Four months later...
The Bandits were behind by three points. With only thirty seconds left in the fourth quarter, it was starting to look like the championship trophy might end up being handed over to The Rockets instead. But after the hard fought season, Oliver wasn't about to throw in the towel. He couldn't. Not with his girl standing on the sidelines watching.
Come on, Ollie, Elsie thought, bundled inside of her Bandits trainer down coat.
The wind howled, adding to the noise of the crowd. It was bitter cold. The kind of January day that should have been spent indoors. If it wasn't for a game like this, that's where El
OllieMy life could never get better than this.Oliver Lance thought quietly to himself as he glanced around the VIP section of the club. He had a voluptuous blonde girl under one arm and a petite brunette under the other. He didn't really know either of them, since he had met them just five minutes before at the bar. But that really didn't bother him. Because in addition to the two beauties, he was surrounded by friends and fans, drinking expensive champagne and smoking expensive cigars. He felt like a god; powerful and loved by all.“This is what it's all about,” he said out loud, though wasn't speaking d
Elsie“It's a unique opportunity, and given your history with sports medicine, one I think you'd be perfect for,” the woman in a power suit told Elsie. “So, are you interested?”Nikki Roberts asked the question with the same seriousness in her tone that she'd been using for the entire interview. When Elsie had scheduled this interview for a potential new patient, she hadn't quite been counting on this. This lady meant business.Elsie paused for a moment. What she knew so far about this “opportunity” baffled her. An unnamed patient was coming to her tiny town in Iowa for ACL reconstruction phy
ElsieElsie double-checked the address, making sure that she was on the correct County Road. As far as she knew, there wasn't anything out this far besides huge amounts of acreage covered in corn fields. It was all coated in white with late winter snow, looking desolate and lonely.She drove along for another five minutes until a small wooden farm house with a red thatched roof came into view at the top of the hill.“I guess this is it,” she whispered to herself, pulling her car down the snow-packed dirt road that clearly hadn't been maintained in over a decade.
Elsie“So tell me, Ollie, how did this injury on your right leg happen?” Elsie asked, holding the clipboard in one hand and her pen in the other. “And also, what other injuries do you have, if any, that I'm not seeing here?”“I was in a car accident a couple of weeks ago,” he said, pushing his blonde hair off of his forehead.“I'm sorry to hear that,” she said. “Car wrecks can be traumatizing in more ways than just physically.”Ollie shrugged. “I'm just glad it wasn't worse. I walked away with just a black eye, a cracked rib, a torn ACL and fourteen stitches. But I'm just happy to have walked away at all, honestly.”
Elsie“Let me take a look at your knee,” she said, standing up and approaching Ollie.“Sure thing, Doc,” he said, with a smirk.“I'm not that kind of doctor, Ollie.”His smile faded. “Are you going to be able to fix me?” he asked, as Elsie removed the brace around his knee.“Like I said, I'm going to do everything I can,” she replied, setting the brace behind him on the examining table. “I'm confident, though. ACL repairs are n
OllieOliver hobbled across the house, distributing his weight between his left leg and his crutches. His knee was a bit sore from the massage. He hadn't told Elsie that, though. He didn't want to look weak in front of her.He approached the window above the kitchen sink and looked out, watching as she got into her car and backed down the long driveway. His eyes on the window, he opened an orange bottle and popped two pills into his mouth. He watched until she disappeared from view, then he made his way to the living room, where he plopped down on the overstuffed leather love seat.“That was... interesting,” he whis
ElsieElsie stared at her computer screen. She had a search window up and Oliver Lance's name already typed out. Her finger hesitated over the “go” button. Did she really want to find out about him?She chewed her lip for a moment before finally giving into temptation.Apparently, he was just as famous as he said he was. There were thousands of pictures of him and tons of websites devoted to not only his football prowess, but his life as well. She clicked on the “images” tab first. In all his pictures, his hair was a rich black that made the blue of his eyes pop. She definitely preferred it to the bleach
OllieOliver was laying on his back, looking up at the ceiling. He was on the floor of the makeshift gym in his temporary home and Elsie was standing nearby, counting out his movements. He was in pain and beyond exhausted. A part of him felt like passing out would be a better alternative than staying conscious, but there was no way that Elsie would let him quit. He loved that about her.“How is this so hard?” he asked, through gritted teeth. “I'm hardly doing anything. This shouldn't be so difficult.”“Just keep going until I tell you to stop,” Elsie said.