Monica's apartment luckily had two bedrooms, so we weren't going to be relegated to a couch. I never realized it, but much like Sophia, she was a lawyer too, just with a smaller practice. It made sense, since the league on its own wouldn't have been able to afford the apartment prior to the sponsorship deal. We'd called Monica when we were getting close, and by the time we got there, Tammy and Hilda were waiting at her place as well, with a load of lasagna and garlic bread. With their helping hands, we unloaded the SUV and were upstairs dishing up the food in no time.

I took the time to introduce Brooke to the girls, since she hadn't been with me here in Chicago or at the pitch, and she fit in perfectly. I mean, Brooke was likable on her own, but Tammy and Hilda were both very extroverted, and Monica was just sweet, so it was easy for us all to get along. She didn't even look a little jealous at Hilda over that kiss, for which I was grateful.

"You're both here for good now?" Hilda asked before taking a bite of the lasagna.

"Yes, we are," Brooke replied. "We're going to be looking at a few places over the next few days that will hopefully house the team and the office, so we'll have a place to live and work."

"Oh! Monica, is that what you meant when you told us we have a busy weekend?" Tammy asked excitedly.

Monica nodded while trying to quickly chew and swallow a mouthful of the cheesy goodness.

I chuckled before saving her from having to answer. "Yeah, we were hoping to get your input on the setup. Our top choice is a condo unit that went bankrupt before it started selling units. If we're lucky, we can get it and use it for offices, apartments and a host site for the competitions. No more doing it in old boxing rings. We can even use it to host a reality show to find new competitors because there will be extra rooms for people to stay in."

"That sounds perfect!" Hilda stated. "What's the problem with it?"

"There isn't a problem. It's the most expensive, but with the sponsorship we can handle a mortgage for a few years. Plus we have a lease from our ad agency, so we should offset some of the cost. They also never finished all the condos in it, so we might have to hire people to do that," I explained before taking a bite of garlic bread.

"What's the other choice?" Tammy wondered.

"The other one is a cool older factory. It's all brick for a vintage vibe, but it would take a lot of updates to make it workable. So, we'd need to find other places to do everything until it was done," Brooke replied. "But it is cheaper if we can get the construction done at a reasonable rate, and we could make it look however we liked."

"How long do you think it would take to get it finished?" Monica asked. "We'd just have to lease other space in the meantime?"

"Right," I agreed. "That space seems like it could turn out great, but it could be a couple of years before it is done."

"There aren't any other options?" Tammy seemed worried that they wouldn't have a place at all.

"Those are all the options we have to put everything under one roof," Brooke answered for us. "But there are some other places that we could use if we didn't mind spreading out. But that isn't our first choice, we like the idea of all of us being together."

"I like that too!" Hilda said excitedly while Tammy nodded in agreement.

"If we did the first one, there would be condos available for players too," I pointed out. "To either rent or buy, so that you don't have to worry about finding expensive apartments and then commuting."

"I might want that one without even looking." Tammy snorted in laughter. "I hate having to take the train!"

We all joined in on the laughter, and then spent the rest of the night talking about random things. They asked about our drive, we asked about things to do about Chicago, they asked about the Nike commercials, and we teased Hilda about the girl she was still hung up on. Tammy talked a little about girls but admitted that she was hoping to settle down and have a relationship after seeing how happy we were. Monica was looking too but hadn't had much luck. Evidently, the two of them were good friends, but didn't feel anything romantic towards each other, otherwise it would have been nice and easy.

Tammy and Hilda ended up spending the night too, with Monica giving Hilda the couch while Tammy shared her bed. No, not like that, they just slept! Hell, even Brooke and I behaved that night, not wanting to mess up Monica's sheets. We were all too polite! Once we were all up, we headed out to the first property viewing, only stopping at a place called the Eleven City Diner for breakfast first. Energized with bacon, eggs, and pancakes, I was ready to take on the day!

When we pulled up to the condo complex, I knew we had our winner. I liked the idea of the brick vintage look of the old factory, but this condo building was the complete opposite. It was more modern, with a lot of steel and glass on the lower level, and an attached parking garage that would give us residents security. The league was edgy and exciting, so this look worked for us. The rest of the girls were excited too, and I had to beg them not to act all excited inside so they wouldn't know we wanted it too much!

But it was fucking amazing. It was a five floor building, and much bigger than we'd need at first. That gave us a lot of room to grow both the team and the ad agency, so it was perfect. The ground floor had two large rooms divided by an elevator bank. One had been meant to be a weight room as an amenity for the residents, while the other was supposed to have been a banquet hall for resident parties. That meant we could keep the weight room what it was, while the other room could be where we hosted fights once we got seating for the crowd in there. The ceilings were high, so we could put in small bleachers and still have room for cameras, video screens, and everything we needed for the live streams.

The next two floors were unfinished, just empty condos that had never been finished by the developer before they went bankrupt and would make perfect offices. We could use one floor for the team and commissioner, and one floor for the ad agency. Sure, we'd need furniture and flooring, but it was a great start. The last two floors were the completed condos, and they were all nice two bedroom units, eight per floor.

It was perfect.

"How much?" I asked in a bored voice at the end of the tour.

The young lady who'd been giving the tour, Mary, smiled and looked over her listing papers. "The building can be bought from the holding company for $15.5 million. It would be more, but it was foreclosed on, and they would love to recoup that money."

"Offer $14 million," I told her. "If they accept, we can close as soon as they like." I knew it might be tight, but I had the sponsorship money plus the money from the condo sale, and money in savings too. With that as a down payment, we could finance the rest. I could make it work. I would be making money on the lease of the ad agency money as well as my salary, and I'd make that work for finishing the renovations.

Mary went to make a phone call while Brooke sidled up to me. "Kris, I'm your partner in this, right?"

"Of course. We're doing all this together."

"Then I want to pay for half of this," she informed me, making my jaw drop.

"You what?"

"If we're partners, then I want to buy half. Then we both own the building and team. I'll be getting the money back from your condo as soon as Carol closes on it, and I still have some anyway. I mean, I did pay for the condo in cash, my dad gave Bryan and I a lot when we graduated from college."

I was an idiot. I guess I'd been so used to doing everything on my own that I never stopped to consider that I could lean on Brooke for help too. She was indeed going to be my partner in every sense of the word. "Okay, we can do that. That will free up some money for renovations too."

"And I get to choose the condo we live in!" she stated. "I'm very picky."

"Fine. And then we get to buy all the furniture we like." I remembered being happy to sell all my old furniture because it had no meaning. But now, I could shop for it with a woman I loved, and we could make our condo into a true home. We'd be working downstairs, so no more sleeping in an office when I had a bed with my girlfriend in it to come back to in the evenings. This was going to be a completely new experience, and I couldn't wait to experience it with Brooke.

Mary came back with a smile and stuck out her hand. "They accepted, so the building is yours!"