Dear Tell All: I wrecked my knee playing racquetball and needed physical therapy for the first time in my life. I was dreading it — particularly the inconvenience of taking time off work over the course of a few months — but perked up when I met my physical therapist. She’s drop-dead gorgeous, with straight blond hair, sensuous lips, big blue eyes and the athletic figure you’d expect from someone in her profession.
She also has a soothing, almost motherly manner. Her combination of sweetness and sexiness made it almost impossible for me to concentrate on my knee during our first visit.
Needless to say, I forgot all about the inconvenience of taking time off work. During my second appointment, I tried to bring up more personal subjects, asking about her background. She didn’t take the bait and steered the conversation back to exercises for my knee. But I sensed that she liked me, and she even laughed at my jokes. In the meantime, her hands on my leg were driving me out of my mind.
With only two appointments left, I started to panic. What if I never saw her again? I decided to make a move at the second-to-last appointment — and believe me, it took courage to say something romantic in that clinical setting. At the end of the session she asked if I had any questions. I said, “What would you advise for someone who’s attracted to his physical therapist?”
She laughed sweetly and said that wasn’t her area of expertise. Then she wrapped things up, encouraging me to make an appointment for the last session.
I’m trying to figure out what it all means. She didn’t shut me down, call for her supervisor or insist that I switch to another therapist. Does that mean I still have a chance? What should I do and say in our last session?
Hoping
Dear Hoping: I suspect you’re the only person who’s trying to figure out what it all means. Readers, shall we say it in unison? IT MEANS NOTHING.
Based on your description, I’m guessing this poor woman gets hit on all the time while trying to do her job. Her polite laugh is surely a defensive tactic against clients like you.
You ask what you should do and say in your last session, Hoping, and I want you to listen very closely to the answer. Readers, care to join me? DO AND SAY NOTHING.
In other words, stop looking at your therapist as a sex object and treat her as a professional. If you hit on her again in the next appointment, I wouldn’t blame her if she kicked you in the other knee.
Do you have a question about life or love in Madison?
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