Chicken and rice
Penny 10:12pm
It’s called pilaf
Penny stoodat the top of the driveway, waiting for her first appointment. She had three today back-to-back and was so nervous she wanted to throw up. This was like night and day from working in an office where all she had to do was the actual therapy work.
Earlier in the week, Brett had helped walk her through the business side of things. She'd never had to set up her own business entity, though she did at least still have active liability insurance. She’d gone to the bank and set up her business bank account, and she had a PayPal account linked. Before, everything like that had been handled through the offices she worked for. Now she wasn't just an employee. She was the owner, operator, and physical therapist. Thank the heavens for online submission forms.
A Land Rover turned onto the street, and Penny had a hunch it belonged to her first patient. Jordan Wheatfill. Brett hadn't said much about him besides reiterating the fact that hockey players had reputations, at which point she'd pointed out that he was a hockey player, and he'd said, “Not all of us have reputations, just most of us.” When she'd asked for specific red flags to look for, he'd muttered something aboutguys like Tylerand then waved the whole conversation off. Which was unfortunate because she’d been loaded and ready to mention just how well Tyler and Emma were doing to clinch the win in the argument.
Penny had also been about to express that he had nothing to worry about because she always kept things professional, but then remembered the way their PT sessions had gone. Not that she'd done anything she shouldn't, but up until their conversation Sunday night, she'd been considering it. Even when she told herself not to. So he may have had a point in his admonishments.
Penny had treated young, attractive men plenty of times in her office, but there was a layer of protection there. She wasn't all alone with them. And she wasn't the only person they saw in the office. They weren'therpatients. She was one of their wellness team members. That felt like a distinct difference.
Jordan stepped out of the Land Rover and walked toward her, and she immediately understood what Brett was trying to tell her. If Tyler had Playboy written all over him, this guy was twice as bad. He smiled like he knew it would get him somewhere.
“Are you Penny?” He slipped his keys into the pocket of his fitted jeans, noticeably avoiding his right arm.
“Hi, you must be Jordan. I'm sorry I don't have a fancy office to take you to.” Penny motioned for him to follow her down the drive.
“Honestly, I prefer this. Those places make me nervous.”
“Oh yeah? Had a bad experience there?”
“Don'twantto have a bad experience there. I've had too many friends get bad news in those offices.” Jordan walked next to her. He was taller than Brett, which meant he had to be at least six foot two or three. Penny was five foot nine, and Brett was about the same height as her brother Marco at six foot and some change. Not that she’d been paying attention.
It was easy to understand why athletes could hate medical offices. They were young and healthy. Nothing good was going to spur that visit.
She walked Jordan past the house and pretended not to notice Brett standing in the window watching them.
“This is a nice place,” Jordan said. Penny smiled wider than necessary and flipped her hair over her shoulder for her voyeur’s benefit. “Did you just move to town?”
“I've been in Calgary for a while, just working down south.”
“In Okotoks?”
“Not quite, but close.”
“You left your job there?” He stood next to her as she reached for the garage pin pad.
“Yep. Just looking for something up here now.”
“Shouldn’t be hard to find. It's crazy how few appointments for PT are available right now.”
“I know.” Inside her head, Penny added,but it might be harder than you think. With high demand and low supply, it would be rational to think medical centers would be desperate to hire people.
It didn't always work out that way. People always assumed that a shortage within an industry meant there weren't enough people to work. Usually, it meant there wasn't enough money to pay the people who were willing to work.
Penny motioned for Jordan to stand on the mats. “Alright, so tell me what's going on with this.” He’d sent her his MRI images, but she found that patient experience was just as important for informing her proposed recovery plan.
“Had a hard fall at practice. It wasn't because I slipped or anything.”
Penny held back a grin. Heaven forbid you admit to slipping when you're skating at full speed over ice. “Right, so one of your teammates took you out at the knees.”
Jordan chuckled. “Exactly.”
“Did you give him hell?”
