The Hygienist's Game

Let me tell you about the time I made my biggest mistake, and honestly my best one too.

First, some basics so you can keep up. My name is Alexa, I'm twenty-three, and I've been a dental hygienist at BrightSmile Dentistry for about a year and a half now. I'm the one who scrapes the tartar off your teeth while you try to pretend you floss. I'm good at my job and I'm even better at flirting, which is going to matter in about two paragraphs.

See, I've got this reputation at the office. I dated my way through college, and since graduating I've kept it up. I'm always the one who ends it. Always. There's a running bet among the front desk girls about how long my next thing will last. The over-under is six weeks and the smart money is on four.

So when Bradley started at BrightSmile in March, it took me about a day to decide he was my next project.

He was the new dental assistant, twenty-six years old, tall, kind of shaggy brown hair that he was always pushing out of his eyes. He'd moved to the city two years ago after finishing his training program. Nice smile, which you'd hope for in our line of work. But the thing that really sold me on him was that he was easy. Like, easygoing. Nothing seemed to rattle him.

A guy like that, I figured, would be fun to unravel.

***

The plan started on a Tuesday at lunch.

We've got this tiny break room at BrightSmile, white walls, a fridge that hums like it's dying, a table with four chairs. I got there first and made sure the chair next to mine stayed open. Bradley walked in with his sad little sandwich and sat right down, no games needed.

"You always eat that fast?" I asked, watching him inhale half the sandwich in like three bites.

"Sorry," he said, grinning. "I get kinda focused when there's food involved. Dr. Patel says I eat like I'm on a timer."

"Between patients, I bet. You never get a real lunch in this place."

"Exactly! Finally someone gets it. You're always running behind too?"

"All day, every day. I've got the ten o'clock lady who talks for forty minutes with her mouth full of suction."

Bradley laughed, actually laughed, head back a little. Okay. That was encouraging.

"So how long were you at your old office?" I asked, tucking my hair back. Yes, on purpose. I'm not ashamed.

"Two years. Then I wanted somewhere bigger, more staff, you know? BrightSmile seemed like a good fit."

"And how's it fitting so far?"

"Good. Everyone's been really nice. Especially you." He said it easy, no weight on it, but he looked at me when he said it.

"Especially me, huh." I smiled slow. "I am pretty nice."

"Is that what we're calling it?" one of the other hygienists, Nadia, said from across the table. "Alexa being nice?"

"Be nice, Nadia, or I'll tell everyone about your flossing habits," I said.

Bradley laughed again. See what I mean? Easy. The whole lunch was like that. I asked him questions, he answered them honestly, he asked me things back, which a lot of guys forget to do. He wanted to know if I was from here, if I liked the office, whether I thought the new dental chair in room three was haunted because it reclined on its own.

"It's not haunted, it's got a bad hydraulic line," I told him.

"Well yeah, but what if it's both," he said, and I actually snorted into my yogurt.

By the end of that half hour I was feeling real confident about my plan. Maybe too confident. That's the funny part, looking back.

***

Wednesday I pushed it a little. Stood closer than I needed to when I handed him an instrument tray. Let my hand brush his on the pass. Complimented his scrubs, which were plain navy, nothing to compliment.

"Those are a good color on you," I said.

"These are literally the color of everyone's scrubs."

"Yeah, but on you they work."

He gave me this look, half amused, half something else. "You're kinda shameless, aren't you?"

"Kinda, yeah," I said, and walked off before he could get a read on me.

The problem, and I didn't see it yet, was that shameless only works when you don't care. And I was starting to, like, look forward to lunch. Little bit.

***

Thursday afternoon, Bradley caught me at the sterilization station.

"Hey, so, a bunch of us go climbing on Fridays," he said. "There's this gym near my place, Clutch Climbing. Bouldering. Nadia and Mark from the front desk come sometimes."

"Bouldering? Like rock climbing without the ropes?"

"Without the ropes, lower walls, big squishy mats. It's fun. You should come."

"Are you inviting me or inviting the whole office and mentioning it to me?"

He grinned. "Both, honestly. But mostly you."

I looked at him for a second. He didn't flinch. Most guys get squirmy right there.

"I could be convinced," I said. "What time?"

"Six. They've got rentals if you don't have shoes."

"You're gonna watch me fall off a wall and laugh at me, aren't you."

"A little, yeah," he said, still grinning. "But I'll teach you stuff first. I've been going like two years, I'm not bad."

"You're not bad at bouldering."

"I'm not bad at a lot of things."

Oh, he was playing back. That was new. That was actually fun. I told him I'd be there and spent the rest of the afternoon pretending I wasn't pleased with myself.

Nadia cornered me by the coffee machine twenty minutes later.

"You know he's actually a nice guy, right?" she said. "Not one of your usual projects."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Alexa. I've watched you work through three guys in this building's social circle. This one doesn't deserve the Alexa treatment."

"Everyone gets the Alexa treatment. It's a public service."

She shook her head and walked off, and I remember thinking, whatever, she doesn't know anything. I had it under control.

I did not have it under control. But that's for later in the story.

***

Friday, six o'clock, Clutch Climbing. It's this big warehouse space with colorful holds all over the walls and the smell of rubber and chalk. I met Nadia and Mark at the front desk area, and Bradley came in a few minutes after, hair damp from a shower, carrying two pairs of rental shoes.

"You already got me shoes?" I said.

"You said you didn't have any. I guessed your size."

"You guessed my size?"

"Bodies are sorta my job. I look at people all day."

Nadia made a face at me over his shoulder and I stuck my tongue out at her.

He was actually a good teacher. He showed me how to keep my arms straight, how to use my legs, how to fall on the mats without hurting myself. He spotted me without hovering. When I got halfway up a wall and froze, he didn't push.

"You can come down whenever," he said from the floor. "The wall's not going anywhere."

"Shut up, I've got this," I said, and I did have it, mostly, and when I topped out and looked down he was cheering like an idiot and something in my chest did a thing I wasn't planning on.

Afterward we all sat in the seating area by the lockers, drinking the gym's terrible vending machine sports drinks. Mark was telling some story about a patient who lied about flossing while holding a chunk of spinach in his molar, and Bradley was laughing, and I was watching him laugh, and Nadia caught my eye across the circle and raised an eyebrow at me like she could see the scoreboard already changing.

"So same time next week?" Bradley asked me, casual, looking at his drink.

"Are you asking me or the office?"

"Both," he said. "But mostly you. I feel like that's becoming our thing."

"It's been our thing for one day."

"Still counts."

I rolled my eyes at him, and I said yes, and that should've been my cue to start planning my exit, because the whole game was that, right? Get in, get the win, get out before anybody caught feelings. That was always my move. Six weeks, four if the money's smart.

Instead I spent the drive home thinking about how he'd guessed my shoe size.

I called my sister from the car.

"How's the new target?" she asked before I even said hello. Everyone knew about my little hobby.

"Fine. He climbs. He's easy to talk to. He guessed my shoe size."

"Alexa. You know that's not a normal detail to remember, right?"

"He's observant. It's a job skill."

"Uh huh. How long you giving this one?"

"Four weeks," I said. "Maybe five."

There was a pause on the line, and my sister laughed at me, and I hung up on her, and I still hadn't figured out yet that I wasn't running the game anymore.

The next Friday at Clutch, I decided to show off. That was my first mistake.

There was this route on the middle wall, a blue one, and I'd watched Bradley do it clean the week before. So when we showed up and he went to change his shoes, I grabbed mine and marched over to it like I owned it.

"That's a V3," he said, coming up behind me with his laces still loose. "You've been climbing two weeks."

"I'm a fast learner."

"You're kinda stubborn is what you are."

"Same thing." I chalked up like I'd seen him do it, slapped my hands together, and jumped for the first hold.

I actually got pretty far. Like two-thirds of the way, which for me was basically elite. Then my foot popped off a sloppy hold and my whole weight went onto one fingertip, and that fingertip said no thank you, and I was suddenly hanging by nothing.

"Okay, down, down, I'm coming down," I said, and my voice came out smaller than I wanted.

"You're fine. Left foot, there's a hold by your knee."

"I don't see it."

"Look down. No, your left. There!"

I looked and my brain refused to believe in it. My arms were shaking, that panicky shake you get when your forearms fill up with fire, and from me came the word, "Bradley."

"I've got you," he said, and he was under me, hands up at my waist. "Just let go. I'll lower you slow."

"What if you drop me?"

"I'm not gonna drop you."

"You better not drop me."

"Alexa. Let go."

And here's the part I keep coming back to. I let go. Me. I don't let go of anything. I let go because he said so, and he caught my hips and brought me down slow, his hands steady, and when my feet hit the mat he didn't step back right away. His hands stayed on my waist for a second longer than the job required. Maybe two seconds. My heart was doing something I'm not writing down.

"You good?" he asked.

"Peachy," I said. "My ego has a bruise."

"Your ego will live." He was grinning down at me, all that shaggy hair in his face