So really, I should have said no to her wedding cake request. I should have told them both to go to hell, but the truth was, every single time they made me feel so small, they made me feel so powerless…they made me want to do anything to finally win their approval.
And so I said yes.
I hung up the phone with my heart and a thousand unsaid words in my throat.
I was two-years-old when I was introduced to the art of baking by my grandmother, who was my most favorite person ever. When my parents dropped my sister and me at my granny’s house to leave for some cruise or European holiday, I would stand at my Granny’s knee and bake, mixing and pouring while my siblings would be off playing. I spent all of my adolescence learning everything I could learn beside my Granny, starting from the best cookie recipe and graduating to elaborate cake decorating.
She was the reason I’d opened Sweet Curves Bakery.
I’d received some amazing job offers when I graduated from the Culinary Institute. I turned out to be a pretty good chef too, but my heart was still in the art of dessert making. So I opened Sweet Curves, a small shop in a nice up and coming, hipster neighborhood.
At first it was a struggle, competing with large, established businesses in such a metropolitan city, but then one day it all changed when Connie Miller–the Oscar winning actress– dropped in to the bakery in order to escape a paparazzi. I let her in, locking the door behind her, eliminating his access into the shop. She was shaking so badly that I sat her down and poured her a cup of Granny’s cocoa and gave her a slice of my lemon cake, something simple that always made me think of home.
When she bit into the cake and closed her eyes as a lustful look fell over her face, I knew that my Granny was looking down at me in that moment, proud. After a few hours, Connie Miller took my card, thanked me and left a hundred dollar tip.
I was just as excited about the tip as meeting Connie Miller. Never in my wildest dreams had I expected to have her talk up the shop. Almost overnight my cakes were in every single media outlet known to man. Because of her, Sweet Curves was featured in every magazine, on the food network, and I even went on the Today Show. Connie Miller made my little shop one of the hottest places in the city, and the entire country, leading to a roster full of high-profile clients and bookings for at least two years out. I was the talk of the town and professionally at the top of my game, yet my nouveau riche mother still thought I was flirting around with a hobby. According to her, I should get serious about meeting a man and settling down.
My mother’s idea of success was a girl that looked a certain way and took care of her man above anything else. I had no idea how that woman was related to my Granny. Needless to say, my mother and I hadn’t spoken in two years–until that phone call, until I had said yes.
Sawyer
“Ten more, pussy! You gonna let Jocko here kick your ass on the bench press?” The most popular trainer in my gym shouted at his client. “Three, two, one, that’s it, now give me ten more. You think I was gonna let you off so easy? You don’t pay me to let you off easy.”
I shook my head, wondering how in the hell Jocko got clients when he talked to them with his unique brand of motivation. Most of his clients were weightlifters and former MMA fighters from the Dominant Alpha gym up in Boston.
I glanced at my own crammed schedule on my office desk. I’d had to whittle my client list down a lot the last year, transitioning to the owner of Rise Fitness after being the manager for the last five years had been a total life change–but one I’d been waiting for.
It just sucked that it’d taken my grandpa passing away to make the dream a reality. After graduating with my kinesiology degree, I’d started full time at Rise, and realized instantly that it was a sinking ship. With rent rates ever-climbing on this block and pretty much nonexistent leadership from the top, I’d worked my ass off to establish this gym as a newly dominant force in the fitness community.
I’d always had big plans for Rise, but when grandpa passed and left me just enough for the down payment on a business loan, I’d hopped at the chance to buy the current owner out and make Rise mine.
Jocko was my first hire because his reputation as a personal trainer preceded him, so I’d offered him double what his current gym paid him and poached him shamelessly.