Page 30 of The Spice Play

“Fuck,” I hissed, the sound muffled from the back of my hand as she pushed down on the scar.

“They’re not a player, right?” she half-laughed.

I shook my head, not bothering to give that question any verbal response when my throat felt like it was closing up.

“Coach?”

The tip of her finger touchedsomething, and she dragged it, eliciting some of the worst pain I’d ever felt since I took a skate to that knee my first year on the ice. A horrible, gurgled shout of pain ripped from me, barely muffled from my hand, and she stilled. My breathing came sharp, ragged,angry, but I’d be a liar if I tried to say it didn’t feel a minuscule amount better.

“Sorry—”

“It’s not Coach.” I gave her a bitter laugh, my eyes bleary, but focusing on the square tiles of the ceiling.

“Well, I need to pull that tendon a little more, so you can either tell me so you can talk freely, or we can keep playing the guessing game.” She took her hands off me, the sound of the little bottle of oil popping off telling me she was relubricating her fingers.

I swallowed and tried to calm myself down, taking a deep breath in and holding it for five seconds before releasing it. “If I tell you, will you keep it to yourself?”

Her hands met my knee again, but she didn’t push in just yet. “Of course,” she said. “Think of it like going to the doctor or seeing a shrink. I won’t tell anyone what you say in here. It’s confidential unless it’s, like, illegal.”

“Is itactuallyconfidential?” I asked, looking down at my body where she perched by my leg.

“I mean, I’m a licensed physical therapist and a massage therapist, so yes,” she grinned. “I like to gossip, but I’m more than capable of keeping my mouth shut if I need to. So, go on, let it out.”

She started up again, and I could have sworn little dark spots tainted my vision. I closed my eyes to keep them at bay while she tortured me. “Fuck, okay, it’s Matty’s nanny,” I said through clenched teeth. “She’s living with us.”

“Ooh, that makes more sense. I didn’t know shewas contracted by the team,” Aubrey said, glancing up at me to make sure I wasn’t about to pass out. Pain spread throughout my upper thigh, rippling, all-encompassing, and I knew I should have taken painkillers before this.

“Yeah,” I gasped. “I… I met her at Smokey’s a few weeks ago before we hired her. Went—fuck—went back to her apartment with her. I took her number, but I didn’t call, and now she’s living in my fucking house.”

“Wait, you didn’t call her?” Her hands paused again, and I wanted to shout at her, wanted to tell her to just get this over with so I could stop feeling the pain, but she started again as she spoke. “I thought you were into her?”

“I am. But I didn’t know if she was just a flame or if she was some random girl who happened to be at Smokey’s, so I didn’t risk it. But she—oh myGod—wasn’t a flame,” I explained. The backs of my eyes burned as she pulled the tendon again, my chest heaving while I tried to steady each breath. “I can’t… fuck, I can’t stop thinking about her though, and I can’t escape her. I don’t want to fuck up the situation with Matty, but it’s like I’m surrounded by temptation every moment I’m at home and surrounded by stress every moment I’m—shit—here.”

“Big, deep breath for me, Sebastian,” she said, and I followed her instruction, taking in air until my lungs screamed at me and holding it there. She pulled, and something snapped, and a wailed, choked shout bellowed from me, using up every bit of oxygen I’d held. “There we go.”

I didn’t bother opening my eyes. I was positive all I’d see was black, anyway. Something told me I was going to be off the ice for the rest of the day. “Fuck,” I croaked.

“That seems like a sticky situation, Seb,” she said, her stool creaking as I assumed she lifted herself out of it. Hervoice moved across the room, and the sound of the faucet switching on told me she was fully done and was washing the oil from her hands. “One of those things where something is already a problem, so working out the issues in it becomes even harder. Like your knee.”

“Yeah,” I grunted. I threw my arm over my eyes, content to just lay there in the low-grade pain that wouldn’t seem to stop.

“You should ice that tonight and skip leg day tomorrow if you have it scheduled. I’ll let Coach Casey know that you need a couple of days off from any leg-specific maneuvers.”

“Great, he’ll fucking hate that.”

She tossed my thick pants onto my stomach, a deep, audible sigh coming from her. “I’ll give you a few minutes to calm down and get dressed. I’ll be in the breakroom if you need anything else, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks, Aubrey. For the knee and for listening to me.”

————

Fully dressed and limping, I hobbled to the door, still lightheaded from the pain. I’d made absolutely zero headway on what I was going to do about Nelly in the fifteen minutes I’d laid on that table with my eyes closed, and I couldn’t imagine I’d come up with anything between that room and my car, but I could try.

But the moment I turned the handle and opened the door, a smirk-covered familiar face stared right back at me.Fuck.

Luke leaned against the wall opposite Aubrey’s room, his phone in hand, smug as could be. With his tongue caught between his teeth, he grinned at me, wide and unabashed — he’d heard it. He’d heard it all.

“Have you seriously been waiting out here for the last twenty minutes just to smile at me like that?” I groaned, shutting the door behind me.

---