Kim sat in her office, quietly filing away paperwork from the latest registrants. Tommy had more students than she imagined when she took the job three months ago and she was starting to see that some classes were overly full. Tommy had told her from day one that this would happen and that they'd have to shuffle classes. Now she was staring at it and from looking at the instructors he had, this was going to be a stretch with his current staff. She added instructor interviews to her 'to do' list and then went over to the whiteboard in her office. This was going to take a lot of time.
"Kim…ber…ly," Ella said as she peaked her head into the office and saw the complete chaos that surrounded her. "We had some more people sign up this afternoon."
"Shit," Kim muttered as she looked at the forms and then up at the wall. These seven students completely destroyed the plan she had made. "Has he ever stopped registrations before?"
"No, but we could all use a month pause. It's gotten really hectic lately," Ella said as Kim nodded and she let out a sigh. That was something she would have to take to Tommy and she didn't know if it was something that he would accept, but she also knew that they needed a pause to get things straightened out. "I don't know how he did this by himself."
"I'm starting to think he didn't…" Kim muttered as Ella laughed and she grimaced. She had not meant to say that out loud. She had spent the first two months just organizing things and she was starting to feel like she was not treading water anymore, but this was something that they needed. "A wait list may be a good place to start."
"Yeah, Tommy isn't great about waiting," Ella said as Kim smiled. Ella had no idea many of the things that Tommy was having to wait on right now and he was being far more patient than she had ever imagined he would be. She also knew that Ella had a good point that he might not be able to be patient about anything else.
"Leave it to me, I think I can convince him." Ella walked out of her office and she slumped into her chair. Tommy was absolutely horrible at this part of the business and she wondered how he had even kept things going until now.
"Dr. O!" Kira called as Tommy stopped in the parking lot and looked back at her. He had a tight schedule today, but Kira didn't normally track him down after school. "I've got a show this weekend- I thought you and the family could come."
"The family?" Tyler asked as Kira froze and looked between the two teachers. Dr. O hadn't told the other teachers about his family? Why wouldn't he tell them? "When did you get a family?"
"Ty- it's a long story and not for today," Tommy said as Tyler gave him a confused look and Tommy let out a sigh. "Next game night- I'll explain."
"Good, because I have to hear this story," Tyler said as he hopped into his car and Kira cringed as she looked back at Dr. O.
"It's fine. They're all going to find out eventually and I'll see what Kim has planned- it's her weekend with Ollie," Tommy said as Kira let out a sigh. "What?"
"You like splitting time like this?" Kira asked and Tommy glared at her before just pointing for her to go away. He knew that she didn't mean anything by it, but he also knew that he couldn't really think about that right now. She was right though- he was not happy with splitting time with his son this way.
"How did registrations go?" Tommy asked as he breezed by Kim at the front desk and she fell into step with him. She was quiet for a moment and he looked down at her. The look on her face was not one that he particularly liked seeing, she needed to talk with him. "Kim?"
"I think we need to start a wait list and give the staff a couple of months to settle in with these students. The class sizes are getting unmanageable and I had a new schedule worked out and then 10 more registrations came in and shot it to shit," Kim stated as they walked into his office and she closed the door behind her. Tommy grabbed his gi and started changing as she settled down in the chair across from him. There were all sorts of lines that Tommy crossed with her that he never crossed with another female employee, but he just didn't see the lines with her. She had seen him naked more than anyone else in the world.
"I don't work on a waitlist construct," Tommy said as Kim crossed her arms and stared at him as he continued to strip in front of her.
"Oh I am well aware of the things that you don't work under. It's taken me two months to get through all the paperwork that you had just strewn around and during that time I've seen how you consistently have registrants that just start, at any time. Quarterly sign ups with a waitlist could still get people in here in a reasonable amount of time, but also give you time to add staff and change class schedules. Are you even aware that your most popular adult class is at 5am but the teacher for that class is super close to being burned out? Or that a bunch of moms come every Thursday at 9am with their toddlers and that would be a great time to do a mommy and me class?" Kim asked as she stood up and backed him into a corner. He continued tying his gi as he smirked down at her. He was going to give in to her, but he was more than a bit amused by how she was acting right now. "Do not give me that look, Tommy Oliver."
"Tommy…" Alex threw open the door to his office and found them standing just a bit too close for his comfort. Neither of them moved away and Kim just turned back to look at him. She wanted to get back to berating Tommy for how he'd run this dojo. "We need an extra hand with the 4 o'clock class."
"See?" Kim said as she spun back around and Tommy smiled down at her. She had definitely been the right choice for this job. She was the only person he knew that would not back down from him on something like this. "When can I start?"
"Beginning of the month. That will give us long enough to notify current students who are thinking about bringing a friend or parents who are thinking about enrolling a second child so that they can do that before we go to this quarterly system," Tommy said as he looked over at Alex and saw how uncomfortable he was. "I think we're making him uncomfortable."
"Why?" Kim asked as she looked back at Alex and then looked between the two of them. "Fine. I'm out for the evening- Ollie's bus should have just dropped him off. He wants to do something with you this weekend- so think about that."
"Okay," Tommy said as he stopped himself from giving her a hug and she gave him a look, but then turned and went out of his office.
"What is it between you two?" Alex asked as Tommy let out a shaky breath and just shook his head. "Oh no- you've ridden all of our asses about dating each other and now you're acting like this. She's been here for two months and now you're hanging out with her son?"
"Our son," Tommy clarified as Alex froze as Tommy walked past him. "You do have a good point, Alex. I'll make sure to cover it in the monthly staff meeting tomorrow."
"Holy shit," Alex whispered before he turned and jogged off after Tommy. That was not what he expected to hear when he had confronted Tommy on this. "Dr. O has a kid."
"What is this?" Kim asked as she walked into the conference room the next day and Tommy looked up at her. She held up the agenda and pointed to the last item. "Explain Kimberly?"
"Alex pointed out that they didn't know Ollie was our child yesterday," Tommy said as Kim gave him a look that clearly said he had fucked up. "I didn't think about it when I brought you on and it hasn't really come up."
"Who the hell did they think he was calling dad off and on this entire time?" Kim paced on the other side of the table from him and he let out a sigh. She was right. Someone should have put that together and said something earlier. "Tommy."
"I know. This is on me." Tommy stood up and walked around the table and grabbed both of her arms. She stilled and looked up at him. He hoped that she could see how sorry he was about this and how he knew that some people were treating her poorly because they didn't understand their history. "I've got a lot of people to tell and I'm not doing a good job with this. Other than my parents- I don't know that I've told anyone else."
"Do not tell Ollie that." Kim pulled away from him as the door opened and she hugged her arms to herself, trying to find some kind of comfort. This brought up so many triggers for her that she didn't even have a chance to talk with him about right now- the least of which being that he was embarrassed about her, about their child.
"Give us five." Tommy said as he didn't take his eyes off of her and she glanced up to see that the instructors weren't moving. They seemed to all be a mixture of concerned and curious about what was going on between the two of them. "Five minutes- it's on me."
Tommy waited as he heard feet shuffle out, but he kept his focus solely on Kimberly. He could see the hurt and that was something that was far more important to deal with than starting this meeting on time.
"I don't know how to do this Kim and I'm trying to fix it. By telling the staff here and telling my co-teachers, but…" Tommy trailed off as he noticed the tears streaming down her face and he looked down at the floor for a moment before looking back up at her. He could handle almost anything except tears.
"I'm trying really hard to stay with you on this, Tommy. But it just feels like…are you that embarrassed of us?" Kim forced out and he hastily shook his head as he wrapped her in his arms. He didn't realize how much he had messed up until now, because that was not further from the truth.
"It's not that. Not even close," Tommy said as he pulled back enough where she could look at him. He needed her to see him when he said this. "I didn't think about how things changed outside of us, because I was only focused on us. I'm sorry that I didn't do this sooner, but I'm trying to fix it now."
"I'm going to go wash my face and I'll be right back," Kim said as Tommy nodded. He knew that this was a much longer conversation for her, but they didn't have time for it at the moment. He then watched her walk out of the door where all of his instructors stood waiting and he was impressed with her bravery. He didn't know how she was doing that with an obviously tear stained face. The other instructors glared at him as they filed in and it was then that he knew that he was not just in trouble with her. He also knew that his instructors were now more loyal to their GM than to him and that was alright in his book.
"What did you do?" Ella asked as she was the first one to recover her voice and Tommy had the good sense to look ashamed. It helped that he actually was ashamed of what he had done. "Tommy Oliver- that woman does not deserve you being an asshole to her."
"I know and I agree and I'm trying really hard to just set things right." Tommy looked up as Kim walked back in and he saw she had just removed her makeup, but otherwise looked mostly normal. "I think we should start with the last agenda item."
"Yeah," Kim agreed as she took her seat and just stared across the room. She was not going to help him with this, because she barely knew what he wanted to talk about.
"I fucked up," Tommy stated as every single staff member looked up and stared at him. He had messed up on things before and owned it, but he had never said those words before. He took a deep breath as he looked over at Kim and saw that she wasn't able to meet his gaze. "Kimberly and I have a son together. I should have told all of you as soon as I hired her here, but I'm still getting used to the idea of being a dad. Not that that is an excuse…I don't mean to make excuses…I just…I wanted to focus on being there for them. I didn't realize that I so completely left out telling anyone until this week. So yeah, I fucked up."
"But you don't date staff," April said as Tommy nodded and she looked over at Kimberly. "But you are dating her."
"It's not that simple."
"No."
"We're figuring out a lot of stuff, but the most important thing for me is how to be a good dad to Ollie. I hired Kim because she is the best person that could have come in to do this job. And probably the only person in the world that'll tell me that I'm being a stubborn asshole and that I should 100% do blocks of registration instead of having open registration all the time," Tommy said as he glanced around at the instructors and saw all of them look away. Of course, they had also brought that idea to her instead of him. "I don't know how not to be anyone but who I have always been with her."
"So she's not staying?" April dug and Tommy shook his head and the rest of the staff stared at her. "I'm really confused right now."
"We don't know what we're going to be and it's really none of your business how we figure that out. The important part is that Ollie is our son and we're working to figure out how to do parenting together," Kim spoke up as they all looked over at her. She saw the shock on several of their faces and the confusion on others.
"She's going to become an equal owner of the dojo in the coming months- so that Ollie will have something no matter how things land with us," Tommy said as the staff looked between the two of them and it hit all of them. Tommy saw the looks of recognition and even the jealousy that was aimed at the both of them.
"Well that settles that," Ella said as she glared at April and April looked away. They all knew that she had had her eyes on Tommy for ages, but he had just made the one move that did let him date someone at the dojo. And she was pretty sure that the look they exchanged just now sealed it in the minds of all of the other instructors that they were both off limits.