The Only Way is Up

Part Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

"You cannot avoid me forever."

Maxim groaned at the text message he'd received. It didn't need a signature; he knew exactly who had contacted him, who had found him. His father rarely needed introduction.

Avoiding him wasn't working, so he knew that the time was coming, he would have to meet him, tell him once and for all that he didn't need him. Sighing he tossed his phone across the room, if it was that easy he'd have already done it.

He hated feeling this hopeless, but he knew that he had to make changes first. Retrieving his phone, he called Mike.

"Can we have that meeting now?"

There was a pause, "you're ready to invest?"

Maxim sighed, "as I'll ever be. I can't access as much as I hoped, but there's enough. Enough to do this."

It might mean he had to give up his apartment, stay at the gym for a while, but in the whole picture, that was a small price to pay.

"Can you meet at two? My office?"

Maxim hung up with a wry smile. He'd met Mike at a UFC event in Las Vegas years earlier. Maxim was there with his coach and mentor, a UFC legend. Mike and his friends were on a stag weekend, he was marrying Kim a few weeks later and had paid to have a training session with Pablo, Maxim went wherever the fighter went, and he'd been part of that day. He'd been a teenage revelation and the English men had been impressed with him. Back in Pablo's executive suite they'd eaten, drunk and partied. And at some point Mike and he had bonded, he wasn't sure looking back how it happened, but it had.

When his career fell apart, his knee not holding up to more than a jog in a straight line, Mike was who he called. Investing in his latest business venture was going to suit them both, Mike was chasing a deal that his partners weren't bothered with, they were scratching each other's backs and that made the deal SO much more palatable for Maxim, because this was a risk, but it was a personal risk for both men, and he hoped that meant it was as well researched as it could be. He needed this not to fail. Otherwise he would have very little. The remainder of his money was tied up in long term investment that he couldn't access for years.

This was it.

At half past four he stepped out into the sunshine, a smile on his face, things were moving. Mike had a plan, there would be a six month turnaround on his investment, and if that came through...then he wouldn't ever need anyone else. Until his knee injury he'd always felt he could rely on his body, his fighting, his modelling, now he couldn't do one of them, and the other made him feel sick. He never wanted to model again, and he wasn't ready to think why he felt like that.

With a spring in his stride, he headed back to his temporary home.

He entered the gym via the front door, it was the quickest route and he was sure that no one was following him, and if they were he wasn't worried any more.

Julie was on reception, he'd started to recognise some of the casual workers, but this girl was a flirt, throwing herself at him at every opportunity, and he wasn't in the mood for that.

"Hi Max." She even managed to make his name sound annoying.

He nodded, heading straight for the door to his room.

"You've got a message."

Stopping in his tracks he turned slowly, "a message?" His heart sank to his feet for all his bravado he wasn't ready to meet his father, not yet.

Julie gave a smile that didn't make it to her eyes, "Nicola called."

His sigh of relief almost deflated him, "you mean Nicole?"