On her tablet, Anabelle clicked into files and pulled up his mother to see where he worked, as he was the next-of-kin contact for her. The Harmony Health Collective. She transferred over to her search engine.
Here it was. The practitioners were listed. Massage Therapy with Oliver Ricardi 9-5 daily. Tuesday until 8. Please call for an appointment.
She set her tablet aside. Damn it. She shouldn’t do this. She took some deep breaths and tried to calm herself down. Whenshe did, she sat in solitude for ten minutes, then thought, damn it,I’m lonely.
Blowing out a heavy breath, she decided to wait until tomorrow to see if she still wanted to see him.
* * *
The next morning, Oliver walked into his office where he’d left his first patient filling out forms. Ken Olsen looked up. “I’m almost done.”
Oliver sat at his desk and perused the interior. Juliet Sullivan had helped him pick out soothing colors for the whole place. A mixture of taupe and sage green covered the walls and was matched by darker shades in the furniture.
When Ken finished, Oliver took the papers and read his information. “I see you work construction.”
“I do,” he said. “But I’m on leave. I can barely move, my back hurts so much.”
“I hope I can offer you some relief today. On the sheet I got from your company, I see you have seven sessions covered by insurance.”
“Yeah. You think you can help me by the end?”
“I do. And if we need more, we’ll apply for it.”
“I’m not workin’ now.”
“Are you getting paid?”
“Yeah. I have seven weeks of paid leave.”
“That’s great. Let me tell you what I do.”
The guy nodded.
“I think today we’ll start with some gentle massage characterized by long, slow strokes to focus on muscle relaxation and reduce tension. Next time, I’ll use deeper pressure to release chronic muscle tightness, knots and trigger points in deeper layers of muscles.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Oliver stood and led him to the treatment room. “Take off your clothes but leave on your underwear. You can put this gown on then lay down flat on the table. There’s a pocket for your head.”
Oliver walked out and read the sheets more carefully. The guy was thirty-five with a family of four to support. He didn’t write down any outside activities. Poor man. He was probably too busy making a living to do anything else.
When he went back inside, he found the patient lying flat on the table. “Doing okay, Mr. Olsen?”
“Yeah and call me Ken.”
“I’m Oliver.”
“Is your phone turned off, Ken?”
“Yes. I did it as soon as I got here.”
“Great. We’ll both stay quiet during this hour, though if anything I do makes you uncomfortable, physically or otherwise, let me know. Of course, I’ll be touching you. Try to relax and enjoy the relief.”
“All right.”
“The first thing we’ll do is stretch your muscles.”
He picked up the man’s leg, bent it at his knee then gently pushed forward. “Does that hurt?”