Contract with conflicts

"Athena's pov" I sat there at my dinning room table, blankly staring at the 10 page packet in front of me. I don't know why all I had to do was sign it, me and Cade had gone through all the stipulations together but I still couldn't bring myself to sign. Nolan my business partner and my best friend sat next to me begging me not to go through with it. "Please Athena don't sign this contract. I know this guy every well, we went to same school and something tells me he's the same as before." I sighed and looked into Nolan's pleading eyes. " what's so wrong with us wanting peace between shops? Do I need to remind you that you're the reason we're in this mess? What we're you thinking? And I thought you said you two we're best friends in highschool?" He looked down at his hands breaking my eye contact and fiddled with his fingers. "Like I said we're as in used to be, but there is a reason why we or well I drifted away from being friends with him that I'm not ready to talk about." I pushed the papers away from me for a bit while I thought about this. Nolan still had his head hung down he's been avoiding having to look at me since this morning. Which is weird, usually I have to make him stop staring. Shaking my head I get up to go start a pot of coffee. He perked up at the smell of coffee. "Hey Athena, can I get a cup of that? I just love your coffee." I shook my head yes " if you tell me what Cade did to make you hate him so much." Nolan groaned "fine...i can't believe your holding coffee hostage for an explanation." I laughed and poured in some creamer to both our cups and two cubes of sugar. "How else am I going to be able find out what happened? You keep blocking me out of your mind. Sometimes I wish I could do that." He finally looked me in the eyes "its not what he did, its who he did. And that's all I'm going to tell you. Now give me that coffee." I felt that there was more to his story but none the less I handed him the steamy cup and went back to the contract. "And Athena you may wish you had my power but atlest your power can tell you when there's trouble. All I can do is block people out, that's not very helpful." Nolan reached out and grabbed my hand."atlest look over it again, I know you guys did it together but he didn't give it to you right away he reprinted it first. So he could've changed something." I nodded and did as he suggested. As I looked through all the demands or stipulations in this contract. I did find one error, one we didn't both agree on. But he obviously has because there on the last page was his signature. I was furious as I retraced my memory and I don't remember this stipulation even being brought up. And of course my abilities didn't warn me of this so must not be that bad of a problem but still. "Flash back to this morning" I had made it to the coffee shop before Nolan to open up for the day. He must of gotten some morning surfing in this morning. I unlocked the door and flipped the lights, revealing the beautiful dark oak shiplap walls, And the distressed cherry wood pub tables and chairs. The pewter gray wood floors paired nicely with the decor and theme of our shop. Me and Nolan worked hard to get to this point the walls, the floors, the floor to ceiling windows, the appliances, kitchen, and furniture are all brand new or refurbished. We fought for months over what light fixtures we wanted. I won that fight like always and got the beautiful brass chandelier I wanted. If I'd have let him we'd have deer antlers, and I wasn't going to let that happen. As I was getting the coffee maker ready my head started to feel fuzzy. With in an instant I was pulled into a premonition, Nolan was outside the shop but before he mad it in he stopped I could see a pained look on his face. It quickly turned to anger and he whipped around. As quickly as my premonition started it ended, I quickly tried to regain awareness of my surroundings. As soon as I was able to I headed for the door just as I made it outside, Nolan had already made contact with another man's face. The man laughed I was stunned he just....laughed wasn't upset or even let it be known that he'd been hit. Next thing I know Nolan had landed another blow to his face, it was hard enough to atlest break a nose or teeth I can just imagine how hard the first one was. "What the hell are you doing? Nolan get ahold of yourself?!" I yell as I go to grab his arm before he could swing again. He stiffened at my touch before he softened and looked me in the eyes. His gorgeous hazel eyes bore into my eyes. "Athena don't but in please this guy had it coming to him since we quit being friends in high school!" I scoffed and rolled my eyes."so your beating. On a guy because of a grudge you've been holding on to since high school? Go inside and finish coffee for me please." He just grunted and stood there Nolan was my business partner and my best friend. His long brown hair is always pulled up in a bun and almost always wavy from the sea water his black v neck shirt hugged his tan muscular body well. He is always the sweetest guy he hardly ever gets hus panties in a twist like that without reason so what was his reason for this I wonder. "So your the new coffee shop owner?" Said the man. I just nodded and gave a quick yes as I stared at Nolan. Finally he sighed and walked inside. I turned around to face the guy "I'm so sorry I don't know what made him act that way usually he's a clam person." I looked him over the man infront of me was tall, tan, and handsome. He had blonde hair and ice blue eyes, it felt like I was looking right through them. He had a extremely muscular build, but not disgustingly muscular like most guys try to achieve. And tattoos on his arms from what I could tell he had sleeves. And from looking at him I could tell he came from money, with the perfectly tailored suit he wore. He caught me looking him over. "I know why Nolan reacted that way, but I can't say much on that it might make you quit looking at me like that which I enjoy every much. But if you take a picture it might last longer." My jaw dropped at his comment I can't believe he could be so blunt like that kinda rude. "Excuse me but that was kinda rude who even are you?" He stuck his hand out to me "my name is Cade I own the coffee shop down the street, and I was just heading over there now to open up. And may I just warn you now...i was minding my own business heading to work when I got stopped by your crazy employee and got assaulted, might want to invest in a lawyer." I was taken aback by this for a moment. "I don't know how your going to prove that when you have absolutely no marks on you and you laughed about it the whole time!" He snickered "there is cameras around here I can pull it from them but maybe we can come to an agreement. Drop by my shop later and come talk to me. And as for the marks and Nolan my abilities keep me from harm and you suggest you keep him away from me" he waved as he walked away signaling the end of our conversation. We're coming close to an end on our day so I had chosen to let Nolan close up for me tonight and go see what I could do about his screw up with Cade. I make it to his shop, as I'm waiting to be taken to his office I look around. His shop is more modern then mine sleek and black with granite table tops its not but not really my style. "Miss Cade will see you now follow me please." Says one of the girls working. O follow her down a hallway and turned left she knocks on the door and opens it. I walk in and the door closes behind me. "Have a seat Athena." He smiles at me I sit down in front of him in one of the white leather chairs. His office has bookshelves covering each wall plumb full. Well someone likes reading I think to myself, his carpet is white and huge black desk. He leans back in his chair. "So what are we going to do?" I asked him. He leans forward and gives me a mischievous grin."we're going to be creating an agreement or well more like a contract owner to owner." I couldn't help but laugh "so I make this contract with you to protect my business, what do you get out of this deal?" He shrugged "I'll figure that out later." I still couldn't tell if this was a good idea or not but I also wasn't getting any bad vibes From this either. Plus it protects me, nolan, and our businesses. "Okay so where do we start?" Cade pulls a paper out of his desk and a pen. "We will start with a list of stipulations that we both agree on." I sat up and nodded. "Number one: strictly business between both parties. Agree?" I nodded my head " I can get behind that" I thought for a moment. " Number 2: blackmail on my business and Nolan disappears." Cade nodded "deal, number 3: neither party can or will cause harm to businesses or parties." I agreed as well. " Number 4: both parties will offer help when needed." He looked up at me with a questionable expression. "You have a lot of waitresses and if my shop continues as well as it did today I'm going to need more help serving its just me and Nolan. And good help is hard to find." Cade looked thoughtful for a moment and I fiddled with my thumbs. "Okay understood, agreed. As for that I can't think of anything else to add can you?" I shook my head "no I can't, are we done? Do we need to sign now?" Cade leaned back in his chair, and put the paper in his scanner after scribbling contract on the top. " not quite yet, I'm sending this to my lawyer so he can type it up for me. After that I'll sign my part and send you the contract for you to sign." I get up from my chair and grab my things. "Nice seeing you again Athena. Have a nice night." He said as I walked out his office. Creators notes: first chapter done let me know what you think. give me ideas as well please. I'll try to do updates and chapters everyday. thank you in advance for reading and advice