I grabbed my brown trench coat, it was synthetic wool. Though a trench coat wasn’t the smartest thing to wear while jogging I still needed something relatively warm and something that I could put my groceries into after I bought them.

I began my morning jog, it was similar to yesterday though a little nippier. The trench coat flaps fluttered about as I jogged along at a rather fast pace. The ground was a little wet and as I passed under a light post I noticed that my boot tips had become fairly wet from the moisture on the ground.

Sometimes I wish I had an iPod for my morning jogs. Actually I called them iPoke because after a while the screen sensitivity would die so you’d literally have to poke at the screen to select it rather than just touch it.

I began to murmur lyrics to myself on my lone jog in the morning when suddenly a voice called out to me.

“Hey Ron! Wait up” Lotus called out and I stopped, waiting for her to trot up to my side. “You never came to the spa yesterday” she told me and I nodded as I let out a sigh.

“Yeah I uhm… I got a little busy last night and never made it to the spa” I told her which was pretty much a straight answer though I didn’t really know why she cared all that much about it to come out at… 5:00am to talk about me not going to the spa last night.

“Oh… I understand. But you must be so sore” she said and I nodded as I felt my back muscles twitch and burn a bit.

“Ye…yeah. But only just a little. Don’t worry about me though, I can wait until next Friday” I told her and she gasped.

“You couldn’t. That’s so hard on your body” she gasped but I shrugged.

“Bah, it’s nothing. I’ve been through worse” I said casually. But I guess she didn’t quite see it my way.

“Please come with me. I shall treat you immediately” she told me, or was she asking. I’d never really seen her this assertive before… ah-ha funny because just yesterday I was duking it out with Iron Will and, yeah never mind.

“But isn’t the spa closed right now?” I asked hesitantly and she nodded. “So shouldn’t we wait until it opens?” I asked and she looked back to me with a stupid smile.

I wanted to slap myself in the head. Of course we didn’t have to wait. She was the owner, well one of them anyway.

She closed the door behind us and locked it before dragging me into the spa room. “Uhm… Lotus, I gotta go shopping in about…” I trailed off and looked to my watch. It was 5:10 now so the grocery stores would be opening in about fifty or so minutes.

“Do not worry. I don’t think you’ll really want to leave just as the stores are opening” she told me as she closed and locked the spa room door. I raised an eyebrow.

“But I always like to be there when they just open… no one else is there at that time of the morning so it isn’t crowded” I told her and she looked back to me.

“Take off your clothes” she ordered me and I gulped.

“Uhm… my clothes?” I stammered, forgetting that this was a massage. She rolled her eyes.

“Well how exactly would I be able to massage you with your coat on?” she asked and I nodded stupidly. ‘Of course… man I feel stupid’

I slipped off my coat and shirt and she lay me down on the massage bed, face down. “So tell me, what had you so busy last night?” she asked as she began to massage my back with those goddess-like hooves of hers. I let out a moan of relief as she soothed my back muscles.

“Ohhhhh… jusssst Iron Will… we haaaaad an arm wrestle” I told her, my words sometimes slurring as my back began to feel incredible. Damn she was good. I needed to learn how she did it so that I could do it to myself.

“Oh… well how did that go?” she asked and we began to engage in small talk. I began to chuckle as I told her about the mare that fainted when I began to pose and she gave a giggle.

“Well you are very handsome” she told me and it made me blush a little.

“Thanks… you’re uhh… very pretty as well” I told her. I was about to tell her she was handsome but quickly remembered she was a mare, not one of the stallions from work.

“Do… do you really mean that?” she asked timidly. I nodded as I let out a quiet moan.

“Oh yeah… real knock-out… and you’re a goddess with those hooves of yours” I mumbled as she continued to massage me. I heard her let out a sigh.

“Well… other stallions don’t really take notice. They usually think it’s gay to go to a spa. And stallions never really want to go out with me… I guess I’m not pretty enough” she said with sadness in her voice.

“Nah… it’s not that. And if it is… well then to hell with those stallions… the right one will come along one day. Just you wait” I assured her. Her hooves continued to work magic on my back.

“So what about you?” she asked.

“What about me?”

“Any marefriends?” she asked and I shook my head.

“Nah. Relationships are overrated. They start, then they go rocky then the chick is like ‘I hate you, you asshole’ and I’m always like ‘Glad we see eye to eye on that” I chuckled.

“Really?” she asked but I shook my head.

“No, I wouldn’t talk to a woman like that. I just never really got into the whole dating thing. It just isn’t my thing. Like I said relationships are overrated” I told her.

“Oh” she said with a sudden tone of depression in her voice. She continued to massage my back. “Well what if a mare came up to you and expressed her feelings to you?” she asked me.

‘What kind of question was that?’ I thought to myself. “Uhm… well for starters I don’t think that’s gonna happen for two reasons. First off: I still wouldn’t really be interested in a relationship, maybe good friends but nothing more and seconds: I’m not a pony… that’s just not right” I said with a small chuckle and she let out another depressed ‘Oh’.

“Well anyway, what’s been going on around here lately” I asked, trying to engage in small talk again.

“Nothing” she replied bluntly. Well that was strange. Usually she went a little more in-depth with it.

“Oh… well… anything interesting happen lately?” I asked but once again she ended the conversation before it started.

“Nothing worth talking about” she replied bluntly. Jeeze it was like she had just caught herself a case of the blues. She quickly finished the massage and stepped back.

“Well Ron… I hope you feel better. Now if you will please see yourself out… I have work to do” she told me. It looked almost like she was in tears but she quickly turned around and left before I could ask.

I went to stretch and found my back was still a little tensed up. I would probably have to come back here later after I grab some groceries and work out a little to build up a sweat.

I grabbed my coat and t-shirt before leaving the spa, wondering what the hell had gotten into Lotus.

Author's Note

I really like naive characters but only the ones that are naive for good purpose. In all honesty if I went to a spa and this happened I'd probably say the same thing, most people are like 'If that happened I'd say let's fuck' and I always raise an eyebrow and ask 'Really, in all reality if you were at a spa and the massage therapist asked you about your life you'd just say let's fuck?', so yeah Ron kind of seems like a dick right now but it's all in good health