"Innocent touch"
It started with "Are you o.k.?" and ended like "…".
Well to be honest Emily didn't really know how it would end. Except that his hands were comfortably warm on her back while he slowly kneaded her sore muscles through the thin layer of her shirt.
She felt hot and was relieved that he couldn't see her face. She always got beet read in situations like that. It was embarrassing! She remembered that one day when she had to discuss 'The circle of life' in front of the whole class! She loved biology but talking in front of a group of people like Cassandra and her peers was an entirely different cup of tea. She had started to stutter and then got red in the face. The name "Tomato" stuck for about three weeks before they went back to 'Pits'. She wished they would have stayed with the goddamn fruit.
Already that morning she had felt small trickles of tension in her neck and ignored them. But they had grown, and in the middle of her shift she couldn't even turn her head without a sharp pain travelling down her spine.
Dr. Barnes had surprised her in the unused exam room that some kind administrator had furnished with bunk beds as a place for exhausted medical professionals to snatch quick naps and rest before returning to their hectic jobs. She had tried get back some mobility by rolling her head from one shoulder to the other.
His unexpected entrance and concerned, "Are you okay?" led to her jerking her head up in surprise, and as a result of that, a heartfelt whimpering which showed that she was definitely not okay.
From there it was only a matter of seconds before he had her convinced to lay flat on her stomach on one of the beds, his hands sliding up and down her back.
It should have felt awkward and embarrassing but it was neither. Instead she was relieved when the pain started to subside and leave her body.
She sighed and relaxed into the steady grip of the two hands which were absolutely fantastic. She couldn't believe that Dr. Barnes was able to make her pain vanish in a matter of minutes. It was like he had magic hands or something. She giggled quietly and for the fraction of a second the fingers on her neck stilled before they continued their relentless task to loosen her up.
"What's so funny?" Micah asked.
"Hmm," she muttered incomprehensible.
As an answer he stopped his administrations of her back so that she snapped out of her haze.
"What?"
"I said," he repeated and his warm fingers lingered loosely on her skin. "What's so funny?"
She shrugged and winced at the same time when she felt that her neck wasn't as painless as she had thought.
Her hand went up to rub over the hurting muscles when their fingers met. It had been an unconscious gesture that turned into something entirely different in that very instant. She caught her breath but didn't move her hand. The angle was uncomfortable and she was about to put her arm back where it belonged when he carefully stroke his index finger over her thumb. She let out a rattled breath and turned around.
His eyes were dark and the expression on his face not readable. She tried to decipher it but couldn't. Instead she looked at him; truly saw him for the first time since she had started to work at this place. Heat spread over her entire body. The seconds ticked by, her neck forgotten. Instead there were only the two of them in their own world.
He grinned helplessly and broke their moment of intimacy.
"Your neck better?" he asked and made a step backwards to bring some distance between them.
She nodded slowly. "Yes. Thank you."
The boyish smile reappeared. "No problem." Hastily he went to the door and opened it. "Take care, Emily," he said and was gone.
Confused she stared at the half opened door. Something had definitely happened here. She just wasn't exactly sure what.