The orthopedic physical therapy clinic Jordan had worked in since getting licensed five years ago brought a full schedule for her on Monday morning. Jordan perused her charts and discovered it would be a pretty typical day. She had a couple of evaluations to perform and three progress reports on patients that were scheduled to see their respective physicians later in the week. Jordan gathered the chart for her first patient, a thirty-five-year-old man who’d hurt his shoulder while playing golf, and went and greeted him in the waiting room.
“Good morning, Adam. How’s your shoulder feeling?”
Adam smiled up at her and stood. Jordan noticed Adam’s dimples for the first time, and they reminded her of Kirsten’s. She seemed to be noticing a lot of things that reminded her of Kirsten. That revelation unnerved her a bit. Since when did she let herself get so distracted at work?
“It’s feeling great. Well, it’s a little sore. I went to the driving range this weekend to test it out, and other than some muscle soreness, the sharp pain wasn’t there. Of course, I left the driver in the bag and only worked on my short irons and putting.”
Jordan smiled at that comment. She knew that when someone was finally without the pain they’d come to therapy for, they tended to overdo it and return to their regular activities without starting slow and working up to their previous activity level. That often led to re-injury.
“I’m proud of you. It must’ve taken some self-control not to take out the driver. It’s important to work your way back slowly, so you don’t re-aggravate the injury.”
She directed Adam to a treatment table in the gym and started to massage the area surrounding his left shoulder. Following the massage, she worked the joint motions, made some progressions to his exercise program, and instructed her aide, Carrie, to follow Adam in his exercises.
“I’ll see you before you leave, Adam. If any of the exercises bother you, make sure you tell Carrie, okay?”
“Thanks, Jordan. I’ll see you later.”
Jordan returned to her office after she had treated a few patients to catch up on her charting. Thoughts of Kirsten interrupted her, and a familiar tingle blossomed in the pit of her stomach. She shook her head as if that would dispel the dark-haired, blue-eyed beauty from her mind. She needed to stop thinking about Kirsten, otherwise she would never get any work done. She picked up her next chart and headed to the waiting room to greet her next patient.
“Good morning, Clara. C’mon back, and we’ll get you started.”
The day flowed smoothly with no exacerbations in any of her patients, and the new patient evaluations went without a hitch, but Jordan found herself thinking of Kirsten frequently throughout the day. She berated herself when she started working on one patient’s right shoulder when she should have been working on the left. She was typically extremely focused when she worked on someone, but she couldn’t keep her mind off Kirsten. She needed to get her shit together and focus, damn it.
Jordan managed to get through the rest of her patients without any more fuckups, finished up her charting and billing, bid good night to her coworkers, and headed home. She walked through the front door of her two-bedroom condo, turned on the lights, and dropped her mail on the dining table before entering the kitchen to take out food for dinner.
She turned on the stereo before she started the food preparations and felt her body relax as she listened to the smooth sounds of Diana Krall coming through the speakers. She fantasized about slow-dancing with Kirsten as she prepared her dinner. In her mind, they moved together as if they had been dance partners for forever, and Jordan’s hand found its home just above Kirsten’s shapely ass as she led them expertly around the floor. She laughed when she was brought back to reality by the oven timer beeping loudly. She couldn’t believe how crazy this woman had her behaving. Fantasizing about dancing with her? Really? She’d just met her, for Christ’s sake. She plated her dinner of steamed asparagus and baked chicken, poured a glass of beer, and retreated to her living room to eat.
Despite her best efforts, Jordan’s thoughts drifted right back to Kirsten as though they’d never left. Jordan knew she had never seen a woman more beautiful. Was Kirsten single? Nah, she couldn’t be. A woman like that would never be alone. She thought that Brenda had certainly acted possessive, the way she’d guided Kirsten to the table with one hand on the small of Kirsten’s back like a lover would. Maybe they were lovers. If so, Brenda was a lucky bastard. Not only was Kirsten beautiful, but there was something else about her. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but Kirsten had an energy to her, and Jordan couldn’t get her out of her head. It made her feel out of control and wonderful at the same time.
Jordan’s pulse quickened as new thoughts of Kirsten raced through her mind, and she chastised herself. She needed to get a grip. Kirsten was likely already in a relationship, and there was no sense in dwelling on thoughts of a woman who was unavailable. Besides, even if Kirsten were single, she only ever did one-night stands anyway, and Kirsten didn’t seem like the type of woman who would be fine with a one-night stand. No, she seemed like the type of woman who wanted to be wined and dined and cherished.
Jordan took her dishes into the kitchen and placed them in the dishwasher before she grabbed her newest lesbian romance novel and headed to bed. Just because she didn’t want a girlfriend didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate a great romance.