This is my first ever submission to Literotica. I hope many of you enjoy it. Feedback is more than welcome. Enjoy
People always misjudge me when they first meet me. Truthfully, some misjudge me even after they've known me for a while. I'm really not surprised by this though. Appearances, as they say, can be deceiving. It's not surprising that people think I'm the kind of guy that's screwing everything in sight. Not to brag, but I've got the looks for it. A little over six feet tall with a broad, very muscular frame, wavy brown hair that's always well-kept, and even when it gets messy tends to fall in ways that I have to admit are not unflattering. My eyes are a deep green that I know I've found striking the few times I've seen it in someone else's face, and my face has got features that are chiseled enough that I've been asked on more than one occasion if I've ever considered modeling. And, I admit, I spend way too much time in the gym. I'm a pretty easy-going guy, and I've never had trouble talking to and making friends with women. Of course, those last two are the start of where people misjudge me.
Everyone assumes that my time in the gym is spent out of vanity, a certain flair for the narcissistic. They don't know I use it as an outlet for my frustrations; that I find a couple of hours of working out a catharsis, and the sculpted body I've developed was the side effect rather than the goal. They tend to assume that being able to hold a conversation translates easily into getting a date. For most guys, it probably would. For me, although I'm well acquainted with the kinds of conversation that will make me friends, I never know how to move things from friendly banter to asking a girl out. It's worked against me for years, the last steady girlfriend I had was in my last year of college, and it wasn't a serious enough relationship that either of us changed our after-graduation plans. She went to grad school on the other side of the country, I went to work. We haven't exchanged more than Christmas cards and the occasional friendly e-mail since. I hadn't even dated anyone more than once or twice in the last 2 years. I digress though. The story of my romantic troubles is long, boring, and frustrating. The story of how that long dry spell ended is much more interesting.
It started with a favor for a friend. The friend happened to be female, but that isn't directly relevant, because she was also about 40 years older than me. Mrs. Clark, a widow who, though her husband has been dead 10 years now, insists on being called Mrs, not Miss, not Ms.. She lived next door to me for 2 years, and we were on friendly terms, although after the third niece she tried to set me up with proved equally dull, I was forced to put a blanket ban on blind dates in effect. Having reached her retirement though, Mrs. Clark was taking her savings and moving to a place that was cheaper, with better weather, and had the added advantage of being down the block from her son and grandkids. But she needed help moving her furniture out, and yours truly was called in to do the heavy lifting.
After a day full of that, I was exhausted, and after I closed the back of the U-haul she'd rented I sat down on her stoop to take a breather. A minute or two later, Mrs. Clark came out and handed me a tall glass of ice water, which was exactly what I needed at that moment. As I guzzled it down, she sat next to me and hugged me. As she spoke, I noticed an envelope in her hand, and figured that she was going to try to pay me. I prepared myself to hand most of the money back to her, I knew her well enough to know she'd try to give me well over the 40 bucks we'd agreed on (remember, I was doing this mainly as a favor).
"I can't thank you enough, David. I don't know what I would have done without you." She said this in that perpetually cheery voice of hers, then added, holding the envelope out to me "I've got a little something for your troubles here. I figured you could use it after today."
I was confused at that point, it's not something you'd say if you're about to hand someone cash in most cases. Setting the glass down on the stoop, I opened the envelope. Inside was the 40 dollars, and a coupon. Well, a gift certificate technically. The top of the coupon was marked with the name of a rather upscale spa just across the street from the gym I go to. It was marked, "Valid for one (1) one hour full-body massage session. Cannot be exchanged or redeemed for cash." It was signed with a man's name, Charlie, written in English as well as marked with a few Chinese characters.
Mrs. Clark went on to say, "Charlie's the greatest, I've been going there once a month for years. My little treat to myself. Now, no buts! It's right there on the coupon, I can't return it, and I won't be around to use it, so you'll just have to." I gave her a wry grin, she'd anticipated my objection before I could give it. I'd never had a full body massage, but I knew they weren't cheap. And, I admit, I was less than thrilled at the prospect of having a guy have his hands all over me for an hour. But I was tired, my muscles were all sore, and I was thoroughly outmaneuverd, so I caved in, didn't argue, and said my farewells to Mrs. Clark.
I made the appointment that day to go see Charlie, and, I admit, I was hooked after the first session. Charlie was this little Chinese man who looked like he was about a hundred and five years old, but had the strongest grip I've ever felt. It turned out he was also the manager, and owner, of the spa, and most of the workers were in some way related to him. He put my fears at ease quickly, and, true to his word, gave the most soothing, relaxing, massage I've ever experienced. A small, strategically placed towel preserved my modesty throughout the massage, which did much to ease my mind.
That coupon from Mrs. Clark was only the first of many sessions with Charlie; I went about once or twice a month for a year and a half. I got into the habit of going to Charlie whenever I was overly sore after one of my gym sessions, and he managed to get rid of all the little twinges and aches that used to follow me around after an overly intense workout. We would chat as he worked, about subjects as far ranging as family and business, to world politics. I met several of the other men and women who worked at the spa, but my appointments were at a pretty regular time, so I only knew the ones who worked Saturday afternoons.
One day in the late fall, however, I broke with that regular routine. My job had given me the week off, sort of. Technically I was working from home, and so was the rest of the office, while the building was renovated. In reality, it was a week of paid semi-vacation for all of us. I knew that this gap in my work schedule was coming up, so I made my appointment with Charlie two weeks in advance for Wednesday evening. I was to be the last customer of the day, but it was always easier to get an appointment with him on a weekday than the weekend sessions that I (and apparently most of his other customers) favored.
I knew something was wrong as soon as I walked in. The normally cheerful atmosphere by the reception desk was unusually subdued, the two women working there were talking in low voices, in rapid Mandarin. When I walked in, they both looked up, seeming a little surprised to see me.
Breaking the silence that had fallen, I gave them a bright smile and said, "Ah, Hi. I had a 7:30 appointment with Charlie?" I expected to be lead to the massage room at that point. Instead, one of the woman, a matronly lady in her middle years, who I believed was one of Charlie's daughters, gave a very pained frown, flipped through a couple of pages in the appointment book, and looked at it.