Physical Therapy

(Roxy’s POV)

Today I woke up with a smile on my face and thinking about Geno. He was so sweet and cute. I really hope we can pull this off without anyone else finding out. I got ready for work and ate breakfast with Sarah before we were on our way.

Getting in the car I said to her “You’re not going to tell anyone right?” just making sure.

“No, I won’t tell unless you say it is okay.” She said while she buckled up.

“Thanks and it should be for long but I don’t know” I said

“Uh, huh” she said and the rest of the ride to work was spent in comfortable silence.

“I’ll see you after work” she said as we separated.

“Yeah, have a good day” I said smiling

“The best, you too” she said back sarcastically

I went to go find Dan to see who I was working with this week. I finally found him in the screen room with the guys going over tapes of the games. Talking about what needed to be improved and what was good that they needed to keep up. I took an extra seat in the back waiting for the meeting to be over, which took another twenty minutes. The lights came back on and everyone made their way to the locker room to get dressed for practice.

I made my way up to Dan, “Good morning, who will I be working on this week?” I asked

“Um, this week, Geno today, and Staal tomorrow. Then we have a optional practice on
Wednesday then a game on Thursday. So whoever needs you on those days is fair game.” He told me.

“Great, I will just go grab Geno and we will get to work” I told him making my way out of the room and to the locker room.

I got to the locker room and knocked on the door and yelled “Everyone decent?”

“Don’t come in, I’m naked!” I heard and could tell it was Jordan yelling back to me.

“You’re sooo funny” I said sarcastically

“Come in, everyone is covered” I heard from Sid, of course the responsible one, he actually reminded me of my sister.

I walked in to find everyone covered like Sid said. “Thank God, I don’t think my eyes could take it if I saw you guys naked” I said smiling, I wasn’t watching where I was walking and tripped over someone’s bag and went falling to the floor. “FUCK ME” I yelled out

“Well don’t mind if I do” Max said standing over me but was pushed out of the way by none other than Geno.

“You okay?” he asked as he helped me stand up.

“Yeah, can’t take me down that easy” I said “Who left there bag in the middle of the room anyway?” Looking at the bag, then around the room.

“Sorry” I heard from Ben Lovejoy as he picked up the bag bringing it back to him stall.

“You guys are such boys. Never cleaning up your shit.” I said “Well I actually came in here for you” I said pointing at Geno.

“You always come here for him” Max said while pouting

“Do you want him to be playing soon?” I asked him

“Of course” he said instantly

“That is why I always come here for him, unless you want to hurt yourself so you can see me more” I told him “So, seeing me less professionally is a good thing.”

“I guess you’re right, so how close is he to coming back?” he said pointing to Geno

“We will have to see after today, but I think he is close” I said

“Really?” Geno says to me

“Yeah you are working hard and your knee is looking good. I might push you today to see how it takes it” I told him “But ultimately it is not my decision, I can only give my opinion”

I turned to Jordan and said “Tomorrow your ass is mine, be ready to sweat.” I told him as I made my way back to the door “Coming Geno?” I asked him

“Yeah, go head. I meet you there.” He said going back to his stall.

“Ok meet me in the workout room in 5” I said walking out of the room. Seeing Geno and not being able to kiss him was really hard, harder that I thought it would be. I swung by my office to grab my iPod before going to the workout room. I got there before Geno and started to stretch and loosen my muscles. A couple of minutes later Geno came storming in with a angry look on his face.

“Geno, what’s wrong?” I asked him

“Make me so mad” was all he said.

“Who?” I asked as I put a hand on his arm to try to calm him down.

“The guys” was all he said again

“Do I have to pry it out of you or are you going to tell me what happened?” I asked annoyed at the short answers.

“When you leave they start talking bout you, how good you look. I want to yell at dem that you mine and back off.” He said not looking at me.

“Geno, look at me” I said he turned his eyes down to me, “I am yours, only yours. I know you don’t want to hear this but you can’t let them get to you, you just have to listen to it. Until we tell them, then you can yell all you want” I said trying to lighten the mood. It worked because he cracked a small smile.

“It just hard to listen to them talk bout how sexy you are, how good you look” he said

“As long as you don’t take part in that conversation and talk about me to the guys then I don’t care what they say. Because they are never going to be with me, they can only imagine.” I told him smiling. “But you on the other hand are with me, so you know what it’s like, you don’t have to imagine” I said

“Can I kiss good morning?” he asked with his puppy dog eyes

“Make it a quick one” I said looking around the empty workout room.

“Good morning, you beautiful today” he said before giving me a short kiss on the mouth.

“Thank you; now let’s get to work if you want to play soon.”

“I do, what we do today?”

“I was thinking some stretching to start off, some treadmill, some bike, and then get you on the ice to do some exercises” I told him while looking for a song.

“Sound good; I ready to work” he said

“Good, now start stretching on your own before I stretch you” I told him while sitting down to start stretching on my own.

It was quiet for a few minutes before he asked “How you do that?”

“Do what?” I asked

“How are you so…um…what word…bendy?” he asked and had the cutest face on while he searched for the word in his mind.

“You mean flexible?” I asked

“Yeah, that word” he said smiling

“In high school I was on the dance team, I also grew up doing gymnastics. I just kept stretching everyday to keep up my flexibility” I told him while doing my splits. “My body is just use to it”

“Not lie, that hot” he said smiling while he watched me stretch.

“Im glad I can turn you on” I said joking

“Have no idea” he said under his breath. I blushed but I chose to ignore it and change the subject.

“So, tell me if any of this hurts you” I told while I stretched him in many different positions.

“None, feel good” he said

“That’s really good; now let’s get you on the treadmill. Start off walking then into a jog, see what happens from there” I told him getting up.

He had been walking for a couple of minutes when I turned it up to a light jog. “That feel okay?” I asked him

“Yeah feel good, no pain” he said

“I’m going turn it up a little more” I said then turned up to a faster jog and he was fine. I have a good feeling he will be in the next practice with the team. “Okay, that looks good. Now time for the bike, and if everything looks good there then on the ice we go” I told him moving to the bike.

After being on the bike for twenty minutes and asking him multiple times if there is any pain, we made our way to the locker room so he could get his skates and pads on.

“You ready to get on the ice?” I asked him

“Of course, best place to be” he said and I could see in his face how much he loved hockey.

“Well I have been researching ways to test out your knee, so I will be on the bench to tell you what to do” I told him as he skated onto the now empty ice, since practice got over about 30 minutes ago.

“Not going to come out with me?” he asked

“No I don’t have skates and if I did I wouldn’t know how to anyway.” I told him

“Don’t know how to skate?” he asked as if I had three heads

“I grew up in Florida, not many places to skate down there” I said

“Oh, well I teach you how” he said

“Okay, but for today I will be on the bench telling you what to do. You can teach me some other time.”

“Deal, now what we do?” he said

“Okay, first I want you to skate three laps at a slow pace, then for the next two speed up some. That’s it for now” I said while I hoped up on the boards to watch him better.

“Ok, that all?” he asked as he skated away

“For right now” I yelled out to him since he was on the other side of the rink from me. He worked the rest of the time in silence the only sounds were the occasional “Good” or “That’s it” from me.

He came back a little out of breath “What now?”

“Now I want you to sprint from one blue line to the other and do a stop, to strengthen your tendons.” I told him

“How many?”

“Uh, 5 each for right now.” With that he skated off to the blue line and started the drill. I could see the determination in his face and how much he wanted this. We were on the ice for another twenty minutes doing drills before I called it quits.

“Okay, we are done with the ice for today. Go get changed and meet me back in my office in 10 minutes for some after workout stretches, so you don’t cramp up.” I told him getting off the boards and heading towards my office.

“Ok, see you there” he said heading to the locker room.

When I got back to my office I called Dan

“Hello?” he answered the phone

“Hey Dan, its Roxy. I just was calling to see when we could talk about Geno’s recovery.”

“Yeah? How is he doing?” he asked

“I think he is almost there, I think he just needs to start skating with the team again to get his stamina back up.” I told him

“Well you can come in tomorrow morning to talk about it more. I have a meeting I have to get to.” He told me

“Okay, I will see you tomorrow.” I said and after a goodbye we hung up. I checked my phone for any calls and saw the one person in never wanted to talk to again called me. Ryan.