Chapter Ten
Gretchen
I smiled to myself as Mina came into the shop again the following morning. “Are you planning on making this a daily occurrence?” I asked, arching an eyebrow at her.
“Are you complaining?” Mina asked, holding out a cup of coffee to me. “I brought muffins. Not pineapple ones, either.”
I laughed and gratefully accepted the coffee. “No, definitely not complaining,” I told her. “It's good to see you, anyway. What's up?”
Just then, the phone rang, and I grimaced, gestured for her to wait a moment, and answered it.
“Hi, this is Cindy from the Golden Palm Resort again,” she said. “Christian was apparently very impressed with your session yesterday.”
“Oh,” I said, blinking. Then I frowned, wondering if she was calling just to tell me that. Christian had already basically told me as much himself, not that I wouldn't have been able to figure it out, either. “Well, I'm glad to hear that.”
“In fact, he was so impressed by it that he'd like to make another appointment with you. For today.”
I couldn't help laughing. “Okay,” I said. “I'm actually booked up for the afternoon, but if he can get here for 10 o'clock, I can fit him in then. Otherwise, it's going to have to be tomorrow.”
“Let me put you on hold for a moment and ring his room to see,” Cindy said.
“Sure thing.” I waited for Cindy to come back on the line.
“Who is it?” Mina hissed.
I shook my head and motioned for her to wait again, taking a bite of my muffin.
“Are you still there, Gretchen?”
“Yup,” I said.
“Excellent. Christian says he can be there by 10, so pencil him in for that.”
“Will do, thanks!”
I hung up the phone and rolled my eyes at Mina's excited look. “It's just a work call,” I told her, even though I was pretty giddy about the thought of working my hands over Christian's body another time.
“You never look that happy about a work call,” Mina accused.
I sighed. “I had this super handsome guy come in yesterday,” I told her.
She practically squealed with excitement. “That's great!” she said. “What was his name? Did you get his number?”
I shook my head. “Mina, I'm not about to date one of my clients,” I said. “Especially since he apparently wants to become a repeat client. And anyway, even if he weren't my client, he's from New York. He's here on vacation, and then he's going to leave again. I wouldn't want to get involved with someone who was about to leave; you know that.”
“I'm not saying you have to start a relationship with the guy,” Mina said, rolling her eyes. “But you could at least sleep with him.”
“His ego's too big for that,” I said. “He was a nice guy once we got talking, but I think he thought I was going to give him a happy-ending massage when he first walked in. What kind of a place does he think this is?”
Mina groaned. “Gretchen. If some uber-hot guy wants you to touch his dick, why can't you just go along with it for once?” she asked in exasperation. “Where's the harm in that? Live a little.”
“I'm not that kind of girl,” I said, shrugging. “And this definitely isn't that kind of massage parlor.”
“He's coming in at ten, though?” Mina asked, looking at her watch. “That's in just ten minutes. Do you think I could hang around and see him?”
“Fine,” I said, rolling my eyes. “But you don't get to say anything. You see him, and then you go sell some more pineapples, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Mina said, shaking her head.
We were just finishing up breakfast when Christian walked in, looking just as yummy as he had the previous day. “Good morning,” he said, smiling at both of us.
“Good morning,” I said. I glanced over at Mina, who was just staring at Christian, and I couldn't help grinning a little. Yeah, the man was gorgeous; I guessed Mina could see that as well. It wasn't usual for her to find herself speechless, but hey.
“This is my friend Mina,” I said, nudging Mina forward.
Mina giggled a little and shook his hand. “It's nice to meet you,” she said.
“And you,” Christian said, giving her his full, most charming smile. God, she had to be practically melting. I know I was, and I wasn't even the one directly receiving that smile. “So, same room as yesterday?” Christian asked.
“Same as yesterday,” I confirmed. “Thanks for breakfast, Mina, and have a great day.”
“You too,” she said, still sounding a bit faint. I shrugged a little and got ready for the massage.
“Your friend is cute,” Christian commented as I started the massage. “A bit shy, maybe, but cute.”
I snorted. “Mina? Shy? No way! I'm not entirely sure what's gotten into her.” Except that you're practically a Greek god walking into my massage parlor.
“How long have you known one another?”
“She's been my best friend for ages, since we were kids,” I told him. “And we're lucky enough to work next door to one another. She runs the pineapple shop next door. I get to see her all the time. More so lately. I think she must have been feeling that we weren't seeing enough of one another because she's been over here two days in a row now with breakfast for me!”
“Or she thinks you don't know how to take care of yourself, maybe,” Christian said, smirking up at me.
I laughed. “That could be, too,” I agreed. “I probably have a better grasp on that than she does, though, if I'm being honest. She's a brilliant woman and very creative, but she's a bit flighty, I guess.”
“I work in the same office as my best friend,” Christian told me. “His name's Paul. He's a great guy. No matter what I do, he's there for me.”
“Well, yeah,” I said. “That's what friendship is, right?”
“I guess so,” Christian said, sounding as though he was considering it.
“Mina and I would do anything for one another,” I told him. “And I tell her everything, and she tells me everything as well. I probably know her better than I know myself. She's like a sister. The sister I would have chosen.”
Christian smiled a little. “Do you have any siblings?”
“Oh no,” I said. “I'm an only child. My parents decided I was too headstrong when I was a toddler, and they knew they were already going to be chasing me around for my whole life. They decided that one was enough.”
Christian laughed. “Are they still chasing you around?”
“I've settled down more now. But I'm close enough that they could pop by at any time if they wanted to. And I go over there for dinner a lot.”
“That's nice.” Christian sounded like he was drifting off again already, but whether he was falling asleep or falling into his thoughts, I couldn't tell.
“What about you, do you have any siblings?” I asked, wanting to prolong the conversation.
“I did,” Christian told me. “Next subject?”
I cast around for another conversation topic, but his unwillingness to talk about his family had me wanting to know more. “What are you going to get up to this afternoon?” I asked.
Christian came back into the conversation at that, and I realized he had just been caught up in his thoughts. There was something there, I guessed, and I wondered what it was. But I wasn't going to ask.
“So, have you always wanted to be a masseuse?” Christian asked as I worked my way up his arm.
I shook my head. “Not exactly,” I said. “I wasn't sure what I wanted to be, growing up. I just knew that I wanted to live here in Hawaii forever. I thought about being a yoga teacher for a while too, but I didn't like the idea of working for someone else's studio, and it's hard to get your own clients if you just strike out on your own. Mina's the one who pointed me toward being a masseuse. I don't know how she came up with the idea, but I liked it immediately, went to school for it, and here I am.”
“You must have a background in business as well, to run your own.”
“No,” I said. “I know the basics. I took a night course for entrepreneurs. But I don't know all that much.” I laughed a little self-consciously. “Whatever I'm doing, though, it seems to be working.”
I let my fingers linger on Christian's skin for a moment, reluctant to pull away again. “I'm afraid that's all we have time for again,” I told him.
“That went fast today,” he said, sitting up and rolling out his shoulders.
“It did,” I agreed. “I like talking to you.” I blushed after I said it, hardly believing that those words had come out of my mouth. Not that they weren't true, but he would probably take that as an invitation to–
“So maybe we should talk some more over dinner on Saturday night,” Christian suggested.
–ask me out.
I sighed and began tidying the room. “I don't date clients,” I told him. If only it were that simple.
“Well then, I'll never come back for another massage,” Christian told me, a devilish grin on his face.
I frowned. “I also don't date people who don't live here,” I told him.
“Do you ever even date?” Christian asked, and I gaped at him.
“You can't just-”
“I'll take that as a no,” he interrupted. “Come on. It'll be fun. I'm just asking because I'd like to have some company for dinner. I'm not just trying to have sex with you or anything like that.”
“Not to be mean, but I don't believe you.” I sighed.
Christian frowned and pulled on his shorts. “Look, I may not be the best guy that you've ever met, but you must realize that I would never do anything that you didn't want me to do to you.”
“I know.” I sighed again. “But…”
“You're afraid you're going to want me to have sex with you?” Christian asked, raising an eyebrow at me. “And that's a bad thing?”
When he put it that way, it did sound a little ridiculous.
“I don't do one-night stands,” I told him.
“Then we'll make it a two-night stand,” he said. “Or a three-night stand. Or-”
“All right, all right,” I said, holding up both hands in surrender. “I'll go. Leave me a message here and tell me when and where.”
“Good,” Christian said smugly. Then, he turned and sauntered out the door.
He had only been gone for a couple of moments when Mina burst in. She must have been lurking by the windows, watching to see him leave. “Do you realize who that is?” she exclaimed in a hushed tone, as though he might overhear us.
I shrugged a little and went to check the messages on my phone.
“That's Christian Wall!” she exclaimed.
“Yeah, I know,” I said, not sure what the big deal was. “You realize I take their full names down when I book the appointments, don't you?”
“Jesus, you live under a rock, don't you?” she asked, rolling her eyes. She thrust her phone toward me, open to a news story about him.
“Holy shit,” I said, grabbing the phone from her. “You don't think it's him, do you?”
“I told you a millionaire was going to walk through those doors one day,” Mina said. “Only he's a billionaire. You got his number, right?”
I paused and stared down at the phone for a long moment, hardly able to believe any of this. “Actually,” I said, looking seriously up at Mina. “I've got one better than that. He's picking me up here for a date on Saturday. He's taking me to dinner.”