by Krista Lakes
“I'd love to try it out, but it's really not on my diet,” he said, with a sigh. “Sounds great, though.”
“Can be you move your knee for me this way?” she said, re-positioning Ollie's leg. “Thanks.”
She continued to massage the other side of his knee. She was pushing hard on the tissue and Ollie didn't even flinch.
“Do you have any family nearby?” she asked, lifting her gaze momentarily to look at him. “Anyone that's going to come visit you?”
Oliver cocked his head for a moment, as if her question was something that he wasn't used to being asked.
“I have a younger brother,” he said slowly. “He's in college right now, though. He's studying a lot and planning on going to medical school. He's the closest, but also the busiest. So I guess the answer to your question is 'no'. No visitors planned.”
“What about Nikki?” Elsie asked, deliberately keeping her tone neutral.
“She's heading back to San Francisco,” Ollie replied. “Which is good. I don't think she'd last long here.”
Elsie raised her eyebrows and looked up at him. “She's not a country girl?”
Ollie barked a laugh. “Not even close. I think this trip might be the first time she's seen a cow in real life. If there isn't a fancy shoe store within three miles, she starts to develop hives.”
Elsie chuckled. She was secretly glad she wasn't going to have to deal with that awful woman on a regular basis.
There was a quiet pause between them for a moment. It was the kind of fleeting pause that made her heart skip a beat. An exciting and tension filled second, which she brushed off and tried to ignore.
“Your brother's in medicine, huh?” Elsie asked, trying to keep him talking. He had a very pleasant voice. “He must be smart.”
“Crazy smart,” Ollie said, pride filling his voice as he smiled.
“Does he play sports like you?”
“No,” he replied, shaking his head. “Sports aren't really his thing.”
“So he got the brains?” she asked.
Ollie grinned. “You saying I didn't?”
“I, uh... I mean, uh...” Elsie felt the blush coming back to her cheeks.
“I'm just teasing you. But, yes, he got all the brains,” Ollie said with a laugh. He groaned as Elsie pushed deep into the tissue of his knee. “What about you? Any family?”
“I have two sisters,” she said, easing up the pressure of the massage a little. “They both married farmers, which is kind of the thing to do around here. Farmers are what Iowa is known for.”
“And being the political starting point for elections,” Ollie added.
“Who's the smart one now?” she said, with a wink.
The two of them laughed. It felt good and natural. Ollie was easy to talk to. Any nervousness that Elsie had felt about the situation walking in, was now completely gone. She was actually looking forward to the weeks ahead.
“Okay, that's the end of our session today,” she said, as she re-wrapped his knee in the cloth bandage and began to put his brace back on.
“That's it?” he asked, surprised.
“Yep.” She grinned at him.
“I was expecting a lot more sweat and tears, to be honest,” he said, slowly stepping off of the examination table. “That wasn't bad at all.”
“That's because this was your first one,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “I'm always gentle at first.”
“Me too, Doc,” Ollie said, with an over-exaggerated wink.
Elsie rolled her eyes but chuckled. “I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, I want you to take it easy. You just had a major surgery and your body needs time to heal. I promise you, though, when your body is ready, we'll push it to the limit.”
“Is that so?” he asked, winking again and making her words sound dirty.
This time, his comment made her blush.
This guy is trouble, she thought. He is a total flirt.
“You're going to start feeling like you can do more over the next couple of weeks,” she said, picking up her clipboard and scribbling down a few notes and ignoring his comment. “But your symptoms do not necessarily reflect your ability to perform activities.”
“Please, Doc, tell me what kind of activities I can do,” he said, with a suggestive smile. How was he able to twist everything she was saying into some sort of innuendo?
Elsie shook her head and tried not to encourage him. “You may sit and watch TV. How about that? Watch recordings of football games. Sports people do that sort of thing, right?”
Ollie chuckled, obviously enjoying the game.
“You're alright, Doc,” he said, as he grabbed his crutches and used them to hold himself steady. “I think my knee feels a little better already.”
“Take it easy and I'll see you Wednesday,” Elsie said, standing up herself.
With her clipboard in hand, she turned and left the farm house, grabbing her purse on the way out. A smile was on her face as she drove home. She felt like she already had an easy friendship with Oliver, which was always a good sign. She was surprised by how much she enjoyed his company, and got the sense that he was going to be both a compliant, and a fun, patient.
I think this is going to work out just fine, she thought. I'm already looking forward do the next session.
Chapter 4
Ollie
Oliver hobbled across the house, distributing his weight between his left leg and his crutches. His knee was a bit sore from the massage. He hadn't told Elsie that, though. He didn't want to look weak in front of her.
He approached the window above the kitchen sink and looked out, watching as she got into her car and backed down the long driveway. His eyes on the window, he opened an orange bottle and popped two pills into his mouth. He watched until she disappeared from view, then he made his way to the living room, where he plopped down on the overstuffed leather love seat.
“That was... interesting,” he whispered to himself.
She didn't know who I was, he thought. I can't remember the last time I met someone who didn't immediately recognize me and start asking for an autograph or something.
It was shocking to him. Just strange. He was so used to everyone knowing all of the intimate details about his life. But Elsie didn't. She didn't know a thing. She didn't recognize his face, or know his name, and hadn't heard the tragic story of his ultra-intelligent brother in medical school. It was oddly refreshing to him. Wonderful, even.
It's so nice to be able to have a conversation with someone where they can ask me questions and they don't already have the answers, he thought, reaching forward to grab the TV remote from the coffee table.
He clicked on the television, to find that the antenna only got two stations. One was an infomercial for a blender and the other was televising a game of golf. He went with the golf one, and watched lazily while his thoughts wandered. He had a lot on his mind. He worried about the future of his career and about whether or not people would find out about the severity of his injury.
“I've got to stay tough,” he said out loud. “I've got to grind hard and get through this.”
It's not like physical therapy is going to be the worst thing I've ever gone through anyway, he thought. If the rest of it is anything like today, then it'll be a piece of cake. Some massages and a few simple exercises. No problem.
In the back of his mind, though, he knew that it wasn't going to be quite that easy. He'd seen enough players with an ACL injury to know that recovery was not all sunshine and rainbows. Most of the players that had it never came back to play the game, at least not in a starting position.
“Not me, though,” he said, slowly standing up from the chair. “I'm the strongest one out there.”
He hardly finished the sentence before his injured leg gave out from underneath him. A soaring pain shot through him, starting at his knee and radiating up and down his leg. He immediately collapsed back onto the love seat, letting out an agonizing groan.
“Dammit,” he grunted, in
frustration.
It was a reminder that he was, indeed, human. He was going to have to take the time to heal. It wasn't something he could rush, which drove him crazy. Ollie wanted nothing more than to be just be able to work hard and make himself better, but unfortunately, there was only so much he could do.
His mind whirled around the ever-looming idea that this could be the end of his career. The idea haunted him constantly and he hadn't been able to stop thinking about that possibility since the minute he had woken up in the emergency room the night of the accident.
What if I didn't have football? He thought. What in the hell would I do?
Oliver needed the game. From the time he first held a football as a kid, until now, it was the biggest thing in his life. Playing was the only thing he ever wanted to do and the only thing that he would ever want to do. It was also the only thing that he felt he was actually good at.
Being photogenic and good-looking was simply luck, though it had definitely served him well. Combined with his talent for playing football, it opened up some very lucrative doors for him. A few well placed sponsors, a couple of championship games, and some shrewd business purchases was enough to add up to millions in the bank. Not too bad for a kid with a single mom and a sick little brother.
But it was never really about the money. He had more money than he knew what to do with, and checks continued to roll in all the time as he got signed with new endorsements. No, Ollie didn't do it for the dollar bills. It was always for the simple love of the game. It was about the thrill of throwing the perfect ball, the adrenaline of the line up, the deafening noise of the crowd... that was his lifeblood. That was his everything. That was what made him feel alive.
If this goddamn car accident ruins everything I've worked for, I'll be devastated, he thought, feeling a tear well up in his eye.
He quickly wiped it away and shook his head.
That's why this has to be a secret, he thought.
So far, Nikki had done a good job of keeping the severity of the accident out of the press. It was known that he had been involved in a car collision, but the details had been kept under wraps. As far as anyone knew, all injuries had been minor, the culprit was in jail, and Ollie was just taking a relaxing break from a very busy season. The truth about his ACL tear hadn't been exposed.
Oliver looked over, glancing out the window next to the front door. It was snowing again, and the window sill had at least six inches on it. He thought about Elsie, hoping that she'd drive safe in the snow.
I can trust Elsie with my secret, though, he thought. I don't know how I know, but I feel that I can really put my faith in her. She's genuine and devoted to her job. It's obvious in the way she carries herself. She wouldn't stab me in the back.
The pain medication that Ollie had taken earlier had begun to kick in and he felt his eyelids grow heavy. The monotone voice of the golf announcer on the TV hypnotized him. He tried to stay awake, but quickly began to lose the battle to sleep. As he slowly drifted off, his mind was filled with images of Elsie in her cute, lime green scrubs.
I'm actually looking forward to the next session, he thought. I hope that she asks me about my brother, so I can tell her how proud of him that I am. It'll be nice to share that with someone who doesn't already know everything about my life. This could be the start of a beautiful friendship with a beautiful woman.
With that, Ollie relaxed his head back and let himself drift into a deep sleep.
Chapter 5
Elsie
Elsie stared at her computer screen. She had a search window up and Oliver Lance's name already typed out. Her finger hesitated over the “go” button. Did she really want to find out about him?
She chewed her lip for a moment before finally giving into temptation.
Apparently, he was just as famous as he said he was. There were thousands of pictures of him and tons of websites devoted to not only his football prowess, but his life as well. She clicked on the “images” tab first. In all his pictures, his hair was a rich black that made the blue of his eyes pop. She definitely preferred it to the bleach blond hairstyle he currently wore.
She glanced through all his football pictures. Some were action shots from various games, many were of him lifting the championship trophy over his head, and then the obviously staged photos made to put on TV with his stats underneath. Mixed in with all of these were him around the city. The most prevalent were pictures of him at various clubs around his city- always with a different gorgeous girl hanging off his arm. He sure knew how to pick attractive women.
Elsie shook her head and marked him as a player in her head. He was attractive and funny, but obviously a womanizer. If he wasn't her patient, he would be the exact opposite of her type. She wanted a family and loved being at home on Friday nights cuddled up in front of the TV with a movie and popcorn. From the pictures, that was the last thing Oliver Lance would enjoy.
Elsie moved her mouse back to the results tab and clicked on the top link to his Wikipedia page and started to read. She only got through the first sentence before stopping. It felt like snooping.
“This isn't against my contract,” she whispered to herself, but it didn't matter. Her eyes wouldn't go past the words “Oliver Lance was born December 28th...” She had her medical file on him, so she knew that already, but it didn't feel right to read all the details of his personal life.
Elsie chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, unsure of what to do next. There was so much information on Lance right in front of her. The headings tempted her with his football games, his money, his history... but she didn't click on any of them.
She thought of what it would feel like if there were a Wikipedia page about her that Oliver could read about. Where he could find out all about her sisters, her uncle, how she left a promising sports training career to come run her uncle's PT clinic, even her past romantic history...
“I don't want to know,” she said out loud to the computer and shut the window. “I'll let him tell me what he wants.”
Her heart felt lighter after closing the window. It felt like she was doing the right thing. She was excited to have him tell her all the information instead of the emotionless website page. She would ask him if he preferred her to look at it, but she suspected he didn't. Besides, she liked the way his eyes widened and the shocked look on his face when she told him she didn't know who he was. It was rather fun to surprise him with that.
Elsie smiled and closed her laptop. She'd had a busy day and should be heading to bed and not messing around on her computer anyway. With a deep breath, she stood up from her office desk, turned off the lights and went home.
“Okay, Ollie. That's it for today. You did a good job.” Elsie finished massaging his knee like she did after all their sessions. She wanted to get as much blood flow to the injury as possible. In addition to the massage, she'd spent the last hour putting Ollie through simple, yet important, leg exercises.
Oliver wiped his brow and sagged back onto the treatment table. Sweat soaked through his shirt and he seemed very relieved that the punishment was over. “You sure, Doc? I think I can handle some more torture.”
“You're done for the day. We don't want to push you too far, or you'll just re-injure yourself. It's a delicate line we need to walk, between challenging you and letting you heal.” Elsie patted his shoulder. “Plus, your check hasn't cleared yet, so I need to keep you liking me for at least a few more hours.”
She watched as Oliver cocked his head to the side and froze. It was like she had said something wrong.
“I'm only teasing you,” she said, with a smirk. “Your check is just fine.”
Ollie released his breath and relaxed once again. Elsie grabbed a bottled water from the mini fridge in the corner of the room and handed it to him.
“You need to stay hydrated now,” she said. “The more water, the better.”
Oliver nodded as he took down a big gulp. When he finished, he set the bottle next to him. “I've been working out
for most of my life and I think this might have been one of the hardest workouts I've gone through. I'm not joking either. Even the drills that coach made me do as a rookie didn't kick my butt like you just did.”
“The worst isn't over.” Elsie took a step back from the table to make room for Ollie to get up. “Just wait until I make you stand up again.”
Oliver groaned and wiped his face. “Don't remind me. Do you think there's any way you can just let me lay here the rest of the day?”
“Would you like me to throw the ball for you at your next game too?” she teased, glancing down at his knee. He gave her a good-natured glare as he wiped sweat from his brow again.
The swelling had gone down significantly and the incisions were nearly healed. Still, though, they had a whole lot of work to do before Ollie could consider himself recovered.
“I feel like I should be all better by now,” he said, gently touching his knee. “It still freaking hurts, though. But, it's been a whole week!”
“Ollie, you had three men attack you with knives and dig around in your knee for several hours.” Elsie gave him a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder. “They were just nice enough to sedate you first.”
Ollie frowned at her.
“Your body doesn't know that it was actually surgeons and not masked murderers that did this to you,” she explained. “You have to be patient. Give yourself a little time. You're going to get better and better as the weeks go on. I promise.”
Oliver was silent for a moment. Contemplative. “I'm just not used to feeling like this. I've always been able to push through. I've never spent one day on the injured list. This just isn't like me.”
“You're doing great, Ollie,” she said, feeling an urge to pull him in for a hug. She didn't, but she wanted to. “You're doing far better than any patient I've ever had. Honestly. You'll be up and running before you know it.”