Taylor stood by the chairs for several seconds before the realization truly registered with him. “I’ve got to get undressed for this? I’ve never had to do that for a physical before.” Taylor thought back to his adolescent physicals. They were cursory at best, his doctor listening to his heart and lungs and palpating his abdomen through his shirt. He never had to be exposed to a doctor more than his pediatrician quickly lifting up his shirt to inspect his chest and abdomen and having to unbutton his pants for a quick slip of his pediatrician’s hand into his underwear for a hernia test without him ever exposing anything. Thank God, because his mother was always in the room during his physicals as an adolescent, and that would be super embarrassing if he were to have to expose his junk. Not like other guys who talked about having to pull down their underwear or, worse, take them off in front of their parents during their sports physicals for school sports.

After a minute of reflection, Taylor snapped back to reality. He kicks off his white sneakers, places them under the chair, and bends over to slip off his socks, placing them in each shoe. He stands up and begins to unbutton his shirt, starting at the top and working his way down until he removes it and drops it on the chair. He stands there for a few seconds and takes a long sigh before fastening his belt, unbuttoning, and unzipping his jeans, sliding them down and stepping out of them, laying them on the chair on top of his shirt. He adjusts his boxer briefs before slowly returning to the exam table and sitting on the edge. He looks around the room and now realizes that Trisha left the door ajar. “Someone could walk by and see me sitting here in just my boxers,” Taylor thought to himself. “Oh well. There probably isn’t anyone coming back here. I’m at the end of the hall, and it’s not like anyone else was in the waiting room,” he encouraged himself. With that, Taylor continued to survey the room. There wasn’t much out of the ordinary for a doctor’s office, some tongue depressors in a jar on the counter and a couple of medical photos on the wall. He glances at the scale in the room. “I wonder why she didn’t weigh me. The nurses usually weighed me during my sports physicals before,” Taylor thought to himself. That thought disappeared as he continued to scan the room. He noticed one medical picture on the wall opposite of him, above the chairs. It described and demonstrated the prostate and the prostate exam process. He had heard of a prostate exam from his father and grandfather but never understood what it entailed. “That’s something for old guys,” Taylor affirmed to himself. “I’ve got years before I have that problem,” he thought. Caught up in the picture, Taylor barely recognized the light tap on the exam room door and the presence of a person in the doorway.