SUSHI for ONE?

by Camy Tang

  Lex handed it over, trying to ignore the twinge in her gut. “I appreciate it.” She really did. Why was she so afraid to have him as her therapist?

  To spend more time with him. To get close to him.

  That’s ridiculous. She was never frightened. She faced things head-on.

  He didn’t scare her a bit.

  TWENTY-SIX

  No, he didn’t scare her. Because in a few minutes, she was going to kill him.

  “Aiden! That really hurts!” Sitting up, Lex pushed against the PT table, trying to escape his fingers massaging — no, torturing the outside of her thigh.

  His calm voice made her want to scream. “The IT band runs from your hip down your thigh to your knee joint. When it gets tight, injuries happen.” He kept kneading, but it felt more like slow kicks into her leg with combat boots.

  Lex grabbed the edge of the table. “Haven’t I had enough pain? Surgery, blisters, no pain meds? Remember? Yow!”

  With another patient on the next table, the other therapist gave a sympathetic yet amused look. Her patient had turned white in response to Lex’s screaming.

  Lex didn’t care. She would start cussing in a minute.

  Finally he stopped. “I think that’s enough for today.”

  “Ya think?”

  “Keep it up at home. It’ll get easier.”

  “Why do I not believe you?” Lex rubbed the area, but it felt hot and sensitive. And she had thought getting used to Aiden touching her would be the hardest part of physical therapy.

  “Okay, time for some exercises in the gym.”

  Lex got down from the table. “Now exercises, I can do.”

  Aiden led the way out of the patient area into the public gym area. “Expect a bit of muscle atrophy.”

  “In the four weeks since I tore it? Come on. I was in the best shape of my life. That’s got to count for something.”

  Five minutes later, she heaved like she’d run a marathon. With lead feet.

  “Come on.” Aiden stood in front of her. “Lift your leg higher.” He had opted to guide her exercises himself rather than handing her off to an aide. Lex kind of wished for an aide. They seemed nicer.

  She strained against the cord, attached to her ankle on one end and a pulley on the other, causing resistance to her forward straight-leg raise. Her quads burned. The outside of her hip burned. Her good leg burned.

  “One more.” Aiden watched her. “Higher. Good.”

  She dropped her leg a little too fast. The cord zipped back into place.

  “Now to the side.”

  “The side?”

  She finished her other exercises, heart slamming against her chest, lungs aching. She leaned against the abductor weight machine, which had been her last exercise.

  Hubba, hubba. A hunk walked into the gym area — Jude Law in the flesh. Gym member, it looked like.

  Aiden bent down to look closer at her knee. He seemed happy with it. “Okay, let’s ice you down.”

  “Hang on, let me stretch a little.” She wanted a little more time with the eye candy. The hunka-burnin-love paused near the free weights.

  She spread her legs a little and reached for her toes.

  Rrrrip.

  She gasped so hard that she lost her balance and nearly tipped forward. Aiden nabbed her by the waist and kept her from toppling. She didn’t even react to his touch — her mortification had kicked a hole in her gut.

  Her warm-up pants had split right across her rear end.

  She straightened — with Aiden’s help — and reached around to finger the edges of the tear. Her face felt like she’d baked at 350 degrees for an hour.

  Aiden didn’t laugh — didn’t even have a glimmer of amusement in his calm face. “It’s just the warm-ups. Your shorts underneath are still fine.”

  “That’s not the point.” Her voice was doing that screeching thing again. “I’ve gained weight!”

  Aiden took on that ultra-careful expression that men adopted when around women talking about their figures. “You don’t look it.”

  “Oh, stop patronizing me. It means I’m out of shape. I’ve never been out of shape. I wasn’t even a chubby baby.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Are you telling me I was a fat baby?”

  Aiden’s eyes widened. “No, no, not at all. Carry on.”

  “First, my body let me down when I tore my ACL. Now, my metabolism. My metabolism has never let me down like this.” She swiped at the tears gathering in her eyes. “And I’m so weepy lately. I never cry. What’s wrong with me?”

  “Well, surgery will do that to you.”

  “Not to me. It just doesn’t happen to me.” She sniffled.

  “Here. Step out of your warm-up pants.”

  She shoved them down over her shorts and held on to the leg press machine while Aiden helped pull her shoes free.

  “Now, let’s ice you down.”

  Lex grabbed her crutches and hobbled back toward the patient therapy area. She didn’t even glance at the cutie, who probably hadn’t even noticed her. Good thing.

  She would be prepared for therapy on Wednesday. She’d start eating better. Aiden had given her exercises she could do at home. She’d do them five times a day.

  And most of all, she’d massage that stupid IT band until it was looser than a granny’s girdle.

  Lex went into PT on Wednesday ready for Aiden and his IT band torture. She’d been faithfully massaging her leg.

  But he did a change-up.

  While she lay on her back, he lifted her ankle onto his shoulder and pressed down on her knee to get her leg to straighten back to 180 degrees.

  “Ow! Ow! Ow!”

  Lex’s upper body lifted off the table at the pain of ripping, tearing across her kneecap.

  “Scaring the other patients again, I see.” Aiden eased up on the pressure for a second, then pressed down again.

  “Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up!” Lex tried to focus on pleasant things. Like running a samurai sword through Aiden’s bowels.

  He finally let her leg down. Lex dribbled off the table onto the floor.

  Aiden stared down at her. “Come on, get up. You still have your gym exercises to do.”

  She sat up and grabbed her crutch, but before she could swing it at Aiden’s exposed kneecap, the other therapist walked in front of her.

  Saved. Lucky dog.

  She hoisted herself to her feet. Aiden pointed to her crutches. “Try walking without them.”

  “What?”

  “It’s only a few feet into the gym area. I’ll grab you if you start to fall, but I don’t think you will.”

  “You’re not my doctor.”

  “No.” He put his fists on his hips and struck a Superman pose.

  “I’m your therapist.”

  Oh, brother. She left her crutches and took an experimental step.

  Hey, that wasn’t too bad. She didn’t feel as unstable as she thought she would. She headed toward the open doorway where Aiden waited for her.

  He studied her feet. “Strike down with your heel first — ”

  Just before reaching him, her foot came down awkwardly on the ball of her foot, and she pitched forward.

  Bam! Her right eye smacked into the doorframe.

  Aiden grabbed her waist to keep her from going the rest of the way toward the floor.

  And the hottie from Monday had just walked in the door. She was so brilliant, she amazed herself.

  Stars flashed in front of her, then the throbbing started. Her cheekbone would come flying out of her skull any second now.

  “You okay?” Pseudo-Jude Law winced a little as he studied her eye.

  “Peachy.” Lex tried to assimilate the fact that he had two heads.

  Aiden shoved her hand away to study her eye. “It’ll be fine. We’ll ice it.”

  “Oh good.” She started to turn around, back into the patient area.

  “After your exercises. Where are you going?”

  O
kay, she was ready this time. Lex marched — well, hobbled into PT on Friday. She’d been massaging her IT band. She’d been working on her leg extension with stretches.

  However, Aiden had a sadistic streak.

  After her strengthening exercises on the table, Aiden peered at her surgery scars, the incisions made by the doctor. “They’re healing nicely.”

  “Yeah, now that the blisters are gone.”

  He touched one of them. “It’s got a lot of scar tissue under the surface.”

  Uh, oh.

  Aiden got out a plastic jar of something white and slimy. He took a little onto his fingers, then started working it into her portal scars.

  “Yiyiyiyiyi!” Lex slapped her hands against the table with each scream. “I don’t care about my scars! Leave off!”

  “They’ll interfere with your extension.” Aiden gave her a You’re such a baby look.

  Tears started to well. “See? You’re making me cry.”

  “You’re hormonal from the surgery’s shock to your body.”

  “Do you have an answer for everything?”

  “I have an answer for every complaint of yours.”

  Lex lay back and whimpered.

  “Pansy.”

  “Am not.”

  “There’s a woman named Mary — she’s probably about my mom’s age. She had hip replacement surgery, and she didn’t complain even half as much as you do.”

  “You were probably nicer to her.”

  “I was even meaner.”

  “Not possible.”

  “And she still likes me. In fact, she got a gym membership and comes in faithfully three days a week to keep up with her rehab exercises.”

  “Must be your winning personality.” Lex winced as he finished.

  “Time to do your exercises.”

  He took her through her exercises in the gym area, then iced her down back in the patient area. “See? Wasn’t that bad.”

  Lex glared at him.

  “You’re getting stronger, did you know that? I upped your weight today on the pulleys.”

  She paused as she strapped on her brace. “Really?”

  “You couldn’t tell?”

  “No.”

  “See?”

  Lex fastened the Velcro straps. Wow. Progress. How about that? She had to admit, Aiden pushed her the way she pushed her junior high girls. She shouldn’t be complaining so much. In a weird, illogical way, she respected him for not giving in to her.

  “Give me a sec.” Aiden had a clipboard in hand. He waved her out to the front. “I’ll drive you home after I finish this.”

  Lex stood by the receptionist’s counter. The tiny Filipino lady, who looked like she could spit nails, nodded at her. “How’s it coming along?”

  “I’m getting better.”

  “Good.” The receptionist went back to her computer.

  The front door opened, and the Jude Law hottie strolled in. Perfect. Here was her chance. Lex smiled at him. Be charming, not scary.

  He smiled back. Good sign.

  She stepped forward. “Hi, I’m Leeeee — !”

  Her leg, locked straight in the metal brace, didn’t plant far enough to the side. She had no lateral balance. She started tipping.

  “Aaack!” Lex grabbed at the receptionist’s counter, but her wild arm movement sent her toppling backward instead.

  “Ooomph!” She sat down hard. Pain jolted up from her tailbone.

  She stared up at the cutie. At least he wasn’t laughing. Heat radiated from her shoulders to the top of her head. Yup, she could feel the embarrassment prickling at her crown. She scratched at it.

  “You okay? Are you hurt?” He bent down to help her up.

  “Oh, Lex!” The receptionist’s head appeared over the edge of the counter.

  An Asian woman — maybe her aunts’ age — entered the gym at that moment and saw the hunk helping Lex to her feet. “Oh, goodness. Are you all right?”

  “Lex!” Aiden rushed from the patient area.

  Lex sighed. Why bother trying to be cool anymore? “I have completely lost any dignity I might have had.” She got to her feet.

  “Thanks.”

  “You okay?” the hunk asked her.

  “I’m fine, the knee is fine, everything’s fine.” Although her tailbone might never be the same again. Yowsers, that hurt. She stopped herself before she rubbed it in public.

  “Glad you’re okay.” Jude Law flashed a megawatt grin. “I’m Ike.”

  “I’m Lex. Nice to meet you. Thanks for helping me.”

  “No problem. See you around.” The dreamboat headed back into the gym area.

  The Asian woman who’d entered touched her elbow. “Are you sure you’re all right? Looks like you’ve had surgery and all.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You’re Lex? Well, I’m Mary — ”

  “Oh! You’re Mary. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  The woman’s eyes crinkled with joy. “Has he been talking about me?”

  “Oh, all the time.” A dull ache started in her hip, and Lex flexed her leg.

  Mary looked down at her knee. “I’m glad you’re okay. Don’t worry, these things take time.”

  Time. After so much of her life raced along, she hadn’t really considered that her recovery would pace itself slower.

  “Hey, Lex, Mary, sorry to rush you two, but I have to take Lex home.” Aiden flashed Mary a familiar smile.

  “Oh certainly, take her home. It was nice to meet you, Lex.” Mary headed back for her workout.

  Lex staggered out with her braced leg. “She’s really nice.”

  “Isn’t she? She just started dating again.”

  “That’s great.”

  “She’s been widowed a long time.” Aiden held the elevator door for her. “I just hope her new boyfriend is treating her well.”

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Come on! Faster! Keep up the pace.” Lex clapped her hands at the junior high girls running blocking drills.

  She had stood up rather than sit in the chair Vince had gotten for her, but it made her lower back ache. The CPM machine had screwed it up even more than before. She arched her back while she watched the girls sprint, block, sprint, block, but the ball of knotted muscle only seemed to twist itself tighter.

  “Okay, that’s it! Wrap it up!”

  “Already?” Her assistant coach leaned in a little too close to murmur to her. She stepped away.

  “I’m . . . in too much pain.” Lex couldn’t look at him as she admitted it. She dug her fingers into the rough plastic of the chair and damped down a wave of frustration. She had nothing to throw, nothing to hit, nothing to break. She never expected the surgery to impact her ability to coach.

  “Lex?”

  “Yes?” Lex turned to two of her girls, sisters only thirteen months apart.

  “We can’t make it to playoffs this summer.” The older girl sniffled. “We would if we could.”

  “Why? What’s wrong?”

  “Our grandpa’s sick, and Mom doesn’t want us away from home.” The younger sister bit her lip.

  Oh, man. What a summer these girls will have. “That’s okay. You guys should be with your grandpa. That’s the right thing to do.”

  After they’d gone to take off their gear, Lex sank into the hated chair. If girls kept dropping out of playoffs, she wouldn’t have a team. She wouldn’t even need Grandma to sponsor them for the summer. She wouldn’t need to find a boyfriend. Lex didn’t feel very loverlike.

  She leaned over, trying to stretch her back. She was falling apart. Her team was falling apart.

  I’m failing them already.

  No, she couldn’t think that way. She had to shake this defeatist attitude. It would turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. She still had six weeks before the wedding.

  She’d stretch her back more. She’d go to PT and work to strengthen her knee. She’d make her girls’ team even stronger so they didn’t need the lost players for playoffs. She could
do it.

  She could do it.

  Oh, boy. She needed another ibuprofen.

  Lex’s stomach roiled as she waited by the curb in front of her apartment building for Aiden to arrive. She’d taken her ibuprofen on an empty stomach. Stupidity at its finest. Now she couldn’t even contemplate food. Even worse, it had only blunted the edge off her back pain.

  Aiden’s car pulled up and she got in. As he drove off, he frowned at her. “What’s wrong? Where does it hurt?”

  How’d he know that? “My back.”

  “You look kind of sick too.”

  “I took ibuprofen on an empty stomach.”

  “Left your brains in bed this morning, I see.”

  “Oh, shut up.”

  “Here, have some bread.” He reached for the backseat and threw a new loaf into her lap. “I went shopping this morning.”

  Lex downed a couple slices, and the desire to hang her head out the open window started to ease.

  “So, your back . . .” Aiden pulled into the PT parking lot. “New injury?”

  “Old. Lower back.” Lex climbed out of the car awkwardly. The combination of her brace and her back problems made her as graceful as a waddling duck.

  “What’s it from?”

  “Bad chair at my old workplace.”

  Aiden winced as he punched the elevator button. “The ibuprofen isn’t helping?”

  Lex entered the elevator and leaned against the handrail. “Not really.”

  He grew very still. He studied her, eyes searching . . . for what?

  Finally he seemed to come to a decision. “I can help you, if you want.”

  “How? Painkillers in an IV drip?”

  The elevator doors creaked open. “I could give you a massage.”

  Lex halted mid-step. Her muscles clenched, making the pain throb in her lower back. She stared at Aiden as he waited for her to exit. The elevator doors started to slide shut again, and he thrust a hand to trigger them open.

  She walked out. “I don’t know, Aiden.”

  “Look, I don’t need to know why you don’t like it when men touch you, but you’ve gotten used to me handling your leg.”

  They entered the gym doors, and Lex signed in at the receptionist’s counter. As she signed the credit card slip to pay for her session, she tried to make her back muscles relax. Her skin had become hypersensitive, feeling the rasp of her T-shirt.