Chapter Text
Charlotte was absently tapping her pen watching the second hand as it ticked around the clock. Her last client of the day was late, extremely late. Typically, it was Friday and she’d already had the day from hell. She sighed heavily and looked at her phone to check if he had messaged her to explain, but nothing. She wished she had taken his full name and mobile number, she only had him written down as Sid, perhaps he was an elderly chap and that’s why he was running so late.
“Five more minutes and then we’re leaving” she said looking down at her cockapoo puppy. At only 6 months old, Mavis is still small enough to sit on Charlottes lap. Charlotte is so glad to have her company, not only in the office when waiting for extremely late clients but also in her new flat. It's the first time she's lived alone and the silence although quite welcome sometimes seems extremely loud. Having Mavis just gives Charlotte someone to talk to, she stops her feeling like she's going mad talking to herself as Mavis seems to understand every word she says.
Suddenly Charlotte hears the door open, the bell above it tingling loudly. She looks at the clock 23 minutes late. She should really tell him to leave as he's so late, but she doesn't want to turn away a potential long-term customer.
As she stood to leave the kitchen come office area, she hears him start talking, she moves to lean against the door frame while he closes the door, his back to her.
"Hello, I'm so sorry I'm late, I've had a nightmare day and I couldn't get out of the office, no matter what... "
His voice trails off as he turned and saw her face.
"Oh, it's you!" he practically spits at her; she straightens up as he begins to pull his coat back on. Charlotte isn't sure what to do or to say. She is sure he can see her hand tremble slightly, so she crosses her arms, determined not to show that he’s intimidating her
"This isn't going to work for me, I'm just going to leave."
"Mr. Parker, please, wait. I'm sorry about earlier, I thought we'd agreed it was an accident and that the insurance would cover everything."
Sighing, he bent down to stroke Mavis who was waiting patiently to be acknowledged at his feet, Charlotte couldn’t believe how traitorous her little dog was being, allowing the handsome man to stroke her as she tried to lick his hand.
He sighed again as he stood. He looked her up and down, taking in her full appearance and was surprised by what he saw.
When he'd seen her in the street, he hadn't really looked at her, he was too busy looking at the large dent in the bumper of his GTI Golf, he'd been parked talking on his phone and she had just driven into him as she tried to park her car next to him. He hadn't been overly polite when he gotten out of the car, in truth he'd barely looked at her before he'd shouted at her. He'd had the worst week at work with Tom trying to sell another idea that they didn't have the cash flow to start let alone follow through to completion, his best mate, from school Crowe breaking his leg while in France skiing. The dent was just the straw that broke this camel's back, and he unleashed his full temper on this young woman who was looking at him with large brown eyes. He could tell she was a little nervous that he might repeat his earlier performance, he’d noticed the slight tremble in her hands. He hadn’t realised how slight she was, a good 6 or 7 inches shorter than himself, and although petite she had curves in all the right places. He felt himself grow warm as he sighed again loudly and ran his hand through his hair.
As he looked at her, she pulled herself to her full height as if to show she wouldn’t be intimidated by who he was or by his earlier rudeness.
'Look I can be professional, I'm good, really good at what I do and after today I suspect you could very much use a massage' she rubbed her hands tensely as she waited for his answer desperately hoping he would say yes, she needed the extra money especially now her car insurance premium was about to go up.
'I don't know, I'm not sure I can relax. I think I'll just leave"
"Mr. Parker, please, just try. If after 15 minutes I'm not working for you, I mean if the massage isn't working then I'll stop" Charlotte moved towards another door in the room, which he hadn't noticed, as she open it the aromatherapy oil which was burning inside wafted out, as he breathed it in, he could feel he was already starting to relax.
"OK, that works for me, but I won't pay if I don't stay for the whole massage."
Charlotte turned to look at him, she really couldn't believe the nerve of this guy, could he be any ruder? First, he'd shouted at her for a small dent on his car while her bumper had practically fallen off, then he was 25 minutes late and now he's expecting a free 15-minute massage. Charlotte was annoyed but she smiled sweetly and nodded at him. She needed him to like her massage she'd heard in the local cafe that the Parkers were kind of a big deal in Sanditon, after the Denham's that is. The truth was Charlotte needed Sidney Parker to promote her business to all his friends, family, and acquaintances if she was going to have any chance of surviving here. If he gave her a bad review, she knew she'd have to pack up, admit defeat and go home back to her parent's farm and learn how to milk the cows. That wasn’t something she was really prepared to do.
Charlotte went through a few preliminary questions about Sidney Parkers health, any niggles he had in his body, any ailments she needed to know about then she left him to get undressed and get on to the massage table.
She walked back into the kitchen area to wash her hands; she was so tempted to use cold water so her hands would shock him, but she knew that was professional suicide.
As he was hoping to have a full body massage he stripped down to his black boxers, he'd placed his clothes on the chair in the corner and awkwardly got on the table, he always struggled to lay down and get the blanket over him. Once he was covered as best as he could he placed his face in the hole and waited for the girl to come back.
While he was laying there, he tried to remember her name, but he just couldn't recall it, he tried picturing her face but what his mind conjured was the curve of her breasts under her thin t-shirt and the slope of her waist that gave way to the perfect roundness of feminine hips. He found himself thinking how much he'd have liked her to turn around so he could have seen her arse. He'd stupidly busied himself with putting his coat down as she had walked away out of the room. Now laying on the bed his body was reacting to his thoughts and his cock started twitching.
"Shit" he said aloud as he tried to adjust himself just as the door opened. He stilled instantly glad he was laying on his stomach.
"Everything OK Mr. Parker?" Charlotte moved through the room checking the temperature was just right and that the oil burner still had enough oil.
He cleared his throat and hoarsely said "Yes everything is fine Miss erm..." he trailed off.
She smiled he'd obviously forgotten her name; he really was insufferable. After a slightly longer pause than necessary, as she put the massage oil on her hands, she told him to call her Charlotte.
As Charlotte went through the massage, she couldn't help noticing the muscle tone on his back, the shape of his arms, along with the perfect golden tan that covered him. Charlotte took a deep breath and felt her cheeks flush as she pushed his boxers lower down his bum so she could massage his gluteus maximus muscles, it was then that she realised the tan was an all over one, and it hadn’t come out of a bottle either.
Sidney felt himself relax deeper and deeper into the table, this had to be the best massage he'd ever had, he had been to some exclusive places which boasted the best reviews, but this girl, this Charlotte topped them all. He sighed deeply and could feel himself drifting off to sleep.
Suddenly he felt her fingertips pulling his boxers down a little exposing his bum to the cool air, his eyes pinged opened as he felt her hands continue the massage. He tried to relax again, not to think of who was doing the massage, he'd never had this issue during other massages, he was used to them, he went twice a month normally but there was something about this girl that made him feel awkward, out of control and not like himself at all.
He'd already shouted at her, been rude to her by being so late, had a quick fantasy about her like a teenage boy would and now he could feel his face burning at the embarrassment of her touching his bum. Sidney decided it was just awkward because he didn't like her and although what she was doing felt great it just didn't seem appropriate.
Finally, Charlotte started moving up his back again and as she stood at the head of the bed to work on his head, he looked at her socks, one was black with white spots and the other was black with white stripes, for some reason he found this endearing, with the pressure she was applying to his head Sidney closed his eyes and finally relaxed fully.
Charlotte looked at the clock, they were into the last part of the massage, she had spent 45 minutes massaging the best body she had seen and felt since arriving in Sanditon 4 weeks earlier. In one-way Charlotte was eager for the massage to end, she was tired, her feet were sore and all she wanted to do was sink into a hot bath with a glass of wine listening to Nora Jones. Yet as the end of the massage neared, she found herself getting the hot stones out, placing them on a towel at the base of Sidney Parkers spine. She selected two and started to rub them over his back. The hot stones are a great massage tool but not normally one she uses in a full body massage as it naturally takes longer than the other massages she provides. Charlotte realised that she didn’t want to stop massaging his wonderfully sculpted back with his smooth golden skin. She felt herself blush and was grateful he couldn’t see her face, only her feet. She cursed herself for having odd socks on, she had completely given up on pairing socks, she considered this combination to be a pretty good match. They were the same colour after all. But she didn’t think Mr. Sidney Parker would appreciate that fact. She looked over at the chair holding his neatly folded clothes and rolled her eyes. He seemed to be uptight about everything even creases, although if her clothes were as expensive as that shirt looked, she would be uptight about them too.
Charlotte removed the hot stones from Sidney's back and took one last look at its perfectness and reluctantly covered it with the blanket.
“Ok Mr. Parker, that’s you're massage complete, how do you feel?” She held her breath waiting for his answer
“Very relaxed, thank you” He could barely formulate the words in his head let alone get them out clearly.
“Great, I shall bring you a glass of water, take all the time you need before getting up”
With that Sidney saw her feet disappear from his limited view, followed by the sound of the door softly opening and closing. He laid on the bed slowly flexing his feet and moving his fingers. He had really enjoyed the massage, it had felt very sensual especially with the hot stones, his mind wandered to him using the hot stones on Charlotte and how he would like to follow them with his tongue. He felt his cock stirring, he sat up and ran his hands through his hair and looked down at his erect penis, it really had been too long since he’d been with a woman if this was all it took.
As he sat there shaking his head the door opened, a wide-eyed Charlotte stood in the doorway with a clear view of his current situation, his mind whirled as he saw her cheeks blush, he caught her eye and gave her what he hoped was a bashful grin. This seemed to spur her in to motion, she walked across the room, placed the glass of water down. She stopped by the table took a deep breath then turned to walked back out of the door, saying something about giving him more time to get himself dressed.
Sidney sighed, with a boyish grin got himself dressed. Thankfully, he’d managed to get himself under control again, he quickly paid, and left without any other conversation. Both were red cheeked, neither of them would look the other in the eye.
As Sidney walked to his car, he got his phone out to text his best friend since school, Babington, who was more like Sidney's conscience; Babington had always been the more settled out of the 3 of them. Crowe had always been a little unreliable except when it really mattered but Babington had always been there for Sidney, no matter how big or small the problem was he would offer sage advice without judgement.
Sidney: Are you about tonight for a drink?
Sidney knew Babbington would still be at work so was close to his phone, he needed to talk through his week with someone he trusted. He needed some advice on how to stop Tom from bankrupting them all and destroying their decades old family business that their father had started.
He also wanted to talk to him about his encounter with the masseuse, he was really confused by his reaction to her, his body had completely betrayed him, he was a grown man of 36 and he usually had better control over himself than that. He hadn't been in a relationship for over a year if he could call it a relationship. It had only lasted 6 weeks, and they’d barely talked during that time, it was more of a booty call or a friend with benefits style relationship. Before that he’d had a couple of one-night stands, but Sanditon was a small place, it would be awkward to bump into someone in the one and only supermarket here. He sighed as he sat waiting for Babington's reply, his private life had been a mess since he’d left Eliza in their London town house, but he wasn’t looking to start anything new. Especially not with this girl, she seemed too naïve to be much older than 20 and that was far too young for him.
Finally, his phone pinged with a reply.
Babington: If you can meet in the next half hour yes. Need to be home by 10
Sidney looked at his watch, it was 8:30pm, an hour would be better than nothing.
Sidney: OK meet you in the bar in 15
Sidney pushed the ignition button and his car roared to life, just as he was about to pull out of his parking space, he saw Charlotte hurrying down the road clutching her dog in her arms. He watched her as she passed, wondering where her car was parked, it was dark and cold. She shouldn’t really be walking home alone at this time of night, he realised she wouldn’t have been so late if he hadn’t been late himself.
Then he shrugged his shoulders; she was almost a grown-up she could make her own way home. He pulled out of the space and accelerated too quickly down the road making the engine roar unnecessarily.
Charlotte looked up and recognised the car from earlier and quietly said to Mavis, “Why are the handsome ones always twats?” the little dog licked her chin as if to agree.
Sidney was at the bar before Babington, he pulled up a stool, putting his phone and wallet on the bar. Once he’d ordered his drink he reflected on the evening. He couldn’t quite believe how good his body felt after that massage. Charlotte definitely knew how to relieve the tension in his back, he considered messaging her to thank her and to possibly book another appointment with her, but as he reached for his phone the memory of her seeing him sat on her massage table flashed in his mind and he decided he couldn’t put them both through that kind of embarrassment again just yet. He knew one thing for certain she may have relaxed his back but somehow, she had fully awakened his mind and his damn cock. He should be thinking about Tom and his hair brained scheme of asking for a million-pound increase on their loan to build a new extension to their current pool and restaurant yet all he could obsess about was the curve of her breasts in that damn t-shirt, he couldn’t understand why she was wearing a t-shirt, it was the beginning of December, didn’t she realise winter was for thick jumpers and cardigans not t shirts? Especially ones that clung to her breasts showing their perfect curve, with the material hanging loosely underneath, giving promise to a flat stomach. He could tell she had a small waist from seeing her in her coat, it was a fitted affair giving way to that perfectly round arse, he shook his head trying to get the image out of it, he could feel his cock twitching again, he really needed to sort himself out, he needed his body to stop reacting like a 15-year-old.
He felt a hand on his back in a friendly pat, he looked up to see Babington sliding into the stool next to him, he motioned to the barman to signal he wanted the same again but twice.
‘So, what's up old man? We haven’t had an impromptu drink in a long while’
‘Tom, what else could it be? Have you seen the new loan amount he's proposing? He’s bending my ear constantly about it. We’ll have to have a meeting next week to try to calm him down, we simply can’t afford the repayments.’ Sidney sighed swirling the amber liquid in his almost empty glass. He gulped it down, he picked up the new drink and swallowed the whole thing without stopping. He needed absolution tonight, he needed to drown everything out just for one night.
Babington looked at him in wonderment, he knew Tom was exasperating but he didn’t usually drive Sidney to drinking quite this much. Babington considered his friend, the last time he’d seen him throw back good whiskey without tasting it was when he was trying to decide the best course of action to get Eliza out of his life completely, Babington had never seen a messier divorce, Eliza just would not let go and Sidney gave away far more than he should have just to get her out of his life. Sidney had already ordered the next drink and was sat looking at it in his hand.
‘What else is it? Can’t just be Tom, don’t tell me Eliza has been back in touch.’
Sidney shook his head no, he sighed he couldn’t believe what he was going to say next, how had this young naïve girl affected him so much? When they’d met in the morning, she’d barely said anything in response to his tirade about the damage to his car other than to apologise, she’d thrust the paper in his hand, asked for his details. After he had given her his business card with his insurance company details scrawled across the back, she had thanked him and said she was sorry again but there wasn’t any need to have been so rude to her, it was an accident. He hadn’t apologised, he’d just agreed it was, then got in his car and left. He’d left her standing there with her bumper hanging off, he should have stayed to help her, but he had just needed to get out of there. Even in that moment she had affected him more than he was willing to admit, he wasn’t the kind of man who ran away but that is exactly what he had done this morning, ashamed of his poor behaviour.
Then when he had seen her stood in the massage reception room, he had known he was in trouble, he just hadn’t expected his body to react in such a way. Again, she had stood up to him, stopping him from leaving so that she could complete the appointment, it was the best £40 he had spent in a long time.
He explained all of this to Babington without looking at him, he heard Babington laugh, Sidney turned to look at him curious as to what was so funny, he raised his eyebrows in question.
‘Oh, my friend I think you have finally met your match, just like I did with Esther. You need to apologise, make amends. If I were you, I would send her some flowers and pay for the damage to her car. I’ve heard she's new in town, come from a small village from what Esther said. She heard the ladies at the tennis club gossiping about her, something to do with her wearing last season's coat or something just as ridiculous. Esther is booked in with her on Monday, you know how she is, she struggles with the women in our circle, as we all do, so she wants to show solidarity with this new woman. I can get her to put in a good word for you if you want. Although sounds like you’ve done an excellent job of scaring her off already, if she wasn’t impressed by what she saw I’m not sure even Esther can help.’ Babington lifted his glass to try to hide his smirk.
‘Ha fucking ha’ Sidney downed his latest drink ‘the flowers are probably a good idea and offering to pay for the damage. Her car was far worse off than mine.’ Sidney sighed, he decided there and then that he would call her in the morning to make his offer but once he had done that, he would put her out of his mind. He certainly didn’t need any more drama than this woman had already caused.
Babington was true to his word and left around 10pm taking a very drunk Sidney with him, in the small space of time Sidney had managed to down quite a large quantity of whiskey among other shots. Babington grinned at him as he was slumped against the car window, gesticulating wildly with his hands while complaining about how this young woman, nay young girl had completely written off his car all the while smiling sweetly at him, Sidney continued to tell Babington that he couldn't believe the lengths some of these desperate girls would go to just to speak to him, the most eligible bachelor in Sanditon, but that she like the others would fail because he was unavailable and uninterested in any of them.
Babington dragged a heavy Sidney into his house, laid him on his side on the sofa, placed a bowl on the floor next to him and a glass of water on the table by his head. He left quickly ignoring Sidney's rant as he continued on about how t-shirts shouldn't be allowed in December.
Glancing up from the sofa Sidney realised Babington had left without even saying goodbye, married life really had made him boring. Where was Crowe when he needed him? He really needed more alcohol, remembering he had a fine bottle of whiskey in his office, he gingerly sat up and then slowly made his way along the hallway.
Dropping into his leather swivel chair with the bottle in his hand, he dropped his phone on the desk and gave it a look of disgust as it pinged loudly at him:
"This is a courtesy message for Mr. Sidney Parker, thank you for visiting Retreat and Rest today. I hope you enjoyed your experience, if you wish to book any future appointments please telephone this number or use our booking page via Facebook. Thanks again Charlotte"
It was obviously an automated message but still one he could reply to, he put the bottle down so he could get a good grip on the phone in an attempt to stop the words jumping about and set about writing his reply.