Last Chance To Fight (4 page)

“It’s the left ankle, right?”

“Yes.”

“Still having any pain?”

“Sometimes.”

“Yeah, it does look a little swollen. Here, let’s work on that.”

She began massaging the area around my ankle, trying to push the excess fluid back where it belonged. Oliver had done that a thousand times before and it was always pretty uncomfortable, but when Anna did it I didn’t mind so much. I just sat there and marveled that I had her hands on me once again after so long. I watched her as she sat in her chair, with my foot in her lap, her eyebrows scrunched in concentration. God, she was always so perfectly beautiful. I wanted to kiss her, right then and there, but I had to content myself with resting my foot in her lap. At least, for now.

“So what are you doing after work?” I asked.

“Unpacking.”

“Unpacking? Wow. So you just got here? Like, you moved back from Australia?”

“Yesterday afternoon, yeah.”

“And you got right to work. So I guess you haven’t changed at all, huh?”

“I think maybe I’ve changed a little,” she answered with a small smile, the first I’d seen on her all day. Making her smile always made me feel great. Like I could do anything.

“Well, you’ve got to eat, don’t you? Let’s have dinner. We can catch up a little,” I said, figuring it couldn’t hurt to try.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Hunter.”

“No? Seemed like a good idea to me. We both consume food daily to keep alive, so I thought we could do it together. But maybe another time.”

“Maybe,” she answered, and then I saw her second tiny smile of the day, though she tried to hide it. I took that as another good sign.

After a while our session ended, and it looked like Anna didn’t have any more patients waiting for her in the sitting area.

“So, are you off for the day?” I asked.

“As a matter of fact, I am,” she answered, with a hint of suspicion in her voice.

“Do you need a ride home?”

“No thanks, I can walk from here.”

“Perfect, I’ll walk with you.”

Anna hesitated for a few seconds, then finally sighed and nodded. She grabbed her bag from the back room and soon we were on our way. As I walked next to her down the sidewalk, in her old neighborhood Santa Monica no less, I couldn’t help but feel like nothing at all had changed. I had to struggle against the urge to take her hand in mine.

“You know, Anna, I’ve missed you like crazy all these years,” I said. After all, at this point, what did I have to lose? I thought I’d never see her again. And yet, here she was right in front of me. I was never big on wasting time.

“I...” Anna hesitated.

“What? What is it? Come on, what’s there to be afraid of? I know you’ve missed me too.”

“I have missed you, Hunter. I never stopped missing you,” she said, her voice a tiny whisper.

“That’s good,” I said, reaching for her hand.

“This is my place,” she said, pointing to a modern brick apartment building. “I’ll see you at your next appointment, OK?”

Before I could answer, she had turned around and was practically running up the steps to her apartment.

“OK, Annabelle,” I said, calling her by her old nickname. “I’ll see you then.”

I wasn’t sure why she was running away from me, but whatever it was, I knew we could handle it. Fate had brought us back together, so there was nothing that could keep us apart. Right?

A
few days later, it was time for my next appointment with Hunter. As I got ready that morning, I suddenly wasn’t so happy that my job was in such a casual, comfortable work environment. Once again, I wished I could put something on that would knock Hunter’s socks off, but I couldn’t very well work in a strappy summer dress, could I?

I settled on the company T-shirt and black yoga pants as usual, and tried my best to make my hair and makeup look good. I gave a final glance in the mirror, decided that had to be good enough, and walked out the door. As I turned the corner, my phone began to ring. I fished it out of my purse, expecting it to be Betsy. To my surprise, it was Nate, the guy I had been seeing before I’d left Australia.

I was too surprised to answer. I felt terrible, but I really hadn’t thought about him at all since I’d gotten to L.A. Actually, I realized, I hadn’t even bothered to let him know that I’d landed. I felt guilty about it, because he really was a good guy. Unfortunately, now that it seemed like maybe Hunter was back in my life, I had to call the whole thing off. But I couldn’t do it right now. Your walk to work is not a great time to break up with someone. I silenced the phone and put it back in my bag. I’d just have to call him back later.

Ever since seeing Hunter the other day, my head had been spinning. Of course, I had never stopped missing him. I thought about him all the time, and was secretly hoping we could at least see each other again. But I was unprepared for it to happen so fast, or for it to just feel so
right
. And I’d refused to consider that he’d still be single—that was a surprise. It was scary, how suddenly it seemed like he might be back in my life. I was afraid that something would come along and tear him away from me again. And I was also afraid that eventually he would ask why I refused to keep in touch with him when I left, and I would have to tell him everything.

But, for now, I tried not to think about that. My day at the office sped by, as patients came and went with their different ailments, trouble spots, and treatment plans. It was a great job, I realized, if you needed constant action.

Soon enough four-thirty rolled around, and Hunter strolled into my office once again. I tried to keep focus on my current patient, asking her to do fifteen more reps with the exercise band as Hunter looked over and caught my eye. A thrill went down my spine as he smiled his signature not-at-all-innocent grin. I was starting to rethink the whole idea of treating him as a patient. It seemed like it would be impossible to act professionally with him in the room.

After I finished up with my last patient, I waved Hunter over to my work area and gestured for him to get on the table.

“Should I take off my clothes?” he asked with a wink.

“Just your shoes and socks will be fine, Romeo,” I answered.

“That’ll do for now, I guess.”

I tried my best to ignore him and set about my work. I got out the massage lotion and started to work on his scar tissue.

“Any pain since I last saw you?”

“No, not really,” he said. “Just the pain of not being with you.”

I rolled my eyes.

“So this doesn’t hurt, then,” I said, pushing harder on the buildup of fluid. Hunter, I could tell, forced back a wince.

“Nope, no problem at all.”

“All right, tough guy,” I said as I continued to give him a rough massage. “Have it your way.”

Hunter kept quiet for a few minutes, but the whole time I worked on his scars I could feel his gaze boring straight into me, all over me. I felt my pulse quicken, as his eyes almost felt like hands, touching every part of my body. I really wasn’t sure I could handle this.

“OK, that’s enough of that. Let’s get started with your exercises,” I said, gently releasing his foot.

“Can we do the one where you wrap your legs around me as I do push-ups?”

“That is not a real exercise.”

“We could try it. It might help.”

“Hunter, really. This is my job. And you have a match coming up, don’t you?”

“A Heavyweight Tournament Semi-Final, to be exact,” he said, smiling.

“A semi-final, then. My point is, if you want me to be your physical therapist, then you need to treat me like your physical therapist.”

“I’m sorry, you’re totally right. It’s just that I find it so hard to be in the same room with you and not notice how good you look,” he said, smiling softly at me.

“Well, thank you. But you’ll just have to find a way to do that,” I answered, trying to keep my cool when every one of his words made me want to rip my clothes off and have him touch me everywhere.

“You don’t know how hard it is,” he said again, pulling me gently toward him so that we were almost embracing, right there in the middle of my office. If it weren’t for all the people around, I surely would have pushed him back on the table and climbed on top of him. As it was, we really had to restrain ourselves. I decided to change my tactic.

“Listen,” I said, “you need to be good and do your exercises. If you don’t, you won’t be able to win your fight or perform
other
physical feats you might be interested in.”

“I’m listening,” Hunter said, leaning back and watching me with a curious grin.

“And if you’re good, and you do your exercises, maybe you’ll get what you want,” I whispered, leaning closer.

“Is that a promise?” he asked, his voice husky.

“Not quite,” I answered, backing away and grabbing an exercise band. “Here, work on your inversion and eversion strength, and then we’ll see about negotiating.”

Hunter blinked at me for a minute, and then started his ankle exercises with a grin.

“I don’t know if that’s how you motivate all your patients, but it sure is effective.”

“I haven’t tried it with anyone else yet. Usually they do what I say without too much of a hassle.”

“Well, that’s their first mistake.”

I
was having a hard enough time keeping my cool before Anna started in with that whole naughty schoolteacher routine. Just looking at her in those tight black pants and tight T-shirt was enough to make my blood boil. And then, when she leaned up real close to me, pointing her tits right at me and speaking in that sultry voice, it was all I could do to stop myself from picking her up and tossing her on the table. I almost didn’t care that there was a room full of people, I wanted her so badly.

But I liked playing this game with her. And if she wanted to play games, then I was going to play them even better. I’d make her wait for it until she begged. And when she begged, I’d make her wait some more.

As we finished up the therapy session, I asked Anna if I could walk her home. 

“Sure,” she said with a sweet smile.

The weather was perfect. June in Los Angeles is pretty much as good as it gets. It’s not too hot. It’s dry. The sun is always shining. And there I was, walking through a beautiful neighborhood with the only girl I’ve ever loved. And it seemed like maybe, after all these years, she even still loved me back.

I wasn’t sure I should, but I decided to reach over and take her hand. She didn’t let go, but smiled at me and squeezed my palm. After all that build-up in the therapy session, that was pretty much the only signal I needed. I stopped in the street and pulled her in toward me. Feeling her warm body pressed up against mine was almost indescribable. I hadn’t felt that good, that complete, in years. All it took was the feeling of her next to me. It felt so right.

I reached up to her face, took her cheek in my hand, and looked deep into her eyes.

“Do you feel it too?” I asked, quietly. Anna nodded.

I leaned down to brush her lips with my own, not wanting to rush it too much. I wanted to savor every second before I got what I’d been waiting for for so long. And then, it happened. I pressed my mouth fully onto hers and tasted her sweet lips, and felt her body go slack in my arms. It felt great. Almost perfect.

It would have been completely perfect, except for one thing nagging at me. Anna had been gone a long time, and although my feelings for her hadn’t changed even a little bit, a lot of other things had changed. After she left, I had kind of a rough period. I was heartbroken and confused, and I thought I could get her back. I even got an extra job, and worked my ass off to save up enough money to go see her in Australia. There was a lot I wanted to tell her, but I wasn’t sure how. I figured I’d start there.

“You know,” I began, stroking her cheek and not entirely sure what to say. “When you left, it kinda messed me up.”

I looked down at her and saw surprise, guilt, and an unspeakable sadness all pass over her face very suddenly.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, and turned away. “I never wanted to hurt you. I didn’t want to leave you, you know.”

“But why wouldn’t you stay in touch? We could have worked something out after you graduated. We could have been together,” I said, all my hurt feelings from back then suddenly rising back up to the surface. I tried to push them back down, but with Anna right there it seemed hopeless.

“I guess I just thought it was impossible,” she said, softly.

“Are you sure that was it?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Are you sure there wasn’t some other guy?”

Anna looked at me and cocked her head.

“I really don’t know what you mean, Hunter. We’ve been apart for nine years. And yeah, I’ve had a few boyfriends. But that isn’t why I didn’t want to—”

“That’s not what I mean. I mean, I went to Australia. I went after you. It took me about six months to save up—”

“What? Hunter, how did you do that? I can’t believe you went all the way there, and—” Just then, Anna stopped short. “Wait. Why didn’t I see you? What happened?”

“I tracked you down. Flew all the way to freaking Australia. I found your address and waited for you. I was going to surprise you. But then I saw you walking down the street with some guy’s arm around you.”

“Oh, God. What? I don’t understand. This is so confusing. I can’t believe you went all the way to...” She trailed off again and looked off into the distance sadly.

“What is it, Anna?”

“Nothing, I just, I was just thinking. It was six months after I left, you said?”

“Yeah, about that.”

“And what did I look like? Did I look the same?”

“Sure. Same long brown hair. Same beautiful body.”

“What about the guy I was with? What did he look like?”

“All I remember is that he was completely bald,” I told her. “But why?”

“That’s what I thought,” she answered. “That was my friend Ben. I swear to you, he’s just a friend. And at that time, he was just helping me through a rough spot.”

“Just a friend, huh?”