Page 44 of Dump and Chase

“How do you feel about acupuncture?” I asked.

“I’ve had it done before.”

“I use dry needling. Are you familiar with it?”

“I’ve had it done once.”

“Great. So today, I’m going to work on your neck and legs, do acupuncture, then I’m going to show you some new exercises you can do to rehab that knee.”

He grimaced a few times as I relieved the pressure around his neck. He let out a squeak when I hit the most tender points of his right thigh muscles.

“Holy shit,” he said. “I had no idea how much that was going to hurt.”

“Like I said, your right leg is doing extra work for the left.”

I did a little deep massage, and at one point he covered his eyes with one hand.

“I was going to ask you if guys ever got excited when you worked on them, but right now, this is torture.”

I chuckled. “I’ve had a few excited guys come through here. And before you ask, I’m not naming names.”

I finished up on both legs and then prepped my acupuncture needles. Brandon watched, following my every move.

“You’re not afraid of needles, are you?” I asked.

“Nah. I just find the whole thing interesting.”

I rolled my stool and supplies over and started on his neck. The first needle went in and he nearly jumped off the table.

“You all right?” I asked, trying not to giggle.

“I don’t remember it being an explosion in my body,” he said, laughing himself.

“At least I know I hit the right spot.”

He was used to the needles by the end of it. I finished up and put some hot compresses on all his trouble spots.

“I’ll leave some heat on these muscles for about fifteen minutes, then I want to go through those exercises with you. You’ll work on them tomorrow. I want to give your body a chance to rest for a bit.”

“You’re the boss.”

I paused for just a second to ponder that. I was expecting a total pain-in-the-ass, but Brandon had been a good patient so far. Either his reputation was overblown, or I was doing a good job.

After placing the hot compresses, I got my laptop out to make some notes. I asked him if he had any questions, and maybe I should have been specific about the nature of the questions.

“Yeah, Jim said you used to date Grant.”

I stopped typing. “We dated for a while. We broke up a long time ago.”

Brandon closed his eyes as he relaxed on the table. “Why’d you break up?”

“Before I answer that, do you have a girlfriend? If so, what’s her name? How long have you been dating her? How old is she? What does she do for a living?”

He smirked. “Okay, I get it. By the way, I don’t have a girlfriend right now. The last one was Maya. We’d been dating about a year. She was twenty-eight. She manages a clothing boutique.”

He was a shit. “Fine. Ethan and I were going in two different directions. I wanted to settle down and he didn’t.”

“How long ago did you break up?”

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