The first one coming in is Enea Bastianini. I don't know much about him. He won two races so far. His team seems like a real family.
"Buongiorno", I hear behind me. I turn around and Enea stands in front of me. "I'm a little early. Do you mind"
"No, no, not at all. Come in. I'm Julie"
He closes the door behind him, takes his shirt off and lies down.
They're really used to this.
"Maybe you can tell me a few things first", I sit down next to the table. "I'm gonna do a checkup for today. Do you have any problems, anything painful, any irritation?"
"You're new, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I am. And I do things my own way. So you can sit down. And next time I ask you to take your shirt off, if I need you to", I'm a little irritated with his tone. Like I'm some dumb chick, who doesn't know what she's doing.
"Okay", he sits back up. "I have some tenderness around my shoulder blade"
I nod. I do my check up and it's a little irritated.
"Okay, I'll give you one exercise and do some taping. The exercise is simple and you have to do it every half hour until this afternoon"
"Yeah, sure, thanks", he sounds a little surprised.
"You don't usually get exercises or anything do you?", I ask, but already know the answer.
He shakes his head, "they usually use their equipment"
"I swear, this works better. You want the tenderness to be completely gone right? Not just for an hour?"
"Yeah, if it's possible. They told me it doesn't have enough time to rest and heal right now"
"It probably doesn't, but I don't want to treat symptoms, I wanna treat the cause. And after this weekend you have time to heal and next GP it's all over"
"Okay"
I start taping and Enea starts talking. Or rather questioning. About where I'm from, how I came here, what I studied. I answer them all and before we know it, times up. He goes and I'm waiting for Fabio.
I hear his voice in the hallway for a few minutes but he doesn't come in. So I decide to go get him.
"Fabio, are you ready?", I ask, my voice and face neutral.
He turns around a little surprised.
The other guy, sees me and nudges Fabio. "Awh man, you get the cute girl and I have Marco? The world champion always gets the best apparently", I recognize him as Aron Canet. The guy full of tattoos. And I've heard of Marco, the older Italian physical therapist.
"We can switch, I don't care", I say sweetly, "you choose". I walk back to my room without looking back.
I definitely don't want Aron coming to me, but at the same time, I don't want to be stuck in a room with Fabio.
Fabio follows me without a word.
"Okay, you can sit down with your back to me and your shirt off. Do you have any pain, tenderness or something?"
"No, I don't", he does as I tell him and sits down.
I start my checkup with minimal touching and as much behind him as I can. I check his neck, back, shoulders, elbows and hands. All perfectly fine.
"You can lie down, then I'll check your hips and knees and after you are all done"
He does as told and watches me every move. With the hips and the knees I have to touch him a lot. It's a little stiff and awkward for me. I feel bolts of electricity and tingles every time we touch.
The same was with his hands. I try to keep my face natural, without emotion. Something I learned the last few months. He doesn't need to know how I feel.
"Okay, you are all done. Everything is fine, good luck this afternoon and thank you for coming in", I turn around and am ready to walk out of the door when Fabio takes my hand and stops me.
"Are you alright?", I turn around and look him in the eyes for the first time today. His eyes are a little sad, not happy like I've seen them the past days.
"I'm fine, thank you for making this happen. I need to continue", I tell him.
He doesn't let go yet, "where were you last night?", I stay quiet,"you weren't in Tom's room. And I heard you get in around six"
"You know, that's actually non of your business"
"It's my motorhome. I'm responsible for you"
"Okay. When I'm done here, I get my things and go somewhere else. So I won't be your responsibility anymore", I pull my arm back and walk to the door. "Oh and your appointment for this afternoon will be with Matteo or Marco. I'll switch it for you"
"Julie.."
"Good luck in qualifying", I walk out to the private area for a glass of water.
The rest of the day went by fast. Fabio qualified second after Pecco. Pecco did an amazing lap.
"Ciao Julie", I hear behind me. Pecco walks into my room for the second time today.
"Hey, congrats on the pole. You did amazing"
"Thanks to your treatment. I barely had any pain. Can I come in again tomorrow after warm-up?", He asks, sitting down. The taping on his shoulder is gone. I start working, "well you can come in, but you have to see Matteo or Marco. I won't be here tomorrow"
"Really? Can we meet at the Ducati hospitality or something instead?"
"Well.. that's not possible either. I won't be around tomorrow. I'm going tonight"
I've already looked at plane and train tickets. Plane tickets are way too expensive. But a train ticket to Barcelona is doable. And then I'll see how things work out from there. Maybe I'll stay there for a while. And maybe I'll go to France or Italy or Belgium.
"Why?", Pecco turns his head to look at me curiously, "I thought Tom would at least let you stay till after the race"
"He would. He doesn't know I'm leaving yet. It's just Fabio..", I sigh, not finishing my sentence.
"Oh.. Maybe you should talk?"
"Or maybe not.. I think I have some stupid crush and I screwed up. And I can't distract him. I mean you two should fight for every win"
"Yeah, we do. But that has nothing to do with you. When you race in motorsports and especially in MotoGP, you need to leave your personal life in the pitbox. If you don't, you'll bring yourself and the other riders in danger", Pecco turns, so he's facing me. "Fabio will not be distracted by you. If only you would make his riding even better. He'd have another person to make proud. Plus, you know enough about the technical racing, to make him better. So I shouldn't advise this, but go and talk to him"
I smile at his words, "you are just trying to get me to stay, so I can treat you tomorrow", I tease.
"Yes, for sure. If you stay, you'll have to treat me. And not just tomorrow. But also every other weekend"
"Thank you. For helping me and believing in my work abilities. If I stay, I will meet you tomorrow at the Ducati hospitality around 10.30?"
Pecco smiles at me, nodding. "I hope you'll stay. Not just for Fabio or Tom or me. But also for the clinica mobile and the riders. They all are going to learn from you"
He stands up and walks to the door.
"Thank you, Pecco. Really, thank you!"
"Ciao", he walks out of the door.
Pecco is one of the sweetest guys I know. He's caring and gives good advise. Although following it, is a bit hard sometimes.
"Juul!", Tom comes in the room, smiling from ear to ear. "This is amazing. Do you like it?"
He opens his arms for a hug and I step in them.
"Thank you. I'm sorry for not really talking to you. It all happened so fast", I murmur softly.
"It's okay. Fabio told me everything", Tom emphasizes on the 'everything'.
"Shit.. really? I'm so stupid, I'm sorry", I pull back looking him in the eyes. "I'm sorry Tom"
"Why are you sorry? Don't be. Fabio will be here in a few minutes. Do you have any other appointments afterwards?", Tom asks.
"Fabio has an appointment with Matteo. After I get some paperwork from Dr Zasa, I'm ready to go. So just one sec", I walk out of the room to Dr Zasa. I spoke to him earlier and he is one of the best. We decided I'd think about working here. If I want to work at the clinica mobile, I can come to Italy for a few days, to get to know everything. I get instruction days and meet everyone. But I can also decide to join the next GP on qualifying day again, like today. Like another trial. And decide after.
Knocking on his door, I walk in. "Thank you again for today Dr Zasa"
"Thank you, Julie. And please it's just Michele. I have the papers right here. When you've made a decision, give me a call", he hands me the paperwork and shakes my hand.
"I'll let you know soon", I say before walking back to Tom.
In the hallway I'm looking through the paperwork. It's a lot. Some information, some rules, guidelines and a contract.
"Oef", the papers fall to the floor and I almost fall down with them. Somebody steadies me, and I look up, seeing who I ran into. It's, of course, Fabio.
"Julie, you okay?", He asks, still holding both my upper arms. He let's go when I take a step back. "Sorry, I wasn't looking", I bent down to collect the papers and Fabio helps, looking at them.
"What's this?", He asks holding my contract.
"It's nothing", I take it from him, "Matteo should be ready for you in a few minutes"
For some reason, I don't want him knowing about the contract and the things Dr Zasa and I talked about. I don't want to be influenced by anyone before I decide. I want to make this decision on my own terms.
"Why can't you see me?", He asks.
"Fabio, Matteo is a really skilled physical therapist. He can treat you just fine", I want to turn around and walk away, but he stops me.
"Julie, I think we need to talk", he stands close to me, his eyes serious and his voice soft. Shivers run down my spine. His hand on my arm sends tingles through my entire body.
"Maybe.. but not right now and not here. Please", my voice is soft, almost a whisper and my eyes are on the floor. I can't look at him.
"Will you be at the motorhome when I come back?", He asks hopeful. I nod and he finally let's go of my arm and steps back.
I walk away quickly, even my legs are shaking a little. Fabio... What are you doing to me...