Helms residence
Hollywood Hills, California
6th June, 2020
The human psyche can only take so much and for David Helms, a man that tried to put a damn up on his emotions as best as he possibly could, breaking point had come for him after Taking Hold of the Flame. In many ways, the cracks were there already, his fight with Tommy and subsequent decisions made in the immediate wake of that was a giant red flag in a lot of ways… but his real emotional breaking point had been when he was alone with his wife Regan, after the pair had celebrated his Taking Hold of the Flame battle royal win. He had lost control and the tears had come. In many ways his life was so much better than it had been in years, but in others… it felt as if things were falling apart. And he had tried to keep his composure, to hold his nerve, but Regan was one of the few people who could actually see through that, and while it happened rarely, it had happened that night in New Jersey. He had just done something historic, at least in his own career; another career defining moment that added another notch on his wrestling legacy, though that was an incredibly crude way of putting it, even to David himself. But it was a historic moment for David; he had entered the flame only twice before, so it wasn’t as if he had bust his ass over the years trying to win the thing, so there was definitely a sense of ‘third time’s a charm’ surrounding his victory, but the win was huge, no matter how you looked at it… and knowing that he was going on to do something else he had never done before, all thanks to that victory, the few weeks were going to be truly special for David, and he wanted to try and enjoy them. Maybe the cracks that had appeared in his defensive walls had been good for him, he had reasoned with himself as they travelled home the following day; if he knew where the cracks were, he could do something about them… and at least it was a happy event that had ultimately led to him losing control for a few short minutes; the euphoria of what was one of the biggest wins of his career and then the discussion he’d had with Regan a few hours later, it had caused some things to come out he hadn’t intended, but it was the victory and ultimate celebration of the same that had caused it to happen. At least it wasn’t another negative to add to the pile of shit he’d dealt with as of late that kicked the whole thing off, which was something at least?
He was having to get used to the new normal for his life though. In previous years, if he’d achieved something so huge in his career, Tommy would have been one of it not the first people to be out there to celebrate with him. And there was a definite sting to that, which was going to take a while to shake off… but he didn’t necessarily have the time to dwell on it either. Everything was moving with such speed that if he stopped to try and address any one thing, he’d be left behind by the rest! The recent deal he’d signed with Impact Media was proof of that; now that the deal was in place and the waiver signed, designated film crews were following him around for much of what he was doing most days and he had to plan accordingly for that. He knew that not everything he was involved in could be allowed to appear on tape, especially where some of the students were concerned, and he was sure as hell not going to let them film anything involving the running of AnteUp or any issues that may come up where Tommy was concerned, so he had to plan according to their schedule and that only made things more hectic than they already were. Sure, he’d had his reservations about the idea from the start… but he wasn’t going to let his own concerns cloud his judgement when this was something that was clearly important to Regan and he had signed the forms with gusto, much to Regan’s shock. That had given him a good chuckle; when was she going to learn that when he had said he would support her no matter what, that he meant every word of it and that didn’t only include situations such as being forced to pick between his wife and his friend! His insistence on being her tag partner - though that was somewhat up in the air thanks to Taking Hold of the Flame - and this deal with Impact Media were just two more examples of how he would continue to have Regan’s back regardless of what was asked of him, and that would always be the case as far as David was concerned.
Over the days that followed though, David found that he was grateful for the times where the camera crew wasn’t following him around; he was used to a certain level of interest in him when out in public due to his years in the public eye, but it had never been so obvious before. There’s nothing like a camera operator, sound guy and interviewer following your every step to draw in the attention and he was thankful when the scheduled shooting was over for the day or he knew that there was a gap in the schedule where he wasn’t needed. He quickly learned to cherish those moments, and despite welcoming the invasion into their privacy with full understanding of what it meant, it was still an invasion of their privacy when all was said and done. Worth it, but still something else to deal with. If nothing else though, evenings were free to enjoy his life unfilmed and undocumented, and that was when he could truly relax, unless the crew decided they wanted to delve specifically into the Hellcat’s home life, which he knew would be coming up shortly. It wasn’t a movie about Regan if it only concentrated on the aspects of her wrestling life, after all. So he had to make the most of his evenings, and he had been doing just that. 
He’d invited friends and family around for a cookout on the grill the tuesday after Taking Hold of the Flame, and it had been a blast. He wanted to ensure nights like that weren’t too few and far between though. “You’re overthinking it mate,” Lucas said as they shared a drink on the deck of David’s home in the Hollywood Hills. David had invited Lucas and Matty around for drinks a couple days after the cookout, just the three of them with a few drinks and up to that point it was only beer on the agenda. Whether the liquor came out was another question for later. “Yeah, I can imagine it’s a pain in the arse to have some annoying twat with a camera following you around, but letting it dictate what you do or don’t do is only gonna make everything worse in the long run,” Lucas said as David returned and handed him and Matty a fresh beer from the refrigerator inside, retaking his seat around the fire pit, which was smouldering ashes by this point. “Look at it this way… if they were here now, what they gonna see? Three old blokes sat outside drinking beer and talking shite. Is it gonna dictate what we talk about? Maybe. I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t be talking about ‘em like we are right now mate, but other than that? There’s nothing I’d say away from camera that I wouldn’t say in front of it, I’ll tell ya that much,” he added before twisting the cap from his beer and chugged some of it down. Matty sat smirking at him, but David quirked a brow, clearly questioning that remark.
“Not sure I believe that one bro,” David told the Brit before opening his own bottle, a slither of a grin starting to form on his face.
“Telling you bruv, I wouldn’t give a fuck,” Lucas protested as he let his beer hang from his finger tips by the side of his chair. He shrugged, coming across as a little cocky in the moment but Matty seemed to be following David’s line of thinking, as he had a mischievous grin on his own face.
“So you’d tell the camera about your sex life then huh, brah?” The Bostonian asked, sitting back and giving Lucas a pointed look. Lucas frowned at the question. “Because it wasn’t a week ago that you were telling us about how you came home from the gym to find Trin waiting for you in the bedroom wearing stocking and not much of anything else, and while it sounds like the wicked pissah Lucas, I’m pretty sure she’d kill you if you spoke about that to a camera crew…”
“Alright knobhead point taken,” Lucas said with a laugh. “But there’s exceptions to every rule, isn't there? Look at this situation right now if you want proof… most people who try and cave one another's heads in are probably gonna end up holding onto a grudge over the years that follow… but I took a cricket bat to this dickhead on a few occasions, yet here we are sharing a beer despite the fact that his wife is also a woman that left me for him…”
“Wanna bring Zoe up as well, while you’re at it?” David asked, laughing.
“He prefers to pretend she doesn’t even exist, brah… you know that,” Matty chimed in, grinning.
“Something else we have in common then, I guess…” David added with a chuckle and Lucas brought his bottle up, showing it to the other twoo.
“I’ll drink to that,” the Londoner said with a laugh before taking a swig and the other two joined in the impromptu toast. “It just occurred to me though… that stuffs probably gonna come up again, ain’t it?” Lucas asked as they all lowered their beers again.
“What’s that?” David asked, wondering what Lucas was talking about.
“Me and Regan, before she got with you mate,” The Britt explained, looking thoughtful. “Bound to come up ain’t it… now we’re all happy families and what not. You gonna be okay with the past being dragged up like that?”
Matty shot Dave a cautious glance then looked back to Lucas; the pair were friends now, but would raking over the coals of their history cause cracks to appear? Then David laughed. “Bro, we already had people calling us eskimo brothers because of Zoe,” he chuckled with a shake of the head before he took another swig of his beer. “But like you said, we are all happy families now; you with Trin, me with Regan. We’ve got kids, we’re grown ass men. If we can’t talk about stuff from years ago without the salt levels consuming us and turning us against each other again, there’s something wrong with us at this point…”
“There’s been something wrong with you for years, brah…” Matty opined, grinning as Helms flipped him off, though he had a grin on his face when he did it too.
“You playing the part of the pot or the kettle in this scenario, bro?” Dave asked as Lucas pointed and laughed. “And you’re no better either, before you start casting stones around,” he added to Lucas, who held up a hand, defensively, still grinning to himself. “Guess we all have our moments anyway… not like any of us can say we’ve led the perfect life, is it?”
“Dunno what you’re on about mate, I’m practically perfect in every way, me…” Lucas said, continuing to grin despite the eye rolls he received from both Dave and Matty. “It’s true though, we all go a little mental at times… only got to look at the shit you’ve been getting from Tommy lately to know that he’s lost the plot, bruv.”
A dark cloud briefly fell across Dave’s face before he brushed it aside. “Yeah well, the least said about him the better, huh?” he said, taking another swig of his beer. It was going down much quicker than he’d expected and he wished he’d brought a few more with him to save another trip. “Hopefully won’t be my problem for much longer, soon as I heard back from the accountant…”
“You’re still going ahead with it all then?” Lucas asked, sounding unsure about the whole thing. He had been as surprised as anyone when the news broke on the wrestling news websites and started to spread through the backstage area like wildfire, and he’d asked Dave about it on the way to the arena in New Jersey before Taking Hold of the Flame, expecting him to say that whole story was bullshit, but Dave had confirmed it was true and Lucas hadn’t been expecting that at all. He was expecting David to tell him it was wide of the mark, that someone was speculating because of the recent disagreement or a student had got the wrong end of the stick, but David had simply said it was true before jokingly asking if he wanted to buy his stake. “Won’t lie mate, figured you’d have changed your mind by now, or at least calmed down enough to question whether it is the wrong thing to do…”
“Not like I haven’t thought about it bro,” David said with a sigh. “It’s taken us years to get to this point, so to ‘throw it away’ is gut wrenching… but I can’t be around that asshole anymore Lucas, I can barely stand to look at him at this point. People change, I know that, but Tommy… he’s not just changed, he’s unrecognisable from who he used to be.”
“He’s a wanker, I’ll give him that,” Lucas confirmed with a smirk. “But I used to think you were both wankers, didn’t I? You as well mate,” he added, motioning to Matty. “No offence meant. Just that people change, that’s what I’m getting at. I changed; fresh perspective and all that.”
“No offence taken brah,” Matty said, chuckling to himself. “I thought you were an arrogant dick for years… turns out I was right on the money.”
Lucas laughed, pointing at Matty with one finger as he did so. He even nodded his head in agreement. “When you’re right you’re right, bruv!” Lucas said, still nodding. “Seriously though Dave,” he said once the chuckle had subsided, and he turned back to look at the New Jerseyite with the hint of a frown on his face. “Point I’m getting at is that people change… and there’s nothing to say Tommy isn’t gonna do the same thing in a few months, realise what a rat-infested turd that Kandis bird is and drop her quicker than she can drop her knickers to convince him otherwise… and then you’ll feel like a right tit for selling up, won’t you?”
“Lucas is right Dave,” Matty said and Lucas cut over him.
“Just say that again will ya?” Lucas asked, sitting up straight and cupping a hand to his ear to make it easier to hear the words from Matty’s mouth, but smirking, Matty simply flipped him the bird and Lucas settled back down in his chair again.
“While I don’t particularly want to repeat what I just said, you know it is right,” Matty continued, picking his words carefully so that Lucas’ head didn’t grow any bigger. “I understand the heat of the moment threat brah, but you’ve had time to cool off since, and I’d hate to think that you’re going to do something that you’ll ultimately regret because you were angry in the moment.”
“Can we go back to what’s important here?” Lucas asked, causing David and Matty to both turn to look at him. “He just admitted that I was right!” Lucas said, pointing a finger at Matty, who rolled his eyes before chuckling, while David simply sat there smirking at his friends bickering between themselves. It was nice being involved in healthy banter for a change, instead of an actual argument. “One good turn deserves another though mate… Matty’s spot on. This ain’t the first barney you’ve had with Tommy over the years, is it? In fact, I seem to remember you and him not speaking for a fair bit after he found out you were fucking she who must not be named. You didn’t sell up then, did ya?”
“I moved two and a half thousand miles across the country, bro!” David replied, unable to hold back the laughter, which seemed to come from somewhere deep within. “Back then, we both lived in Raleigh, remember? Instead of sticking it out, I moved to California. Santa Barbara to be precise, where this dipshit now lives rent free I should add,” and Matty held his hands up defensively, showing his gratitude that Dave was clearly a soft touch where his friends were concerned.
“So what you’re saying,” Lucas said, cutting Matty off before he could concede defeat, which Lucas clearly assumed he was going to do. “Is that you’ve got a history of running away from problems instead of hitting them head on?”
“Pretty much!” David replied, not even bothering to argue the case. “I mean, twenty six hundred miles and change, bro… I can’t really refute it, can I? And then when me and you know who crashed and burned, I planned on doing it all again. Had the plane tickets, even had a moving company booked to pack up all my shit to ship it to my home in New Jersey… the only reason I didn’t was Regan. She found me at the airport and told me not to leave. It’s what I do bro, I’ve got plenty of previous!” he finished with a laugh, before draining the last of his beer. “Alright, who wants another?” he asked, but Matty stood up.
“I’ll get ‘em,” Matty said, draining the last of his own beer. “Got to take a leak anyway, so two birds with one stone.”
“With this American stuff, you may as well just piss in an empty bottle and hand it over mate,” Lucas told the Bostonian as he drained the last of his beer as well. “Do us all a favour and find a bottle of the good stuff instead, yeah? Rather drink our own product that something that tastes like piss water…”
“Always a fucking critic,” Dave said with a laugh. “There’s an open bottle of Fighting Spirit in the top left cupboard, above the stove. Sure you’ll find it,” he explained and Matty nodded, belching as he set off towards the house.
“Far as this yankee beer goes mate, I’ll always be a critic I think,” Lucas said, staring at the empty bottle in his hand for a second before placing it on the table that stood between their seats. “I know you lot think our beer is flat and warm bruv, but least it’s got some kick to it. This stuff’s shite.”
“I’ve had beer in england bro, and that’s just as much of an acquired taste, believe me…” David joked, but Lucas just shrugged his shoulders. “But least we can agree on the fact we’ve made a half way decent rum, huh?”
“Too right,” Lucas agreed. “I’d raise a toast to the stuff, but Matty ain’t got the bladder of us young’uns... “ he added with a smirk and David chuckled; there wasn’t that much between the three men in terms of age in all honesty, but every year counted in the piss take stakes. “So seriously mate, you sure you want to actually sell up? I mean, five years is a long time to chuck away Dave, and that’s just AnteUp. The other stuff you told me about as well? That’s even longer… plus you’ll have to start flying commercial, which is gonna be a hell of a change of pace when you’re used to creating your own schedule…”
“Yeah well, that last part’s sorted already thankfully," David told the Brit as they waited for Matty to return with a bottle of Fighting Spirit. “Asked Heath to do some digging for me and he found a slightly older Gulfstreem four with low flight miles that some guy from Ottawa was selling. Heath had someone check it over in-situ and it’s apparently been well looked after, so assuming the thing flies okay when they fly it down here, travel won’t be an issue.”
“You’re replacing it before you’ve even sold up?” Lucas asked.
David shrugged his shoulders. “I’m fed up of bending over backwards to accommodate him, bro…” he admitted. “I’m fed up or organising flights around when he wants the damn plane for a start, and that one I can do something about! Flying home straight after Breakdown is a pain in the ass, so to hell with it. It’s a short term expense anyway, which I’ll recoup when I’ve sold everything, so fuck it…”
“Fair point,” Lucas conceded. “Still a lot of money to shell out though bruv, all at once.”
“I can afford it,” David said, shrugging it off. “The Next Level jet wasn’t new when we bought it, and this one definitely isn’t. It’s done fewer miles though, the guy apparently only used it to fly between Ottawa and New York City. Sixteen seats though, which will probably come in handy considering we keep collecting people to fly around the world with,” he added, chuckling to himself as he thought about Jordan Majors, that had started hitching a ride with them to and from shows, thanks to a word in David’s ear from Kathryn, who Jordan was currently staying with. There was definitely something funny going on there in Dave’s opinion, but he’d asked and been told there wasn’t and he wasn’t going to press the issue any further. If it turned out there was, he’d address it when it came up. “Besides, while the accountant didn’t have a precise figure down to the dollar and cent for how much all of it’s worth, the number of zeroes in his estimate was encouraging. I’ll make more than enough to cover the layout and have plenty left over…”
“Gonna be rolling in it, huh?” Lucas asked with a laugh, and David shrugged.
“Most people would probably think I am anyway,” he said, shrugging. “Funny thing is, most of my money is tied up in investments, it’s not like I can just pull a few million out of my ass at any one time… but we’re comfortable bro, you know what it’s like. You’re not far behind me in longevity, so you know how it is. Bit of restructuring made it fairly simple to gather the funds together for this anyway.”
“You mean I’m old like you are, right?” Lucas joked, which drew a ‘that too’ sort of nod from David. “But what about the rest? And what about the dream? I wasn’t just making conversation when I asked if you’d reconsidered, mate. AnteUp was always the dream for you Dave, to help secure the future generation… that kind of goes up in smoke if you do sell up.”
“I know, I’ve been thinking about that,” David admitted, but despite the low level of light in the evening air, the sun long started to set on the horizon, Lucas could see the twinkle in Dave’s eye.
“You’ve got a plan, haven’t you?” Lucas asked, knowing full well what that twinkle meant. And David opened his mouth to reply, but he wasn’t given the chance.
“He’s got a plan for what?” Matty asked as he returned from the house, carrying a nearly full bottle of rum with him, along with three glasses. “Wait, scratch that, I’m not sure I want to know… his plans usually end up getting me in trouble, so it’s probably better I don’t know what he’s thinking, whatever it is…” the Bostonian added as he placed the glasses down and pulled the cork from the bottle to serve the drinks before re-taking his seat he’d vacated just minutes earlier.
“For what he’s gonna do once he’s sold up,” Lucas explained as he reached out and slid one glass towards David before grabbing another for himself. “He was just telling me he’s already blown his wad on a plane to save having to fly with the riff raff on commercial flights and I tried pointing out he was throwing away his dream of training the future generations when he got that fucking twinkle in his eye… you know the one, right?”
“Everyone knows the one,” Matty added, playfully jabbing at his friend with the smirk on his face as he said so. “And generally speaking, the ideas turn out to be awful…”
“Oh fuck you both,” David said, laughing. “Fine, I’ll keep it to myself then…”
“Nah, come on mate, let’s hear it,” Lucas said as he sipped at his rum. “You forget what my brother’s like, I’ve heard all sorts of dumb ideas in the past from him, all of them usually ending up needing startup money from me in order to get them off the ground. Nothing you say can be worse than what I’ve heard from him over the years…”
David sat there thoughtfully for a moment before shrugging. What harm could it do to tell them, really? “Well, nothing’s set in stone obviously, but the one thing I know, regardless of who I sell my shares to, is that I don’t want to get out of the business,” he explained, sipping at his own drink before putting the glass back down. “There was plenty I didn’t like about AnteUp, the drive time was a real pain in the ass, and it wasn’t like I was overly fond of paperwork, but the positives made them worth it… and I don’t think I want to give that up, even if I’m practically being forced to do so with the walking douche canoes attitude…”
“So don’t sell,” Matty said almost immediately. “Take a step back or something? We can organise classes so the two of you aren’t scheduled at the same time and maybe hire someone to do the actual paperwork… I’d offer to do it, but come on brah, we’d be in a real mess within a week if I took over. Doesn’t mean someone can’t, though?”
“Nah bro, the AnteUp ship has sailed,” David said, shaking his head. “I’m not working with him anymore, not after everything that’s happened lately.” He reached for his glass and held it in his hand for a moment, watching the golden liquid slosh around the glass. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t start again from the ground up…” he finished before draining the rest of the rum in one, placing the glass down to grab the bottle to pour himself a refill. He noticed both Lucas and Matty looking at him in surprise as he put the bottle back down. “What?”
“You want to start again?” Matty asked, looking wide-eyed at the admission. “After all the work it took to get AnteUp off the ground, you want to do it all over again?!”
“I do,” David admitted, nodding his head. When he knew his time was nearly up in the business, before his ‘retirement’ he was now looking at it as, David knew all too well that what he really wanted was to pass his knowledge on to others, to help them get the advantages that were afforded to him when Trip took him under his wing all those years before. And even since his return, David had continued to give his all in classes he taught, wanting to do right by those who paid to attend classes at AnteUp. It was those kids who kept him there, even when he’d love to have walked away from Tommy and their business partnership much earlier… and selling everything would afford him an opportunity to do so again! “Selling up is going to bring my time at AnteUp to a close… but it doesn’t have to end my time as a teacher, does it? And sure, I could find another school to work out of, or even just volunteer somewhere once or twice a week, but that wouldn’t feel the same bro, it wouldn’t be anywhere near as special as running my own place. Selling up could allow me to do that, to open somewhere myself a little closer to home. I’ve been thinking about this since I told Tommy to go fuck himself. Plus I already know you and Britt both said you were going to walk the minute I sold up, and I don’t want to leave you guys without a job, so if I can get something going then I can make sure you’re both still employed…”
“Jesus, you have been thinking about this,” Lucas said, clearly impressed. “If it were me, I’d have just been avoiding the freedom…”
“But I’m not free yet dude,” David explained. “I’ve been going in still like nothing’s changed, because those kids are paying to be there, paying for an education, and they deserve better than for me to wash my hands of the place, leaving them high and dry…”
Lucas and Matty let those words sink in; Matty obviously knew that David had been back since the argument, had hadn’t stopped working there, he’d picked up the slack in some regards, but the big picture was still one that took some thinking about. Lucas’ brow furrowed as he thought though, as an idea hit him. “You know mate,” he said hesitantly, being cautious. “You wouldn’t necessarily need to go it alone if your mind’s set on what you want to do…”
Now it was David’s turn to be confused and he looked at Lucas hoping that the brit would explain what he meant. It didn’t seem forthcoming though. “The hell you talking about, bro?” he asked.
“I’m saying that if you want it… I’d be willing to put some of my money to good use too,” Lucas explained, sitting up a little straighter in his chair and leaning out to grab the bottle of rum from the table, which he helped up as if it was exhibit A in a courtroom. “See this, bruv? This exists because we both got rat arsed at Jason’s bar and ended up deciding to go into business together. Infamously Dangerous, a company that exists solely because we were drunk and thought it was a good idea, and we came out with this. Fighting Spirit rum. But Infamously Dangerous is a brand name, right?” he said, turning to look at the label, the name written across the top of it in bright colourful letters. “But it doesn’t need to be a brand built around just this stuff,” he said, placing the bottle back down on the table. “AnteUp had a good run… but if you’re adamant that you’re starting again mate, then why not build something new under the Infamously Dangerous umbrella? Right here in LA, downtown maybe, I dunno. Infamously Dangerous Wrestling Academy or something, I dunno… we can come up with a name later, that doesn’t matter as much as the plan in general anyway. I’ll buy into your vision if you want the money. Fifty-fifty, you and me, same deal as you had with Tommy, just less bullshit going on between us because I’ve not got my head jammed firmly up my arse like he has. Worth thinking about at any rate…”
And it was. In truth, David hadn’t even considered the idea of a business partner on his continued journey to impart wisdom on those who intended to follow in his wake, the only conclusion he had reached was that he flat out refused to let the breakdown of his friendship with Tommy sour him on the business of teaching the next generation. If anything, that spurred him on, because it gave him motivation to do even better than he had at AnteUp, to go the extra mile and truly help mold the next generation of stars, without the interference of his former best friend, throwing his weight around. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the idea though, not after things had soured with Tommy; was he really going to smother himself in grease before jumping from the frying pan into the fire? He was having to quit on one partnership because of internal disputes and arguments, was he really going to jump right into starting another one? At the same time, Lucas made a great point. Infamously Dangerous was becoming a recognisable brand now, thanks in no part to the large number of wrestling fans that were buying and recommending the rum to their friends and family, but also because of the sponsorships that David and Lucas had arranged, sponsoring both the God Of Wrestling and Tag Team tournaments Adam Allocco had organised. It was a brand. And it was definitely something to consider, because he and Lucas were definitely on the same page these days, more so than he and Tommy had been for the last eighteen months, that was for sure. “Definitely an idea worth thinking about bro,” David admitted as he let the thought run through his mind a little. There were pros and cons to consider, and it wasn’t something he was going to commit to either way just yet, but it was definitely something that could work out, given Lucas’ own history in the business. Whether he’d want to be involved in the teach or whether it was just a business venture for Lucas, David didn’t know, but those kind of questions could be addressed down the road anyway. It wasn’t as if this was something David planned to do overnight anyway, this was something he definitely needed to wait on until the sale of his half of everything Next Level had gone through… but it was definitely food for thought.
And Lucas could see that the cogs were turning in David’s head as he re-filled all three glasses on the table before sitting back with his own. “Not expecting an answer this minute, for what it’s worth mate,” the Brit said, as he prepared to take a drink of his rum. “But it doesn’t hurt to have options… not sure of your hiring policy if you’re gonna hire this arsehole though,” he added, gesturing to Matty with a wink. “We may need to address that down the line if you decide to take me up on the offer.”
“Not so sure I want to go from one egocentric asshole boss to another, anyway, brah…” Matty added, winking back at Lucas who chuckled at the shots fired. “But if you are seriously thinking about this Dave,” the Bostonian said, turning to Helms. “Then you know I’m there the minute the option is available. I started working at AnteUp because we’re bro’s, and unlike Tommy I don’t throw away years worth of friendship. You tell me where to be and I turn up, you know that…”
“And if you’re gonna need trainers, I reckon Ivy would fancy the gig regardless of whether I’m involved,” Lucas added. “From what I’ve heard, she’s there half the week at the minute anyway, helping Kath with her training… getting paid for it would probably be a nice bonus for her.”
“And Britt already said she’s done when you sell,” Matty added. “Aaron I doubt keeping working there either, even if he was doing it more to keep busy than actually working. Suppose his new GCW deal may change that, but he won’t stay at AnteUp I bet.”
“Yeah, it’s a lot of upheaval,” Dave said, sighing. “That’s the one thing that makes me question whether I’m doing the right thing, how much this fucks with the students… I know most of them will stick around, but I worry that some won’t. And the dirt rags spreading the story around also troubles me; how many students got put off by that shit?”
“Well, a clean start will hopefully fix that brah,” Matty told him, getting behind the idea even if it had taken him by surprise originally. “And if or when you get your new school up and running, I’m pretty sure there’ll be plenty of people signing up, just as there was at AnteUp. And whether it’s you guys together or you alone, I think a toast is in order either way. To new starts?”
David and Lucas picked their glasses up and spoke more or less in unison. “To new starts” Lucas said enthusiastically.
“To new starts,” David echoed and the three men drank to the idea, regardless of how the end result would look once the sale had gone through and David was free to plan for the future. He wasn’t sure himself what it would look like, but wasn’t life like that anyway? Ten years earlier, he thought his future would involve Kathryn and maybe a couple more kids of their own. Five years ago, he thought his future involved quiet retirement and running AnteUp and whatever other business ventures he would be involved in. He hadn’t imagine, in twenty-twenty, that he would be out of retirement and would be the latest winner of the battle royal at Taking Hold of the Flame, so what was the point in trying to predict what was to come? But whether it be with Lucas, with anyone else, or by himself, it was good to have some sort of plan going forward. Now he just had to wait for the accountant to work out an actual price in agreement with the broker David had hired in order to sell his stake in all things Next Level Inc. And then the ball was in Tommy’s court. If Tommy missed the volley then someone would step in, and David had to admit, he didn’t really care who. He just wanted out. And then maybe he’d get the clean start he craved. Now he just had to turn the desire into reality...
