Jason would have kicked his own ass if he could reach it. You went to school for almost a billion years and all you could think to say was “Uh?” He looked at the last number he’d made on his cell phone and hit call. “Hi. Are you busy?”
“No. What’s up?”
Jason lowered his voice. “I think I botched things up with Ora.”
“Already? What happened?”
“Let’s meet after work. I have to consult in the OPD now. I’d like to see a few patients so they don’t go wild in the waiting room.”
“No problem. I have back-to-back cases in the theatre, but I’ll be finished by five or so.”
“That’s good. Let’s meet at Charters Restaurant at Circle.”
“See you later.”
“Later.”
His mind reeled from the meeting with Ora. If he’d had surgeries scheduled for today, he would have cancelled them in order to save lives. The reputation he’d striven so hard to build would be shattered if he botched up a surgery.
A sense of surreal disbelief consumed him and he groaned out loud. The encounter had been a disaster. He’d been dumbstruck with her beauty and the attraction between them had immobilized him almost as effectively as a stun gun would have.
While he’d been pining away for her in South Africa, he could have sworn he’d exaggerated her features, but he hadn’t. She could have been a model with her striking looks. Skin so smooth, it rivalled silk. Her hazel eyes were so unique to a black African, it had caused him to question her heritage.
He couldn’t return to the ED so he could sweep her up into his arms and carry her away. Not only because the act would drive her further way and get him arrested, but because the OPD had its usual madhouse of wall-to-wall sick people waiting to be treated.
When the first patient sat in front of him, he turned his attention to his work, but his heart remained in the ED.
***
Jason looked up as Dr. Adam Quarshie slid into the booth.
“Sorry I’m late. The second case turned out to be more intensive than I had anticipated. Nine-year-old with typhoid perforation and the abdominal cavity loaded with faeces. As usual, the parents waited way too long to get her into the hospital, preferring herbal treatments and the pray-and-see method instead. The bacteria created three holes in her intestines. As long as the nurses don’t kill her, I think she’ll survive.” He shook his head. “After years of practice, I still don’t understand why people wait so long to get their asses to the hospital. We have to be miracle workers and clean up the shit they create.” He paused. “You look miserable.” And then he chuckled.
Every once in a while, Jason had difficulty remembering why they were friends. He’d first met Adam years ago when they were children, during one of his visits to his father’s homeland, Ghana, but they’d gotten to know each other better when they did their surgical residency together in South Africa. They’d been tight ever since.
“It’s not funny.”
His comment provoked Adam to laugh a little harder. Jason’s scowl sobered him. “Sorry, man. You look like a lost little puppy.”
The waitress came to the booth and they put their orders in. Adam flirted with the woman, who responded to his charm.
After Adam’s extensive perusal of the waitress’s behind as she sashayed away from the table, he turned to his friend. “I wonder if my hand would bounce off if I smacked her ass. You look horrible, Chale,” he said, using the Ghanaian slang word for friend.
Jason snorted. “You’ve already established that. I’m glad I didn’t have to grow a pair of breasts for you to notice.”
Adam laughed. “You know how I love the ladies, man. Now, what happened between you and that woman?”
“You always call her ‘that woman.’ You know her name is Ora.”
“Yeah, but I also know she slammed you down hard and for that, she became a no name to me.”
“She’d been engaged at the time. I don’t blame her. Well, I wouldn’t blame her if she hadn’t said she loved me but still intended to marry the other guy instead.”
Adam pointed his index finger and shook it. “She was playing you, man.”
Jason shook his head. “I don’t think so. I may not be as well versed with them as you are, but women are my forte, too, and I know when I’m being played. She’d been genuine.”
“If you say so, but I still think you should be careful, unless you’re going to reel her in and then dump her.”
“That’s your style, not mine.”
“You’re right. I got confused for a second.” Adam chuckled before taking a drink of his beer. “What happened today?”
Jason explained the debacle of the encounter he’d had with Ora.
“I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.” Adam emphasised each word. “I told you not to surprise her like that. It must have freaked her out.” He shook his head with a know-it-all smile plastered his face.
“I thought it would work. Besides, she wouldn’t have talked to me if I called her on the phone. What do I do now?”
Adam leaned back in the booth. “Now you want my advice? From everything you told me, this woman is stubborn with a capital S. You’ve told me the story ad-nauseam, but I still don’t understand the whole situation. She dumps you and now you’re in Ghana chasing after her three years later. Chale, you should’ve moved on long ago.”
Jason sighed. “I tried. You wouldn’t believe how many women I attempted to move on with.” He smiled at Adam’s interested look, but kept going. “But Ora stayed on my mind and in my heart. I knew her for a few days, but the woman has infested herself into my system.”
“Yeah, just like the Ebola virus.”
“I can’t seem to shake her out. I need to find out if my imagination created what happened between us. I want a chance with her.”
“I still don’t understand, but what can a confirmed bachelor say? There aren’t enough mops in the world to clean up the messes love creates. Better to leave that shit alone.”
“That’s mature, Adam. I can’t wait until you get knocked upside the head by love. It happens to everyone at one point or another and it tends to be unexpected. I used to be just like you until I met Ora, and now I’m stuck on her. What am I going to do?”
“I’ve had my vaccine against falling in love.” Adam rubbed his shoulder muscle and laughed. “Relationships aren’t my thing, but I do know a whole lot about women. Why am even helping you? You were so depressed when she left you.” He shook his head. “My overwhelming concern made me take a trip down to see you.”
Jason smiled. “South Africa hosted Miss World that year and you wanted to get a front row seat to the competition.”
“A ruse to come check up on you.”
“If you say so.”
Adam’s upper lip curled. “Never did get a thanks for that. A guy gets dumped and he becomes an ungrateful bastard.”
“Sorry. Thanks for coming down and dragging me to the Miss World competition against my will. Thanks for taking me from party to party and introducing me to women I had no interest in talking to, much less wanted to date. Thank you for—”
“No problem, man. That’s what friends are for.”
Adam’s loud chuckle made Jason laugh with him.
“What do I do now, Dr. Knows Women?”
“There’s no need for the sarcasm. You have to give her time to think. She never thought she’d see you again and here you are at her doorstep saying, ‘Surprise.’”
He had no desire to give the woman of his heart any more time. Hugs, kisses, and long conversations, yes. But not more time. He conceded to Adam’s legitimate advice. “How much?”
“A couple of days. Don’t meet her at work, though. Get her alone in her own space. She’ll feel more comfortable and not so on the spot. Since you do the surprising thing so well, let it work for you this time. Show up at her house and tell her the truth.” Adam shook his head. “I can’t believe you have me consulting like I’m some damn Oprah Winfrey or something. Jeez, man.”
Jason laughed. The food arrived and they turned the conversation to the football game playing on the screen.
***
Ora’s door burst open and in the next instance, her cousin, best friend, and housemate, Esi flew onto her bed like Superman minus the cape.
Ora shook her head. Why did she ever expect her cousin to change? “How come you never do that on your bed?”
“I don’t want to break it.” Esi laughed. “Besides, yours has springs and I feel like it’s going to toss me back into the air when I land on it. How was your day?”
Ora shrugged and shifted her position in her armchair. “Fine. And yours?”
“A little hectic, but fantastic. I delivered twins. The miracle of life always fascinates me. They were beautiful and the mother is doing well. I’m the best midwife in the whole wide world.” She held her arms out wide. “No, the universe.”
Ora rolled her eyes. “It’s your humility that never ceases to amaze me.”
“Well, when you’re good, you’re good. Why hide the truth?” She picked up the book lying on Ora’s bed and cringed. “Why you read these romance novels. They’re a bunch of crap.”
Ora arched an eyebrow. “I can’t get over how the most romantic person in the world—no, the universe—can have such disdain for romance books. They always end up with the couple getting together and living happily ever after.”
“We’ve had this conversation a million times and you can’t convince me. Give me a good crime novel over this sappy garbage any day and I’m a happy girl.”
Ora chewed on the inside of her cheek trying to delay the inevitable. The information burst out like a geyser. “I ran into Jason Lartey today.”
Esi’s eyes widened and she sprang to a sitting position, making the book fly across the bed. “The Jason Lartey. The one from South Africa? That one? The doctor? You mean that one, right? Or is there another one? Jason Lartey, right? I didn’t mishear you, did I?”
“Is a slap needed to get you back to normal?” Ora’s eyes narrowed. Her cousin’s dramatic way had increased by spades.
Esi’s eyes remained wide. “I’m shocked.”
Ora placed her hands over her face. “My chest became so tight I thought I may have been suffering a heart attack when I saw him standing in the ED doing ward rounds.”
Esi squinted at her as if she had x-ray vision. “Let me wrap my head around this. You saw the love of your life after three years and you wait until now to tell me? I’m hurt. If it had been me, I would have run right to you and told you.”
She laughed. “Esi, the whole hospital would have known by the time you got to me. I needed time to process.”
“I know how you are Little Miss Keep Everything Quiet. Did he tell you what he’s doing in Ghana?”
“Looks like he’s working. He mentioned when we met in Cape Town that his father is from here, but he’d spent most of his life in South Africa where his mother is from.”
“How do you feel?”
She shrugged. “Like I’ve been hit in the stomach by Mike Tyson.”
Esi nodded in understanding. “Tell me everything that happened. What did he say? What did you say? How did he look?”
She told the story, unable to completely express the combination of overwhelming joy and overpowering sadness that ran through her when she first saw him.
They sat in silence for a short while before Esi touched her on the shoulder. “You know you have to face him sooner or later.”
“I know, but I’m going to try to make it later.”
“Does this mean you’re not going into work tomorrow? You know that if you don’t go to work, I can’t go in, either,” she piped in.
“Your logic, or rather lack of it, astounds me. What would me not going into work have anything to do with you? Of course I’ll go. I just won’t give him the opportunity to say the dreaded words if I see him.”
“What dreaded words? ‘There’s no more chocolate left?’”
The comment made her laugh. “No silly. ‘We need to talk.’”
“Those dreaded words. Maybe you should go on the offensive and say it first. Get it out of the way.”
“I’ll take my chances by being a chicken.”
“Don’t let your fear of commitment drive away another good man,” Esi mumbled.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“What did you mean by my fear of commitment? I don’t have a fear of commitment. I’ve been in committed relationships lots of times.”
Ora cringed inside when she thought about the reason she’d wanted to continue with marrying her ex-fiancé instead of trying to make it work with the man she had loved from the core of her being. She’d wanted to prove to herself that she could be committed.
“Did any of them last?”
“Well, no. But I don’t have a fear of commitment.” Just a paralyzing fear of men leaving me. Like Jason would have done sooner or later.
Esi frowned. “If you say so, cuz.”
Ora couldn’t blame her for not believing her; she didn’t believe it herself. “I say so.”