The Art of Recovery

Technicalities

"So yeah, technically he's a-" I say nervously.

"Client?" My Uncle Gabe interrupts.

"Yeah, except, he's also a friend, but-"

"With benefits?"

"EW, you old coot! It's nothing like that!" I slapped the back of his head.

I could hear him snicker softly.

I glance at Robyn. He's taking this surprisingly well, considering Gabe is 6'7. He's a police officer, so naturally, he interrogated him. He owns the Rec. Center, which is open until late hours. If you haven't figured it out, we are currently in the Rec. Center.

"So then, what is he?" Gabe asks.

"He's a client, that turned out to be a friend, I guess."

He gives me a funny look. I would too, if I were him. I never do this kind of thing. I'm as friendly as friendly can get when you have to be professional. And that's pretty friendly, considering all my clients like me. As in every client I've ever had.

"Alright," Gabe turns to Robyn, "I'm only doing this because I have a feeling I'll be seeing you more often, since this is your first day with her, and you're in her dressing room. I'm Gabe, her uncle. Nice to meet you." He puts out his hand, which Robyn shakes cautiously. Like my uncle just put a bomb on him or something.

"Yeah, hi. " Robyn manages to get out.

"Oh! So he's British! You never mentioned that," Gabe turns back to me.

"I never thought it was relevant. "I shrugged. "Okay, anyway. I need to get home, so..." I looked at Gabe expectantly.

"I'm gonna be here for a while... As in 3 or 4 hours." Gabe answered me wearily.

"Oh, I can drive you-" Robyn started but didn't finish, because a certain someone decided to barge in shirtless.

"So are we getting Starbucks, or what?" Fabi said only looking at me.

"Oh, yeah Fabi, take my niece home, will ya?' Gabe turned to him immediately.

"Uh, well.' He flushed, but quickly regained his confidence. "I've been meaning to for -"

"Great. You guys already have something planned anyway, so it's fine," he says, shooing us out of my dressing room. "Don't forget to sign up for your shifts next week. You guys have a good ni- I mean morning."

We all kind of blinked at each other for a few seconds. But Fabi was the first to talk.

"So you are who exactly?"

"I'm Robyn, a client-" Robyn started.

"And friend," I said smiling quickly at him. Then I faced Fabi completely, and folded my arms.

"So when he asked you to take me home, you didn't think he was actually asking you to..."

"Um,well... I was thinking that-" I cut Fabi off.

"Because you know, I'd kick your butt, if you tried." I smirked. "And for my sake, can you please put on a shirt.'

He stepped up closer to me, and glared. His dark eyes smouldered, and I could feel his body heat radiate. His rage was overflowing, and I could see it on his face. On his body. Did I mention he's shirtless?

And ripped? Yeah, I guess not.

He grabbed my hand, and stormed down the hallway, to his dressing room to get a shirt. He was probably changing when he remembered the Starbuck's thing. He has a bad attention span. He grabbed my hand once again and dragged me out the back to his car. The air feels humid, and the ground is wet from the rain. I wiggled my toes on the wet concrete, and glanced at my sneakers as he comes to a stop. I look up at the morning sky, as the cotton candy clouds dance across the sky that's barely woken up.