I pulled out the plug, the water draining away with a loud slurping sound. “Okay, fucking sore, but it’s better than it was.”
“Do we need to call Molly to check?”
“NO!”
He frowned down at me, at my raised voice. But the last thing I needed or wanted was for Molly to know I’d got stuck in the bath.
His arms crossed over his chest. “Okay, what’s going on? You were so fucking weird yesterday and this isn’t about being stuck in the bath.”
I sighed. “Can you just get me out of here, before my dick shrivels up for good? Then we can talk.”
“Fine. How do you want to do this? Can you push on your right leg?”
“Yeah, just hook me under the arms and pull me to the edge. I can move from there.”
“Okay. Ready?” He grabbed me as instructed and hauled me up, while I pushed on my right leg until I was sitting on the rim. He kept hold of me, helping me spin around until I could put my feet on the floor, then stood there assessing to make sure I wasn’t going to topple over. “What do you need?”
“A towel for a start.”
He laughed, grabbing another one off the shelf and threw it at me. I stayed on the bath, rubbing it over my body, drying myself, before rubbing it hard on my head.
“Can you pass me the crutches so I can get into my dressing room, then I can sit and get dressed, please?”
He picked them up from the floor and handed them to me, holding them out for me to put my arms in the hooks. I really needed some gloves, the hot bath had softened the calluses on my hands, making them tender. I hopped through to my dressing room and sat down, Drew following and going straight to my underwear drawer, pulling out some boxers and throwing them at me.
“You need to put these on yourself.”
That raised a smile. Without the brace on I could bend much more easily, and slipped them over my ankles, wriggling them up my thighs. I looked up at Drew as he laughed loudly, while rummaging through my drawers.
“What?”
He handed me a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie. “Here, you’re wearing these.”
“Okayyyy. Thanks, bud.” I took them, only realizing as I opened them up that they were his, with his name and numberon. I snorted. “Yes. I will happily wear these because you saved my ass, again, and you’re my best friend and I love you.”
“Yeah, you’d better, now put them on and come downstairs and you can explain in detail what the deal is with Molly.”
I threw everything on as quickly as I could under the circumstances, because it’s really not that easy to pull on pants when you can’t move properly. My getting dressed time had trebled in the last few weeks, so it was a good job I had fuck all else to do. I took the crutches from Drew as he handed them to me and we made our way downstairs.
Jupiter was sitting in the kitchen, with three cold beers waiting at the table as we walked in. Or, more accurately, as Drew walked and I hopped. Jupiter, Emerson’s brother, was visiting from California where he played third baseman for the Dodgers. The three of us had hung out a couple of times before at sports ceremonies but when he’d found out that Drew was dating Emerson, to say he was less than pleased would be an understatement. However relations had been thawing and he’d come over to spend some time with them in his off-season and we’d all been hanging out.
He pushed the beer toward me as I eased into a chair.
“Thanks, man.”
“So, stuck in the bath?” I gave him points for at least attempting to hold back his amusement.
“Yeah. Got a bit ambitious there, but I was trying to kill a few hours because I’m bored as fuck.”
“I bet. How was PT?”
“Yeah, good. They’re pleased with my progress, but it’s so fucking frustrating not being able to do basic stuff like tie my shoes. It’s getting better, though. I think it’s my knee that’s hurting more right now. Honestly, I’m terrified of tearing it more.”
And that was the truth; it fucking terrified me more than I wanted to admit. Because an ACL tear could finish a career.
“For sure, you need to be really careful of it. You know Bear Holloway? Used to play Shortstop for the Braves?”
I nodded.
