After saying goodbye to Dr. Lance and Sam for the day, I decided to walk the long way home so I could stop by my favorite little café for a coffee. It had been a long afternoon, and I could really use the caffeine. Between the Samson triplets trying to play with my equipment throughout their mother’s appointment and the always argumentative Mrs. Howard directly after that, my nerves were feeling pretty frazzled. I figured this would be my little reward for going through such a hectic Thursday.

I rounded the corner and reached for the handle on the door only to have it swing open rather quickly. I stumbled back a bit, thankful the door didn’t slam into my face, and gave the offending person my toughest glare. I really didn’t want one more thing to add to this stressful day.

A pair of brown eyes from under a baseball cap glared back at me before he realized what had happened. He seemed just as flustered as I was suddenly. His eyes softened and scanned me up and down. He stuttered a few syllables before voicing a small apology and holding the door open so that I could walk in. I was barely able to keep my mouth from hanging open at the sight of the handsome man before me. I walked through the door, keeping my eyes on him the entire time. He let go as soon as I was inside and practically sprinted away, coffee in hand. I had just run into the captain of the Chicago Blackhawks, previous Stanley Cup Champion, the pride of Winnipeg, Mr. Jonathan Toews.

---

“So, who’s your favorite chiropractor in the whole world?”

“Oh, geez. I probably can’t pick myself, so I better pick you just so I can keep this job,” I teased, exaggerating my statement with an eye roll. Dr. Lance acted like I hadn’t said a thing, giving Sam and I this big, cheesy grin.

“Come on, Dr. Lance, what are you doing?” Sam was getting impatient. She still had a lot of filing to do before our last appointments of the day. I could definitely sympathize. I, too, had paper work to get through, and I didn’t like the thought of staying late on a Friday.

“Alright, you two worked it out of me, twisted my arm, ya did,” he said in his best old-school gangster voice. I looked over at Sam and saw my own “I am not amused” facial expression mirrored back at me. Dr. Lance sighed, exasperated at our resistance to play along before pulling something out of his lab coat pocket, something that looked suspiciously like tickets.

“Joel Quenneville, otherwise lovingly known as Coach Q,” he stared pointedly at me before continuing, “decided he’d like to show his appreciation for our work by getting us tickets to tonight’s game!” I squealed and jumped into the air before giving Dr. Lance a bear hug. Sam shot up from her seat and quickly encased us both, creating one big group hug. We were all laughing and shouting, still holding on to each other, as the door opened for our last appointments of the day, signaled by the ringing of the overhanging bell.

We all turned quickly, pulling apart and laughing while Sam started to apologize and explain ourselves to the clients before stopping mid-sentence. Apparently our last appointments of the day were Coach Q, himself, and Jonathan Toews. Jon and I stared at each other, both of us recognizing the other, while Dr. Lance and Joel were busy shaking hands and chatting, no doubt talking about the tickets and the surprise that just ensued. Sam had sat down at her desk and was frantically flipping through the written appointment book and simultaneous scanning the computer records. I went over to her, quietly asking, “Did you know?”

“No,” she replied in a hushed tone, “I just realized the slots were booked as ‘Joel Quenneville and guest.’ Dr. Lance wrote them in himself.”

“How sneaky…”

“Uh, what’s so sneaky?” I jumped, startled by Jonathan’s voice being so close. He had walked over to the front of Sam’s desk while we were talking. Thankfully, Joel and Dr. Lance were just walking over to us, saving me from having to explain myself with some lame excuse for our conspiratorial whispers.

“Jon, this is Dr. Lance, the man who’s gotten me back on the ice. Dr. Lance, this is Jonathan Toews.” They both reached out to grasp each other’s hand.

“I’m glad I’m finally able to meet the miracle man who helped out Coach.”

“Oh, I’m sure it’s nothing, really. Anything to keep you guys going on such an awesome win streak! Speaking of, I saw that hit you took the other day.” Jon winced at the mention of a potential injury. No hockey player ever wanted to admit they were hurt. Most injuries are listed as lower or upper body, and no other details are likely to come out until the end of the season. “Were you planning on an adjustment as well, Mr. Toews?” Jon looked hesitantly over at me, and I tried to give a normal smile back while readjusting the rolled up sleeves of my lab coat. Thank goodness I had decided to wear it over my outfit today, otherwise my casual Friday attire might be seen as too casual for a doctor.

“Uh, yeah. I think I will. And you can just call me Jon,” he said with a slightly tilted smile. I took a mental note to forever imprint that image into my head.

“Great! Well, I’m going to take Joel into my office for his appointment, and Dr. Gianna can get your information and let you know how this all works.” He and Joel continued a previous conversation about fishing lures as Jonathan stepped up to me to shake my hand.

“I’m Dr. Gianna Ambrose, and you’re Jonathan Toews, and we kind of already met,” I rambled on. He just smiled at me and gave a slight chuckle.

“Yeah, I remember. It was yesterday, and that glare you gave me was certainly a memorable one.” I shuddered inwardly, hoping I didn’t make a huge fool of myself. From behind Jon, Sam gave me a surprised stare and indicated I had some explaining to do later.

I steered Jon towards my room, and out of Sam’s line of sight, while gesturing for him to take a seat in front of my little desk as I took my own seat behind it, grabbing new patient forms for him to fill out.

“So, have you ever had a chiropractic adjustment before,” I questioned, trying to ease some of the awkward tension trying to come into the conversation. He didn’t look up from the forms to answer me.

“No, this would be my first time.” He said it with an obvious sexual reference overtone and a smirk formed on his lips as he continued writing. It’s a good thing he didn’t look up because I probably would have melted on the spot.

His brow furrowed at one of the questions on the form before continuing on with the paper work. He flipped it over to view the body diagrams where patients were asked to indicate where they felt pain today. He circled a few places: neck, left shoulder, and lower back. Then, he looked up, smiled, and handed it back to me. I reviewed some of his answers to the questions asked.

“Everything seems to be in order then. Since you’ve never done this before, I’ll explain what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask at any time.” I got up and walked over to my adjusting table, which was in its upright position. Jon followed me over and gave me an uncertain stare. I looked at him with my most pleasant and reassuring smile, usually reserved for kids having their first appointment. I was immediately in doctor-mode.

“Just go ahead and stand against the table, belly down, and we’ll get started.” He did as he was told, and once he was in position, I started lowing the table down. My nervous energy was dissipating as I started my usual routine. After reaching the desired angle, I moved towards his feet. “So, I saw that you had some problems with your lower back.” I grabbed his tennis shoes and titled his feet a bit to see where his spine was misaligned. “Is that a common occurrence for you?”

“Well, yeah, I guess you could say that. It’s kind of hard to play hockey professionally and not get back pain,” he chuckled into the table, his laughter a bit muffled. I responded in kind.

“I suppose that’s true. Maybe you should start becoming a regular client then.” I moved my hands to his back, positioning them in the correct form. “Now, just relax. I’m going to realign your spine. Take a breath in, and out.” As he exhaled, I began my adjustment of his spine quickly and efficiently. Several pops and cracks occurred, and I continued on until I made it to the base of his neck. I was able to finish before he needed to inhale again. “That’s pretty gross, Jon,” I said with a smile in my voice. “You were really out of whack. Go ahead and flip over.”

He turned from his stomach to his back, and I cradled his head in my hands. Man, his hair felt so nice. I had slipped out of doctor-mode for half of a second. Come on, girl! Pull yourself together! Time to act like a professional. I restrained my urge to run my hands through his hair as he spoke up.

“That was so weird. I mean, I’ve cracked my back before, but nothing like that.”

“Yeah, you can’t really give yourself an adjustment, so I’m sure that was different from what you’re used to. I need you to relax your neck, Jon.” He had tensed up as soon as he turned over. The instant I felt his muscles releasing their hold, I quickly turned his head to the left. More popping went off, and he started laughing.

“Whoa, that was crazy. Much weirder than the back.”

“Yeah, I would agree, but I’ve got to do the other side, too, so relax again. It’ll be quick.” He did as I asked, and I quickly finished his neck. I moved immediately to his left shoulder, rotated it a bit, and could feel the tension and strain in the muscles and joint. Jon didn’t seem to notice any discomfort from my movements, so that was good. He had fixed his eyes on the little poster on the ceiling, used to conveniently distract young ones during their adjustments. I grinned at the sight, Jonathan Toews was silently reading a children’s poem on my ceiling poster.

I found an especially tense muscle in his shoulder and applied pressure to try to get it to release. I immediately knew it was a sore spot from the audible wince he gave out. “Sorry,” I whispered, keeping pressure on it while I explained to him that the tight muscles weren’t allowing the joint to move correctly. I finally felt the muscle release it’s tension and corrected the slight misalignment of the shoulder joint.

“Okay, you’re all done! You might be a little sore with that shoulder tomorrow, but that wasn’t so bad, was it?” He got up, grinning.

“Not at all. I think I might just have to come back to see you, Dr. Gianna.” He stood up, moving his hand to the back of his neck and rubbing it a little. Is that a nervous gesture, or did I just really loosen up his spine? I started to blush from his statement.

“Well, I’d love to see you again. I mean, in the clinic, here, as a patient.” I was rambling again. And blushing even more. Great. He opened the door to my office, and smiled back to me, giving me a slight shrug.

“You never know. It seems like we may be running into each other in multiple places. I hope it happens again.” And with that he walked out to the reception area. I was frozen in place. Holy crap. Did Captain Serious just flirt with me?

Notes