Chapter 5

Towards the end of the week, the owner had placed a flyer on the gym bulletin board stating that the gym was going to be closed for financial reasons. It seemed strange to me because attendance was always brisk. I decided to talk to him and see what was up. Fortunately, he was available, so we sat down right away.

He informed me that his wife had filed for a divorce, and she wanted her half of the club. He couldn’t afford to buy her out, so he was just closing it down. He was moving out of state, going back to his family’s home. By the end of the meeting, he had offered me the gym at a price I could not afford to pass up. He owned the current building and the adjacent building, which someday he planned to add to the existing gym.

He offered me the entire space for three hundred thousand with all the contents included. The following day, his wife agreed, and I decided to meet with my uncle about the investment. He agreed that having the business would allow me to write certain items off my taxes and would be a good investment.

I bought the gym the following week and decided to shut it down for forty-five days to rehab it. All the members were notified and were promised that I would resume the normal contracts at no cost to them. I hired a contractor, and he went to work immediately. He quickly knocked out the downstairs, which had a fresh coat of paint and new floors. The entire first floor was going to be free weights only and machines. He completely remodeled both the men’s and women’s locker rooms, which came out great.

Upstairs, we divided the area up into rooms and had large glass windows on the front of them so you could see what was going on inside. One room was for stationary bicycles only and would be our spin class. We had another room for yoga and aerobics. Then there was a large area where Muay Thai would be taught. That left me with two other large rooms to one day expand as I saw fit. He then knocked out the wall to the building next door, which we made a large reception area and sales venue for protein, weight loss, energy drinks, and healthy foods. We also would have a line of clothing advertising the gym eventually. One large office was built, and three smaller ones adjacent to it.

Unfortunately, it took close to three months before the new equipment came in. I ordered two more complete sets of free weights and a dozen and a half new machines. Once everything was in place and opened, the people flocked in. I had kept Ryleigh, who was the gym’s general manager, and her right-hand partner, Molly, who took registrations and ran the sales venue. I also started a contract with the cleaning company that came every night to clean up after closing.

Shelby and I were in contact every day via text messages, and she had returned home. She had hired an attorney and started divorce proceedings against her husband. Of course, Tim was fighting her tooth and nail trying to get things back to the way they were. I left my house at five thirty in the morning and did not get home until after nine at night. I had not seen Shelby in over a month but did text her every day. The gym was doing even better than expected; there were new people signing up every day. I had someone doing the spin class three nights a week and an aerobics instructor coming in every day. Mr. Myad was training his Muay Thai students daily as well.

Two weeks later, an instructor came in and watched to teach Krav Maga in one of the rooms. He was a former Israel military operator and was very skilled in the art of hand-to-hand combat.

It was just about that time that Tim and Shelby’s divorce proceedings heated up. Tim wanted full custody of Jennifer, which he knew would drive Shelby insane. Unfortunately, he had a fleet of lawyers that his father employed on staff while Shelby was on a budget. Tim had withdrawn most of their money from the bank, trying to handcuff Shelby. Her parents were paying most of the bills up to date for Shelby’s attorney.