dealt with some minor, let’s say, inappropriate comments from players, it was never like that.
Not that he said anything that wrong. In his defense, if you played back the tape, you could say he was being hypothetical. Honestly, I’m not even sure what he was getting at. All I know is that it made me avoid him for the entire week.
Which is kind of hard when you’re the physical therapist, but I had been able to stick to a certain amount of players while someone else took him on.
Until now.
“What seems to be the problem?” I ask David, keeping my eyes off Alejo’s muscular, oiled thighs.
“Day before, you said dry needling?” David asks in broken English.
Ah right, I had been talking to another therapist about using dry needling in some cases, which gets a bad rep as being acupuncture, even though it works differently and that can be proven with science.
“Yes, I did,” I tell him. “I have a kit here. I used it all the time in Manchester.”
“He’s complaining. He’s stiff.”
I bet he is, I think, and I can feel Alejo’s gaze boring into me.
“Here,” David says, running his hand up Alejo’s thigh and onto his ass. “I can’t seem to…” He makes the motion of breaking something.
Lord. Okay.
“Sure, I can give it a shot,” I tell David, even though I’m not happy about this at all.
Look, I’ve been doing this for fifteen years and I’ve manhandled every single part of women and men’s anatomies. Groin injuries are surprisingly common, and you really need to get into that area to fix someone. I’m mature. I don’t get shy. I don’t giggle. I’m pretty much a doctor, in mindset if nothing else.
But for whatever reason, the idea of touching Alejo this intimately … well, it has me feeling a bit off my game. Or maybe that’s the Ativan.
Smarten up and do your job.
I head to the shelves where I’ve stored the kit, and take it out.
“Can I watch?” David says.
“Please,” I tell him, perhaps a little too relieved that I won’t be alone.
“Is this going to hurt?” Alejo asks, trying to look over his shoulder at me and raising his head.
I put my hand on the very firm plane of his shoulder and push him back down. “Only if you move. Stay down.”
He grows quiet while I start taking the needles out. He glances again and then says, “You know what, I think I’m fine.”
“It won’t hurt. Just relax.”
“Relax,” he says. “You do know what day it is, right?”
“I mean it. Relax and tell me about the pain.”
He turns his head around so his head is down through the hole in the table. “It’s not a pain. It’s just stiff.” His words come out muffled. “Like a knot. And it’s not really my ass, in case you’re wondering. It’s like right to the left of it.”
I put the needles down and then run my hand up over his thigh, all the way to the curve of his ass cheek. I’m professional, but I’m at least allowed to admire the strength in his muscles and the way they feel under my hand. “Here?” I ask, pressing in the heel of my palm.
“Ah, yes,” he says through a groan. “That’s it.”
Oh jeez, please don’t tell me he’s one of those guys who makes lewd sounds throughout, because I’ve had those before and they aren’t fun. And the real problem is, I’d probably like Alejo’s lewd sounds.
They would match with the way he was looking at me on Saturday night, the way he stared at my lips as I spoke, the intensity in his gaze.
Stop. It.
I swallow hard, clear my throat. “It’s your fasciae latae. You should get some relief from this.”
I ask David to get me a cloth so I can wipe off all the oil, then I have to practically tuck Alejo’s shorts into his ass crack so that I can work on the upper thigh where it meets his buttocks.
“Perhaps it’s better if I’m naked,” Alejo says.
He’s right.
In some ways it would be much better.
In other ways, it would be much worse.
But I can make do.
“This is fine.” I swab him with antibacterial solution before I put on latex gloves and pick up a needle. “Hold still. You’ll feel a twinge when I put them in, but it won’t hurt. Your muscles will activate and then relax.”
I push my fingers into the area, palpating the trigger points, and close my eyes as I search. I work better this way, shutting