Page 133 of Hits Different

The mention of my dad’s name twangs softly, like the gentle strumming of a guitar on a sandy beach, “I guess he’ll just have to settle for having a college graduate as a kid instead”.

“Is college really what you want?” Simon asks. “Because you have options”. There’s an impatient knock on the door. “I said to give me ten minutes!”

“I got tired of waiting!” Zara leans against the doorway, one hand on her hip. “How long does it take to offer someone a job, Simon?”

“I was trying! He was getting all sentimental on me”.

“I thought you were mad at me”. I haven’t seen Zara since the day after my fight, when I stopped by the gym to tell her that I’d decided I needed a break from MMA. Time to regroup, and reflect on what I really wanted out of life.

I’ve never seen someone go through the six stages of rage all at once, but once she’d calmed down, she told me she respected my decision.

Through gritted teeth.

“Oh, I was. Furious. So furious I stormed up here to chew out my ex-fiancé for wasting my time sending you to me in the first place, but that’s when he showed me this”, she unbuttons her coat and slides something over to me. “Then we got to talking”.

It’s my notebook. All the dumb ideas I’ve had over the last few weeks jotted down. Including my ten-point plan to set up kids with apprenticeships. “I”, I find my voice. “I never showed you this. How did you—Brandon?” They both nod. “I’ll kill him. These are just dumb ideas. Never intended to see the light of day”.

“Some of them are”, Zara agrees, “I don’t know how much money you think your cousin makes, but offering full scholarships for thirty kids a year would cost literally fuck-you millions of dollars”.

“And the Monthly Family Fun Day idea made me want to rip my own skin off”, Simon adds. “No offence, cousin”.

“But the rest of it shows a lot of promise”, Zara adds, taking a seat next to me behind Simon’s desk. “Why should we do it?”

I’m speechless. How should I know? “I…I don’t know”.

“You do”, Simon says. “These are your ideas. You did the work”.

I take a deep breath.

“I mean... I guess, there are huge advantages to any business by building ties in with the local community”, I begin, “Reputational, financial, and for long-term growth…”.

Zara and Simon both listen intently as I begin to explain my plan. I trip over my words a bit at first, but by the time I get to talking about how Summit’s most attractive feature is the culture that Simon’s cultivated: elite training but with a personal touch, I begin to hit my stride.

I wasn’t exactly prepared to pitch anything, but as I talk through my ideas I feel strangely confident, and by the time I’m talking about a scheme to provide work and apprenticeship opportunities to local kids in the foster system, and how giving back to the community is a big part of how clubs market their social media, I’m well and truly on a roll.

“If I’ve learnt anything from the two of you”, I finish, “It’s the importance of working together and asking for help when you need it. You both took a chance on me, when you didn’t have to”.

“I did it because my mother made me”.

“I was trying to prove that I was over Simon”.

“You both run successful, profitable businesses. There’s no reason why that has to change. You don’t need to partner with snooty ass hotels to build your brand. Especially when there’s plenty of local companies”, I nod towards Zara, “Who could work with you to run specialised classes, offering a tailored experience that players don’t get anywhere else”.

“It sounds like a really unique selling point”, Simon muses. I can tell he’s interested. “But there’s two parts to this. I don’t know that elite level players would be interested in running sessions or providing mentoring when they’re trying to recover from injury”.

“It wouldn’t be mandatory”, I point out. “But there’s plenty of people who already work here who are open to it. Sheryl. Archie and Will. I already asked Dean, and he’s going to the Premiership next year. And Brandon said he would”, I blush, as Simon and Zara exchange a look. “I know he’s not MLS yet, but…”

“But he will be”, Simon says, with surprising certainty. He turns to Zara. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s a hell of a lot of hard work. Building relationships takes time. There’s a lot of local businesses around here to win over. But”, she adds, a glint in her eye, “It reminds me a lot of one of the first drafts of your business plan for Summit when we were in college”.

“It does?” I ask. It’s hard to picture Zara and Simon in college. I mean, God. They’re almost in their forties.

“We were young once, you know!” Simon digs me in the ribs, reading my mind. “This is going to be a big change”.

“You said yourself you worried sometimes about what you give back to the community”. I remind him. Zara looks over in interest.

“Did you say that?” Zara’s regarding him with a look I don’t quite recognise. “Really?”

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