Brady hated going to the dentist, but he hadn’t been there in about three years and he was afraid his teeth were rotting away. The recommended time between dentist visits was a year, but at the time his one year check up would have been due, he was in rehab after having severed his spinal cord at the T10 level.
This was actually Brady’s first visit to the dentist since he’d been in a wheelchair, so like with many other things, he was unsure what to expect. He drove over in his hand-controlled car and used his permanent handicapped parking placard to get a spot right by the entrance. There was one step to get into the dentist’s office, but he popped a wheelie and jumped over it using his lightweight wheelchair. Lately he’d gotten to the point where he could do wheelies without even thinking about it. When he was in rehab, it often took him a minute of planning and working up his nerve before he’d risk a wheelie. He’d toppled over backwards was a very real fear.
Brady wheeled himself into the dentist’s waiting room. The receptionist, whose name was Shawna based on her nametag, gave him this really condescending smile. “Hello there,” she said. “How can I help you?”
“I have an appointment with Dr. Moore for 4:30,” Brady mumbled. “My name is Brady Nolan.”
Shawna typed a few things on the computer than smiled at him. “Yes, you’re all checked in. Let me give you some paperwork and you can have a seat.” She blushed a little at her misspeak.
Shawna gave Brady a stack of forms to fill out. The last time he’d been to the dentist, he’d had no past medical history, but now he had about a million things to write. He looked up at Shawna and remembered a time when she probably would have been falling all over him. Brady had always been really good looking. He’d been a cute kid who grew up into a really hot adult. He had thick dirty blond hair and green eyes that girls used to go nuts over, and he went to the gym daily for cardio and weight lifting, although his build had always remained slim. He used to spend a lot of time on his appearance and most women hoped he was just metrosexual, and were disappointed to find out that he played for the other team entirely.
Prior to his injury, Brady had no shortage of men interested in him. He didn’t even know how to hit on a guy because he was always approached first. But now things were different. Being in a wheelchair made him practically asexual and he stopped bothering with his hair or clothes because he felt like there was no point. Today he was wearing an old baggy sweatshirt from high school and pants several sizes too big, along with some ugly white sneakers his mother bought him at Payless (also several sizes too big so they wouldn’t hurt his feet in a place he couldn’t feel). He wore his hair cropped short and natural. He didn’t even own any hair products anymore. There was no point in trying to build a six pack at the gym, because the muscles in his abdomen were completely flaccid and always would be. He’d gone from looking metrosexual to looking like a sloppy straight guy.
Of course, it didn’t help that he was living with his parents in order to save money while he was in school. His parents knew he was gay, but were still hoping it was just a phase. He figured there was no point in breaking it to them that it wasn’t anywhere near a phase, considering he wasn’t getting any action anyway.
Shawna called out Brady’s name and he followed her to a room with a dental chair in it, then left him and told him the hygienist would be with him in a minute. Brady looked at the dental chair and sighed. It was way too high for him to transfer into. This was going to end up being interesting.
A few minutes later, a guy in a white coat came into the room. Brady was immediately struck by how cute the guy was. He had dark brown hair spiked slightly with gel, brown eyes, and what was clearly a great build under his white coat. He was about Brady’s age, maybe mid to late twenties. The guy held out his hand to Brady. “Hi, I’m Jason,” he said. “I’m the dental hygienist. You’re Brady, right?”
Brady nodded and shook his hand, feeling a jolt go through him at the touch of Jason’s skin. He looked away, hoping that Jason didn’t notice how totally into him he was. He thought there was a decent chance Jason might be gay, but even if he was, he probably wouldn’t be into a paraplegic. He had to keep reminding himself that it was hard for guys to think about him that way anymore.
“Now I’m going to need you to hop up into this chair,” Jason said.
“Yeah, I figured,” Brady said, eying the offending chair again. “It’s too high for me though.”
“Oh,” Jason said. His face crinkled up, trying to figure out what to do. He was really sexy. “Let me see how much I can lower it.”
Jason worked the controls and the chair did get a little lower, but definitely not low enough for Brady to make a comfortable transfer. Jason looked really apologetic. “What should we do?” he asked.
Brady knew what they had to do, but he hated to say it. It was mortifying. “Do you think you could help me?” he asked.
“Sure,” Jason said eagerly. “Just tell me what to do.”
Brady instructed Jason to wrap his arms across his chest and hoist him up into the chair. As soon as he felt Jason’s arms on his ribcage, he realized he was right about the muscles. Jason was ripped. The whole thing would have been a huge turn on if it wasn’t so embarrassing. As soon as Brady’s legs straightened out, they started shaking in spasm. He felt his face burn. Even though he couldn’t feel his legs at all, certain actions would set off spasms that shook his entire body. But fortunately, Jason wasn’t fazed. He successfully placed Brady’s butt in the dental chair. From there, Brady pulled his legs one at a time into the chair and waited for the spasms to subside. “Sorry,” he mumbled.
“Quite all right,” Jason said.
Brady couldn’t even look at him. It didn’t matter whether Jason was gay or not… there was no way he’d ever be attracted to Brady.
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From the moment Jason first saw the cute guy wheel into the office, he was infatuated. Brady was one of the hottest guys he’d ever met, despite the fact that he clearly didn’t spend much time on his appearance. Actually, Jason kind of appreciated that. He liked the fact that Brady’s dirty blond hair was tousled and his face was unshaven. And Jason had always fantasized about men in wheelchairs, ever since he was old enough to jerk off. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but there was something about Brady Nolan that was devastatingly sexy.
Jason wasn’t sure if Brady was gay though. He wasn’t obviously gay, anyway. And the old sweatshirt with a hole in the sleeve spoke against it. Jason knew it was a little unethical, but he was determined to figure out if Brady was interested in him by the end of this visit.
When Brady asked Jason to lift him into the dental chair, it made his day. Jason was glad he was wearing a white coat because otherwise his hard on would have been really noticeable. He tried to think about his job and other things to distract him. He didn’t want to be unprofessional.
Dr. Moore came in to talk to Brady, then Jason did his job of taking X-rays and then gave him a cleaning. Brady actually had really nice teeth. They were straight and fairly white. Because of his job, bad teeth were one of Jason’s biggest turnoffs.
“So are my teeth a mess?” Brady asked him while rinsing.
“No, you have great teeth,” Jason assured him.
“Yeah?” Brady looked surprised. “I haven’t been to the dentist in… a while.”
“Some people just have a genetic predisposition to good teeth,” Jason said. “You’re just lucky, I guess.”
Brady frowned and didn’t say anything.
“Did you ever have braces?” Jason asked him.
“No, never had braces,” Brady said.
“Well, your teeth are really well aligned,” Jason said. “You have a really great smile.” He took a breath. “Your girlfriend is a very lucky woman.”
Brady stared at him for a second and finally said, “I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Oh,” Jason said. That was a plus. He decided to take it a step further. “Well, your future girlfriend will be very lucky.”
Brady snorted and didn’t say anything.
Okay, that didn’t really provide any clues. But Jason wasn’t one to give up. He looked down at the hooded sweatshirt that Brady was wearing. It was a baggy shirt but Jason could see tight muscles in his arms, upper chest, and shoulders even underneath the folds of fabric. He must have had a killer upper chest from wheeling himself around all day. Jason would have given anything to see it. It was a stark contrast from the outline of his thin limp legs under his baggy jeans.
“Taft High School Hockey,” Jason said, reading off the lettering on the shirt. That was a bad sign. If Brady was a big jock, he may as well give up now. “You played hockey in high school?”
Brady smiled. “Actually, this is my brother’s shirt.”
This was torture, trying to figure this out. He wished he could just go and ask Brady if he was gay. Instead, he fingered the fabric, trying to catch Brady’s response. “It looks warm.”
Brady didn’t flinch. “It’s really warm.”
Jason finished the cleaning, then handed Brady a new toothbrush and a small tube of toothpaste. What he was really looking forward to was helping Brady back into his wheelchair. He watched as Brady picked up his paralyzed legs one at a time and moved them to the side of the dental chair. Once again, Jason started getting hard. He leaned in and grabbed Brady around his chest and hoisted him up into the air then down into his seat. Brady arranged his legs in the footrest as Jason tried not to seem obvious about staring.
“Well, thanks,” Brady said. “That was pretty painless.”
Jason swallowed. He couldn’t let Brady just leave. He was going to have to do something really unprofessional. “Listen,” he said. “I know I shouldn’t do this, but I’m going to be kicking myself if I don’t, so… anyway, you’re my last patient and I was wondering if you want to grab dinner together?” Jason saw the shocked look on Brady’s face and had to bite his lip to keep from adding “as friends.”
“Um, sure,” Brady said.
“Really?” He felt a wave of relief come over him followed by a surge of excitement.
“Yeah, definitely.” Brady was grinning now.
They chattered excitedly about going out to eat. Jason was so glad he took a chance on Brady.