Meeting Marshall Mathers: The Later Years

Working the weeks away.

The following two weeks at work without Karlie had been ridiculously busy, I'd been run off my feet with meetings, our partnership with Peloton was soaring and attracting so much new business. We'd got with the times and branched out onto social media which was the main source of what was to blame for me not stopping, my social media rep had me doing all sorts around the studio and apparently on the app TikTok, people were going crazy for me and wanting to see me do more tutoring on dance moves and more fashion hauls from our active wear range. Profits were coming in thick and fast from our range of protein supplements, gym items and fashion range and there was insane demand of new students wanting to join our dance academy in the US and in London too. We had a waiting list of 3 years!
It was truly a dream but I needed more man power, I needed to take some heat off my heels and I needed more staff and more outlets, one deal that was gonna see our revenue go through the roof was for a shop on the notorious Fifth Avenue, our high fashion sportswear was in demand now more than ever before no doubt thanks to a few of our latest celebrity endorsements, we had a paid partnership with JLO, Beyoncé and Rihanna. 
As I sat enjoying lunch in my office I took a moment to truly appreciate just how far my international business had flourished. All from opening one studio and investing all of my passion into something I so deeply loved. The saying goes if you work a job that you love then you'll never work a day in your life, and it was true. I mean... yes it was fucking tough and I was constantly on the go, but nothing in life that came easy was worth having. I'd never turn in to work miserable, and hopefully it was the same for my staff who reaped so many company benefits. There was never any complaints to HR, or any internal investigations needed for discrimination or harassment, myself and Karlie had worked ourselves into the ground to ensure the health and happiness of our staff.

"Boss?" Brooke poked her head around my office door,

"I hate it when you call me that" I smiled as I waved her in,

"I just wanted to ask something if I may?"

"Sure, take a seat, do you want a coffee or?"

"No, no I'm good, I've just got off my lunch"

"Is everything okay?" I watched her body language, she looked nervous as she played with her freshly manicured nails,

"You know when... we had that team briefing at the beginning of the year, and we was running over company policies and so on?"

"I sure do"

"Well there was something you said along the lines of.. if anybody was in need of financial aid that there is an option of taking out a loan out through the company?"

"Mhm..." I took a sip of my fruit infused water,

"I'm.." she started to cry!

"Hey, hey" I walked around my desk and gave her a hug for support before taking a seat next to her,
"We're a family here Brooke. And if you need support we can offer that to you. Confidential support that is. What's gone on?"

"I don't want you thinking I'm high risk for bribery with our clientele"

"Don't be so silly! Brooke that's ridiculous, cmon, talk to me as a friend, not your boss"

"So... I've been with my boyfriend Coryfor 2 years, we live together but everything is in my name, he was an ex-prisoner so he had literally no credit file, we was together on and off before he went to jail, I visited him like.. all the time, anyway when he got out we wanted a place of our own, my apartment wasn't ideal for the both of us, so after I landed my promotion here I took out a mortgage for a beautiful 2 bed house in the city, he agreed he would pay half the bills, 50/50 right?"