After these last four years with Dr. Roy and Nurse Ng I almost felt like being brutally honest just to tease Joya. I'd gladly give her anything she wanted without question, but what fun would that be.
Honestly, Joya was the rock that I expected after my car accident. I lost a leg and you'd think I had a tooth pulled. From that first rehab session she was a force of nature. Whatever encouragement I needed to get my ass to the hospital, she provided. Sometimes it was tender and sometimes it was harsh. But it was never sometimes. It was always and I never pitied myself for one second. Two kids headed to college and we were just turning forty. I never had time to miss that leg.
Which explains why I never signed up for the fully functioning, robotic prosthetic that Dr. Roy recommended me for. I was young and a great test case for all of the veterans they wanted to roll it out to. The technology was amazing and the work for me would be minimal considering how physically able I'd become on one leg. The real reason they wanted me was because I'd lost my leg above the knee so the hurdle to adapt was far tougher - the kinematic a as well as neuron sensors. But I was the athlete that could drive the study harder than any one prior. Joya brought it up every now and again, but never with much emphasis.
Until yesterday afternoon.
My fortieth birthday included calls from both kids and an early dismissal from work after the team devoured my cake. They practically kicked me out of the office. When I got home Joya met me at the front door with the biggest smile I'd ever seen on her face. She didn't play the lottery so that couldn't have been it. What was going through her mind?
With my plastic prosthetic leg and cane I walked up to her and gave her a big wet kiss that the neighbors would tell us about later. I knew there was going to be something naughty happening, but that smile was extra wide.
"To the den, please," Joya requested. "The couch, big boy." She was dressed in jeans and a simple t-shirt but her attitude was straight sex. We never were much for romantic dinners and dressing up. We'd always been best friends and that worked for us.
As I made it to my place on the couch Joya sat next to me and removed my clothes as simply as she asked about my day at work. "How was the party?" she asked as she unbuttoned my shirt. "Don't they know you don't like red velvet?" she reacted to my birthday cake as she pulled off my khakis. "Was there a lot of traffic on the expressway?" she enquired as she pulled off my boxers.