hola, isabel

I was in a pretty bad car accident in my early 20’s. Thankfully nobody but myself was hurt. And I wasn’t as hurt as I should have been. I was lucky enough to only walk away with a broken arm.

I had a full arm cast for 12 weeks and then a partial cast for 6 more weeks. At that time I had finished with college, moved back home, and started a new job. I also started physical therapy at the local hospital where my Mom is a nurse. I went to therapy in the morning two days a week.

My physical therapy sessions lasted an hour. An hour of having my arm massaged, dipped in warm wax and covered in soothing lotions and potions. There was a pool, but I never got to use it. Damn it. Apparently it was for burn victims and not for swimming in. I was by far the youngest client and the therapist all seemed to like me. I guess after working on 80 years olds working on a 21 year old was mighty nice.

My sessions were a little painful as they poked and prodded my wrist to move in ways that it didn’t want to move in anymore. The pain wasn’t so bad since my therapist were all so wacky and fun. There was one that was especially fun to have around. His name was Brett and the more time I spent at physical therapy the more I got to know Brett.

I don’t know how old Brett was, but since he was married and had a kid I assumed he was much older than me. In all honesty he was probably only about 25 years old. He was tall, blonde, handsome and very out going. He wasn’t the typical person that I hung around with, but I liked him immediately and felt he and I had a connection.

A purely friendly connection. The dude was married and therefore not even sort of on my radar.

After a while I started to stick around after my appointments were over to have lunch with Brett and the rest of the crew. We would go to the hospital cafeteria and just have a good old time laughing and carrying on. Everyone from the office was there, so it was always a blast. Since I had just moved to town I didn’t have any friends yet. I liked all of these people, especially Brett, and it was nice to just get out of the house for a bit with people I liked.

One day my Mom came with me to my appointment. We were going to go shopping afterwards, so she just tagged along. During the session I could tell she wasn’t too thrilled by the look on her face. When my appointment was done and we were in her car she told me that she didn’t think the therapist were professional enough. She didn’t like how the office was run. She wasn’t happy knowing that she was paying a lot of money for this.

Being the immature person I was, I just rolled my eyes and told her that’s what I liked about the place. I liked how they were a little unprofessional. I liked how they joked around with me. I liked how they made it fun. I liked the new friends that I had made. My Mom never said another word about it.

I was working at a convenient store at this time. One thing about working at such a social haven meant I saw loads and loads of people there. Brett lived a few towns away and started to stop at the convenient store in the evenings on his way home. I didn’t think this was odd, since again, loads and loads of people came through the store on a daily basis.

Brett started to stop by the store on the weekends. You know, when he was in the neighborhood. He would get a soda, say “hello” and then head out again. I wondered why he was in town on the weekend and just assumed he must be working overtime, or something. He came in one weekend with his little boy. He wanted me to meet him. I thought the kid was cute, but you know, I was 21 and could have cared less about some guy’s kid. Brett told me his wife was out of town and he and the kid were baching it. He said they were bored and decided to go for a drive and just ended up at my place of employment.

Brett was the therapist working on my arm at my next appointment. We were alone, like usual, just talking about stuff. That’s when he took my hand in his and started to tell me that since he’d met me he’d started to have second thoughts about marrying his wife. I was so taken aback and also so immature, that I just started to laugh. He told me he was serious.

Serious?

So was I. I seriously thought it was laughable. What was I supposed to do with this information? What did he expect from me?! I had nothing to say to him. Nothing. This type of thing was so over my head. I was a kid. And he was an adult. (Even thought we were only a few years apart in age.) I had nothing to say.

At my next appointment Brett informed me that he was being transferred to another physical therapy office. He asked me to have my records sent over there so he could continue to work on me. I told him I didn’t think that was such a good idea since this other office was further away. Why would I go to that one when the one I was going to was like 2 miles from my house?

And that was that. I never saw Brett again. He never just dropped by the convenient store again. I don’t think he really had feelings for me. I think he was just confused. I like to think that he realized he was being foolish and started to work a little harder on his marriage. I imagine him now, happily married with a few more kids, still working as a physical therapist. Only this time, I hope he leaves the young and impressionable ladies alone.

(Don’t forget to stop by over at my other blog. I need advice on some new glasses. Stat!)