“This is Larry,” an obnoxiously familiar voice barked over the speaker. I gulped. I could only think of one reason he was calling. I struggled to determine if it was a good thing or bad thing. Of course I wanted a client and regular one was the best I could hope for, especially with such a famous name. But did I really want my client to be Axel Montgomery of all people? Still, I knew I was in no position to get choosy, especially over something like that.
“Listen, he wants to book another appointment with you so when are you open?”
“I’m sure I can accommodate his earliest–”
“Accommodation is an absolute must. Axel is the best player in the league and it’s absolutely imperative…”
That was the moment I zoned off from Larry’s impromptu sermon. He continued to drone on, but I did catch something along the lines of him being “glad I knew how to treat an all-star” and he, “isn’t just talking about the therapy.” This left a sour taste in my mouth, but I had to ignore it because I already made up my mind to take the appointment anyway.
I let Larry go on for a couple more minutes, musing on how obvious it was he was the one who would jump through hoops for Axel. He even addressed him as “The Axe,” at one point and I had to bite back a laugh. That was a nickname Axel had carried with him since high school, but I always found it cheesy. When I cleared my throat Larry finally came to his senses so we could proceed with booking the appointment. I scribbled it into my book and said a cordial goodbye. Before he had another chance to ramble on about nothing, I quickly hung up the phone.
Any negative feelings had completely left my body. I was thrilled and excited. My hands were shaking and I was grinning from ear to ear. I turned to look at Shellsea, who looked equally as excited. I scooted back and did a little happy dance in my chair.
Once I stopped waving my hands, Shellsea excused herself to go refill her bottle of water. I stared out the window. I couldn’t figure out why I was so happy. Only moments ago I wasn’t sure if Axel returning was actually good news.
He may be a bit of a jerk, but he was an old friend and I desperately needed the money. But when I closed my eyes I couldn’t get the image of his face out of my head. I told myself it was just residual feelings from my teenage crush on him, but my mind couldn’t stop thinking about the way his crescent shaped scar looked with all his scruff surrounding it.
I wondered what it would feel like to kiss it. I instantly felt heat race through my body. I drew in a rattling breath and gulped, patting down my hot cheeks and ignoring the hotness that was bubbling in the pit of my stomach. I needed to stop these feelings from getting the best of me if Axel was going to be a regular client.
I plopped down on my desk chair and wrote a check to my rental company. I was hoping they would sit on it long enough so it didn’t bounce. Hopefully I could hold out until Axel paid me again.
Paying bills was what I needed to focus on, not drudging up some old childhood feelings about Axel Montgomery.
Mira seemed happier this time. She had no reason to be mad at me for last time. Maybe she just wasn’t all that friendly anymore. It annoyed me to think that, particularly because I paid her so well. But I was still looking forward to my second session with her. If all else failed, I wasn’t looking to reconnect with an old friend. First and foremost, I needed to heal.
I was tired of being benched. I was sick of seeing my teammates fumble plays I knew I could execute flawlessly. So when Mira opened the door to her small office and had a smile on her face, I relaxed into a smile myself. It was a weird and brief moment, but it felt genuine.
I stepped inside and she took a couple steps back, looking me in the eye. I couldn’t be sure, but she seemed slightly timid with her expression. I wondered if we were going to get started anytime soon. “How does it feel to have your dream of being a quarterback in the pro league come true?”
“I don’t know, I’ll let you know when I find out.” I said, half in jest.
Mira arched a brow and looked at me questioningly. “You’re the star quarterback for the Razorsharks, aren’t you? Everyone knows your name.”
“Well, yeah,” I muttered, “But I’ve been benched all season, you know.”
“I do know,” she responded, pointing to my area of injury. “I’m treating the reason, as I’m sure you know.”
There was a bite to her response. I kind of liked the sass, even if it was usually something I found off-putting; especially from someone I was handing money to. Maybe she felt a certain comfort level because of our past.
“What were your passing yards last year?”
I was barely paying attention when she went on to ask me another question about my stats, but I caught the tail end of it. I was taken aback; maybe ‘impressed’ was more of an accurate word. She clearly knew a decent amount about football. Maybe it was because of her profession. Either way, it was odd for such an attractive woman to be asking me about football.
“Just over forty-nine-hundred. I had hopes of shattering it this season, but it doesn’t look like that will be happening.” I said as I reached up to massage my shoulder. I watched her as she stared up at me with gleaming eyes. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking about, but it didn’t seem to be my stats.
“I practically grew up listening to you and Zak talk about every sport under the sun, none nearly as much as football though.”
I chuckled and nodded in acknowledgement. It was obvious to me now why she had pursued a physical therapy career. She was surrounded by sports and athletes growing up.
“Why did Zak quit football, anyway? He was pretty good, that guy.”
Mira grunted, “Zak’s working as an office drone now.” She paused, enjoying the look in my eyes though not as much as she enjoyed watching me try to keep it low-key. “It probably sucks, but he loves having the free time to fuck around on nights and weekends. That shouldn’t surprise you.”
“Yeah,” I laughed, “I remember that all right. So I guess some things never change.”
Mira eyed me for a second, “You’re a pro football player and a famous one at that. Your life has to be fucking around constantly.”
I drew my eyes to the floor. My life hadn’t been ‘fucking around’ in a very long time. My thoughts instantly went to Molly. She had been crying for Janice the night before. I wanted to comfort her, but she wouldn’t take it. She wanted her nanny and I wasn’t it. She was used to Janice, after all. It pained me that little Molly had now lost out on her relationship with Janice, but that only made me even more angry. I cleared my throat and pushed the image of my tear-stricken daughter out of my mind.
“I’m not doing any partying these days,” I told Mira quietly.
A weird silence hung between us for a moment. I found myself wondering if I should tell her that I had a daughter. Molly wasn’t a secret per se, but I was careful about letting people know about her. I knew how my line of work was. I just wanted to protect her.
I looked back up at Mira and her nickname ‘Randy’ came to mind. It made her angry, but even after all these years I still used it. She was an old friend after all so maybe there wouldn’t be any harm in telling her about Molly. Then again, she was an employee. Not only was it a bad idea to blur the lines between professional and personal life, I wasn’t keen on treating someone I was paying as a friend. I cleared my throat and shifted my weight from one foot to the other; things were a bit more complicated with Mira than with other people I had hired.
“Why don’t we get started,” Mira suggested, motioning toward the massage room.
I nodded and headed inside, closing the door behind me to disrobe and climb onto the table. I laid face down and was glad I didn’t have to struggle against the pain as much to drape the sheet over my hips. Even with one session she had managed to work magic on my injury. I found her work promising. I smiled and turned my head to the side, waiting for her to come in.
“Come in!” I said after there was a light knock on the door. She definitely looked less woun
d up than our first session.
I watched her rub the massage oil into the palms of her hands and closed my eyes the moment she made contact with my back. She rubbed smoothly and easily along my entire back, working me into a state of relaxation. I loved how she worked on everything just enough before focusing on the affected area of my shoulder. It was a whole package kind of treatment that was perfectly measured. However, what I liked most about her method was that I didn’t have to instruct her. She was so good at what she did she was able to figure things out all on her own. She was so in tune with my needs even though it was only our second time working together.
She calmed me further, sinking her thumbs into the knots of tension that flared up in my shoulder after practice. I groaned and exhaled long and slow, eyes still shut. She repeated the movement with alternating pressure and I creaked a little whimper a couple more times, falling into a deep state of relaxation. It wasn’t long before I started jabbering away.
“I’m glad I found you,” I muttered. I felt Mira’s hands pause momentarily.
“Oh? That must mean this treatment shows promise.”
I thought I detected some kind of undertone in her voice, almost like she was nervous, but I blew it off. I nodded and let out a small moan.
“For sure.” It was honest, but non-committal, just how I liked things to be. “The team spent so much money on getting me and I’m not delivering. It’s like they invested in a loss, you know? It makes me feel pressured, but so far you’re the only therapist that’s made me think I might get off the bench a bit sooner.”
Mira’s hands slowed and I almost thought she was leaning in closer to me, as if to speak in my ear, but I didn’t crack my eyes open to check. It was too weird to take a peek. I was afraid it would result in something too intimate for my taste. Either way, it wasn’t something I was down with. I wanted to stay relaxed and get treated.
“Axel,” she finally spoke up, “I hope you know you’re a human being and not a commodity to be traded. You’re not some item on the stock market rapidly losing value.”
I stayed quiet. I felt her words settle over me like a comfortable blanket. It was odd to be talked to with such comfort and understanding. I was used to being around a bunch of alpha male types who didn’t have time for feelings.
I thought about what she had just said long and hard as her hands continued to work on my sore spots. In the sports world, I was viewed as something rapidly losing value. I was easily one of the largest investments for the team, but the payoff wasn’t coming through. This was the first time I actually thought it was different though. I was a person not a trading card.
I groaned again, only this time it was because thinking about this and trying to sort how I felt about it was distracting from the relaxation. I decided to push it out of my mind. I needed to change the subject.
“How are you doing, Randy?”
Mira huffed and I felt her hands tense for a second, “I, Miranda… Well, I honestly wondered if you’d ever get to this point.”
That was what it took for me to finally open my eyes and turn to look at her. She was making it a point to avoid eye contact and stare at her hands working down my arm. I smirked. I could tell she was interested in my tattoos.
“Get to what point?”
She pursed her lips and moved her hands back up to my shoulder before swiping over to the other side. “Oh, you know, just talking about me.”
“You make it sound like I’m a terrible date,” I joked.
Mira forced a chuckle. I adjusted my head to get a better view of her face, but she quickly moved around the table and pressed down on the center of my back. She did an excellent job of keeping my head turned in the opposite direction. No matter what though, the quality of her work wasn’t compromised in the slightest.
“I guess maybe I didn’t expect much talking,” she admitted. Her words stung a little bit and I was surprised they bothered me at all. “Most of my clients back at the clinic were pretty quiet.”
“The clinic?”
“It’s where I used to work. Now I’m starting out on my own and, honestly, it’s scary being a small business owner.”
“But isn’t it, like, most people’s dream to open up their own place?”
“I guess, but it has to be what you want and it should happen at the right time, not because it feels like the best or only option in a crappy situation.” Mira paused and so did her hands. She let out a long sigh and mumbled an apology.
“Don’t be,” I said without thinking. It wasn’t the way I treated anyone who worked for me, but nobody was little Randy. “Crappy situation,” I repeated before asking, “Why did you leave your old job?”
“I didn’t feel comfortable there.”
“But they paid you, right?”
I didn’t get it. It shouldn’t really matter how she felt if she was getting compensated for her work. That was how the world works. My thoughts switched to Janice and I could already start to feel the anger bubbling over. I paid her and I paid her well. So why did she have to go and bring emotion into it? Was that the sort of thing Mira does too? Maybe I just didn’t know the whole story. Maybe I was less willing to judge her as harshly as I judged Janice.
Mira looked at me sideways. “Some things are more important than money, Axel.”
I barely had a moment to decide she was wrong before she sank her thumb into an awful knot. I instantly jumped and yelped in pain. Then, as quickly as the pain came, I felt it dissipate as I thought more about what she had said.
Once I was finished with the massage Axel leaned up. I couldn’t help but glance at his deep muscular back and butt draped in the sheet. I could feel my pulse in my throat as my eyes traveled across his body. My tongue ran along the bottom of my lip. I bit it and shook my head, turning to look at the wall. I couldn’t get caught staring at him, much less staring like someone ready to eat the world’s tastiest food.
He positioned his body to lay on his side, smoothly adjusting the sheet to make sure he stayed covered up. I didn’t miss the knowing little smirk tugging at the corners of his lips, but I thought I did a good job acting totally chill.
“I want you,” he said. I turned to look at him just as he continued, “To work for me. Exclusively.” I had to suppress a glare. I knew he added that pregnant pause on purpose.
Still, my mind focused on what he was actually telling me. "What?"
“I'll pay you,” he quickly assured.
I rolled my eyes. He seemed to think money was everything. No wonder he didn’t get why I left my old job. It didn’t matter; he didn’t need to understand. He wasn’t my boyfriend or even a friend. He was just the lavish, arrogant incarnation of the guy I once had a crush on.
He’s my client. I reiterated inside my head.
“Look, you need money and I need your hands. Plain and simple.”
I paused for a moment, “It's not about the money.” I didn’t know why I had just said that. What was it about, then? And what was I supposed to say if he wanted me to explain? My heart started racing. I had Axel Montgomery, who wanted to book out daily appointments for the foreseeable future, with me and I was questioning it! Not to mention I was being annoyingly vague with him.
I leaned back against the door of the massage room. I hemmed and hawed for a couple minutes; I didn’t want to be caught in a bad situation by not having other clients, but at the same time I knew I had to at least consider it. I thought about my rent and the prestige of working on an all-star player. Well, not just any all-star—it was Axel Montgomery, ‘The Axe’. He was the cream of the crop.
I had worked on professional athletes before, but none of them came close to being as famous as Axel. If I took him up on his offer I wouldn’t only have steady work that was well paid, I would have the opportunity to advertise myself as the exclusive therapist to The Axel Montgomery.
I met his gaze and then glanced at his body when he looked away. That sealed the deal.
Fuck it. I stepped forward a
nd reached out to shake his hand. He looked at me with a little smirk. There was obvious satisfaction in his eyes. I remembered that smirk of his. He always gave that look when he got his way. I knew it all too well from our youth. His hand closed around mine and I felt my knees nearly give out. I checked to make sure he didn’t notice and breathed a sigh of relief when it appeared he hadn’t. That relief didn’t last long; he held my hand a little too long and I felt a ball of nerves stir at the pit of my stomach.
He looked at our hands. He looked up at me. I felt his penetrating stare. It was like we were connected. The moment hung heavy in the air and I didn’t know how to handle it. I was acutely aware of the fact that he was practically naked as he held my hand.
Were it not for the sheet draped over his lap, I would be able to reach out and… I licked my lips.
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