Another club member runs into the doctor's waiting room that Frankie led us to. The woman in the drab but fancy grays without an emblem on her chest hands over a second red envelope. It joins the unopened red envelope from earlier. And the leather folder, which I really needed to read.

"Ok?" I say to Toni. I've always trusted my vibe. I may not always follow the good sense of the vibe but I've always trusted it. When we were both in kindergarten Toni was with the girl girls while I was playing in the dirt, making farms. It was a little lonely but fun. I'd dig in my pocket for dandelion seeds then plant them. While girls were making fun of me because I was dirty. But Toni told them to shut up and stop hanging out with them after. I trusted my vibe even though I've had someone before fake being my friend to make fun of me later. Something about Toni, she was who she was even then. I've always wanted to be like that. To be so foundationally sound. Maybe that was because she had an older brother and I didn't. It's hard to have older siblings and not know who you are. It causes nothing but trouble and you either are majorly undermined or you build yourself up. And Toni, she built a palace within her soul. Even as a child I could see it. She was who she was, she was the vibe check.

And.... well. I trust my vibe.. And my vibe was telling me this luxury gym, these people in all these outfits. This spacious, beautiful waiting room. All of it said the vibe wasn't all it seemed.

Trust the vibe...

Brown eyes a bit darker than mine made eye contact with me. Toni, and returned the quick look. And without saying it aloud, I said it loudly. Vibe check is off. I didn't get an agreement back from her but I wanted her to know. My WTF lights were on now. If something happens. I'm blaming her this time. I deal with all types of animals on the farm, and ranching. Vibe checks are life and death for me. Cows kill more people than mountain lions. Hell, you can combine all the predator kills per year. Guess what? Bees and cows will still come out on top with more kills per year.

I live and die on my vibe. And my spidey senses going off like crazy.

Frankie handed me a leather folder earlier. The heavy leather was weighty in my hand with the two red envelopes and everything with wax seals. The seal on the leather folder had the gym's streamlined Art déco logo on it. And even though the seals design had something older to it, a quite elgance. The wax seal still manage to have this sharp modern urbaneness to it. I open up the leather folder first and it has the job brief but extended again. I wonder if they realize that if you extend it's four times more expensive because Toni doesn't play? But of course they must have read the contract. Plus, every time she bill update it clears. I kept reading the brief and flipped to the rules of the club and requirements. As I go over it's not the agreed idea. One it would take a lot longer than six months to pull off. It had to have at least a year and done in phases. Maybe more than a year to really see it through.

The Castle Luxury Gym Resort is huge. It's a big move to be more self-reliant. Extreme community self-reliance. An expansion of the compound, sewer, and more. Almost like a micro community in the middle of nowhere northern California. That isn't a little job. Also, since they hire so few people to bring on the grounds of the gyms. The members of the gym would have to be taught how to do all the jobs so it would have to be set up turnkey. More thought put in about it, the more my vibe gets weird tingles. The Castle is basically like its own little town, for and by members. But I stop myself from thinking about it more and hand the leather folder to Toni instead.

It was time for the red envelope; I pop open the wax seal inside another check that shows the deposited amount. It's ten times the original price quote, and it felt as impossible as monopoly money. That isn't even the stupid money Toni was charging that's like...

Toni has that dollar sign in her eye but I don't think she spots the problem. This is the largest job we have ever done. How do you make a modern castle work? Pictures of the whole thing I flip through. I'd have to get most of this done tonight just to be prepped for the rest. And get the ball rolling before I even get there.

She swoops on to that check like a hawk after a rabbit. Took a picture of it with her phone. Pop that into the payable app. Then she stuck the print version folded into her bra fast as fuck. And seconds later I hear the bank text ting of deposit. She doesn't even look at me and walks away with the leather folder. Her phone in hand calculating and probably reworking her billing at the same time. I have a deep respect for Toni, I'd probably be in a cycle of giving it away for free.

Over 10,000 acres to design mostly to my spec. To make work, I've dreamt about something like this most of my life. When we were too poor to buy land and farm. So, I made use of every single inch to make gardens and micro pastures.

My mother told me I was like a rose growing in concrete. And true to what she called me I've always been planting. Even as a child. Making anything grow even if I had to bust through concrete to see those green leaves. Then the green followed by the red red bloom of a tender flower bud. I'd probably be doing this for next to nothing or free if it wasn't for Toni. Which would any future dream I had to make anything impossible, lacking the capital to do it.

I was mid thought on the second thought of, how do you make a modern castle work? The door to the side room swung open soundlessly and the woman from the meeting came in. She picked up the lab coat from the hook to cover her elegant dress. Up close she was even more striking than from the meeting room. Her jasmine scent fills the narrow hallway. Wasn't close enough in the meeting to smell. Floral, with a hint of sweet mystery on it. The kind where a person leans in to figure it out. Then A man follows after her already in a white lab coat. On the badge, it reads Dr. Ryu Hee and her badge reads Dr. Gabriela Cabot.

"Hello, call me Gabriela," she says smoothly. Dr. Gabriela Cabot is no less stunning up close than she was back at Hadrian's meeting room. If anything, she looks more like the San Francisco fly over New York socialite type up close. Not a single hair is out of place. Not a single crease in her look. If she took it off she's ready for a perfect wifey photoshoot in some architecture magazine in the big city.

"-every prospect to a member gets a physical before stepping on main grounds. It's for insurance purposes." She cuts into my thoughts. It was in the original paperwork but I guess I didn't realize. I never saw someone like her possibly checking me over. And I felt uncomfortable about it. The way she touched Hadrian bubbled painfully under my skin. Even though we are one and done, it still bothered me.

"Who goes with who?" Dr. Rye asks, his steady clear eyes more comfortable than either me or Toni. The man gave me a break from my rumbling emotional spin cycle. And I finally checked out the older asian man. He was steady and dependable with long hair and a gray beard, probably in his late 50s. And if I had a tiny bit of good sense I'd go with him instead of Gabriela, no short nick name given. Curiosity had me heading to Dr. Gabriela's door and her golden name plaque. I want to know more. Maybe it's the snoop in me that overcame my apprehension. I really shouldn't but I needed to know more. And my eyes were as wide open as ever in this unfamiliar place.

I followed her into her examination room. My eyes lock on a picture of a young around sixteen-year-old Hadrian and a young Dr. Gabriela. Some pictures on yachts with the young brother's both Mr. Joker and Mr. Nice Guy. They were about a 12-year-old version with her in the middle. More pictures of her with Hadrian getting older after maybe around seventeen or eighteen. It felt less like a bunch of friendly pictures with mostly Hadrian and a few friends. More like she's peeing all over what's hers. What have I got in the middle of? I get undressed and into the gown as quickly as possible and she goes through all the moves. Taking blood, testing, and filling out the paperwork. She had a file on me and it was growing.

"Are you on birth control or any medications?" She asks in just a hint of a Mid-Atlantic accent. It's the way New York and San Francisco socialites kind of sound like. Almost like they are from upper class England but not. Very coastal elite, but not mean about it.

"What?" I squeaked

"Medications like birth control?

"Oh, yes, that shot that lasts 12 weeks, that's all. I had a shot three weeks ago."

"Good...Good," she kept checking over my file. "Everything looks wonderful. Clothes for your stay," I put my clothes back on. She heads back and grabs two fancy wrapped boxes full of clothes. Riding clothes, martial arts clothes, swimming clothes, basketball clothes, and more. You name the sport it's in there. So many outfits in that box. She was one hundred percent professional.

"The STD results should show up on your phone in less than 2 hours so we can rush the results." She says completely professional. I'm not sure why I thought perfect Gabriela should know me. Know what Hadrian and I did. Even surrounded by the pictures of him from about sixteen to adulthood. A monument to the friendship she has with these men. And even a few of Mr. Midnight. But not as much as these men. Almost like they were family or maybe more. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask more. To damn myself trying to be more than a 1 and done. To see if there was more and maybe she wasn't interested. But just by the ways he moved near him I knew that she wasn't a cousin. No, just by the teen pictures some in bathing suits sitting in laps and flirting. She was more, and that more wasn't anything I understood.

Unless...... Unless I asked.

"No," I answer a little lost as she walks me to the changing room. Answered the wrong question aloud instead of the one she was actually saying. Damn. So, lost in my own thoughts. "I mean, ok, thank you." She hands the second box to Toni who is waiting outside the changing room.

"First evaluation is equestrian riding. I'll be waiting for you. Frankie and George will see you to the area." She tells me.

Entering the changing room I open the box and pull out the horse riding clothes. As the door closes after the woman, an electronic horse is behind her. Then the door closes leaving me alone in the room. Inside the box English riding breeches, boots, starched dress shirt, gloves, white necktie. Right... I go for the pants first and take off mine. I try to bring the breeches up. It stops at my butt. Then I lay down on the floor, lift my legs and try jamming myself into it. The tan breeches make a dying cow sound as they move a quarter inch up my thick thighs. I try to pull them down with a hard tug. They aren't moving. Roll around on the ground like an inchworm. But the breeches wail in agony while trying to off. I feel like an overfull burrito.

God, I hope the changing room has no cameras. My eyes scan the room while I lay on the ground as stuck and roped up as any heifer cow. It's so embarrassing my skin warms, and I think my butt cheeks would even be blushing at this point. Ok, lets try... I rock back and forth then bend. Thank god I keep up on my color guard dancing exercises. The flexibility from flag dance doesn't help me now though but I could have hurt myself trying to get out of the riding breeches. Everytime I think of a way to get out of these pants it's like I'm a supervillain being thwarted in my attempts to escape. The chances of me living down this butt burrito situation is getting slimmer by the second. My super villain name Butt Burrito, ready to throw it back meaty. Maybe this is a sign, of things. I attempted to put these riding breeches on without abandon. Jumping into something without really looking at it.

Omg, Ke, does your mind really have to have a mental existential moment while rolling around on the ground. And calling yourself Butt Burrito as a supervillain name bent on world domination? I berate my brain. But.... hey these cakes... they are worthy of world domination. Good job on that mental pat on the back. I'm proud of you for that confident moment. Now is the time to give up, and brazen out the shame moment. Yup, Ke brain your right.

"Toni," I yell. She walks into the dress room and laughs. It's not a short I'm your best friend laugh. It's a long cackle, this is insane, moment. Like when you're blackout drunk and someone sticks a finger down your throat so you puke and don't choke. Or when your friend takes pictures of her vagina rash in panic expecting you to look. Then your both left with the can't unsee it what the fuck is this. It was that type of moment that should be a polite laugh and never talk about this again. Followed by caring, instead I got a mad witches cackle.

As I rolled over to make eye contact with my betraying best friend. Full double eye brows up, our brown eyes met.

"I guess she didn't know we had asses." She holds up her rip breeches and I laugh so hard I hear a loud rip. "Shit," Toni, spews out another round of mad witch cackle and I join her.

"Help," she gets with me on the floor. Toni grabs the breaches and pulls the other way. Then ingloriously with a pop, I crawl out of them. It took awhile to calm down but when we both did. We were left with questions.

"What the fuck are we doing on this job? This isn't us." I ask her. I ride, yes but western saddle. Mostly, for work. English equestrian richy rich stuff wasn't us.

"Give it a try if you feel uncomfortable we can back out of this part of the contract. It won't be good for our reputation but The Castle contract already made major changes to the brief. So, it's doable. It's your call," Toni says.

I sigh and nod my head, Toni was right. We could easily sew up something together with Ava that would match and fit. I was freaking out, but it wasn't because of this problem it was mostly because of the pictures on the wall. The way they look so friendly and how she was in all of them. And the way she was looking at Hadrian in them. I know the look of a woman staring at a man with her whole damn heart. And I'm just worried that I wronged her or that maybe the uncertainty is driving me a bit nutty. I had to do something. I nodded again, coming up with a plan. My mind didn't do well with uncertainty and I was going to do something about it.

We put on the basketball shorts in the other box . One more hug for the road, and we will go to take the riding test together. Plus, anything else for The Castle sign ups. I rush in for the hug, wrapping my arms around her in the mirror of our childhood. Her warmth circled me back.

We can do this.

And, if I repeat it enough, maybe we can get through this and get the bag.

A/n: see yall soon. Second repair to the next bathroom coming. I'll try and show yall before and after.