Gym Bitch

1 - New Year, Same Problems

It had been magical during Christmas, with its rambling, cobblestone streets meandering around countless red-roofed half-timber houses and ancient buildings. The thin blanket of snow had been creaking under their feet as they'd drunk their mulled wine and listened to the holiday music in the town's square.

"Anyway," Mark realized he'd been talking a while, "how did you spend the holiday?"

"Here." Ent didn't realize how sad that sounded, but his best friend didn't miss it. "It was packed all week! We had to start taking reservations."

"Sounds good for the profits," Mark laughed. "I was looking over the records this morning... It's not looking good."

"It's not ideal," Ent protested, "but it's working. We're in the green."

"Barely! You need to do something, you're spending too much."

"I won't sell lower quality alcohol because of your spreadsheets." Ent rolled his eyes so far back that they could've gotten stuck in his skull.

"Then raise prices! It's not sustainable for you to have a 10% profit on most items on the menu." He explained again as if he hadn't been saying the exact same thing for years now. "It's barely covering bills. You're one flood away from filing for bankruptcy."

"I'm not raising the prices either! This bar gives back to the community. I won't allow it to turn into another overpriced "luxury" place the rich occupy and start demanding they choose who can come into!" Ent had also been giving the same speech every time they started the topic.

"You're selling 1st class products for 3rd class prices."

"I'm selling the quality the community deserves for the prices they can afford!" Ent was really close to shutting the laptop. This conversation was not productive.

"It's not sustainable," was all his friend said. He understood Ent's passion and would go to the ends of the Earth to figure out a way to help.

"I'll find a way," Ent said more so to himself.

"Look into new suppliers. Or a bigger warehouse so you can order larger quantities for cheaper." He suggested before adding, "I need to go now. Gym at 3?"

"Yes."

The rest of the day went as expected, sitting in his office paralyzed in fear because so many people depended on him. He didn't know what way to find or even where to start.

Sometimes he wished he'd just accepted the straight-outta-uni job offer at the company, where Mark worked, instead of starting his own business. It'd been 4 years and things weren't improving. His profits were barely higher than the ones during the first year.

He'd funneled all of his savings into this place, on top of a loan he had refinanced twice.

If only he was rich. He could've used that money to make a difference, not to pay the Dutch government to destroy a historical bridge so his yacht could fit; or risking to leave a million people without water because he'd pay to use the natural resources for his electric car production.

This world was becoming a terrible place to be in and he wanted to be a beacon of calmness, where people could go to forget about inflation, crises, and the aftermath of end-stage capitalism in Germany and the rest of the world.

The 5 hours flew by extremely quickly and he found himself biking to the gym.

It was a private establishment in the center, where people had to be checked before they were allowed to become members. It made Ent sad to have been forced to use his connection to Mark to jump the queue, but it was the only solution that made sense.