I was on my way for the second treatment of the week with Iceman, and I was furious. It wasn’t the best frame of mind to be in when you worked with a patient, even if he wasn’t the target of my ire. That person was sitting on her fat ass back at the office feeling all smug and superior. I came so close to punching her in the face when she called me into her office. Recalling it made my blood pressure shoot up.
I was seated across the desk from Joni. I had no idea why she’d called me in here. It had been over a week since the argument in the breakroom. I was thankful she didn’t bring it up afterward or write me up. My gut was churning. Something told me she’d merely been coming up with a worse punishment rather than forgetting or letting it go. I didn’t have to wait long to find out what it was.
“Joni, you needed to see me. Your text said it was urgent.” I wanted to get out of here and over to the compound to see Iceman. He was expecting me.
“Yes, I do. That’s why I texted.” She paused and left the duh off. I clenched my fists below the desk, where she couldn’t see them, and kept my facial expression calm. When I said nothing, she huffed and then continued.
“I called you here to let you know that I need you to work on Christmas Eve day.”
“Wait, what? But I requested that off months ago, and you approved it. I have plans with my family,” I protested. I had the paperwork to prove it.
“I know, but things change. There was no way months ago, when I approved it, to know that we’d be this busy. There’s no way the people working can handle all the patients. Even if their usual therapist is off, the patient still needs their treatment. You know that.”
“I do, but—” I was cut off.
“If you don’t come into work, I’ll have no choice but to write you up or worse, and you know the rules. If you miss the day before, the day of, or the day after a paid holiday, you won’t get your holiday pay.”
The bitch had the audacity to smirk at me. She was getting back at me for Director Higgins. I heard through the gossip mill that he gave her a verbal warning. And her attempt to get Scott’s attention had backfired yet again. I was so angry. It was a wonder steam wasn’t coming out of my ears.
“I know the policies. I just don’t understand why I’m the one you’re making work. There are a lot of PTs who are off, and they have less seniority than I do.”
“I won’t discuss other employees with you. I’m the supervisor, and what I say goes. And if you think running to Higgins will do you any good, don’t. He’s on to you. I clarified how you like to manipulate people.” Her smile was one of extreme pleasure.
Knowing I had to get out of there before I punched that look off her face, I stood up. “Got it. I have one more patient to see, so I need to get going.” I didn’t bother to say goodbye. I just walked out. I swore when I did, she giggled low under her breath.
I was still fuming. Why would they allow a manipulative, backstabbing bitch to manage anyone? She was a horrible person and boss. She knew nothing about providing appropriate care. She wasn’t a clinician herself. Everything to her was a spreadsheet. And from what else I heard, she didn’t stick to her budget worth shit, either. God, maybe it was time I looked for another job. This one was close to home but wasn’t the only company around. I’d hoped her issue with me would disappear, but it was getting worse.
As I pulled into the compound, I made a decision. I’d put out my resume as soon as the holidays were over. The girls would be so disappointed when I told them tonight that I wouldn’t be off tomorrow. We had the whole day planned. At least I didn’t need to worry about Christmas Day. The office was closed.
I slammed my car door hard as I got out. I hadn’t even paid attention to who opened the gate and waved. I had waved back, at least. It was time to put Joni and her immature shit on the back burner.
“Whoa, what’s got you all riled up?” Iceman’s deep voice asked from my left, causing me to jump. I hadn’t even seen him standing there.
I turned and headed toward him. “Nothing. What’re you doing out here?”
“Come on, it’s not nothing. You looked mad enough to kill someone, Prairie.”
His ridiculous name for me lightened my foul mood. When I reached him, we started for the front door. As we walked, his hand landed on the middle of my lower back—a flash of warmth shot through me. I had to fight not to shiver. I didn’t want him to ask me questions about what caused it.
“Well, no worries. If I did, it wasn’t you that I was planning to murder, Ice Cube.”
He laughed as he opened the door for me. It registered that there was noise and people in the open area. I glanced around. I’d never seen anyone but the prospects, Iceman, Player, and Zara the other times I was here. Being here this time of day must be why. It was after six. My day had been packed, and meeting with Joni had pushed me way later than when I was here on Monday.
As we entered, some noise died down, while more than a few pairs of eyes landed on us. Some were curious, and others I wasn’t as sure of. I was usually a very confident individual and had no problem facing large crowds, but seeing all the leather and tattoos kind of made me hesitate. Iceman’s gentle push on my back made me realize I’d stopped. I resumed walking.
“Hey, Iceman, who’s that?” a guy shouted.
I watched as two men detached themselves from the crowd and came our way. I covertly checked them out. They were both good-looking men. Heck, scanning the room, I couldn’t find a single one that I’d say was plain, let alone ugly. When they reached us, they stopped in front and smiled. I swore I heard Iceman groan, but it must’ve been a trick due to the noise.
“Don’t tell us this is your physical therapist,” one said.
“Chill before you scare her off. Yes, this is my therapist. She saved me from that shithead Ladd. This is Meadow. And though I hate to introduce them, Meadow, this is Renegade and Loki. They’re my closest friends.”
Both of them smiled and nodded their heads. Renegade, who had asked if I was his therapist, said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Loki followed with, “And it’s great for me too. I can’t thank you enough for finding a way to work with this one. You deserve a medal. There’s no way I’d be able to do it and not kill him.”
“Hey,” Iceman protested.
I wanted to tease him, so I chuckled before saying, “I medicate myself extensively before I come here so that I don’t hurt him.”
As they laughed, I felt hot breath on my neck and ear, and then Iceman whispered so only I could hear, “You wait. I’ll pay you back for that, Tundra.”
“Oh, I’m shaking in my shoes, Iceberg,” I muttered.
He chuckled, then whispered, “Challenge accepted.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant or what I had gotten myself into, but it was exciting. I didn’t know what it was about him. I would never call a patient names or tease them, not the way I did him. Maybe it was because I knew he wouldn’t get offended.
“No whispering. You’ve gotta tell us what you said,” Renegade protested.
“Sorry, that’s between me and my therapist. Now, if you don’t mind, we’ve got work to do. It’s late, and she needs to get home soon.”
Hearing this, they both backed off and said they hoped we’d get time to talk one of these days. The rest of the room smiled and nodded, but they didn’t prevent us from going to the gym. I wanted him to use the treadmill to warm his body up, so I told him to do it for ten minutes. While he did, I sat there and thought about what I could do to make up tomorrow to the girls.
“Alright, that’s it. If you don’t tell me what’s going on with you tonight, I’m getting off this, and we’re done,” Iceman said suddenly, jerking me away from my thoughts.
“It’s nothing. I’m sorry. I had a rough day at work, that’s all. I won’t check out on you again. Why don’t you start with this exercise next?” I suggested.
It was a new one for him, so I demonstrated it. Once I was sure he understood it, I told him to do ten, and we’d see how he tolerated it. This was using another piece of equipment. I wanted him to use the pulley to work his shoulder. He didn’t appear pleased with me but moved over to do it. He worked his reps, and I gave him pointers on adjusting his grip and doing the reps as slowly as possible.
“Meadow, I hope you know that you can talk to me even though we haven’t known each other very long. Even if it’s just to bitch about a lousy day. Come on, tell me that there’s a patient on your load who’s worse than me.”
I couldn’t help it. I chuckled even though I tried not to. I rolled my eyes at him. “No, there’s no one as bad as you, or at least not at the moment. It wasn’t a patient. Listen, I appreciate your offer, and I’ll consider it. But if you don’t mind, I’d rather not talk about it right now. It’s making me angrier.”
“Sure thing. But if you change your mind, let me know. Or if you need someone’s ass beat...” he let it hang there.
“If I need someone’s ass beaten, I’ll handle it myself. In this person’s case, I’d want to do it myself without a doubt.”
“Got it. Alright, what next?”
We chatted about simple things for the rest of his session while I put him through some old exercises mixed with several new ones. As I did every time, I massaged his shoulder, arm, and chest to ease the tension at the end. By the time he was done, I was more than ready to head home. It was after seven. It would be close to seven forty-five by the time I got home. Thank God there were leftovers from last night’s dinner. We planned to have those. Nothing went to waste in our house.
As always, Iceman walked me out to my car. The main area, which he informed me was the common room, was packed with people. They all shouted goodbye. I wish I had time to meet them, but next time. I waved goodbye. After he opened my car door and I got in, Iceman told me to drive safely and have a great Christmas. I wished him the same. Since Christmas was on Friday, we wouldn’t see each other until the following Monday. I offered to come out and do it on Saturday, but he promised to do it himself. Before I took off, I sent a quick text to let the girls know I was on my way.
It was hard to keep my eyes open to make the drive home. I drove with the window down so the cold air would help keep me alert. It felt like the drive took twice as long as it usually would. I was dragging when I entered the house, only to find myself perking up as I smelled the air. They’d reheated the leftovers. Since Christmas was to be such a heavy food day, we’d been eating lighter. The smell was homemade vegetable soup. My stomach growled.
All of them came to greet me. The girls didn’t hug me. They knew I didn’t like them to touch me until I cleaned up. I didn’t want to risk bringing home a virus or something worse. People coughed and sneezed on me all the time, let alone the other things better left forgotten that happened when caring for people. I did have to pet Icicle and Blizzard.
“Go get your bath, and we’ll finish this up. You look tired,” Sage said, giving me a sympathetic smile.
“I am. Thank you. It won’t take me more than ten minutes. Will you warm up some of that bread?”
“We’re already on it. Go,” Aspen said as she waved me toward the hall.
I trudged to my room. The boys stayed with them. We’d lucked out and found a two-bedroom apartment with two bathrooms. God, if the three of us had to share one, we’d probably kill each other. It was bad enough with them having to share. I turned on the water, and while it heated, I stripped. I wasn’t washing my hair tonight, which saved time. I was finished and out in the kitchen in nine minutes.
They had bowls of soup, a loaf of bread, butter, and drinks on the table. We didn’t mess around. We sat down and got to eating. In our opinion, vegetable soup gets better the more times you warm it up. I didn’t like it as much the first night we’d have it, so a small bowl was enough. I’d have seconds tonight, even if I didn’t need it. There were light slurping and satisfied groaning sounds, along with the clink of silverware.
By the time I was done eating—and yes, I had seconds—I wanted to curl up with the dogs and go to sleep. I stifled a yawn. Sage and Aspen wouldn’t let me clean up, but they hadn’t used much, so it was quick. I sat on the couch with the boys on my lap. I kept petting them. I listened to more about the girls’ day. Since they were on winter break, they had the day to themselves. When they joined me, I knew I’d waited long enough. Sage had mentioned right before they rejoined me how excited she was for tomorrow.
“Girls, I need to talk about tomorrow.”
They both quieted and studied me. I saw their shoulders droop, and their happy faces turned sad.
“No, don’t say you have to work! It’s not fair,” Sage cried.
“I know, but there’s nothing I can do about it. My supervisor told me I had to work. There are too many patients compared to staff. If I don’t go, not only will I get written up or worse, but I’ll lose my holiday pay for Christmas. I can’t afford that.”
They were old enough to know what it meant for any of those to happen.
“Well, I wish that horrible woman you work for would leave. You know why she’s doing this. She’s jealous,” Aspen asserted.
“Maybe. I think it’s about the guy she likes, but I can’t prove it. She finds a way to wiggle out of trouble. Even when she’s written up, she keeps her job.”
“Do you have to work the entire day?” Sage asked.
“I haven’t checked my schedule, but I’d say yes.”
“If it’s not too busy, can you leave early?” Aspen asked hopefully.
“I doubt it, but if it happens to be like that, I’ll ask. I know you were both looking forward to us baking all day and watching all our favorite Christmas shows. I promise, when I get home, we’ll start all of it. The good thing for us is that we don’t have to worry about when we get up on Christmas. If we want to wait until noon and not eat until midnight, we can.”
“No way! We’re not waiting that long,” they shouted in unison. I knew they would, and this made me laugh.
We talked a tad longer before they let the subject drop. Since they didn’t have school, they decided to stay up and watch a marathon of some movie series they loved. I hung out as long as possible, and then I had to call it a night. I could barely keep my eyes open. I got kisses all around, including from the boys.
In my bedroom, I sank into the mattress and sighed. Goddamn, Joni. She had me feeling a bit like Cinderella, and she was my wicked stepmother, or maybe both stepsisters rolled into one. If I had a glass slipper, she’d be suffering from blunt force head trauma and laid up in the hospital.
Damn it, too many children’s Disney movies while the girls were small. I watched them so many times they stuck with me. Either that was the cause of my fairytale thoughts, or I was crazy and should be committed. Nah, even if that did happen, Joni would find a way to make my life miserable. I’d stay out here where I had a chance to get justice one day. And I’d do it the old-fashioned way, all on my own.
I was exhausted, but I didn’t fall asleep immediately. Instead, I lay there thinking about Iceman and imagining many things about him. Like, what did the rest of him look like? I bet he was magnificent. His upper body was. I had to work not to drool whenever I saw him without his shirt—and touching him to massage him after a workout made it worse. I was going to hell for the wicked, delicious thoughts he put in my head. I softly groaned when my nipples hardened, and my pussy became slick.
I wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but I’d been having sexual thoughts and dreams about Iceman since our first meeting. It was rare to go a night without becoming hot and bothered and ending up in need of a session with my vibrator. Thank God, it was quiet, not one that sounded like a chainsaw. I could use it, and the girls would never hear me.
Go to sleep. You have to work , I reminded myself. But while the brain was trying to be responsible, the rest of my body was like, fuck it. Bring out the O-tron . Yes, I named my vibrator and dildos. They were the closest I’d been to anything resembling a cock in a while. They deserved names.
I tossed and turned for twenty minutes before giving up and getting my O-tron out. Removing my clothes so I could reach everywhere I needed, I got down to business. While one hand was busy kneading, tweaking, and flicking my breasts, the other took control of running the vibrator all over my body before concentrating on my pussy. The tingles caused by touching my clit were nice and made me hiss. But it was when I slowly pressed it inside of me and then kicked it up to high that I nearly lost my mind. As I thrust it in and out of my pussy, I tugged harder on my breasts and then reached down to rub my clit.
It didn’t take me long to be on the edge of coming. To get there, I pictured Iceman standing naked by the bed with his huge cock in his hand. He was stroking it and telling me how he wanted to fuck me raw. Just the thought of him doing it was enough to shove me over, and I came hard. As I rode it out after damn near biting my lip off holding in my scream, I wondered if I’d ever be with a man again. Life could suck sometimes. Or at least mine did. Would it ever be normal with a husband and family? At the rate I was going and my shitty luck, no. At least I was relaxed enough from my orgasm to fade off to sleep.
???
It was four in the afternoon when I dragged myself into the apartment. It wasn’t so much that I was tired from working so hard. It was more because I’d been angry all day. It had sucked the energy out of me. It started when I got to work. I found that the schedules of the other therapists were extremely light, while mine was packed. When I asked the scheduler why, she said Joni told her to fill me up.
My fellow PTs knew it was bullshit that I was there. They had more than enough room to cover all the patients. It was pure spite. Of course, Joni wasn’t there. She took the day off. I knew she wouldn’t allow me to leave early even though all the others had offered to see the patients. Thankfully, the last one on my schedule called off, so I got to leave a smidge early. This day has shown me one thing. I would be looking for a new job. If the administration wanted to keep someone like her, they could lose me. I’d miss the rest of the people I worked with, but it wasn’t enough to stay for just them when your supervisor was a childish bitch.
I made an effort not to let my fatigue and poor attitude show. The girls deserved my attention and to enjoy what was left of our Christmas Eve. As always, I was greeted and left alone to shower and change. I took an extra long shower. If the hot water hadn’t started to run out, I would’ve stayed even longer. Once I was done, I dressed in my comfy sweats.
When I returned to the living room, I had to smile. They had a tray of cookies and drinks ready. I sat down and picked up my cup. It was hot apple cider. I took a sip of it and then a bit of cookie. I moaned. They’d made one of my favorite cookies, hot chocolate peppermint.
“Do you want to talk about your day?” Aspen asked.
Immediately, Sage added, “Or get to relaxing?”
“I want to relax and not think about work until Monday,” was my answer.
Smiling, Sage started the first movie. As I let the spirit and joy of the holiday infuse me, my anger leaked away. The hours passed, and we laughed, sang, ate way too many sweets, and did some prep for tomorrow’s feast. It was after midnight before we all went to bed. I was dog-tired, but I wouldn’t have traded it for all the sleep in the world.
Things were often lean and hard for us, but I never regretted having the girls with me or what we went through. We were family, and nothing or no one would ever change that. Through thick or thin, we’d be together as a family. We’d never been able to rely on anyone but each other.
???
We were having the best time. We got up, had a light breakfast, and sat down to open gifts. We might not have much money, but I always found a way to get the girls something they really wanted. Other gifts were things that had sentimental value, or we made them by hand. Icicle and Blizzard weren’t forgotten either. They had a gift under the tree, too.
After we were done with those, we set out to start cooking, mainly the turkey first since it took the longest. We were entertained in a variety of ways. Sometimes, it was each other, Christmas shows, holiday music, or laughing as we watched Blizzard and Icicle run around the room with tinsel hanging off their butts chasing each other. The girls made the dogs a Christmas bow hat from the bows and small paper plates, then tied them to their little heads. They were so adorable that I took a picture. Then, we made big ones for ourselves, and the five of us posed together.
Dinner came together like it always did, and we stuffed ourselves with traditional foods, including pies. When we were done, we returned to the living room to watch more holiday movies and shows. It was late when I glanced over and found the dogs and girls asleep on the couch. They looked so innocent and cute that I snapped pictures before I woke them up to go to bed. The days of me being able to carry them were past.
The boys were so tired they staggered, so the girls took pity on them and carried them to bed. After kissing them goodnight, I turned everything off and checked to ensure the door was locked before I retired to bed. I fell into what I hoped would be a dreamless sleep. We had two more days together before I returned to work. They would have another full week off from school. How I wish I could join them. But I had to work unless I won the lottery for millions or a wealthy man swept me off my feet and agreed to care for us all. Adulting sucked sometimes.