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"Sharon, I want you to review this." Betsy places her phone in my hand.
I take a glimpse at the screen and push the phone away, "Can you give me one good reason to see this?"
"I can give you many, but at the moment, I will share only two. One, he is saying hello and wants to make up for whatever mistake you are holding against him. Two, he needs your professional help." She thrusts her phone back in front of me.
I play the video. Jon is walking with a limp. What is wrong? I sit up at the sight; the limp disturbs me. "Isn't it a month since we took off the cast? Why isn't he walking straight? Is he in pain?"
"No pain, no tenderness, and no swelling." Betsy negates everything with a straight face, so I know she is speaking the truth. Has he developed contractures or bone shortening? But Tom would have noticed.
Something is amiss here. I question Betsy, prodding her to share what she has in mind. She gives me a background story. "He has been going to the team sessions at the stadium. He doesn't listen. I keep trying to tell him, he needs to rest and not exert himself. He keeps going to practice with the team. He is not taking it slow."
Obstinate Jon at his best. "Have you told him this could ruin any chance for him to get back in the game?"
"You can't imagine how many times. He is stubborn as a mule." The frustration is showing on Betsy's face.
"He always was." I sigh as I close my eyes. Willing myself to be strong. I cannot get involved again.
"Yes, it takes one stubborn ass to recognize another." Betsy scoffs at me.
"What? Is it my fault he doesn't listen to his physiotherapist?" I return the jibe.
Betsy rolls her eyes and then stares at me. She does not answer me, so I force her to come out with whatever's on her mind. "Betsy quit playing around and tell me what you want from me."
"Talk to him. Better still, meet him. Only you can drive any sense into him." Betsy stands in front of me with her arms crossed, a matron demanding my obedience.
I will not give in. If I meet him, it will undo all the effort I've made to distance myself and get him out of my life. I can't deny my feelings for him, but I have programmed myself to ignore them. Shut them away and put a lock on them. To meet him and to be with him, will be a disaster. "I am not sure I want to do this. It is not right, Betsy. Maybe you should speak to his coach or athletic trainer?"
"You are as stubborn as him." Betsy moves her hands to the sides of her hips. A sign she will not budge. "Sharon, you owe it to him. Will you be able to live with the thought you did not make your best effort to help him out?"
"How can you say that? Listen, Betsy, don't you realize where my involvement with him could end up? It will ruin me, both in professional and personal terms."
Betsy walks over to my side of the desk. She puts her hand on my shoulder, "Sharon, the more you deny yourself, the more difficult it will be. He cares about you. He has feelings for you. Look inside your heart and tell me you don't feel the same for him."
Betsy leaves, but her words and Jon's limp keep flashing through my mind the entire morning. I dare not take up her suggestion to peep inside my heart. I know what lies there. Hidden and chained by the dictates of my mind. Can I afford to let it out in the open?
There are times when I wish I was never his doctor. But then, I would've never found him. What should I do now? I cannot ignore his limp. He needs me, and I promised him I would be there till he got back on the field.
I have a headache by lunch. Trust fate to put a spanner in my life. Things had recently become normal. I call up Stephen and set up a meeting at the stadium during one of their practice sessions in the afternoon.