Part 1 of 3: The Business Plan
They became best friends during college.
After graduation, they remained roommates, moving into a cozy little apartment in the downtown area together. They both worked entry level jobs for a while before making it to their dream careers.
Fiona came home first. She usually came home early on Friday's because she didn't teach a class that afternoon. Thanks to a small family inheritance, she had enough money to open her own business where she trained female gymnastics.
It had always been a passion and something she had done all her life.
The only problem was, you can't run a financially successful gym without enough students.
While still dressed in her athletic sports clothes, she crashed on the couch, face down in a pillow. She then contemplated a simple question:
Don't girls like gymnastics anymore?
Afterwards, she mentally cursed all the different fitness studios in the city which had good business.
Fiona finally attempted to regain composure when the door opened and Catherine arrived, wearing a sassy little office suit and holding a small purse.
"Well you look like you're having a great day," Catherine said sarcastically, shutting the door and removing her heels.
"My day sucked."
"So did mine."
"At least you look like a respectable woman," Fiona noted.
Catherine laughed and sat on the couch next to her best friend who was still laying there.
"Trust me, I don't think I'm doing any better than you. There's so much competition in this city."
Catherine was right. She was a marriage counselor in a city which was filled with marriage counselors. Since Catherine was young and had little experience, she didn't get as many customers as other counselors did. Although, to her credit, Catherine was great at her job, and she genuinely cared about helping people.
Catherine rubbed Fiona's back through her clothes. Then she massaged her friends shoulder.
"That feels nice," Fiona groaned.
"You feel tense."
Catherine kept on rubbing and massaging.
"That's what gymnastics will do to you."
"No offense, but who'd want to train gymnastics with all the stress that it puts on the human body?"
Fiona rolled her eyes while her face was in the pillow. "Plenty of people. It's a highly disciplined sport. I would argue it's the most beautiful sport too."
"Look on the brightside, you're doing what you love."
"Thanks girl, but it's hard. Not enough people are signing up."
Catherine massaged harder. "Maybe it's because your advertising sucks. You have a decent location, you're a great teacher, but that's irrelevant if no one knows your gym exist."
"I'm trying."
"Have you tried handing out flyers? Going online?"
"Not enough, I guess."
Catherine stopped massaging when her hands became exhausted. Then she rested her head on Fiona's back, as if Fiona was a comfy pillow.
"Then we've got work to do," Catherine said. "We'll need to work on our advertisement for our businesses."
"I'll do anything at this point."
"Same here."
***
The next morning. When Fiona went to the living room of their small apartment, she saw Catherine sitting on the floor, barefoot and bare legs, wearing only a large t-shirt. Catherine's face was makeup free and her hair was tied in a ponytail. There were papers scattered across the floor along with a cup of coffee.
The typically professionally dressed Catherine was gone, and for a moment, it felt like college again. They used to dress super casually, no make-up, doing their studying on the floor together.
"I've got tons of ideas," Catherine said.
"I'd love to hear it."
Fiona sat down on the floor and they looked at the papers together.
"I've written down some potential advertisements for us," Catherine said. "Here, take a look."
Catherine handed Fiona a small stack of handwritten advertisements. They were short and to-the-point.
"Cathy, this is fantastic," Fiona said, eyes still on the papers. "If you weren't a therapist, you could have a great career in marketing. I mean, seriously."
"Thanks."
"I mean it, this looks great."
Each paper contained variations of the same thing. They explained the nature of the work being done, the characteristics of the owner, and what made their businesses so unique.
"Pick the ones you want," Catherine said. "Then I'll go to the library down the street, type this up, and print a bunch of copies to post around the city. I'll also put this online, which I'm sure will be really useful."
"I like them all."
Catherine smiled, "Then I'll type all of them and post them around for you."
"You're the best. Seriously."
"Trust me, I know. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the library."
"Need me to come with you?" Fiona asked.
"No thanks. You enjoy your breakfast. It's on the stove. I work faster alone. Besides, you really need to rest. You look kind of burnt out."
"Thanks."
Catherine uncrossed her legs and grabbed all of her papers, and when she stood up, Fiona caught a brief glimpse inside her best friend's pantiless area. Fiona had accidentally seen Catherine's neatly trimmed pubic hairs, causing Fiona to close her eyes and put her hands on her face.
What Fiona didn't know was that this was only the tip of the iceberg for what was to come.
***
They had kept in touch via texting. Fiona went out and bought Chinese food for lunch. A short time later, Catherine came home with a stack of books.
"What's that?" Fiona asked with a smile on her face, after preparing the plates for lunch.
Catherine shut the door with the back of her heel, kicked her shoes off, then struggled to bring the books to living room. There were beads of sweat coming down her forehead.
"
These
might be the answer to our problems," Catherine replied, relieved that her hands were finally freed from the heavy books.
Fiona went to the living room and sat down on the floor to look at the books. She was shocked. They were old library books about relationship therapy, sexual healing, and tantric sex.
They definitely weren't the printed promotional papers that Fiona had expected Catherine to print.
"So, I take it you didn't print all the promotional stuff."
"Not yet. We need to rework our advertisement."
