Prosthetic Love Mix

The Start

Diana and I saw each other the next week at her home. When I first arrived I got a little lost because she lived on a boat on the docks and I couldn't find her boat. I had to call her on her phone.
"Hey um Diana-"
"Hey Hazel where are you? You were supposed to be here like 20 minutes ago,"
"Yeah about that I kinda got lost and I can't find your boat," I said with an embarrassed chuckle.
"You had one job Hazel," Diana teased trying to hold back a laugh.
"I know, I know. Look can you come out and look for me?" I asked
"Well it'll be a waste of time if I go out," she said.
"And why is that?" I asked rather offended.
"Because you're sitting right out side my boat silly. Come on up, I'll be right there,"
"Oh hehe yeah ok I'll be right there,"
I rolled my wheel chair onto her boat. It was one of those typical boats that you see on a movie, the really pretty ones. I looked around while she came up to open the door. There was the usual ropes and such, all the things needed to run a boat. But I also noticed a bunch of what seemed like prototypes for prosthetics all thrown about at the front of the boat.
"Hey I see you didn't get lost again. That's nice," teased Diana as walked up from below the deck. I groan at the joke but end it with a giggle.
"It would be rather stupid go me to get lost when I'm standing next to the boat," I said.
"And just like that the joke was lost," she said sadly.
"Hahaha, that was intentional. Now who's laughing?" I said taking my turn at a laugh.
"Ha real funny. Anyway shall we head down stairs?"
"I would, but my chair," I started.
"Ah not to worry Miss. Here we won't have to worry about that. I have a ramp that will allow you to roll up and down between the deck and the brig. So no need to worry about that," she said.
"Well thank you I appreciate that,"
We head down stairs where there was a few more prototypes, but there was mostly charts and blueprints. There was a neat bed, off in the back there was a small kitchen, a door which I assumed led to the bathroom, and I guess I was standing in what was the living area.
"Nice little place you've got here," I commented.
"Yeah used to be my father's but he left it for me when he died," she said.
"Oh I'm sorry,"
"Nah it's ok. I liked going out with him fishing and he knew that so when he got sick he had his lawyer say on his will that I got the boat along with a few thousand dollars, not that I like bragging about it a lot. Most of it is in a savings account where it'll be safe if I need it, but yeah it's whatever."
"Seems like you had a good relationship with your father. Wish I could say the same about mine,"
"Oh well to be honest I didn't know about him until I was about 18 but we got along pretty well," she explained
"Anyway shall we get started?"
"Um yeah yeah so what do I do?" I asked
"Just stay right there. First we've got to figure out what type of prosthetics you like and how advanced you'd like it.
"Well you know something simple will be fine with me. I don't want to be too much of a problem for you,"
"No no I want to make you the best leg possible. After all you'll be helping me as much as I'm helping you,"
"Alright then, let's get started,"
We spent a few hours going between a few of the blueprints she most recently made, some of which actually looked good. There were so many different designs all made with different types of alloys. One that caught my eye was Diana's most recent design. It was still a rough draft but what caught my attention was the fact that the part that connected the prosthetics to the leg was a one inch thick plate. It connected to the leg at the point of injury and then allowed the prosthetic to connect to the owner's nerves.
"Hey I like this one," I started lifting the blueprint to show Diana.
"Hmm? Oh that one. Yeah, you see that one is still pretty new and I honestly don't know if it could even work. There are so many complex things needed to do to barely even start building it," she said.
"Oh," I responded with a small sigh.
"Although I did promise to help you in any way I could and if that's the model you want we can most certainly try," she promised with a confident smile.
That was it,that smile, it was beautiful, I didn't know what it was but it startled something inside of me. I looked away just in time for her to avoid seeing me staring and blushing.
"Ok so if I may can I see you legs?" She said snapping me back into reality.
"Um yeah yeah sure here," I lift my leg and she grabs it and places it right on her leg.
"I hope this isn't making you uncomfortable," she said reacting to my response when she did this.
"No no it's alright. But why do you need to look at my leg?" I questioned her trying very hard to withhold the redness in my cheeks as she gently rubbed her hands across my bandages.
"If I may can I remove your bandages. I just really need to see where the plate connecting everything is going to go,"
"Yeah sure be my guest," I answered.
"Alright let's see here," she said as she gently removed my bandages.
The bandages where mostly there to just cover up the scars I had. But either way she took her hands and delicately started removing the cloth around the ends of my legs. As she peeled the last one she softly put her hands around my leg. She was extremely concentrated in her task because she made this little crinkle between her eyebrows, squinted her eyes, and stuck her tongue out ever so slightly. I shivered as she moved her hands analyzing my stumps. Every once in a while she would stop and right a few couple of notes on her notepad or run a few calculations in her head. After what seemed like a lifetime she looked up at me and says, "you realize your blushing a huge amount. Like if we compared you to Rudolph's nose he would be jealous."
"Oh a-a-am I. No I hadn't realized." I managed to stutter out.
"Well the good news is I have the measurements I need to start building the model's prototype."
"And the bad news?" I asked in a worried tone.
"We have to stop because we've been doing this for hours and I'm getting hungry, aren't you?" She asked.
"Um yes I am actually. Do you have anything to cook or what's going to happen?"
"Sadly I haven't gone out for groceries so that means we're eating out."
"Eating out? Out where?" I asked.
"Just down the dock. There's this really good Italian restaurant that sells amazing chicken parmesan Alfredo. The salda and the breadsticks are also delicious."
"Sounds great should we head out now?"
"The sooner the better my stomach is starting to eat my liver with the hunger that I have."
I laughed at the joke. I really enjoyed being around her for some reason.
"Alright then let's head out,"
"Yeah you go on ahead I have to pick a few things up here. And I have to lock up so just wait by the dock,"
"Ok, I'll be outside then."
The rest of the afternoon we just sat at the table and we talked as we ate. It was eight at night by the time we left the restaurant.
"Alright then I guess I'll see you tomorrow Diana."
"Yeah have a good rest of your night Hazel. Good night."
"Good night"
We split our paths as she headed towards her boat and I headed to the bus stop. When my mom said she wouldn't help really meant it. She didn't want to give me a ride and apparently she didn't want to pick me up either.
As I got on the bus I got the usual stare at my legs thats not hard to notice. But I ignored it. By nine I was home and I checked my phone as I rolled in. Three text messages had lit up my phone. One was a code for a free movie rental from Redbox cuz hey movies are cool and I'm broke. The other two were from Diana.
"Hey Hazel don't know if your home yet or not but I just wanted to say that I enjoyed that dinner we had, it was fun," read the first text.
The second was rather confusing to me.
"Hey listen um I know that we're just getting to know each other and were doing this for the prosthetics and all but maybe you'd be up for a movie at some point next week? There's some pretty good ones coming out."
Was she asking me on a date? Was she just being friendly? Maybe she just wanted to hang out a little more. Whatever it was it confused me so much I just thought of it for the whole night until I fell asleep and dreamed of the night I just had with Diana.