Page 4 of A Kickin' Karate Christmas
“The Rusty Nail. Where we were supposed to meet for a few drinks?”
Fuck. I’d completely forgotten that we’d made plans.
“Shit, I’m sorry Soph,” I groaned. “I can be there in thirty? Just need to run home and grab a quick shower. I’ve been training.”
“Of course you have,” she teased. “You better get your ass here. I wanna hear about your meeting.”
That was the reason we were going to get together. That and a few drinks. Sophia had been one of my best friends since we were children, both of us starting out in this same dojo under the old owner. We’d gotten our black belts on the same day, and she’d been my biggest supporter when I said I wanted to take it over. She’d been the first person I hired. She was my second-in-command, the person I depended on for everything. She’d also been the first person I’d come out to when I realized I was gay in high school.
I hated that I’d stood her up.
I grabbed my bag and sped to my small apartment a few blocks away. After the world’s quickest shower, I pulled on jeans and a dojo tee shirt I’d had for years, the logo faded with age. Less thanthirty minutes after I hung up with Sophia, I was stepping into the Rusty Nail.
I spotted her immediately. She was sitting with a few of our other friends, all crowded around a small table with drinks in their hands. Her head was tilted back in laughter at something someone had said, and I felt the smile form on my face immediately. I rushed over to the table and leaned against it, grinning even wider when Sophia noticed me. “Okay, I’m here. The party can start.”
“Oh, the party started an hour ago,” Sophia teased. “But I guess we can let youjointhe party. Since, y’know, we’re all here for you.”
I fought the urge to stick my tongue out at her. She brought out a juvenile side of me that others rarely saw. Well, besides the other people at the table: a group of people we’d either trained with over the years or picked up at school. It was a total of four people, myself included, all of whom I trusted more than anyone else in the world. They’d stood by me through everything. We’d survived high school together. We’d survived the distance of college. We’d survived going into the real world. Hell, we even survived Kevin’s terrible first marriage exploding and helped him through his divorce.
Of course they’d be there now, when I was working on saving my dojo, eager to listen and probably help.
Kevin passed me a bottle of beer from the silver bucket in the middle of the table. “Did I miss anything?”
“I’m proposing to Melanie on Christmas Eve,” Kevin told me with a grin.
“Pretty sure I helped you pick out the ring, so I already knew that,” I teased.
He narrowed his gray eyes at me, a playful smirk on his lips. “You knew I was going to propose. You didn’t knowwhen.”
He had a point.
“That’s not the point of this gathering,” Sophia declared, nudging me. “Tell us how your meeting went. You can catch up on everything else later.”
I sighed. Why did my best friend have to act like a dog with a bone about this? I wanted to settle in before I dove into recapping the meeting, but I knew Sophia well enough to know that there was no way that was happening. She would continue to poke and prod until I finally broke, and I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of goading it out of me. Better to just tell her now.
“Jake had some good ideas,” I started. “A lot of it I didn’t really understand at first, but he broke it down in a way that made sense. Marketing and advertising, mostly, but he had the idea of some kind of major Christmas event at the dojo. Something that could raise money and maybe get some new people in the door.”
“So, like recruitment and fundraising in one?” Sophia questioned.
“What kind of something was he talking about?” Kevin asked, talking over her. He didn’t even react when she fixed her piercing glare at him.
“We haven’t gotten that far,” I answered him. “But yes, recruitment and fundraising all at once. Getting more people in the door means more money.” And it would come without raising rates too much for the existing members. “If you guys have any ideas, I’m more than happy to hear them.”
“Silent auctions have always gone over really well when we’re raising money,” my friend, Paul, suggested. He worked at an animal shelter in King’s Bay, and he was always fundraising to keep the doors open. I really should have thought to ask him before I met with Jake. Hindsight was twenty-twenty, as they said. “You could incorporate that into whatever event you organize. Auction off donations from local businesses or different karate themed things.”
“Like what?” I asked. The only karate themed things I could think of were different types of gear, maybe a new bo staff, and most of my students already had gear.
“Karate movies,” Paul suggested. “You do private lessons. Maybe auction off a series of them? Weapons or…” He trailed off. He’d been one of the friends who we’d picked up in high school. He’d never had the same interest in martial arts that Sophia and I had. Kevin had tried, but Paul? He’d declared it not for him almost immediately. He was content to cheer me and Sophia on at tournaments.
“Those aren’t bad ideas,” Sophia stated with a grin. “If we got sponsors, we could maybe cover tournament fees for a year or something as one of the prizes.”
That could be expensive. The goal was toraisemoney, not spend it. “I’ll put it down as an idea and run it by Jake?”
“Did he have any other ideas?” Kevin asked.
“He thinks we should update the website.” I gave them a rundown of everything else that Jake and I talked about before the conversation moved to the next fundraiser Paul had organized for the animal shelter. Some kind of Christmas pictures with Santa for families, including their pets. It was something the mall didn’t offer. I wished I had his brain for ideas. At least I had him in my corner, promising to think of other suggestions.
By the time the night ended, I had a small list of ideas on my phone and lighter spirits. My friends always had that effect on me.
