‘When I need them,’ he answered.
Aysha finished examining his knee. ‘The swelling and bruising have faded; everything is heading in the right direction.’
Vagueness. Nobody would give him a straight answer when it came to the question of how long it would be before he was back to himself. Gio was used to standing tall, strong, the fireman heading towards a crowd to save lives, put out fires, using his brute strength for the greater good. He wasn’t a weak person, moaning at how his knee felt when he was sitting on his arse merely bending and straightening it.
‘In the right direction,’ he repeated. ‘What does that even mean?’
‘You know the answer to that.’
He did because they’d been through this many, many times before.
They spent the next hour going through a number of exercises – legs bending in different ways, creating flexion to the knee, knee extensions. They used bands, body positioning, he did some half wall squats, making sure the middle of his kneecap was in line with his middle toe.
He was so pleased with the session that he pushed himself and tried to go down into a full squat but the pain stopped himand Aysha was there hooking her arms under his shoulders until he pushed himself up to standing.
‘Too much,’ she said, although she didn’t need to.
‘I didn’t think so,’ he grumped.
‘Your body says otherwise.’ She hovered over him until he got the message and sat on the weights bench.
‘What am I doing wrong?’ He wanted to persist – perhaps he’d let his knee go off course, maybe if he focused again after a minute to rest, he’d get it in the bag.
Once upon a time, when something pissed him off, he’d pound the pavements to solve a problem, he’d bash out a workout with some of the heaviest weights he could lift, the blood would pump through his veins and make him feel alive. But right now, he was this weaker version of himself and he hated it. If Bess ever agreed to going to dinner with him, on a date, he wanted to be more than this. He wanted to be himself.
‘You’re not doing anything wrong.’ Aysha’s nose stud glinted beneath the light overhead. ‘You pushed yourself a little too far and your body reminded you, that’s all.’
‘I feel like this body is the boss of me, not the other way round.’
‘For now, it is. Be patient. One step at a time. It’s the approach that will pay off in the end.’
Easy for her to say. She wasn’t the one taking what felt like baby steps when all he wanted to do was make a giant leap, back to work, back to a normal life.
‘I want to try again,’ he said.
‘Just half squats.’
‘Let me try the full.’
She shook her head. ‘Half squats and take it slow; stop the second it hurts. You know the difference between discomfort and pain?’ He wasn’t sure if it was a question or a reminder. ‘Somediscomfort is expected but pain is your body telling you to stop. There’s a difference.’
Over at the wall, he easily got to half squat. He put everything he had into concentrating on the correct form but he hadn’t moved much further down when the pain began again and no way could he disguise it.
Aysha had him sitting on the bench within seconds. ‘We’re done for today. Do not push it when I’m gone either.’ She knew him too well. ‘Promise me or you’ll set yourself back and how annoyed will you be then?’
He reluctantly agreed but cursed.
Aysha obviously heard him. ‘It’s okay to be frustrated and if swearing helps, go for it.’
‘It does help. But I shouldn’t do it around you.’
‘Hey, you could’ve gone a step further and, rather than swear at the universe or yourself, called me something terrible – patients have before, you know.’
That, for some reason, made him chuckle. ‘You should claim for emotional stress on the job.’
‘Sometimes, I’m tempted. Honestly, though, you’re one of my easier patients.’
‘Yeah?’
