6. Emma
6
Emma
Okay , I will admit it. Working with Ryan hasn’t been as dreadful as I first imagined it might. The first session was the toughest. But that’s because he’d backed me into a corner, and we both knew it.
I’m not exactly warming to him, but I realized that my icy attitude was annoying me more than him. Besides, from a professional point of view, his injury is severe enough, and it’s in my nature to want people to get better.
After work, I head out of town to visit Mom and Penny. Mom has fibromyalgia and needs twenty-four-hour care. Of course, my visits always entail some sort of therapy, but it’s never the real reason I’m there.
“Hello,” I call out when I walk in the front door.
“We’re in here,” Penny calls back.
I know exactly where they are because they’re in the same place every time I visit. The noise of the TV already trickles through the living room door, and when I enter, Mom and Penny are sitting together on the couch, watching Mom’s favorite quiz show.
“Hey, guys,” I say, bending to kiss Mom gently on the cheek. “What’s the scale today?”
“Six,” Mom says, looking a little pale.
When Penny and I realized that Mom sometimes got too tired to explain how she was feeling, we figured out the scale system. One being dreadful and ten being the best that she could feel under the circumstances.
“Okay. So better than last week, then.”
Mom smiles weekly, while Penny says, “Yes, but the last three days have been a three.”
“Oh, Mom.” I frown sadly. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s alright, sweetheart. It’s just the way it is.”
Even with her debilitating disease, Mom has a great and positive outlook on life. In fact, even though she’s in a lot of pain most of the time, I don’t remember the last time I heard her complain. But then, she’s from a generation that was forged from steel, right?
“I hear Ryan is back in town,” Penny says when I drop down into the chair across the room.
She has a twinkle in her eye, but I can’t tell if it’s just because she knows he’s back in town, or she’s heard something else. Like the fact I’m treating him. Maple Springs is a small town, and news travels fast. And when I say fast, I mean the Roadrunner would struggle to keep up.
“Yep,” I say noncommittally.
“But you know that because he’s coming to see you,” she says, the smirk growing on her lips.
Mom is smiling over at me, too, and all I can do is shake my head.
“He’s injured. So, yes. He’s now a client.”
“Good for you, dear,” Mom says. “Though I always thought Thomas was the nicer of the boys.”
“He is,” I quip back.
Penny looks surprised. “Is Ryan still a jerk?”
Penny has always been far more outspoken than me, and so, I don’t really know how to answer that. Firstly, I don’t really like talking about people so negatively, even though I did with Sharon, but I think that was just the shock after Ryan arrived unannounced at the office. But secondly, he’s now a client, and there’s this thing called confidentiality. Something I’m now bound by as his health care professional.
“Can we just change the subject?” I say. “I can’t talk about a client, and you both know it.”
“But we’re family.” Penny grins.
“I don’t care if you're Santa. I’m not discussing him, so you’re wasting your time pushing it.”
Knowing how stoic I am when it comes to my practice, Penny relents, and the subject changes back to Mom. She tried acupuncture for the first time last week, and she tells me how she thinks it helped her.
Later on, I give her some physical therapy, and then I help Penny get her to bed, which is now downstairs because Mom can’t climb up to her old room anymore.
*****
In the office the following morning, I don’t get a chance to speak to Sharon because the minute we both get our coats off, the phone rings. While she’s dealing with the enquiry, I go around the office, switching all the electrics on and doing the mundane things that make the office welcoming for the clients.
She’s still on the phone when I’m done, so I open up the Mac and type a search into Google. I was researching something last night, and I want to pass it by Sharon to get her thoughts.
She finally gets off the phone and sighs. “Your reputation precedes you, Miss Carter. That was another coach from a team nearly eighty miles away, wanting to know whether you wanted to come and work for them. That’s the third this month.”
I smile widely and just shrug. “Maybe we need to put something on the website,” I joke.
“No soliciting,” Sharon giggles, gesturing a huge banner. Catching the photos on the screen, she says, “How was your mom yesterday?”
“Better than last week, actually,” I say, adjusting my earring. “She was a—” I drop the tiny stud on the floor, and then I curse. “Darn it.”
Clambering behind the desk on my hands and knees, I search the floor for the tiniest piece of jewelry in the history of mankind while I carry on the conversation.
“She was a six.”
“Good. That’s better than last week.”
“Yes,” I say, patting the tiles. “Actually, have a look at those pictures on the Mac. I wanted to fly them by you.”
“What are they?” Sharon asks.
“They’re hydro pools. I was thinking of getting one for the clinic. They’re pretty—”
“Emma,” Sharon says.
I figure she wants to give an opinion, but I still need to find this stud.
“Just a minute. I know they’re expensive,” I continue, “but they’d be really great for the clients. As well as that, I think Mom would benefit, too. The nearest pool is thirty miles away, and besides—”
I finally spot the stud and grab it with my fingertips. “Got you.”
I’m pushing myself to my feet, while I carry on. “These pools are specific—”
I suddenly stop dead when I see Ryan standing on the other side of the desk. I don’t know how long he’s been standing there, and when I look down at Sharon, she looks apologetic. I get now that she wasn’t trying to ask me something about the pictures on the Mac. She was trying to warn me that my client was here.
“I’m sorry,” I blurt, feeling like I’ve been caught in a compromising position.
I do pride myself on my high standard of professionalism, and seeing one’s therapist with her head under the desk and her backside in the air certainly isn’t the look I’m going for.
“It’s fine,” he says.
I’m waiting for a sarcastic quip because he always has one, but instead, he just stands there, looking at me.
“Right. Er… Shall we go through?” I gesture to the door across the room.
For the rest of the appointment, Ryan just isn’t himself, and while I want to ask him if he’s okay, a part of me doesn’t feel like it’s my place. I mean, it’s not like we’re close or anything. He winces a few times, but that’s nothing new. What is missing is his bravado and witty commentary.
We come to the end of the session, and as usual, I head to the door.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” he asks.
Even his tone is serious, and now I’m beginning to worry that he’s gotten bad news or something.
“Are you alright?” I ask.
He shakes his head and drops his gaze. “Not really.”
Gesturing to my desk, I get him to sit down while I sit in the chair beside him. “I know I’m not that kind of therapist, but I’m here to listen if you need someone to talk to. I see this low mood in athletes all the time, especially when—”
“It’s not like that,” he says quickly. “Actually, you know what? This is a bad idea.”
He goes to stand up, but I put my hand on his arm and stop him. “Hey. Talk to me.”
A minute passes before he eventually begins to speak again.
“You know why I’m back, right? You’ve heard what they’re saying on the news.”
I could lie. I could tell him I have no idea, but it wouldn’t be the truth. The same day he arrived in our office, I went home and looked him up. I don’t follow sports, so I was pretty surprised by what I saw online. I mean, sure, Ryan could be a jerk, but he wasn’t racist.
“Yes. I have,” I admit.
“Well, basically, it’s a PR nightmare. I’m not racist, Emma. They’re taking what I said completely out of context.”
“Okay.”
“My agent called me yesterday. He said I was in big trouble. He made some suggestions, one of which I spent all night thinking about. In fact, I’ve hardly slept.” He sighs. “He thinks the media needs a distraction. Something else to fill the headlines. Something big, like getting married.”
“Wow,” I gasp. My surprise is genuine. I mean, there’s a distraction, and then there’s a lifelong commitment. “That’s a bit over the top isn’t it?”
“That’s what I thought, but then…” He hesitates. “But then I thought about you.”
My forehead does a dance all of its own because at first, I’m frowning in confusion, and a second later, my eyes are flying wide open when I realize what he means.
“No way!” I cry. “Are you out of your mind?”
“It wouldn’t be real,” he blurts. “Everything would be fake. The certificates, the wedding, everything.”
I’m now off my chair and pacing back and forth like a crazy person. “I don’t care. There is not a chance, even if it is pretend.”
He heaves a sigh and then drops his head. “It’s okay. I figured that’s what you’d say. It’s just… my whole career is on the line. Everything I’ve ever worked for, my dream, all my years of training, working my way up the ranks, everything. It’ll all get taken from me.”
For the first time since he’s been back in Maple Springs, I see Ryan Steele, the vulnerable. It’s weird, and strange, and makes me feel uncomfortable as well as sad.
“You know,” he continues, the weight of his despair laden through his tone, “everyone thinks I made it because I was the rich kid. I didn’t. My dad swore that I wouldn’t see a penny of my trust if I went for this career. He kept true to his word. What I am now, I had to do myself. Sure, I inherited my share when Mom and Dad died, but before that, it was all me. But hey,” he says, pushing himself up off the chair, “it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Ryan.”
“No. It’s fine.”
“Ryan,” I say a little more firmly, wondering if what I’m going to say next means I have completely lost my freaking mind. “It’s a big decision. Let me think about it. Okay?”
His eyes are growing wider now, and he says, “I’ll make it worth your while, Emma. I swear. That hydro pool you were talking about earlier? We have one of those. I could get one for your clinic and for your mom.”
I clench my jaw at the fact that he overheard what I was saying to Sharon earlier. Not because I now think he’s bribing me with that, but because I’m pretty strict with my boundaries and don’t talk about my family to clients.
“Let me think about it,” I say again.
When Ryan finally leaves, I collapse against my office door and wonder if I haven’t just made everything ten times worse.