I hated eating when I was this hungry, which was why I was kind of strict about my eating schedule. It all went to my hips if I binge ate."I don't even know where to start!" I said as I tightened my robe and sat down at the small wooden breakfast table that was at the side of the room. We were both sitting down as he lifted up the sil-ver covers and revealed the fries, chicken, and hamburg-ers that he had ordered for us to eat. It felt like lunch and dinner rolled into one, but I was so hungry I felt that I could eat it all in one sitting.***"Things have been difficult for me," he sighed as he stared at the remains of his burger on his plate. I was tempted to ask him if I could have the rest. Even after the chicken and fries I was still hungry. He really had worked up my appetite and I had a feeling that after the food had settled he would work it up again. "What do you mean?"He took a deep breath as he took a swig of his beer. "I missed ten games last season and didn
I was on the plane with the guys. Usually, we would be laughing and cheering about our weekend in Vegas. But this time we all had something different on our minds. I had Emma sitting two seats behind me with Sophia, who the previous day had come up to our room and said that she'd managed to change the flights so that we could all go back together. This wasn't exactly what I had in mind. I wanted to spend time with Emma. Not them. Mason was next to me and he was quiet as a mouse. My best friend was screwing my sister and it should have bothered me. There was a code, and a line had been crossed, but now just didn't feel like the time to discuss it. I had gone from wanting to be on my own to being with Emma and finally realizing how lonely I'd been all the time. Sure, I had people round me. I sometimes called my mom every hour to make sure she was okay until eventually she turned her phone off. I felt lost. One minute I had been with Emma sur-rendering myself to her and the next
We stood like little kids not knowing what to do as we waited for our bags. We'd left the plane like robots. Once in a while we would look at each other and smile. I didn't know what to say to him. "Hey Sebastian, it was great but we're back home now, so no more bumping and grinding. Okay?" Kent and Paul made all the noise. They were like little kids that had taken too much candy. They got ex-cited about every little thing. Whereas Sophia was quiet. She'd spent most of her time sleeping on the flight. Then as we landed and need-ed to get off the plane, she used me as a balance so that she wouldn't break her neck as she tried to walk in her three-inch heels. She was apparently even more tired than I was. We should have had a little girly chat, but I assumed that she wasn't in the mood for it. I knew that I wasn't because I'd started to feel anxious about everything, including Sebastian. I would glance at him, but he would avoid my stare.Finally we collected our bags and it w
As soon as we got to her place, Sophia invited me to come in. Just what the doctor had ordered. As I walked down her hallway I looked at my phone. There was a message from Sebastian and my heart skipped a beat. I thought for a minute that he would regret the way we had parted and want to say something more. Don't forget about my check-ups!Seriously, the man had gone from someone who didn't want to be examined to being obsessed in the space of minutes. Men!"Your brother drives me mad!" I screamed out as she passed me a glass of wine. It was a bit too early in the evening to be drinking, but the way I was feeling, I couldn't even think about telling her to take away the glass. I needed to get rid of this feeling right now."Steady on!" She laughed as she watched me fin-ish the glass in one go and then put it on the table. "I'm not giving you another glass if you want to get drunk.""Sophia why is your brother such a prick?"She shook her head and said, "About that. D
"Hey." I smiled at him as I entered the room. I had every x-ray and blood test booked for him today. We hadn't spoken since we'd landed in JFK and left the air-port like strangers. I'd sent him a text telling him about today and he replied back saying, he would be here. And he came. Just like he had said he would. I should have been happy, glad that he kept his promise. But I felt completely lost, because I didn't know how to behave now and by his shyness, avoiding eye contact as I walked through the door, I had a feeling that he felt the same. "I thought that you would be here when I got here," he whispered as I drew closer to him as he lay on the examination bed. "I just came in to make sure that everything's set up for you. I just organized the tests, and besides, Wen-dy's capable of doing them herself. I don't need to be here." I was rambling and looking down at the floor. Pathetic!"Besides Wendy explained everything, right?"He corrected me. "You mean Shery
"Hey little bro, how you feeling?" Sophia smiled as she walked into the room. That was the thing about my big sis; she always had a smile on her face. No matter how I was feeling, she had a way of making me feel bet-ter. "So-so." I tried to wave my hand, but between the blood tests, radiography and everything else that Emma had organized for them to do today, I was exhausted. "That good, huh?"I nodded. "Where's Emma? I've been looking for her every-where.""Dunno.""Oh," she said sadly. "So, did you guys talk?" I shook my head. "Well, I think that you guys should talk."She was the fixer, the one that tried to solve every-one's problems. I used to wonder as a kid if she had some magic wand that hid how she was really feeling inside. She must have felt sad occasionally. No one could be happy all the time. Or maybe I took all the miserable genes and she had only the happy genes. Sheryl stepped in and my heart skipped a beat. Part of me had hoped that it was
"So, what do you think about Emma then?" Sophia said from the back of the car. She hadn't even come to the examination room. It was as if she was hiding or something. "Is it because she's older or something? I just don't get it. We really connected in Vegas..." I was staring at the window and thinking about the fact that two days ago I was on top of the world in that room and then after Emma just did a disappearing act on me. I felt as if I had flatlined."You see, the problem is she's scared about losing her job," Sophia said and I felt as if I was listening to a broken record. Emma had already made that clear. Maybe this was some schoolboy crush. Shit, I had wanted her for so damn long, hadn't got her of my mind as a kid and maybe as an adult those thoughts had just transformed into lust.But if that was the case and it was really true, then how come I couldn't get her out of my mind?I felt as if I had used superglue on my heart and it just couldn't come off unless I did
I couldn't believe it. Dad had just phoned to say that all his problems were over and thanked me a thou-sand times. Thanked me for what? That was what was on my mind. I was exhausted, having been through every one of Sebastian's injuries and procedures over the years. I didn't want to miss anything. I wanted to make sure that the conclusion was right, and that he could play next season. Sure, I had gone a bit overboard and the conse-quences had I found something had run through my mind. There was nothing worse than finding out that an-other doctor had done a procedure incorrectly and being forced to flag it. It would have hurt not only their reputa-tion, but mine too. I could be seen as an underdog and the sports-medicine business was already so damn politi-cal. I did find a couple of red herrings, but after dig-ging deeper. I found nothing to be wrong with his treat-ment and his after-treatment, which was just as im-portant. He had gone to the right number of physiothera-pist s