He rose from the table, holding his towel in front of him. His expression was puzzled. “It’s all right, lass. If you don’t want–”
I picked up his pants and tossed them at him. “Get dressed.”
He growled but did as I asked while I turned around to give him privacy. I wasn’t about to leave him alone in any of our rooms. I didn’t even want to think about what he might do now that I’d rejected his proposition.
“If you’ll just let me–”
“We’re closing now.” I turned around and tried to ignore the fact that his shirt was still unbuttoned. I pointed to the door, refusing to move until he started back toward the exit.
“Lumen…”
I unlocked the front door and opened it. “Get out.” After a beat, I added, “Please.”
He gave me a long, hard stare, like he was trying to figure out what went wrong, and that just pissed me off. I might not have the sort of money he clearly did, but that didn’t give him the right to come in here and ask me to jerk him off like I was some sort of prostitute.
“Out.” I blinked back hot tears. “Or I’ll call the cops.”
He stepped outside, and I didn’t bother to check if it was still raining before I slammed the door shut. I pulled down the blinds and turned the lock, closing myself off from him for good.
It wasn’t until I’d finished doing the books for the night that I realized I’d forgotten to make him pay his bill.
Five
Lumen
“Please explainto me how you, an intelligent college graduate,forgotto ask a client to pay his bill before he left?”
Lihua was no bigger than five feet tall, but when she planted her hands on her slender hips and gave me that look of complete disappointment and disapproval, she might as well have been a giant.
We were both at the front counter, waiting for the next scheduled client. Saturdays could get busy, so two other MTs were already in the back room, changing into their uniforms. Lihua had changed a few minutes ago, wanting the chance to look over the books from last night before we opened.
“My final client last night asked for an…ending,” I said. She knew what that meant, of course, but her expression held no sympathy.
“You know the procedure,” Lihua said. “Tell him we are not that kind of establishment. Then you end the session and take the payment as normal.”
“I know, Lihua, I just…it was different this time. I just felt…really uncomfortable.”
Uncomfortablewasn’t the best word to describe why I’d needed him to leave, but I hoped it would get the point across. My face burned with the joint embarrassment of stumbling over my words and desperately hoping Lihua wouldn’t push it. I hated lying to her but telling her about my reaction to a client would diminish me in her eyes, and that would kill me. I love Mai and the whole Jin family too much to let that happen.
Lihua pursed her lips. She didn’t look old enough to have six children, with Mai being the youngest, but I knew she was old enough that it wouldn’t have been polite of me to ask her age. Regardless, she could work any of the rest of us into the ground and still have the energy to ask us why we were slacking.
“Well,” she said, “if not for Mai, you would not have been working yesterday. And today is your last shift.” She patted my arm. “Do not trouble yourself, dear.”
“You can take the cost of the massage from my final check–”
Lihua waved me off. “Nonsense. A half-hour massage was not such a loss. Besides, you missed out on your tip. That is enough.”
She patted my arm again before walking away like the matter was done. I still felt guilty though. It wasn’t just me who was affected by my mistake. The Jins did well enough, but they weren’t flush enough to blow off an entire massage. Then there was always the possibility of Alec leaving a negative review online just to be petty. I hoped he wasn’t like that, but I wouldn’t have thought he was the sort of guy to ask for sexual favors either, so maybe I wasn’t the best judge.
This wasn’t the way I’d wanted to leave a job that had been so good to me, and I tried to make up for it by being professional and friendly with everyone I spoke to. I made a point of putting myself out there too, telling clients about promotions and making sure the MTs knew what clients they had scheduled and when. I even bought everyone their favorite coffee during my break.
And the entire time, I couldn’t stop thinking about Alec.
His eyes, his smile, his accent, his body…I’d thought there had been something unique about the way we’d interacted, about the connection we’d had. I’d thought he was a gentleman, but I supposed my mistake had been assuming that someone that well-dressed had to be a gentleman. I didn’t usually think of myself as a naïve person, but I had definitely let my own personal biases color how I’d seen him.
In any case, I’d never see him again. There was no sense worrying myself. I had only a short while left of my last shift and then it was all about preparing for the job I’d gone to school for. The career that had been the entire point of me working here in the first place.
Only a few short seconds after I’d convinced myself that I wouldn’t think about Alec ever again, the bell above the door chimed and in he walked.
