Sleeping With the Enemy

Chapter 18: The Idea

"They don't, but your last one was." I said

"Well this one isn't, and you can take it or leave it."

"I'm listening."

"I should've thought of this sooner, but how would you like to be the CEO of my firm?" He asked

"Your firm?"

"I was thinking of opening my own law firm."

"I know nothing about law." I replied

"You don't have to know anything, it's not wholeheartedly about law when you're the CEO. If so, I'll teach you all you can know. Plus, it's my firm and I'm a licensed attorney so as long as majority of the major decisions are made by me— we'll be fine." He explained

"Wouldn't we have to have multiple offices in order for it to be need of a CEO anyway?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now we'd be worrying about where we're trying to open one up at, the costs, and everything that follows after— but first— do you like this idea? I know you said you wanted it to be your firm but on the bright side, you will still be making the same salary, and I could think of many other pluses but the top one is- you'd be working with me." He said then flashed a nervous smile.

"I like this idea. It is different for me. But, I don't want to feel like I'm taking from you or taking this opportunity from you."

"You can't be taking from me if I'm the one that put the offer out there. If I wanted this opportunity I would've taken it but for one, I can't be a CEO and attorney at the same time because what people don't know is those two have completely different duties. When people hear chief executive officer of a law firm they figure it's overseeing law work and it isn't.  It rarely grazes law works, so like I stated as long as a licensed attorney— which is I, is making the major decisions with the help of you, we'll be fine. I also like what I do, I don't want to be a CEO." He explained

"Do you like how any of this sounds?"

"Yeah... I actually do." I nodded

"I'm doing all of this explaining and talking but I don't want to be going into deep details and then you don't like this idea."

"Chris, I love the idea." I said

"Yeah, and the even brighter side is that you wouldn't have to be stuck there—well you're really not stuck anywhere but in terms of at this one, you can be the CEO here and still be working on opening something entirely different if you feel like this isn't for you. This will be a small business and you'll still be head nigga in charge but you never know if you come up with an idea and be like fuck that firm." He said with a chuckle

"Hey, It's a start, you won't be workin' wit' yo' nothing ass daddy, and you get to see my face everyday." He smiled and shrugged

"I like the sound of that."

"Alright, so tomorrow we can start fresh and start discussing the size we lookin' for, go do a lil' eye shopping in terms of some vacant buildings, stuff like that." He said

"I totally agree."

I'm excited about this.

••••
Next day

"That place wanted entirely too much for only 5 spaces." I said as I laid my phone down

"How much?"

"$2.88 per square feet a month."

"Oh— so how much square feet is available?" He asked

"One hundred seventy five thousand square feet." I said

"Damnnn- first of all those five spaces must be large as hell.. secondly, thats..." He said and pulled out his calculator and started dramatically pressing numbers.

He raised his eyebrows, "fi-five hundred four thousand."

"But when you look at the pictures, the offices are pretty huge. You get 5 spaces but it's 35,000 square feet per space, so more than one office can be on each of those spaces." I explained

He stared at me in confusion, "We gone come back to that one, okay, let's work our way down a lil bit." He said

"Okay, I found another place. They actually listed their prices here online," I paused

"Wait, we need an entire building— not a commercial building, not a piece of someone else's business while they got the other two floors— an entire building." Chris said

"That's going to be more than how much those five spaces were."

"That's why we're going to get something thats the perfect size, and we're going to get a place that needs to be remodeled— opposed to leasing out a small space, or leasing out something that is already decked out and furnished and belongs to someone else." he explained

"What do you mean by needs to be remodeled? Like how much "need to be remodeled" are we talking?"

"I'm talking a boarded up building that got shut down because of them not paying their taxes, with the water termination paper stuck to the wood over the windows and the vines growing all over the building. That has the for rent sign in the messy grass and the number you can call." He said

"So much visualization... but I know a lot of those spots." I said

"I do too. It'll be better to pay someone some hundreds to get their building and just remodel it to our liking. We got the money for it, don't we? And that's the best plan yet, right?" He asked

"Yeah, It makes most sense. Instead of paying over thousands to lease a space a month, and sharing someone else's business." I replied

"Two great minds think alike." He said and gave me a high five.

Ria ✍🏽