Dreams come true

Chapter 3

"So unfair. She's not been compassionate at all."

I had just seen off my last client of the day and sat down to wait for the new client that my kind sister had added to my schedule as compensation for being late. But I didn't care. One more massage and I would have the rest of the afternoon to lose myself in my fantasy world; probably in rough, huge hands.

A gentle knock on the door let me know that my client had arrived.

"Come in!"

I heard his uncertain footsteps as I washed my hands and covered them with cedar oil in the little room next door.

"Kristoff Bjorgman, rihgt? You can put your clothes on the chair, cover yourself with the towel that is on that same chair and lie face down on the stretcher. My name is Anna, by the way."

I listened to him settle into the stretcher and assumed it was time to go inside.

"Elsa's told me you got your back injured this morning. How has it happened?"

I crossed the threshold of the clinic door and found a stunning blond shirtless and in jeans waiting for me sitting on the stretcher with a mixture of amusement and disbelief in his eyes.

"So, Anna?"

My blond.

"You... you are..." I stammered, not quite believing my luck.

"Kristoff," he said, holding out his hand again, but this time to shake mine.

"Of course, of course... you are... Kristoff."

I took his hand and felt mine slip completely into a strange and awkward grip.

"Oh, God, sorry, the oil."

Kristoff chuckled and distributed the oil that had been impregnated in him on his hands.

"So, are you a masseuse?"

"Physiotherapist, actually."

"Yeah... that's what I meant."

"Then, that's how it is. And? What happened? Elsa told me it was an emergency."

"Well, it's not that bad. I think it's just a contracture."

"Were you working?"

"Not exactly..."

"Oh, God! It's been rescuing the ring, hasn't it?"

"No, not that either."

He rubbed the back of his neck embarrassed, and I realized I had put him in trouble.

"Holy shit! I'm so sorry! You don't have to tell me anything about your private life! How you did it's your business and only yours. Well, maybe not just yours, but, in any case, it's none of my business who you did it with or what you were doing."

'Fuck. I'm saying too much.'

Raising his eyebrows, probably surprised by my gift for rambling and spluttering uncontrollably, dropped his arm back onto the stretcher and smiled.

"I've taken a nap in the shade of a pile of rubble and, apparently, I've taken a bad posture."

"Oh... A nap?"

"Yes. I had some time left after eating, it was hot, the sea breeze blew..."

"Do you work near the sea?"

"We're restoring the pier. We started this morning."

"So that's why you were there..."

"In fact, I approached to ask you to get out because we were going to seal off the area, but things took an unexpected course."