yeah, but they all have an agenda. I ain’t trying to be a checkmark on nobody’s to-do list.”
I laughed. “What are you talking about?”
“You know how y’all do. Married by age twenty-six, first child by twenty-eight, last child by thirty-two, get the tubes tied. Have a nanny so you can run your own business. Dating is a part of a master plan for you women. Nobody hangs out to enjoy each other’s company. I just want someone to eat with, see a movie with, have fun with every once in a while.”
“No commitments, no strings, huh?”
“See, now you’re trying to make me sound like one of those guys who won’t commit. It’s not like that. I—”
“I didn’t say it was a bad thing.” Stop it, Monica! Why was I flirting with him?
“It’s not?”
“No.” I pulled my wool coat a little tighter around me. “As a matter of fact, it may be a good thing. I’m not in a position for any entanglements either, but it would be nice to have a hanging buddy. That, however, begs the question of whether men and women can be just friends.”
He nodded. “I think it’s a matter of choice.”
“Love is a matter of choice, huh?” If it were only true.
“It can be. If two rational, intelligent adults make a decision to just be friends, they can stick to their decision.”
“Okay then, dinner. Name the place and time, and I’ll meet you there.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, tomorrow night. Seven o’clock. Houston’s up at Perimeter.”
I tried to remember whether they had any decent vegetarian dishes on the menu. “How ’bout P.F. Chang’s instead?”
“Oh, yeah. I haven’t been there in forever.”
We finalized our plans to meet, and Alaysia and I left. I refused to listen to the voice of God on the inside telling me “no.” It probably wasn’t Him anyway. It was probably me being nervous.
I’m just going out with a friend. That’s all.
39
I tried not to make a big deal of getting dressed for my non-date with Alex. I kept in mind what Alaysia said about conquering my fears about fine men. That’s all I was doing. Conquering for the fat girls. I put on a pair of jeans and a burgundy turtleneck sweater. I dusted on some face powder, put on eyeliner, frosty mauve lipstick, and some silver hoop earrings. I wasn’t trying to look like I made an effort.
I arrived fashionably late and scanned the restaurant. It had a contemporary Zen decorum with the pungent fragrance of lemongrass and Asian spices filling the air. A waitress led me to our table, where Alex was already nursing a mixed drink. Alcohol? I mentally subtracted a point from his perfect ten-ness.
He stood and gave me a kiss on the cheek. He smelled wonderful. Some sort of earthy, musky scent like the Muslims sold in those little oil bottles. I silently added back half a point. He looked great in a pair of jeans and a black sweater that hugged his chiseled chest. I added back another half point, and he was back to a ten.
As we chatted through dinner, he kept losing and gaining points. He lost a point for making a face when I ordered the curry tofu with vegetables and brown rice. He got the point back for agreeing to be open-minded and taste it. He lost two points for ordering pork, then got them back for his really cute laugh when I said something silly. He lost three points for cursing several times, but got four added when he told me how gr
eat I looked in my jeans. He lost three points for interrupting our conversation several times by answering his cell phone and staying on it for long periods of time. He got one point back when I reminded myself we were just hanging buddies. I added one more back for the cute way he held up his finger to let me know it would be one more minute, and another point when he made silly faces at the phone to let me know the person on the other end was droning on and on.
He got two points when he finally said, “Enough interruptions. I’m turning this thing off.”
He leaned over and said, “So, tell me more about you. What made you decide to go into this whole health thing in the first place?”
Minus one for leaning too close into the personal space zone. Plus five for asking me about me. “Before I moved to Atlanta, I worked for about six years as a nurse.”
“A nurse? You mean a real nurse?”
“Yep, a bonafide registered nurse.”
“What made you walk away from that?” He propped his head in his hands and looked genuinely interested. Plus two.
“It just got old. It didn’t feel like we were helping anybody. And it was the same thing over and over, every single day.”
“What made you go into nursing in the first place?”
The spikey blond waitress brought Alex another mixed drink and set a teapot and cup in front of me. I dumped a couple of packages of Splenda into the pot and warmed my hands over the steam.
“My grandmother. She moved in with us when I was twelve. She was really sick—high blood pressure, diabetes, and she’d had a mild stroke and had real bad heart disease. I made sure she took all her pills several times a day and took care of her feet. Over the years, she got real bad ulcers from the diabetes and had to get her toes amputated, then part of her foot, then her lower leg. Then her other leg. Seemed like she was always going to the hospital and coming back with a little more of her body cut off. My mom had a weak stomach, so I did her dressing changes. She always said I was going to be the best nurse one day.”
I took a sip of my ginger-peach tea. “I watched her die every single day. Every time she came home from the hospital, a little bit of the sparkle would be gone from her eye and a little bit of spunk from her spirit. Right before the last time she went into the hospital, she called me into her bedroom and pulled me real close. She said she loved me, was thankful for me taking care of her, and was proud of the nurse I was going to be. I was sixteen, so I didn’t get what she was doing. She never came home from the hospital.”
My Soul Cries Out Page 20