Robert Bentley turned on the taps and looked at the small clear plastic packet.
Oh well, he may as well give it a go, he thought. He emptied the contents into the bath.
*****
Bentley hadn't really gone into the New Age shop with the intention of buying anything. He just wanted to get a closer look at the hot shopkeeper he'd seen through the window. All he'd seen was a glimpse of pale skin and cascading black curls, but it had caused his heart to jump. Curious, and with a little bit of time to kill, he'd walked in to get a closer look.
The small premises were on the corner on the way to the bus station. It used to be an adult book store with dirty, boarded up windows. The new owners had replaced the wooden boards with clean glass windows. The interior was still cramped, but the windows helped give it the illusion of air and space.
As Bentley walked through the door a small bell tinkled above his head. He shuddered at the sound; it brought back memories of stepping on squeaky floorboards when returning too late from some party or other when he'd been a teen. He hadn't wanted to attract any attention to himself. Fortunately the shopkeeper was busy at the counter with a Miss Marple look-alike.
Bentley didn't really recognise anything in the shop. There were things that looked like incense sticks, brightly coloured balls that could have been candles or bath soap, various vials of different liquids and crystals, lots and lots of crystals. Worthless New Age crap basically. He pretended to browse while surreptitiously checking out the girl behind the counter.
Yeah, she was hot, but also with a wacky streak. Her pale face had the classic beauty of a porcelain doll, but enough warmth shone from her cheeks to give her an approachable air. Her black hair fell back across her shoulders in waves of glossy curls. The wackiness came from her clothes. She wore an old fashioned black velvet bodice, like something out of a period drama, and a ring of large wooden beads around her elegant neck.
Oops. She turned and looked in his direction just as Bentley was ogling the lush valley of her cleavage. That was awkward, he thought, looking away. He pretended to busy himself with the shelves of glittering crystals. He was still looking into a glass cabinet when a smiling face, framed with glossy black curls, came into view on the other side.
"Hello, can I help you?" she smiled. Her eyes were hazel and sparkled as brightly as the crystals surrounding them.
"Uh, just browsing," he said. He realised he was staring into the chasm of her cleavage again and she could see he was staring into the chasm of her cleavage again and hurriedly looked away.
"You seem very tense if you don't mind me saying," the woman said. She had a posh accent, proper Received Pronunciation, but with none of the airs and graces of elitism that sometimes conveyed. "You work a lot with computers don't you?"
"I program account transaction handling software," Bentley replied.
And why don't you add 'and I'm a huge nerd' while you're at it, Bentley thought.
"As I thought," the woman said thoughtfully. "All those hours cramped up in front of a screen have blocked up the energy flow of your body. Let me guess, you have real problems relaxing and unwinding."
Lately Bentley had been having trouble getting comfortable enough in bed to get a good night's sleep, but he thought that was more because he'd been under a lot of stress recently.
"I have felt a little tense of late," he admitted.
"That's because your natural energy flow is all blocked off. Your energy has no outlet to escape so it's coiling back on itself. It's like a spring that just keeps compressing and compressing. If you don't release the pressure it will break and do you some damage. We need to find something that will relax you and relieve some of that tension. Ah!"
Bentley jumped at her sudden exclamation.
"I think I might have just the thing," she said, her face lighting up. "Now wait here while I fetch it."
It sounded like a load of New Age bollocks to Bentley, but he was curious enough to see what the shopkeeper returned with.
And he should probably try not to look so obviously at her breasts.
The girl returned with a clear plastic packet filled with a green liquid. It looked like one of those gel packs you might throw in with the laundry, only slightly larger, about half the size of Bentley's hand.
She passed it to him. It was soft and surprisingly warm to the touch.
The girl spotted his nonplussed expression. "Bubble bath," she explained with a smile.
"Bubble bath?"
"Yes, just empty it, all of it mind you, into the tub next time you take a bath."
"And this will help me with the... um... energy flow?" Bentley said.
"It's a special recipe," the shopkeeper said, tapping her nose. "I think you'll find it's very relaxing."
Bentley looked doubtfully at the clear plastic bladder. There was a nozzle on one of the sides to let out the liquid contents.
"How much does it cost?" he asked. He suspected the only difference between it and common-or-garden bubbly from Tesco was around ten times the price.
"Oh don't worry about that," the shopkeeper said. "Think of it as a free sample, your starter on the path to better energy management."
"Starter?"
"Before the massage sessions," the shopkeeper said, flashing him a lascivious smile.
And that was how Bentley got to walk home with a small plastic bladder of mystery green liquid in his pocket.
*****
It was certainly frothing up nicely, Bentley thought. His bathtub was starting to resemble a miniature Jacuzzi with all the foam. He dropped in an arm to steer the growing mountain of soap suds away from the taps.
Mmm, that felt quite nice, he thought. The foam tingled warmly where it touched his arm.
Maybe there was something special in it after all.
He got undressed as the bath filled with water. His bathroom was also filling with a pleasant scent. It smelt fresh, a little like mint, but there was also an undertow of something musky like an exotic perfume.
Bentley waited for the water to fill to the right level, turned off the taps and then climbed in.
Oh wow, that really felt good, Bentley thought. The bubbles crackled pleasurably against his naked skin as he slid down into the warm water.
So there really was something to this new age crap after all, he thought. Just lying in the pool he could feel knots he didn't even realise he had start to unravel as he wallowed in the warm water and luxurious foam.
Yes, he could definitely get used to this.
