Offering Kira a massage

What a long day . . . I feel used up. Do I still love doing this? I don’t need the money . . .

No, I tell myself sternly, don’t trust your brain when you’re this tired. You helped people today, and for all the frustrations, you do still love what you do.

If only I could go fuck Bailey into the boxspring a few times . . . it’s only my mind that’s tired, not my body . . . Unfortunately, she has a commitment this evening. It’s too bad, since we only have one more night together after this before her parents come home.

I hear my office door open and a soft voice says, “Dr. Harrison?” Kira’s still here? . . . Maybe there’s hope for this evening after all.

I look up at Kira and say, “I didn’t realize you were still here.”

She rubs the back of her neck and says, “Yeah . . . we were having some issues with the system earlier, so there was a data-entry backlog that had to be cleared up. I volunteered to stay late and take care of it.”

“Volunteered?” I ask, careful to keep my tone as neutral as possible. Kira hears the concern in it anyway and gives me a shy little smile.

“Yes, Dr. Harrison, volunteered—really, I promise,” she says earnestly, rubbing her neck some more. Perfect! “I do more of that kind of thing than they do ’cause I’m new, but they’re fair, they don’t just dump it on me. But I was the only one without some kind of commitment tonight, so I was the logical one.”

“Kira,” I ask gently, “is your neck bothering you? Or your shoulders, or back?”

“All of it, Dr. Harrison,” she replies with a small laugh. “I carry my tension in my back anyway, and I’ve been stressed about . . . stuff . . . lately. It wasn’t really a good day to spend all that time at the computer doing data entry.”

This is my chance—I have to take it. “Kira,” I ask carefully, “would you like a massage? Shelly’s gone home, I have a key to her room, and I do have some training as a masseur. I’m not up to her standards, but I have some idea what I’m doing. I think it could do you a lot of good this evening. What do you say?”