Floating in the dark. Eyes closed, quiet music in the background. Warm and relaxed. It was as if I was in another place, far away from the world. Then my head bumped against the edge of the pod again.
I'd never been to a float spa before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was an interesting experience to be closed into this egg shaped pod to float in the darkness. There was enough salt in the water to be sure I wouldn't sink to the bottom and some other ingredients to make my skin feel as if there was a little bit of gel covering me from head to toes. When the cover was closed and the dim blue light turned off the darkness was complete. Even with my eyes open, there was nothing to be seen. It was almost as if my eyes weren't actually open at all. The float was a full hour. That's a long time to be alone in your own head, but eventually I got very relaxed.
That's when my mind started to wander. Here I was in this spa, in a room all by myself, completely naked. I'm not generally a spa kind of guy. I had no idea if this was a normal thing to do or not. Being naked someplace other than home or a hotel room is not something I've done... much. I have started to discover that I enjoy it though. Not just for the sake of being naked, but for the chance that a woman will be interested in what she sees.
I'm taller than most people think. I'm six foot five, but I tend to spread my feet wide apart and hunch down when I'm talking to people. They often don't realize how tall I am. Most of the time I'm happy to be as tall as I am. That day, floating in the tank and bumping back and forth between the top and the bottom it was ruining my sense of being someplace else. Every time I started to think I could float away to someplace far away I'd bump the side and come right back to the pod.
When my time was up I got out and took a quick shower to rinse all the liquid from the pod off, got dressed and headed out of the room.
Linda the spa manager was the only person working that afternoon. It was the middle of the week and things were slow enough that she didn't need anyone else on hand.
"How was it? Did you like your float?" She was sitting behind the main desk reading on her tablet when I walked out.
"It was interesting, but every time I thought I could just float away I bumped my head or my feet."
"There's a ton of room in there!" She seemed genuinely surprised. "You should have stabilized yourself a little bit and you shouldn't have touched anything."
"Yeah, that didn't really help. I don't have much clearance in there," I held one hand over my head as if that was somehow a good way to show her.
"Oh, come on. It's not that close," she set her tablet down and stood up behind the desk.
"Actually it is." I put my hand down and gave her an apologetic half grin. "Sorry, there are lots of things that don't come in my size. Float pods are one of them I guess."
She tilted her head to the side a little and quirked one eyebrow. "I don't believe it."
I was a little taken back. I turned and took a few steps back toward the room waving one arm in that direction, "I know they look big and need that huge room with a shower in it and all but the actual space inside the pod isn't that big."
As I turned my head back I realized she'd come around from behind the desk and was striding purposefully into the pod room. "There is a ton of space in these things." She was standing there looking at the pod as if it were somehow making her argument for her.
I stepped back into the room with her. I had a thought that would probably get me into trouble. I took a chance.