top lip. Lips were meant to be plump rosebuds, not mean thin disappearing lines.
Oh, Carmel, of course he stopped being attracted to you! What were you thinking? How could he possibly be attracted to someone who looks like you? She lifted her hand to slap her face once more.
There was a gentle knock on the door. Carmel jumped. She pulled on the Tranquillum House dressing gown and went to open the door.
It was Yao. His head was bowed. He didn’t make eye contact or say a word. He held out a small card.
Carmel took it and Yao immediately backed away. She closed the door.
It was a square of thick, creamy cardboard like a wedding invitation. The handwriting was in thick black authoritative ink.
Dear Carmel,
Although you are currently scheduled for free time, we ask that you please report immediately to the spa for the Tranquillum House Ultimate Relaxation and Rejuvenation Signature Facial. It’s a ninety-minute treatment and will be completed just before dinner. Your therapist is waiting for you.
Yours,
Masha
PS Yao is your assigned wellness consultant, but please know that I will also be doing everything in my power to deliver you the health, healing, and happiness you need and deserve.
It was at this moment that Carmel Schneider gave herself to Masha with the same voluptuous abandon that novice nuns once surrendered themselves to God.
22
Yao
It was 9 P.M. The guests had all been fed and were safely in their rooms, hopefully sleeping soundly. Yao, Masha, and Delilah sat at a round table in the corner of Masha’s office with notepads in front of them. They were having their daily staff meeting, at which Yao and Delilah were required to give status updates.
Masha tapped her fingertips on the table. There was always a discernible difference in her demeanor at these meetings. You could see her former corporate identity in the language she chose, the crispness of her speech, and the stiffness of her posture. Delilah found it laughable, but Yao, who had never worked in that world, found it charming.
“Right. Next item on the agenda. The silence. Has anyone broken it today?” asked Masha. She seemed brittle. It must be nerves about the new protocol. Yao was nervous himself.
“Lars broke it,” said Delilah. “He was trying to get out of the daily blood tests. I told him not to be a baby.”
Yao would never say that to a guest. Delilah just said what she was thinking, whereas Yao, sometimes, felt just a little … fraudulent. Like a performer. For example, he would be helping an ill-mannered guest do a plank and giving them gentle, patient encouragement—“You’ve got this!”—while thinking, You’re not even trying, you rude lazy motherfucker.
“Frances wrote me a note,” said Yao. “She asked if she could please skip the blood test as she’d had a bloody nose. I told her that was all the more reason to do the test.”
Masha grunted. “Nobody likes blood tests,” she said. “I don’t like them! I hate needles.” She shuddered. “When we were applying to come here all those years ago we had to do many blood tests: for AIDS, for syphilis. Your government wanted us for our brains but our bodies had to also be perfect. Even our teeth were checked.” She tapped her finger against her white teeth. “I remember my friend said, ‘It’s like they are choosing a horse!’” Her lip curled at the memory, as if her pride had been hurt. “But you do what you have to do,” she said, without looking at either of them. It was as if she were speaking to someone else not in the room.
Yao looked at Masha’s collarbone beneath the straps of her simple white sleeveless top. He had never thought the collarbone to be an especially sensual part of a woman’s body until he met Masha.
“Are you in love with this woman or something?” his mother had said to him on the phone, just last week. “Is that why you work like a dog for her?”
“She’s nearly the same age as you, Mum,” Yao told her. “And I don’t work like a dog for her.”
“More like a puppy,” Delilah told him. “You have a crush on her.” They were in bed at the time. Delilah was beautiful and sexually very skilled and he liked her very much, but their hook-ups always felt kind of transactional, even though no money changed hands.
“I’m grateful to her,” Yao said, his hands behind his head as he looked at the ceiling, considering this. “She saved my life.”
“She