Ten

Tristyn

You’re letting Henry play hockey?” Lacey places a resistance band in my hand, then signals for me to start pulling it up.

“I know, I never thought I’d agree to it, but if you saw his face, you’d understand.” I try to focus on the exercise because it fucking hurts. Okay, maybe “hurts” is the wrong word, but it actually feels like I’m doing something, and for a while, the exercises felt too easy.

“You hate that we’re onto the next step of your exercises, don’t you?” It’s almost as if Lacey could read my mind.

“The other ones were helping just fine. I don’t know why we needed to up the difficulty.”

“To help you get better, Tristyn. We’ve been building up the function in your wrist again. We’ve been making you stronger, and now we’ve got to increase the difficulty to continue that.”

“I don’t like it.”

“You don’t have to like it; we still have to do it, though.”

“I also don’t like how you needed to adjust my time slot for the next two weeks.”

Lacey shrugs as she rolls back to her little table, flipping through one of the clipboards.

“I’m covering a client for another PT for the next couple of weeks.”

“And no one else could cover?”

I don’t really mind the time switch; it’s mainly work that’s stressing me out. My boss understood that I needed to switch some things around so I could make PT, but he didn’t necessarily like it.

“I’ve worked with this client before. A few times, actually. He’s been coming here for years, but we’ve had so much change that I’m one of the only therapists he’s worked with before. Aside from Christian, who will be his full-time PT, in two weeks.”

“Maybe I need to find a new physical therapy facility if you have a client who’s been coming here for years. I thought you were supposed to help me get better?”

Lacey gives me a light laugh as she shakes her head.

“Some injuries are a little worse than others, Tristyn. In a year, you won’t even remember this place. For some people, that’s not the case.”

“I take it you can’t tell me any more about this client?”

Lacey seals her lips and throws away the key.

“I always feel like I’m sharing too much with you anyway.”

“I’m just so easy to talk to.”

“Sure.” Lacey rolls her eyes. “Now, back to Henry. When does he start this hockey thing?”

“Soon… too soon, honestly. I wake up every day and have to hype myself up about it.”

“You’re worried he’s going to get hurt, or—”

“Yes, but it’s not just that. There are a ton of reasons I don’t want him playing, but honestly, as horrible as it sounds, I’m worried he’ll be good. We’re barely scraping by as it is, but hockey is not a cheap sport for him to play. Hell, there aren’t really any sports that are affordable for me right now.”

“What about his dad? You always told me his family comes from money. Could he pitch in?”

Andrew’s family’s money is the only thing keeping him in Henry’s life. He likes to remind me constantly that he could take Henry from me in a heartbeat. After all, he knows people. He has connections. Going to him would be like admitting that I need him, that Henry needs him. And we don’t.

“I would rather be in debt for the rest of my life than go to that man.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Worse.”

I don’t need to go into details… she doesn’t need to know he’s the reason I’m here right now. She doesn’t need to know the constant manipulation I’ve put up with for years.

Lacey removes the resistance band and moves me to a machine to do another exercise, and before I know it, we’re done. I feel like our sessions are getting shorter, but in reality, I’m getting stronger. I’m taking fewer breaks, I’m in less pain, and I feel like my wrist mobility is a hell of a lot better than it was even last week.

“You’re getting stronger. You’re breezing through exercises that you couldn’t even do two weeks ago.” She drops her pen onto her clipboard before placing it on her lap. “Now, that doesn’t mean go and screw up all that progress by overdoing it at work, okay?”

“I would never.” I place a hand against my chest. “I’m heartbroken that you’d even say that.”

“Maybe it was the swollen wrist you had a while back, for, oh right, overdoing it.”

“Fine. No overdoing it, I promise.”

“Good. Now, if you’re going to skip your wrist getting worked on, at least look at the paper I gave you last week for post-PT care.”

“Promise.”

I wave over my back as I head toward the lobby, but not before hearing Lacey say, “She’s not going to look at it.”

I can’t help but laugh.

As I reach the door, I almost run right into someone.

“Oh, sorry.”

I don’t mean to stare, but I take all of him in. He has the most beautiful eyes, the kind of eyes that suck you in. They’re brown, definitely brown, but such a rich dark brown they almost look black.

His hair falls perfectly over his forehead; it’s messy, but so attractive. He looks familiar, but I have no idea why. And then my eyes meet the chair, and I realize that he might think that’s why I’m staring. In reality, most of the patients I’ve seen during this time are old enough to be grandparents… great-grandparents, even.

His eyes scan me from head to toe. Usually, I’d be self-conscious with him staring at me. I wouldn’t trade my body for the world; it gave me Henry, but there’s still a part of me that gets self-conscious when I remember I never got back to my cross-country body.

It was also the body I had at sixteen, which I think is why I’m comfortable in my body. I’m not a kid anymore. That doesn’t mean I still don’t get uncomfortable when I find someone looking at me for a little too long.

But with him, I don’t seem to mind. I can’t remember the last time I felt like someone was checking me out. My cheeks heat up.

“Sorry,” I repeat it, then mentally punch myself.

“It’s okay.” He backs up, then motions with his hand toward the parking lot, letting me know to go ahead.

“Thanks.” I scratch the back of my head as I walk out.

“Have a good one.” He doesn’t look at me as he says it; instead, he rolls into the clinic.

I don’t need to watch him go to his PT, I know exactly where he’s going—

Lacey.

She didn’t tell me anything about him, but she also told me enough to know what she meant when she said that forgetting about the clinic isn’t the case for everyone.

I turn toward the large glass windows, and sure enough, he’s rolling up to Lacey.

Her eyes light up when she sees him, pulling him into the warmest hug.

And I take that as my cue to leave.

Because the last thing I need is either one of them seeing me out here, staring, I already got caught staring once today, I’d like to avoid any further humiliation.