Page 36 of Hale's Pawn
I smile at the asshole. One of the random Avicii songs that I like. Sentimental fuck. “Do you like the bathroom?” I ask Ainslee as I walk over to her.
She turns to look at me, nodding. “I do. This is really nice, Oran. Seriously, it’s so peaceful already. You’re in here,” she points at her heart, “and, up here.” She points to her mind. She walks over to me and pulls me down to her, giving me a quick kiss.
I don’t deepen the kiss for fear that we won’t leave the room. I let her go with a sigh. “Grab your robe, let's get our asses to the spa,” I tell her.
“Okay.” Ainslee grabs her robe and drops her phone on the bed. I look at it and then her.
“You’re not going to take your phone with you? You know, to take pictures of it? For your vlog or whatever?” I ask her.
“No.” She smiles. “This is about us. I don’t document my personal life. I don’t know how to even begin. Pretty sure the most they’ve seen of my personal life is you.”
I nod in understanding. I grab her phone with me and signal for us to go with our robes and slippers in tow. Once we’re out of the room and it’s locked, I ask her. “Why don’t you like posting your life on there? Not that I’m big on sharing either, but I mean, you do that for a living, no?”
“Yeah, I’m barely at the bakery, but that’s because I feel like my employees tense up every time I come around, like I’m going to shoot up the damned place. Anyway, I just… I think I was afraid that they would look at my life, then just shake their heads. Like, your life is trash and a hot mess, fix it,” she chuckles, but I hear the hurt in her tone.
I say nothing until we enter the spa portion of the resort. Another employee smiles at Ainslee and I. “Welcome Mr. and Mrs. Hale. We’re all ready for you when you come out of the changing rooms. Thank you for coming to check out our spa.”
We say thank you and head to remove our clothes. I don’t bother heading into the men's end to get changed. I follow Ainslee into the women’s changing room. I look around, it looks like something typical of a woman’s changing room. The large couch really doesn’t even need to be in here. Ainslee smiles. “Mr. Hale, you do not need to be in here, this is for women only.”
“Oh yeah?” I tease Ainslee. I throw my robe on the couch as I remove my shoes and socks, then begin working on the buttons of my shirt. Ainslee says nothing as she watches me in silence. She sways to the music playing over the built-in speakers. I’ll have to tell Deacon that I like how it’s not regular spa tranquility bullshit. It’s more of the oldies. Ainslee is swaying side to side to the song I'd Rather Go Blind by Etta James. I remove my shirt from my pants. I throw it at her and she catches it. I take my pants off next and remain in boxers. “Knight to Bishop. Checkmate,” I say the chess reference.
Ainslee smiles wide. She removes her top first and her breasts bounce. Damn. She shimmies out of her skirt, remaining only in her purple lace G-string. I bite my bottom lip as she slips her robe on and takes her shoes off and slips into the slippers. The furry pink slippers fit her and match her nail polish color of the week. I deliberately ordered that she have those. I slip into simple black slippers. I get into my robe as well and we leave our clothes on the couch since we’re the only ones here. When we walk back to the lobby, another song comes on. We both look at each other with smiles on our faces. “Jagger!” we say at the same time. It’s Jagger’s favorite song, Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You, but this one is Lauryn Hill’s version.
“He used to annoy me when he would repeat the fucking song but now I get it,” I say to Ainslee.
Ainslee smiles as we head through another set of wooden and glass double doors. “Every damned time there was a song request, when it came on, I knew it was him who requested it at those damned stuffy-ass Founder’s parties.”
I chuckle along with her.
“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Hale.” A male employee comes up to us with a smile on his face. I swear if I hear that damn greeting again...
“Oran and Ainslee is fine,” I say to him.
He nods. “Okay, Oran and Ainslee. What would you like done for today?”
“It’s her choice,” I look at Ainslee who is excited. “She did say she’d want the whole menu. How about this, get us everything on your spa treatments menu that will give us the chance to be at the country club by eight.”
“We can have you out by seven, if that’s good.”
“Great!” Ainslee exclaims. “I’m excited.”
AINSLEE
Spending a first date at a spa is not something I would’ve come up with and I’m glad I didn’t think of this because the surprise was so worth it. Oran and I don’t bother changing back into our clothes as we leave the spa. I love how they did my make-up too. It’s an added bonus and I don’t have to waste time doing it. Oran stops and turns his grin towards me. “I want to do another bet…” he says as he walks backwards down the hall that leads back upstairs.
“I never back down from a challenge, if that’s what you’re getting at,” I reply.
Oran smiles like the Cheshire cat. “There’s a back entrance to get upstairs and if you beat me to it, I’ll let you pick our next trip.”
“We’re going on another trip?”
“Of course, we’ll go on as many trips as you want, but first, you have to beat me in order to get the chance to make that choice,” he says slyly.
I narrow my eyes at him, holding on to my robe. “Okay.”
“I’ll let you get a head start...one...two…” Before Oran could get to three, I run for it. I run up the stairs and I don’t look back to see if Oran has figured another way to the room. Once I get to the main floor, I drop my shoes and I stop to pick them up.
“Mrs. Hale!” Sisi from the front desk gets my attention.
