The Falling (Brightest Stars, #1)(7)

To keep my imagination at bay, I thought about Elodie again: Was she awake yet? Does she know this client? I continued, keeping his legs covered by the blanket and working on his neck, his shoulders, his back. His muscles were defined, but not bulky or hard under my moving fingers. Being near the military my whole life has taught me that someone as young as this man could easily be carrying the weight of something for a long time, whether it was a rucksack or life itself. He didn’t express enough of himself for me to make up the details the way I did with Bradley and most of the other strangers around me. There was something about this guy that kept my storytelling quiet.

His scalp was the last part I worked on. The soft pressure release usually made people moan or at least sigh, but nothing came from his lips. He didn’t make a peep. I thought maybe he’d fallen asleep. That often happened and I loved when it did. It meant I’d done a good job. When the time was up, I felt like it had just started. I usually drifted in and out of thought during a treatment—my dad, my brother, my job, my house. But there was something about working on this guy. Did I know him? I remembered nearly every face I saw, and I definitely would have remembered his. So I came up with nothing.

“Thank you. Was everything okay?” Sometimes I asked, sometimes I didn’t. This guy was so quiet that I wasn’t sure if he’d enjoyed it or not.

He kept his face in the cradle so I barely heard him when he said, “Yeah.”

Okay . . .

“Okay, well, I’m going to step out and let you get dressed. I’ll see you in the lobby when you’re finished. Take your time.”

He nodded and I left the room, pretty sure I wouldn’t be getting a tip.





CHAPTER SIX




I heard Elodie in the lobby. She was talking to Mali, who was giving her a hard time for being late.

“I don’t know if you saw my text, but I took your client—he’s dressing now,” I told my friend. It didn’t hurt to let Mali know that everything was covered, no harm done. Elodie smiled at me and tilted her head to the side. She had this thing about her where she could get away with anything.

“I’m so sorry, Karina. Thank you.” She kissed both of my cheeks. That was something I got used to the first week she moved in. I wasn’t really fond of excess touching, but with her it was hard to recoil the way I normally would.

“I couldn’t fall asleep last night. The avocado started kicking.” Her smile grew wide, but I could tell by her eyes that she wasn’t rested. I could relate. Not to the pregnancy, of course, but to the feeling of living in a constant state of tired.

Mali put her hand on Elodie’s stomach and started talking to the baby. I half expected her to ask the bump, What’s wrong, why aren’t you smiling? but Mali was soft and kind around children, even the ones who hadn’t been born yet. It made me a little uncomfortable, the way she was touching Elodie like that, but the idea of the baby kicking was exciting, so I smiled. I really was happy for my friend. It worried me that she was here alone while her family and most of her friends were across the Atlantic Ocean. She was young. So young. I wondered if she’d had the chance to tell Phillip that she thought she felt the baby move yesterday, or if he would even get to check his email today. The time zones made it so hard for them to talk as often as Elodie or anyone with a soldier in their life would want, but she was handling it with grace, as she did everything. It scared the hell out of me, though—the fact that she was going to have a baby in a few months. Sometimes I treated her as if she was a child herself.

Elodie’s eyes snapped to the curtain behind me, and she lit up like a Christmas tree, pushing past me to the client. She said a name that I couldn’t hear completely, but it didn’t sound anything like Kael. She wrapped her small body around him and hugged him so tight that even a soldier would wince.

“You’re here! I can’t believe you’re here! How did you know where to find me?” She squealed and hugged him again. His expression remained blank even though she was clearly happy to see him. Something about his face bothered me to the core. Maybe it was the way it probably made his life easier to have a face that people couldn’t look away from, that people would gawk at. It made me uneasy to see Elodie clinging to him. Nothing good can come from a man with a face like that.

Mali nodded to my next client, who was walking through the front door. “Back to work for you,” she said, and I caught one more glimpse of Elodie’s friend before Mali shushed me away.





CHAPTER SEVEN




Tina was one of my favorite clients. She worked from home as a family therapist and, more often than not, let me use her massage session as my therapy. I wasn’t open with too many people, but Tina had no one to tell my secrets to. It made me sad for her, though, thinking about how lonely she must be, eating dinner by herself in front of the TV most nights. Then again, aside from Elodie, that was pretty much my life, too. I guess I shouldn’t feel too much pity. At least Tina had a big house.

Today’s session with her felt like it was never going to end. I checked the clock again: ten minutes left.

“So, how are things with your brother?” she asked. I moved her hair to the side so I could focus on the tight muscles in her neck. Tina had recently cut her hair—“the Demi,” she called it—but hated it and immediately started wearing hats to cover her dark strands. It still wasn’t long enough to put into a ponytail. I thought she looked beautiful and wished my hair was as thick and soft as hers was.