by Kat Obie
Jenna laughed and shook her head. She wasn’t expecting to talk about that. She said with a slight blush, “It’s good. Real good.”
Alice continued to prod her a little bit. “Like best in your life good or just good?”
“Do you think I would have moved if he was only just okay?”
Alice smiled and laughed. “Aren’t hockey players the best in the sack?”
Jenna snorted her beer out her nose. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Al, you have been hanging around the guys way too much.”
“Probably. What about you? You never called me Al in your life. However, I don’t think Corey has ever really called me Alice.”
Jenna knew that she was busted. It was true. Corey did call her Al a lot and she normally called her Alice. He was rubbing off on her.
They started to settle in for the game again. All conversation revolved around what the guys were doing. Fortunately, the Sound easily beat Vegas. The best part was they took on the best team in the west and barely looked like they were working.
21
Corey
Corey came back from a late flight. After beating one of the best teams of the league, he should have been much happier than he was. Then again Doc told him at the end of the game that he had to go to the hospital the next day before practice. He couldn’t even celebrate his great game. Instead, he knew it would be a while until they could do anything.
He took off his travel clothes and stripped down to his boxers. He saw that Jenna was sleeping soundly on her side. He loved watching her sleep since she slept with her hands under her head like the angel she was. He tried to be really stealthy getting into the bed so he didn’t wake up his love. But the moment he sat down and started to wrap his arm around Jenna, she woke up.
“Hey, hun,” she said with closed eyes. “How was the trip?”
“It’s been better.” He kissed her forehead. “Come on, let’s go to sleep. I’ll tell you about it in the morning.”
Fortunately, she didn’t fight him. Instead, she just pushed herself into his body and settled back into sleep. Making him hard almost instantly. He was exhausted so he took a couple deep breaths to help clear his mind and his boner so he could fall asleep.
When he woke up, Jenna was already out of the bed. He just hoped she was still in her sexy sleepwear. He padded downstairs and saw that she was by the coffeepot starting their daily pot. She was in the lacy teal cami that showed off her luscious breasts with matching shorts that showed off her legs. Just like that he was hard again.
“Morning, beautiful,” he said as he grabbed her and inhaled her scent.
“Hey, Cor. You’re up early.”
He did a half smile. It reminded him of the reality of everything. He had to go to the hospital for some testing. He really hoped it was nothing but he had a feeling that it was something pretty bad. He was afraid of looking weak. “Yeah. I got to go to the doctor’s for an appointment before practice.”
“Wait, what? You played out of your mind yesterday. Don’t tell me you got hurt in that game.”
Corey solemnly shook his head. He wished it was an injury. Not the big C. “It’s nothing to worry about. That mole they tested, apparently something came out weird and I have to talk to the doctors in person today.”
Jenna’s brown eyes stared right into him. Probably trying to read his face to see what he was thinking. Since he wasn’t in pain, there wasn’t anything to be seen. At least that’s what he hoped was the case. She started to fix his bedhead and said, “Are you sure everything is okay?”
“Of course I am. It’s not the fucking concussion or weirdness with my wrist. It’s probably going to be a waste of my time.” He lowered his lips down to her mouth and said with closed eyes, “I just have to make Doc happy and go listen to what the doctors say.”
The brewing coffeepot stopped at that point. He immediately stepped away from his sexy girlfriend and reached into the cabinet to pull out two coffee mugs. He quickly poured the coffee and handed Jenna a cup so she could doctor it up with all sorts of sugar and milk. He always drank his black so he took a sip.
He walked into the living room to sit down on the sofa so he could inhale the coffee. Jenna joined him about a half a minute later and curled up beside him. “So I will see you play tonight?”
He scoffed. He couldn’t believe Jenna was asking if he was going to play. Of course he was going to play. He wasn’t going to let some stupid doctor’s appointment keep him out of the lineup when he felt totally fine. “Of course you’ll see me play.”
He wanted to be leisurely and have Jenna lying beside him. But he saw the time and groaned. He started to down his cup as Jenna asked, “I take it you have to get ready soon?”
“Yeah, what about you?”
“Got a normal work day aside from meeting Alice for coffee later.”
Corey nodded. “That seems nice.” As soon as his cup was finished, he quickly tapped Jenna’s leg to let her know that he was going to need to get by. He hated ending their morning lull and cuddle session but he had that appointment looming over him. Knowing that he would have coffee breath, he just went past Jenna without showing more affection.
He went back upstairs and got changed into a T-shirt, athletic pants and a hoodie. If he wasn’t going straight to practice, he might have switched into his jeans but he wanted to be comfortable. He then went into the bathroom to quickly groom his beard and his hair. Then he brushed his teeth like a good boy. Right as he was spitting into the sink, Jenna came in and smiled.
“Wish me luck,” Corey said as he started to leave. He knew if he didn’t leave at that very moment, Jenna was going to strip and get into the shower where he couldn’t join her.
Jenna pulled her shirt over her head. “Good luck. If you need to talk afterward, just let me know.”
“Will do.” He looked at her bare back that was only partially covered by her wavy espresso hair. He knew he was only torturing himself but it was the best damn torture. Worth every moment of getting hard even if he couldn’t satisfy the itch today.
He quickly left and drove to the doctor’s office. He was listening to a mix of Post Malone and Sammy Adams. He was bopping along to the music as a way to keep his mind off the appointment. He knew he would be alright to play, or at least he thought he would be.
He found the parking lot that he was supposed to use and parked the SUV. Then he grabbed the hat that was left in the car. Unlike some of his teammates, he wasn’t using the hat to hide his features. He just liked wearing the baseball hat when he was in a hoodie.
He checked in at the information desk and then sat down. He texted Petey to check in on him.
Corey: Up for practice?
Petey: Of course, asshole.
Corey: Love you too.
Petey: SMH
Then a female nurse who reminded him a lot of his sister called his name. He followed her to the back. He was surprised he was given a hospital bracelet. Then it was the normal taking of vitals.
Then he was shown to a private room. It was a stereotypical medical office room: a computer and a couple chairs on one side. He sat up on the medical bed that took up most of the room since that seemed more comfortable to sit in.
He pulled out his phone again and quickly texted I love you to Jenna. Then there was a knock at the door as a male doctor walked into the room. Corey pocketed his phone.
“Corey Corso?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thanks for meeting here today. I’m Dr. Foci.” Corey nodded in acknowledgment as he shook the doctor’s hand. The doctor remained standing and went straight to business. “So I was forwarded your information from Dr. Curren and the Sound. As he would have mentioned, that mole he had tested came back as melanoma. But since he’s not a dermatologist, I want to take a look at the rest of your skin to make sure that he didn’t miss anything. Although it was good he was so astute with things. So the melanoma is 1.5mm in thickness, which is why we are all concerned and wante
d you in here today. Quite frankly, we don’t know if it spread. So what we need to do as quickly as possible is to excise around the area of where the mole was removed to make sure we got it all out. We also want to do the sentinel lymph node biopsy.”
“Okay. But what does the lymph node biopsy entail?”
“Well, in some ways we won’t know until that day. With the area on the back, it could be the right armpit area or it might be the right groin area.” Corey internally groaned. The last thing he needed was to be cut into an area he required to be highly functional for skating. The doctor continued, “We will inject some radioactive material and just see where it travels and we will test the lymph nodes that it goes to.”
Corey nodded. It seemed pretty straightforward in that approach. He had to ask about the obvious question. “Does it have to be now? I’m in season.”
The doctor nodded his head. “I understand you don’t want to miss any of your season but we need to do the testing as quickly as possible because if it has spread, then you could be risking your life. Melanoma is the most dangerous of the skin cancers.”
“Ugh,” he said as he looked up to the sky. He just wanted to play damn hockey. To know he would be forced off the ice again, it sucked. “So how long are we talking away from the ice?”
“As long as it’s nothing more than the surgery to excise the area on the back and the biopsy, three to four weeks. Trust me, you will be pretty sore after it all and you won’t even want to play. You don’t want to pull the stitches. If it’s more, we will have to talk because the future treatments could really range from observation, to chemo or radiation. We just won’t know until after the surgery.”
Corey thought to himself, Fat chance that I won’t want to play. I can handle three to four weeks. The moment those stitches are out, I will be out there.
“So I will let me give you a moment to take your stuff off. Then it will be the skin check and I want to check your lymph node area as well.”
“Got it, boss.”
With that the doctor handed him a paper gown and walked out of the room. Corey stripped off the clothes and put them on the chair in the corner in a heap. He slipped on the stupid paper gown, letting his ass hang out, and sat back down on the medical bed.
Then the doctor knocked and entered the room again. He went straight to the medical bed and started to examine Corey’s backside. It felt weird since the doctor seemed to peer into his personal space but he just looked straight ahead pretending that nothing was off. He just focused on his breathing.
Dr. Foci then lifted up his arm. “Sorry this can feel a little weird but I want to make sure there’s no swelling.” The doctor started to press hard into his armpit. His muscles made it so it barely moved. “Alright, that seems to be okay. I’m going to need you to slip your arm out of the gown.”
Corey knew he probably should have been embarrassed but as long as his junk was covered he didn’t care what the doctor needed to see. So he quickly slipped one arm out of the gown and let it fall. His body was in great shape.
What Corey wasn’t expecting was for the doc to start pressing on his right groin area. That was uncomfortable and he realized his muscles felt tight. But the doc made his way quickly around his body. Then he nodded and said, “Alright, let’s switch sides with the gown.”
So he slipped one arm into the crappy paper gown and practically ripped it when he was taking his left arm out of the sleeve. The doc scanned the rest of the body including even having him flip over and lie down on his stomach on the bed.
“Okay, everything looks pretty good. Although some of your tattoos will make it tricky, but there’s nothing else to worry about. So I will let you get dressed and then I will have my nurse Courtney come in.”
Corey nodded. He quickly got dressed because he was starting to get cold. He did end up tearing the paper gown as he was slipping his arms out. He cursed slightly. At least he didn’t tear it until he was getting into his own stuff.
Soon enough, there was another knock on the door. This time a pretty brunette came into the room, “Hi, I’m Courtney. Let’s go over the rest of the details. How does February 19 work for you?”
He wanted to say it wouldn’t work. Nothing would work while he was in season, but both Dr. Curren and Dr. Foci wanted him to get this stuff taken care of as quickly as he could. So he said, “Yeah. It will be fine.”
“So you will need someone to drive you to and from.”
“Yeah, my girlfriend can do it.” That was the one thing he knew for sure. Jenna would be there for him.
They spent about another ten minutes going over the details to the surgery. What meds he could take, where to park, and what to do. By the end of it all, he was just done. Done with the day. He didn’t care about being on time for practice, the game tonight. The only thing he wanted to do at that moment was talk to Jenna.
Jenna
Jenna was hanging out at the coffee shop after meeting Alice during her break. She planned on working at the Starbucks for a bit. She was starting to get into the groove, working on the work tickets and doing the remote services as much as she could. Doing all the things on the back end to keep the department up and running. Her phone started to vibrate so she picked it up without looking at the caller ID.
“Hey, beautiful.” She just smiled since she knew right away who called and was glad that she just picked up. But what she couldn’t miss was the dejected tone to his voice. It was even heavier than when he went to the doctor’s appointment.
“What’s up, babe?”
“Are you at the Starbucks across from the hospital near Tech?”
“Yeah.” She would have joked asking if he was stalking her but his voice was too raw. She knew he wouldn’t have appreciated the joke at that moment.
“Good. I will be there in a minute. Can you get me a coffee though?”
“Sure, babe.”
“See you in a few minutes, beautiful.”
Jenna had a feeling the doctor’s appointment wasn’t what Corey had expected. She wondered what was going on. If what he said was true, his wrist was fine to play with. So she was curious if it had something to do with his back. She quickly stepped up to the counter to get him his dark roast black coffee.
Right as she sat down at her computer, he came into the Starbucks. She stood up to hug him since he looked like a lost bearded puppy who needed a good cuddle. They sat down. Jenna broke the ice and said, “Alright, babe, what happened?”
“Melanoma and surgery in two weeks,” he said in a low quiet voice.
Jenna blinked twice. She was taken aback. “Wait, did you say melanoma and surgery in two weeks?”
“Yup. It blows big-time. I’m going to miss at least another three weeks.”
Jenna looked at him like he was crazy. Why was he worried about a stupid game of hockey when they were talking about cancer? Sure, it was skin cancer, but that was still way more important than his playing career. “Babe, I think this is bigger than hockey. You got to take care of yourself. So what is the surgery for?”
“Well, they need to make sure they got out everything from my back. That doesn’t seem bad but the location will suck. Then there will be the lymph node biopsies. Apparently they won’t know until the day of how many lymph nodes, but it could be one or two in either the right groin or armpit area. Maybe both. Just don’t know,” he said with a shrug. He seemed more content to hold his coffee than drink it.
Jenna touched his face and then let her hand fall to his shoulder. “Hey, you got this. Just a couple weeks out, right? So when do we have to do this?”
He looked up and did a forced smile. “Next Wednesday. Are you okay delaying your trip back to Philly?”
“Yeah, no problem. I wouldn’t leave you unless you kicked me out.”
“Won’t happen, beautiful.” She knew he meant it. He loved her.
“So why the lymph node biopsy?” A few of her friends and family had had melanoma in the past, but no one ever talked about the biopsy.
So she knew this wasn’t the normal case already.
“Ummm. Something about the thickness of the melanoma. It’s not in the safe range but it’s not in the danger zone. It’s somewhere in between. It might have spread to the rest of the body.”
“Shitttttt…” Then Jenna kicked herself. She wanted to be strong for him but it was surprising to hear that they thought it might have spread. She took a gulp of coffee as she thought of what to say next. “So babe, that’s pretty big. How come you didn’t mention anything about this until now?”
Corey then did a sly smile with downturned eyes. It’s one when his young age showed. Normally that would have made her feel old but this time it was actually pretty sweet. “Doc told me on the plane back. You looked so beautiful sleeping. I didn’t want to spoil it. Nor did I want to think about it. It was easier to believe it was an error. I still want it to be, but I know it’s real. This made it clear.”
He pulled out a folded piece of paper from his hoodie pocket and passed it over to her. She looked over it and saw it was the medical report talking about the melanoma itself. If she was being honest with herself, she probably would have been in denial until she talked to the doctors. She then grabbed his hand and said, “I am glad I was close by then.”
“Yeah. Don’t tell me I owe Al for that too,” he said with a laugh. It was a joke between the boys then with her and Alice. Scotty was always saying how he owed Alice for his power play position and his girlfriend.
“I won’t tell if you’re worried about catching flak from Scotty.”
He just mouthed the words Thank you rather than saying them. It was just sweet and made her fall for him all over again. He was too irresistibly sweet and he didn’t know he was. It’s why she would fall for him every time. He picked up her hand and kissed her fingertips.
While she wouldn’t ever understand his obsession with hockey, she knew that besides her it was the other thing in the world that could make him feel okay. Since they were at a Starbucks, they couldn’t get too touchy-feely. “Still going to the rink today?”
