Chapter 2

“I’m all yours, Bella-bear.” Alex squeezed her best friend tight.

Annie smiled, “Great, we can hang out and have dinner before you go back to the airport! Have you been craving anything from this side of the pond?”

Alex did not hesitate, “Corner Bistro.”

“Brits still can’t make a good burger, huh? You got it, Al. Good luck at the conference.” Annie turned to leave and gave Alex one more hug.

“Love ya,” Alex smiled.

Annie was deep in thought as she walked the handful of blocks back to her office. She remembered Becca bringing the twins by to pick Cal up after a PT session all those years ago; they had come across as this beautiful and happy family.

“It just seems so unfair,” Annie muttered as she rode the elevator up to her office. She took a big breath and she opened the door into the reception area. Priyanka looked at her pointedly when she walked in, “Cal’s here already; I sent them into your room.”

Kids are here too. Priyanka mouthed. Annie nodded with understanding. She knocked on the door before going in.

Cal was getting the twins set up in front of a tablet in the corner of the room. She straightened up as Annie came in, “Hi! Thanks for fitting me in today. I’m a little early… and I brought the kids — haven’t found a babysitter yet. I hope that’s okay.”

Annie’s breath caught in her throat. Cal looked tired, and it was clear she’d lost weight. But it was still the Cal she remembered: tall and statuesque, with a beautifully sculpted face framed by shoulder length blonde hair. Yep. She’s still… wow. Annie resisted the urge to keep staring and turned her focus to the kids on the floor.

“Of course it’s okay! Hey guys! You probably don’t remember me, huh?” Annie knelt down next to the kids. “Okay, so which one is Adrianna and which one is James?”

The kids giggled. Jamie pointed at herself, “I’m Jamie. And he’s Adrian.”

“Oh right,” Annie smacked her forehead with her hand, “Jemima and Andrew. That’s right!”

“JAMIE and ADRIAN!” The kids shouted together, before collapsing into laughter.

“Okay, if you guys are so smart, what’s my name? You guys were teeny tiny when I saw you last, so you probably don’t remember.”

Both kids looked up, and turned to Cal. “This is Annie, guys. She’s going to help me move my shoulder.”

“Ah, so it’s the shoulder, huh?” Annie looked at Cal, who nodded, “I would have guessed the lower back… you’re leaning right… but it may be related.”

“Mommy, can we watch the video now?” Adrian pulled on his headphones. Jamie did the same thing when Cal nodded.

“IT’S TOO LOUD!” Jamie declared. Annie adjusted the volume and lifted up one of the ear pieces, “That better, bud?” The girl nodded, already fully sucked in by the cartoon.

“Thank you, technology,” Cal said quietly, “Best i-nanny to have when you are in a pinch!”

Annie chuckled, “It’s good to see you.”

Cal nodded. Having just moved back to the city, seeing a friendly face was a welcomed respite from the recent upheaval. Annie walked towards her, “Cal, I’m sorry about Becca.” Cal’s normally piercing blue eyes dulled with pain. Annie’s heart jolted.

Cal nodded again, the now routine swell of sadness and dread rising. In the nine months since Becca’s death, by far the worst aspect of being the surviving spouse was having the “I’m sorry” conversations with friends and family. There was the horribly insensitive “Oh, I can’t imagine what you are going through,” and the well-intentioned but insincere “I don’t know how you are managing”. Then there were those who would collapse into tears and require Cal to comfort them.

“If it’s easier childcare-wise to do these sessions at your place, I’m happy to come over,” Annie continued.

Cal was suddenly hit with the urge to cry. Annie did the one thing that most people didn’t (or couldn’t) do: offer comfort and help in a way that acknowledged the situation without tripping over the tragedy gracelessly. Cal nodded, a powerful sob escaping her lips.

Annie’s arms were around her immediately. It’d been a while since Cal had accepted an embrace from anyone outside of her family. Most people would approach and ask in soft, saccharine voices, “Do you need a hug?” Call it pride or the stubborn determination to not be the weeping widow, but Cal would always answer in the negative. Yet here she was, clinging to Annie as if her life depended on it.

It was all Annie could do to not dissolve into tears herself. The woman in her arms was racked with quiet sobs. Thanks to the cartoon vortex, Jamie and Adrian were oblivious to their mother’s crying. Annie felt the absence of Becca so profoundly it surprised her. She kept holding Cal, whispering whatever came to mind in a desperate attempt to comfort.

“I’m here, honey, I’m here,” Cal kept hearing in her ear. Annie’s voice was like a balm. It was several long minutes before Cal managed to calm down. When she did, she leaned back from the hug and wiped the tears from her eyes.

“Oh, I really didn’t mean for that to happen,” Cal confessed, taking the tissue that Annie offered.

“I usually don’t make my patients cry until I get into the swing of the treatment session,” Annie smiled gently. She paused for a moment before she started manipulating Cal’s shoulder, “Speaking of which, let’s see what we have here…”

Cal winced at Annie’s initial probing of her sore shoulder, but was grateful that Annie didn’t linger on her loss of composure, “I wrenched it while I was moving stuff into the apartment. My brothers were supposed to help, but one got hit with his kid’s stomach bug, and the other one had a work thing.”

“Let’s bill them for this session, then! It’s only fair. Okay, on the table, on your right side.”

Cal submitted to Annie’s care. For the next forty-five minutes, Annie’s hands efficiently stretched and kneaded Cal’s left shoulder area. Annie was pleased that she was able to quickly return some mobility to the joint; it was one of her favorite parts of her job.

For Cal, the experience was much more profound: being touched so intentionally was wonderful — and destabilizing. It had been a long time since Cal had come into physical contact with anyone other than her family and her children. She had not realized how much her body had been craving to be touched. Throw in the fact that Annie was super easy on the eyes, it was all Cal could do to stay still. She tried to keep her eyes closed; she was afraid they would give away the seismic activity going on in her body due to Annie’s proximity. Her senses were going haywire, processing thrills that sprinted all over her skin every time Annie’s fingers made contact.

“Okay Cal, why don’t you shift onto your back for me. We need to re-align your hips — you’re kinda lopsided right now.”

Annie placed her hands on Cal’s iliac crests, and pushed firmly. Cal almost flew off the table when Annie’s palms made contact with her hips. Oh fuck. How am I this turned on? Dead puppies, dead puppies, dead puppies.

Unfortunately for Cal, her predicament did not improve. “Knees up and apart, please,” Annie placed her forearm between Cal’s knees, “Now squeeze. Come on Cal, harder. Five… four… three… two… okay. Release.”

Annie leaned forward and patted her own right shoulder, “Hook your right knee here, Cal.”

When Cal’s hamstrings rested against Annie’s chest, Cal stopped breathing.

“Okay perfect, now push against me.” Annie leaned forward more, providing resistance — and a jaw-dropping view of her ample cleavage. Cal’s hands flew to cover her face. Get a hold of yourself, Warner. Thank god I’m not a guy. I’d have a raging hard-on that she would be able to see right now.

“I know, Cal, it’s going to hurt a little, but we’re almost there.”

Cal almost laughed at how off the mark Annie was. Thankfully, Annie released Cal’s leg and placed it back on the table.

Annie reluctantly moved on to the last stretch of the session. She was selfishly grateful that Cal’s eyes were shielded during that last exercise. The alluring friction and pressure from Cal’s leg had caused Annie’s nipples to swell. She quickly grabbed a sweatshirt and pulled it on, hoping it would be enough to hide them from view.

Returning to the table, Annie placed both hands on the nape of Cal’s neck, “We’re just going to do a stretch — you’re carrying a lot of stress here.”

Cal felt Annie’s hands supporting her neck and skull and then, with an eroticism Cal was not expecting, Annie’s fingers applied sweet pressure against the base of her skull and the nape of her neck. For the first time in a long time, Cal felt the urge to give in to her libido’s appeal for relief: it had flared again and again during Becca’s illness and since her death, but Cal had always suppressed it. She gripped her hands into fists, willing her body back under control. Get a hold of yourself, you sex-deprived idiot!

And then, with timing only children are capable of, “Mommy — we’re done with the video. Can we go out and look at the fish tank?” Jamie and Adrian stretched, dropping their headsets unceremoniously onto the floor.

Cal dragged her mind and body back to reality, “Okay, but pack up your stuff, and when you go out there, don’t break anything.”

The kids threw their stuff into the backpack.

“Before you go, how about some stickers?” Annie pulled a stack out of her desk drawer.

Cal propped herself up on her elbows, “Wow, Annie, that’s going to win you some major points. These guys are sticker fanatics. Guys — just one each, okay?”

The kids picked out their stickers and bolted out, yelling quick ‘thank yous’ as they ran. Annie propped the door open, “We’ll keep the door open guys. Okay, Cal, one more thing and you’ll be done with me.” Annie helped Cal sit up.

“Done with you? Are you breaking up with me?” Cal didn’t realize fully what she’d said until it came out of her mouth. Oh my god, am I trying to flirt with her? What’s wrong with me??

“Not by a long shot,” Annie smiled, glad to see the return of some of the feistiness that Cal used to have when they first met, “I’m not so easy to get rid of. Now, pay attention; let’s go through the exercises you need to do at home.”

Cal tried to focus, but it was a difficult task: spirals of arousal were licking tantalizingly around her sex. Annie was unaware of Cal’s plight, and unintentionally exacerbated the issue by touching Cal here and there as she walked through the exercises.

“And that, Ms. Warner, is all I got!” Annie smiled as Cal hopped off the bed. Annie started stripping the table of its linens. Cal just stood there for a moment, staring at Annie, trying to process the effect Annie had on her. Cal had not been captivated like this in a long time.

“Any big plans for tonight?” Cal asked, surprising herself with the boldness of the question. Warner, stop talking.

Annie didn’t seem to find the question untoward. “Dinner with my best friend who’s in town from the UK,” she replied as she picked up her phone and started typing.

“Sounds like fun,” Cal was grateful for Annie’s momentary distraction. Stop checking her out, Cal, she admonished herself when she realized she had been raking her eyes up and down Annie’s body.

“Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. Sorry,” Annie indicated to the phone as she put it down, “Just adding some notes to your file.”

Happy to not have been caught staring, Cal stuck her head out into the reception area, “Okay guys, two minute warning. Say ‘I heard you’ if you heard me.”

Jamie and Adrian had their faces plastered against the side of the fish tank.

Cal looked at Annie with resignation when she was met with silence. Annie smiled and patted Cal on the arm, “Good seeing you. Set up some time with Pri and I’ll see you next week!”

Cal grabbed her kids’ stuff, walked out into the reception area and bent down between her children, “We are going to go in a minute, ok?”

The twins nodded, “Are we still meeting Uncle Torrey at the playground?”

Cal checked her phone, “Yep! He just texted to say he’s on his way there. One sec, guys,” she walked over to Priyanka.

“Hi, Annie said I should check in with you about next week?”

Priyanka pulled up Cal’s file on the computer, “Yep, when do you want to come in? Oh, wait, Annie made a note here… um, do you want her to make a house call next session?”

A series of extremely inappropriate thoughts sprung up in Cal’s mind. Goddamit Cal, shake it off! She looked at the now closed door of Annie’s treatment room and tried to speak coherently, “Uh, okay, if she can manage it, that’d be really helpful. Thanks. That would be amazing.”

Priyanka looked at the computer screen, “Okay, then it’ll have to be the last session of the day. Annie has the five p.m. slots free Tuesday and Friday next week.”

Tuesday comes sooner than Friday… “Tuesday works! Thanks so much. Say thank you to Priyanka guys, let’s go!”

“Thank you!” yelled two little voices.

“You got it,” Priyanka waved goodbye and clicked through Annie’s appointment schedule as Cal herded the kids out.

Annie tentatively peeked out when she heard them leave. Priyanka crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow, “House call? You never make house calls.”

“She just moved back to the city. Her wife died. She’s in pain. She has two kids,” Annie explained as she pulled off her sweatshirt.

“And you think she’s hot.”

“Pri! Stop it. Did you not hear me say that her wife passed away? That one is a non-negotiable no-fly zone.”

“You want to jump her bones. I can tell,” Priyanka waved her hands in the general direction of Annie’s body, “Your aura is, like, flipping out.”

Annie blushed, “It’s flipping out because you’re being inappropriate in eight different ways.”

Priyanka shrugged, “Inappropriate? Maybe. Inaccurate? Nope. Your nipples could cut glass right now.”

Annie looked down and quickly covered her chest with her sweatshirt. Priyanka squealed with laughter. Annie glared at Priyanka in protest before stomping back into her treatment room and slamming the door shut.

–Chapter 2: The Second PT Session (One Week Later – July)–

Cal opened the cooler bag and showed its contents to the twins. Adrian grabbed a stick of string cheese, and Jamie chose to start with an apple. “Okay guys, when we get home, Annie is going to come work on my shoulder. You guys can play some Uno or do some coloring, and then we can go out for dinner. I also have a surprise for you.”