“I guess I’ll just have to get a lunch massage, then. Can you book me for noon?”
“Sure. I’ll put you in now. You’ll get the confirmation text. Just confirm for me two days before so that I know the appointment is good to go, okay?”
“I know the drill, Lacey. Thank you,” the woman said.
“No problem. I’ll see you on Thursday.”
Lacey hung up the phone and walked to her kitchen to pull something out for dinner. She wasn’t sure whether or not River would be coming over since she had had a school field trip at the shop that day. The kids learned how the candy was made and got to sample some. Lacey had never had a field trip like that as akid. She’d gone to museums and the zoo, but never a candy shop to sample sugary treats. The kids had likely exhausted River enough to want to crash in her own apartment for the night. They’d joked when they’d first gotten together that they were down for marriage, but definitely not kids, because neither of them felt like they had the energy to raise them nor the money to afford nannies to do it for them. So, while a group of kids was good for business since their parents usually gave them a little cash to buy something, from what River had told her, it probably meant that River was going to just shower and fall asleep early.
Lacey pulled out some bacon that she’d made that morning for breakfast and decided to make a BLT. She sliced the tomato, pulled out the lettuce, added the mayo to two slices of the bread she had on hand, and stacked it all together on a plate before she sat down on her sofa and turned on the TV.
Working for herself always made her feel like she should be working. There was no real clocking out for her because there was always something to do, and she was the only one who could do it. She had an online booking system that was technically on a free plan, but she’d need to start paying for it soon, with the number of bookings she was starting to get. It would only be twenty dollars a month, but considering that she had just put a thousand bucks on a credit card to pay for some stupid thing that wasn’t going to happen, she was trying to delay having to be charged for that for as long as possible, which was why she also took bookings over the phone. She was always on call in a way, but she tried to take appointments only Monday through Friday, if she could, leaving the weekends to work on the other parts of her business, like the online marketing and accounting stuff she hated. Yes, she could go work somewhere and they’d take care of that for her and issue her a check every two weeks, but she’d bought her own table, her own supplies, a car that fit it all in the back, and she liked it this way, driving to a client’s homeor business, packing up and leaving when she was finished, and doing it all over again until her hands hurt and her feet were tired.
She’d been lucky to find River because River owned her business, too, so she understood the time commitment. She’d never once given her a hard time about having to cancel or postpone something they were supposed to do together because a client called and needed a last-minute massage. That was money that Lacey would be leaving on the table, and she hated doing it because she was saving for her own shop one day. Maybe it was naïve to do this all on her own. She’d have regular clients without all the hassle and driving around and probably make a little more, but she’d work for someone else, and she’d already done that out of massage therapy school and hadn’t enjoyed it much. The woman she’d worked for had wanted things done a certain way, and Lacey had had to follow her rules, regardless if she’d agreed with all of them or now. She probably would’ve stayed there, though, had a male client not flirted with her at the counter, but when she had turned him down, he’d complained to the owner, and despite Lacey telling the woman that she was a lesbian and not interested in that client or any other for that matter, she had still been told that her services would no longer be required.
Using the money from her last paycheck, combined with almost every penny she’d had saved up, Lacey had bought her table and cheap products to get her through. She’d planned to be on her own until she found another job, but after a few months, she’d stopped looking, realizing that she liked working for herself and that her goal of owning her own place was still possible. It just might take a little longer.
When she heard a key in the door, she tilted her head, surprised, and waited for it to open. When it had, River stoodthere before she quickly closed it, locked it, turned around, and immediately started laughing.
“You have lettuce hanging out of your mouth,” River said as she pointed at her.
“You caught me mid-bite,” she defended and finished chewing. “What are you doing here? I thought you would be wiped.”
“I am,” River confirmed as she tossed her keys on the counter. “Can I hop in the shower real quick? I feel like my whole body is sticky because I was surrounded by children all day.”
“Your whole body is usually sticky because you make sticky candy.”
River tilted her head down, and Lacey thought she was going in for a kiss, but River went in for a bite of her sandwich instead.
“Thanks. Want something more than that? I can order us a pizza before I hop in to clean up.”
“Babe?”
“Yeah?”
“What are you doing here?” Lacey asked.
“Am I not allowed to be here? Did you have plans or something?”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I just didn’t know you were coming over, so I made myself a sandwich. I could’ve made one for you, too.”
“That actually sounds way better than pizza. Would you mind? I brought you a piece of chocolate-marshmallow fudge. It’s in my bag.” River nodded toward the small backpack she had laid by the door. “Oh, and some taffy, too, if you want. Watermelon, strawberry, and banana. I got all your faves.”
“You’re bribing me with candy?”
“Yes.”
“These are acceptable terms,” she replied.
River laughed and hurried off to shower.
Lacey was pleasantly surprised that River had shown up. The candy would be a nice bonus, but on days like this, River almost exclusively stayed at her own place, so maybe Lacey had been worried about them for no reason. Then, she remembered that River had stayed at her own place the previous three nights and hadn’t kissed her hello when she’d arrived. They had hardly texted or talked since their date night, and they definitely still hadn’t had sex.
She made the sandwich and knew River would want a pickle with hers, so she added it to the plate, got them both something to drink before she sat back down, deciding to get her dessert out of River’s bag later, and waited for River to come out before she finished her own dinner to be polite.
When her phone dinged, she had nothing else to do, so she checked the email, thinking it would be a client booking a massage, but it wasn’t.
“Holy shit,” she whispered and covered her mouth.
