Chidinma parked her Toyota Corolla in the clinic parking lot and hurried into the building. It was still early, barely past six a.m. on a chilly February morning, and she was hoping she would not run into Onyeka Michael. He was the last person she wanted to see.
Fate, of course, decided not to co-operate. When she stepped into the reception lounge of the clinic, she met two early arrivals. The nurse who had been on night duty and Onyeka, leaning against the counter as he chatted with her. They seemed to be enjoying each other’s company and Chidinma shook her head; the nurse was a new employee, barely two weeks new to the clinic and Onyeka was already chummy with her.
Is there anyone who won’t fall for his charm? Chidinma thought crossly.
She cursed beneath her breath as he turned and saw her as the nurse greeted her, his handsome face lighting up. Despite her wish not to see him, her heart leaped at the brilliance of his smile.
“Hey there! Good morning, Doc! How was…”
Chidinma breezed past, cutting Onyeka’s cheery greeting short with a curt, “Good morning, Mr Michael. Good morning, Nurse Helen..”
The doctor could feel the young man’s surprised gaze boring into her back , but she soldiered on, her low heels tapping crisply on the terrazzo floor of the corridor that led to her office. She knew Onyeka would be coming to her office soon; she only hoped she would have prepared herself mentally for his arrival.
The encounter at the lingerie store with her ex-husband had put Chidinma in a strange state of mind.
On one hand, she was just annoyed that he had come into the country and neglected to let Nonso know. If her son got upset, she would have to bear the brunt of his transferred aggression; the teenage boy was already a handful to manage, the extra work wasn’t welcome. She was also faintly disgusted at the age of the girl who had been on Ben’s arm. Her husband had always had a thing for young girls and while they were married, she had begun to suspect he cheated on her frequently because she was aging. She had met him when she was very young- only seventeen- and not long after, she was pregnant and married to him.
A combination of good genes and a healthy lifestyle had kept her looking like a teenager for years after her son was born, but once she reached the full bloom of womanhood, her husband’s sexual interest in her began to wane. With hindsight strengthened by her knowledge of psychiatry, she was now fairly sure her ex-husband was borderline paedophilic. He preferred very young girls, and she had left him after he had been accosted by the father of a wild fifteen year-old girl who lived down their street. That had been the last straw. Seeing him at the lingerie store with another young girl had brought all her buried resentment to the surface. Before the divorce, Ben had regularly dropped snide comments about how she was an ‘old woman’ and soon to be ‘expired’. Even after she left him, the comments stayed with her, affecting her self-esteem.
And now, there was her attraction to Onyeka Michael to take into account.
She knew she was attracted to the young man- it would be foolish for her to keep denying it when she was buying lacy lingerie and daydreaming about his soft lips- but she also knew she was finding it hard to even consider anything but a professional relationship between them mainly because of her past. Her age was a sore point for her, and Ben had scarred her with the idea that she was old. Being with a younger man terrified her; in his eyes, she would be old to him every day, and this time if she got involved with him and he called her ‘old’, it would be true.
She did not think that she could take that risk. She had naively married Ben out of necessity, when she got pregnant, and the only man she had dated after her divorce had been a reserved and gentle man, but slightly boring. They were still friends, but their brief relationship had reinforced her belief that love and fiery passion was a myth only found in romance novels; everything else was friendly gist and fairly satisfactory sex.
A muted knock on her office door brought her back to earth. She braced herself, knowing who was behind the door, then answered. “Come in, please.”
The door creaked ajar and Onyeka stuck his head around it, smiling. “Good morning again, Doc. Missed me?”
Chidinma sighed, biting her lower lip to prevent herself from smiling. Just how was she supposed to keep a stiff upper lip when Onyeka was so friendly and charming?
“Not as much as the new nurse, I see.” She responded.
Onyeka grinned and entered the office. “Well, well, well, that sounds like jealousy to me.”
“Nonsense.” Chidinma responded immediately, but she was smiling, unable to hold on to a frown.
“But it’s not what you think. She’s new here and feeling a bit unliked. I just wanted to make her comfortable until the other nurses get close to her.”
Chidinma’s heart melted at his thoughtfulness. Keeping Onyeka at arm’s length would be mission impossible, and a part of her already knew she would fail. It was a part of her that she hardly ever let out- that part that believed in women getting whatever they wanted and in falling in love against all odds- but it was rebelling. Deep down inside her, she already knew she had fallen for Onyeka Michael.
Now, what was she going to do about it?
To be Continue
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