Juliet was new. She'd done a certificate in massage several years ago but hadn't used it much save for on a boyfriend or too, or a gal pal who'd spent too long at a computer keyboard in winter.
But her best friend had an emergency and couldn't afford to lose her clients booked in. This one was a regular, but hadn't been along in a while. It was important to keep regular, consistent clients, she knew. Made finances less wobbly, and less need to spend time pursuing referrals or promoting on social media.
That was Problem 1.
Problem 2 was that her friend, in her rush, hadn't managed to get her access to pick up the massage table. So she was now going to this guy's home incredibly underprepared. If she brought the towels and oils, she hoped to set up his bed reasonably enough. A professional air should hopefully ensure that things didn't come across as risque.
Why was she even thinking of things in that way? She berated herself.
She range the doorbell. A few muffled steps on the other wide, and then it opened.
James was younger than she'd been expecting. Broad shoulders, broad smile. A build that indicated muscle. Friendly eyes.
"Hello Juliet, thanks for coming." He gave her a firm, calloused handshake. "Please do come in...Where's your table though, eh?" He asked in a gentle Scottish burr, and not without a hint of humour, as he ushered her into the flat.
"Thank you!" She blurted, a little flustered. "Oh, em, yes - sorry, I didn't call ahead...."
"It'll have to be the bed then I suppose." There was almost a type of extra calm or civility to his face that looked effortfully held in place as he said this. Almost as if fighting away a mischievous raising of the eyebrows or a smirk. The eyebrows and mouth stayed put. Maybe she was imagining things.
Nevertheless, a longer-than-normal pause had extended into the hallway.
They abruptly both started moving further into the flat, along the narrow hallways; he, helping her with her bags. He gestured ahead of him. "On your left." And as she made her way along, she couldn't help but feel as if his gaze was sweeping over her attire.
It was hot outside, so she had foregone wearing leggings underneath her plain, clean tunic dress. Again, she'd just tried to pick something that fitted the job brief and was easy to move in, but she knew the hem was probably a bit higher than was entirely appropriate. Maybe she should have just risked arriving sweaty and worn more layers...
He opened the door to his bedroom and there was another heavy pause before he rather suddenly left her to prep the room.
She lay down the towels as neatly as possible, put out the oils, and set up some generic soothing meditative music.
Once set up, there was a brief exchange and she worked her way through a standard set of questions:
"Erm, do you have any injuries I should be aware of?"
"None today - just some general aches and pains."
"Any areas of concern?"
"I'm sure you'll find them quickly enough. I do triathlons, so that'll give you a picture of what you're dealing with. I've probably been overtraining a little." He gave a little shrug of his shoulders.
"And, anywhere you'd particularly like me to focus on?" Immediately after this question, a blush erupted in crimson across her face, surprising her amid all of her assumed professionalism.
He held her gaze for a long moment, again without a smirk or a raised eyebrow of innuendo. It made it worse.
"I'll leave that up to you."