Happy Endings by Amelia Moore

Cade tapped his fingers on the table. He
looked down at the empty glass of beer in front of him and started
to reach for the full one a few inches away but stopped short.
Pulling his hand back, he ran it through his medium length, dark
hair barely noticing feeling a layer of sweat on the back of his
neck. Craning his head he scanned the faces of the other patrons in
the dimly lit bar.
    At the far end of the room the front door
opened letting in a cool blast of air. Through the door walked a
man who was the mirror image of Cade, except he had a high and
tight crew cut and wore a pressed, black business suit instead of
Cade’s blue jeans and sweat shirt. He looked around the room and
gave Cade a nod. A few moments later he slid into the seat across
from Cade, who started talking before his guest’s butt hit the
cushion. “Thank God you’re here, Kevin. Thanks for coming,” he
said, shaking with excitement.
    “You don’t have to thank me or God. I guess
you can thank the phone company if you want. You know I would have
come because you’re my brother, but to be honest, after hearing
your rambling message on my voice mail I came more out of curiosity
than anything. So now that I’m here, what’s up?” Kevin asked as he
reached for the full glass of beer.
    “I had sex with one of my clients today.”
    Kevin spit out his beer, causing several
people to stare at him. He sat his glass down and said, “I knew it.
When you became a masseuse…”
    “Massage therapist,” Cade quickly him
corrected.
    “Anyway, I knew it was only a matter of time
before you fucked a client. You can lose your license over this.
Maybe even go to jail.”
    “You don’t lose your license for being
unethical, only for being illegal, and it’s only illegal if they
pay you for sex.”
    Kevin closed his eyes and pressed his
fingers on his temples and said, “Then I guess I should just be
happy she didn’t pay you, but I still say you’re dancing in a
minefield.” After opening his eyes again, Kevin looked at his
brother and found him grinning sheepishly. Raising his voice Kevin
said, “She didn’t pay you for
sex, right?”
    Darting his head around and using his hands
to motion for Kevin to lower his voice Cade said, “Shhhhh. It’s not
like that, but keep it down.”
    Speaking just above a whisper Kevin said,
“Well, did she pay you for sex? Yes or no?”
    After a long pause Cade said, “Not
explicitly, no.”
    Kevin threw his hands in the air and glared
at his brother. “But technically, yes?”
    “Technically there was no verbal
agreement.”
    “Why don’t you just tell me what happened so
I can figure out what the hell you’re talking about? It’s obvious
you called me here because you’re going to explode if you don’t
tell someone. So go on. Get it out of your system. Start with how
you met this person so I can get an idea of how shady the whole
thing is.”
    Cade slapped both hands flat on the table and
leaned forward grinning. “I met her a few months ago when I was
working my side job for that chiropractor giving chair massages at
health fairs and big corporate offices.”
    Kevin took a drink of his beer, sat the glass
back down and then said in an unamused tone, “Right. You give free
massages so that after you’re done your boss can convince everyone
they needed thousands of dollars’ worth of adjustments.”
    “Hey, most people do need thousands of dollars’ worth of
adjustments, and everyone needs a free back rub. But anyway, we
were at this big oil company and this smoking hot MILF walked up to
my chair. She must have been in her early forties, but her body was
timeless; long dark hair, toned thighs, voluptuous breasts, and
hazel eyes you could get lost in. I gave her an extra-long massage
because I didn’t want to stop touching her. Afterwards I started to
give her the whole chiropractic song and dance, but she said she
already had a chiropractor. The conversation should have ended
right there, but about