Social Finance Inc., or SoFi as they're better known, paid $625 million dollars over 20 years for the naming rights to the new stadium that was home to the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers. That was a hell of a lot of money! And really, what did they get? Their name on a stadium and mentions in commercials whenever they're playing games. Still, it was a huge amount of money, and a lot more than we were expecting to get offered from Nike.

               But we were able to negotiate a damned good deal once we showed Nike the mockups of the tee shirts we already had, and saw what they could do with more, James flipped out. Twenty teams, two continents, with exclusive Nike clothing and shoe merchandise for the league and the uniforms for ten years. $2.5 million per team. Yeah, that seems low. But, with 20 teams, it was $50 million for the league in the first year, and if we expanded after a few years, then every additional team was another $2.5 million up front. We'd even get a 50% cut of the merchandise profits, and they could negotiate additional deals with the individual competitors. Hilda and Tammy already had his card, because as the last two champs, they would be prime candidates to get personal deals, and James had loved the Just Lick It merch.

Not to mention, this was just the first of the sponsors, because I was already planning on reaching out to the manufacturer of every lip balm, breath mint, toothpaste, and toothbrush manufacturer out there. We could even throw in perfume and body wash sponsors, though those might be better for individual competitors, as each one tried to use every sense to beat their opponent. For now, we would keep streaming on Twitch, but James gave us the number of a friend of his at Amazon, and we were hoping to get a streaming deal through them like they had started to do with other sports.

By the time we got back to the car to head home, we were all ready to scream in fucking jubilation. It was a great day. The only thing that would have made it perfect was if Brooke had been here.

But I hoped to tell her all about it, and soon.

"Kris, have you thought any more about owning a team?" Monica said as we hung out at the airport bar. Our flights were in the same terminal, just different gates and we'd had a few hours to kill. Tammy and Hilda had a few drinks, and I was wondering just what might happen to those flight attendants on the way home!

I had. Honestly, I think I needed to. I was having more fun growing the league than I was doing anything else, and I would love to be there when we made it big. I'd love to stand side by side with Monica and be proud of what we'd accomplished. "I have to sell my condo, but I'd love to be an owner. I might just need to crash on someone's couch for a bit, because the buy in would use up all of my reserves. Unless I took Boston, then I could move in with my cousins, since that is where my mom is from."

"No! Come to Chicago!" Hilda begged. "You can hang with us! Please?"

"Yeah! We need more cool chicks like you there!" Tammy agreed.

"What if we waived the fee for you? We'll say it is an even swap for getting the sponsorship, since I know you've been doing all this for us for free. I mean, Nike will pay your company, but you've set our whole league up for success. You've given us so much!" Monica suggested. That was a generous offer, and I could be an owner plus keep my condo money? Yeah, it was still a risk that the league wouldn't make it, but I had been willing to take that chance already by giving her my condo money, so how could I turn that offer down? And as much as I liked Boston, I had to say yes to Chicago, where these three women were. Hell, did that mean Tammy and Hilda would be on my team?

My only worry was that this was a big decision to make without talking to Brooke, but I was hoping that she'd want to go with me. Escaping her family to go to a new city might make things a lot easier for us!

"Are you two on my team if I come?" I asked.

Monica nodded. "You get to keep five players from the existing roster on your team, the rest we'll draft and help them relocate. You'll probably have the last pick in the draft though since you have these two."

"I don't care. I just like having these two crazy women around since I feel like they're going to be a blast to be with." I stated as both Hilda and Tammy smirked at me. "I don't mean to 'be with' like that!"

"Too bad baby, you should see what these tongues can do besides kiss!" Tammy said before licking her lips and then flashed me a wink to let me know she was kidding. I think?

"No sleeping with the owners!" Monica growled as she reached over and slapped Tammy's arm.

               "Damn, you're so grumpy! Can we sleep with the commissioner? Maybe take the edge off?"

               "No!"

               Yeah, I could get used to this.

               "I'm in. I'll run Chicago. I'm going to try not to bother the commissioner too much, but I'm going to need help setting up a new team location. We're going to get a nice set up!"

               "I like the sound of that!" Hilda agreed. "I can help!"

               "Me too!" chimed in Tammy.

               "Do you want me to find a place with room for your office too?" I asked Monica.

               "Yeah. At first anyway. Sooner or later, I'll have to be an independent office, but for now we need to get the league up and running before worrying about the rest."

               "Oh! Don't look for any more owners until the Nike deal is announced. After that, boost the price to $5 million. Getting that from anyone will be a piece of cake after the sponsorship is in the news, and it will reward the people that invested early."

               Monica nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, that makes sense. It will give us more money for infrastructure too. Everyone will need it."

               "Right! Now we need a name, and we need a uniform. Chicago already has the Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks, White Sox, and Cubs. So, we're not using any of those. We need something that is a killer name that we can make a cool uniform out of."

"Well Gene already said he's using KISS in LA, and the Vegas owner is using Lips. Other teams are still deciding on names themselves, so other than those, it's wide open," Monica informed me.

"The Puckers!" Tammy suggested.

"No way," Hilda said quickly. "They'll call us the fuckers instead. I don't want that!"

I had a feeling she was right. At least when we were on the road and travelling. Puckers would be a good name otherwise. And then I had an image of Tammy and Hilda entering the room today, the way they had commanded the attention of every single pair of eyeballs, as though they were holding them in the palm of their hands. "The Chicago Strut."

"Oh! Fuck yeah! I like that! With all black uniforms!" Tammy yelped.

"And red sequin heels on the ass cheeks!" Hilda agreed.

"And 'STRUT' across the chest," I added.

"Damn, you guys already have a team name and a uniform. That was fast, and I love the ideas!" Monica marveled. "I'll put that one down as taken!"

"Woohoo!" Tammy cried out. "This is going to be so awesome!"

I was thrilled at the thought, and I couldn't wait to set things in motion. Seriously, this was the kind of collaboration that I loved, and we were doing it barely knowing each other. I couldn't wait to start! "I really can't wait to work with you all. This is going to be so much fun!"

And it was. We sat around the table laughing together for another hour before their flight to Chicago boarded. We had some nice hugs, and Tammy only grabbed my butt a little, and then they were gone. It was an amazing day, and yet now that I was alone again, I could do nothing but worry about Brooke.

Carol was at the office, and keeping an eye on her, but I'd told her I couldn't talk to Brooke until she was done with Jax. I would lose my mind if I tried to talk to her while she was still married, and I was hoping she would be able to get a quick divorce with me out of the way. But that didn't mean I couldn't check in with Carol.

Me – How is she?"

Carol – Miserable. But I'm keeping Jax clear. She's pissed at him and the others. You were right about how they got her to marry him. She understands what you're doing, she just doesn't like that it is necessary.

Me – Don't leave her alone with them!

Carol - They tried taking her for lunch, but I've taken care of that. They have no idea how to look up an org chart, so they don't know who I am and that scares them. She's also sharing my hotel room with me.

Me – Tell her we won the pitch. Nike will get in touch with you tomorrow. I gave them your info since I work for you. No credit for Zach.

Carol – Great work! I knew you'd get it!

Me – Brooke helped a lot. They loved her tongue swoosh. She should be proud of that.

Carol – What will you do now?

Me – I think I'm leaving the company. Unless you want a new Chicago office?

Carol – Let me talk to the big boss. It is a possibility. The Nike win will absolutely work in your favor, it's a huge coup.

Me – That works. Thanks.

I didn't feel great. I mean, it had only been one weekend, so there was no way that Brooke could have done much. But I knew Carol would do her part to keep her safe, and that was all I wanted. In the meantime, Chicago was calling. I could set up shop there, and either open my own ad agency with the contacts I already had and a damned impressive resume, or if I was lucky, we could open a new Chicago branch of Nimbleworth away from Brooke's family. Even a small one reporting to Carol would be okay with me. I just needed something to supplement the income from the league, because I couldn't just rely on the new league to make enough money to pay all my bills yet.

But we'd get it there. It was an amazing start.

Hopefully more good things would follow.