The woman's breath hitched when she noticed Owen's face leaning a bit too close to her front.
"Owen?" Her call fell on deaf ears as the man was too preoccupied with the task at hand.
Frustrated with struggling at such a simple task, Owen thought it was a good idea to use both hands. One for holding the clip and one to pull the bottom of Lucy's shirt to meet the metal lips and it worked.
Satisfied with his small success, he inhaled deeply while still leaning forward and unintentionally got a lung full of Lucy's scent. He was intoxicated for a brief moment before he felt a small touch on his right arm. He tried turning his head to the side and just then realized his face was centimeters from Lucy's body, eliciting a fire starting from the ear that was nearest to Lucy's chest.
"Can I try?" Lucy asked referring to the clip he was struggling with a few seconds ago.
He leaned back almost violently, Lucy was surprised too. If it were another person, they would have probably fallen over but Owen had excellent control of his body even with the limited foot space on the treadmill's safety rail. He was able to recover back to a standing position with ease.
Owen discreetly swallowed and quickly responded. "No, it's good I got it."
"What is this for?" Barely recovering from earlier's invasive proximity, Lucy was fighting hard to even out her voice.
"If this gets pulled, the machine will stop."
"Oh, okay." Lucy was genuinely amused, she didn't know treadmills had this feature.
Owen gets her attention back to the buttons. 'This is pretty easy, green means on. You push these arrows to go faster or slower and when you're done, press the red button here. Clear?"
"Clear."
Owen left her to her own devices. The man headed towards the shower to wash away the sweat from the early workout. He hopes the cold water can calm him down, too.
Trusting that Lucy will be on time for their session. Owen waited inside the massage room instead of hanging out in the gym area. He saw Lucy's towels on the side table and was pleased with the preparation and continued to sit on the couch. Right on the dot Lucy arrived and gave a shy smile to Owen. "I'm not late, am I?"
"You're right on time." Owen got up and removed his shirt before laying face down on the massage table.
Lucy went to fetch the towels she prepared beforehand and laid them on Owen's pelvic area before doing her usual routine. She was almost done with Owen's back when the man shuffled underneath her palm, showing discomfort.
"Are you okay?" There is an earnest concern in her voice. Owen's body was usually pliable during their previous treatments so she was confident he didn't experience significant pain aside from the actual pressure of her hands. She wondered if she had done something wrong this time by accident.
"Yes, but I think the back is enough for now, we can end the treatment here." There was no anger or malice in his voice.
Lucy is still not convinced even when Owen uses the most neutral tone to convey his request but she has to let it go. Owen was the client. It was his call.
"Are you sure?" She made one final attempt.
"Yes, I'm sure." At the sensation of Lucy's hands leaving his body, the man yanked the towel on his pelvis area himself to drape on his front while hurriedly sitting on the platform's edge facing away from Lucy.
"Can you leave me for a while to meditate?"
"Sure. Take your time." Lucy was particularly bothered by this development. It was the first time Owen stopped him mid-treatment. Has her workout session affected her technique?
She looked at her hands and tried to recall how she smoothened out Owen's muscles, his skin, how it made healthy resistance when she tried to push harder — Wait. That's not the direction I was aiming for.
Lucy tried thinking back again if she had done something wrong, ignoring the blush that had invaded her neck because of the stray thoughts.
It was weeks before that she decided she was turning into a pervert because of all the muscular men around and not because of Owen, although the man was always the subject of such thoughts. She was young and maybe it was the hormones or the effect of not having intimate interactions — ever. Maybe her body was telling her that she was ready. Yes. That must be it. There's a scientific explanation for this — one that does not involve attraction to her benefactor.
She tried accommodating the thought once, right after she saw Owen's gentler side when he was with Nana. but the more she gets to know him, the more the possibility gets farther away from her reality. Owen was filthy rich, for one. She watched too much drama unfolding in television shows to try to get into that trope conflict.
Another would be how much he had already helped her. Owen made sure to always tell her that it was for Nana but even if it were his intention, Lucy would never see it that way. It may be laughable now but she wants to pay back even a fraction of what she received. And getting attracted to her benefactor was out of the question.
It must be her pride — or as much as she denies it, the self-deprecating tendencies of someone who grew up in a money-constrained life. It's impossible. Not that there will be a chance, but she wanted to clear that to herself. — She can be a friend, at most.
She had long been gone from the massage room and made her way to the gym area, she gave a short wave to a group of familiar faces bunched around a mobile phone, probably watching a video with the way everyone acknowledges her a millisecond apart from each other and immediately looking back at the device.
Lucy also went closer to look at the screen, together with one more gym member who also caught wind of something interesting about how everyone was gathered around the phone.
—
Unknown to the people inside Top Gym, an MMA fighter was meditating for his life inside the confines of the room Lucy just got out of.
Owen can't believe it himself.
He closes his eyes as a bulge tries to fight its way against the towel he just pulled over his lap.