Lamesha held her jaw in the palm of her hand, trying to mentally convince herself that her tooth didn't hurt that bad. But the truth of the matter was that it really did hurt.
She shook her head as the throbbing ache seemed to vibrate through her entire body. She knew she had let the toothache get out of control, but she hated going to the dentist — always had.
She drew in a quick breath as a sharp ache pierced her jaw. The last time her body had hurt this bad had been the night that she’d almost lost her life — the night of her fateful car accident.
She shook her head as the memory of that day washed over her. Her car had been totaled, but she'd miraculously survived. That wouldn’t have been the case if she hadn't been dragged out of the mangled wreckage by an unknown Good Samaritan. Witnesses at the scene had watched the man risk his life to save hers, and then just jump into his car and disappear into the night. Nobody to that day knew his identity — only that he was a tall, dark-skinned brotha. Lamesha knew that she owed the stranger a world of gratitude and thanks.
Then her mind landed on her ex, Calvin. She frowned. She'd lost him that night as well, but for different reasons. Lamesha winced in pain from her tooth and from the memory of what type of person she’d been when she’d been with him — she was glad that Calvin was out of her life.
The elderly receptionist at the front desk of Walker Emergency Dental Clinic looked at the beautiful brown-skinned girl with genuine compassion in her soft brown eyes. “Lord have mercy, baby...you look like you hurting something terrible.” She shook her head. “The nurse will be here any minute to take you in the back.” She handed Lamesha a cold compress. “In the meantime, maybe this here will do a little something to ease some of that pain.”
Lamesha gratefully took the cool gel-pack that the woman had handed her. She placed it on the side of her face. She was praying that it did something to help, too.
An hour and a half later, Lamesha smiled drowsily up at Dr. Donovan Walker. He'd given her an emergency root canal and taken away every last bit of her ache. When she'd first sat in his dental chair, she'd been hurting too much to really pay any attention to Dr. Walker's appearance. Now — despite still being a little on the high side from the anesthetic he’d given her — she was blown away. His eyes were a penetrating dark-dark brown — almost black — that glittered like ebony diamonds. And he had the longest eyelashes that she'd ever seen on a man. No, they weren’t feminine looking, the best word she knew to describe them was ‘sexy’. Yeah, sexy...that’s it.
Then she tried to push all her thoughts about his sexiness out of her mind, and with a quickness. Ever since dedicating her life to Christ after her accident, she’d been living her life on the straight and narrow. There hadn’t been anymore sleeping around, lusting, and fornicating for her. Yeah she’d had her fair share of boyfriends over the past five years, but she wasn’t putting out like she used to, so the relationships never ended up going too far.
Dr. Walker grinned down at his patient, revealing a set of perfect white teeth. “Um, Ms. Beeson, I'm gonna have to let you stay in here in the chair for another thirty minutes. Give you some time for the anesthetic to wear off.”
Lamesha was sure that she was drunkenly smiling at him like a fool, but the meds were suddenly making it so that she was having a hard time controlling herself. “Okay, Dr. McCutie,” she slurred, still smiling. “Or should I say Dr. McSexxxy...” she drew out the word, then licked her lips. Then she let out a light, throaty giggle.
Dr. Walker smiled right back at the pretty girl. He knew it was the medication making her behave the way she was. He was pretty much sure that if she’d been in her right mind, she never would’ve flirted with him like she just had. And how did he know that? It had been something in the way she’d carried herself when she’d first come into his office that had clued him in. I’m pretty much sure Lamesha Beeson is saved, sanctified, and delivered, he thought to himself. And better than that, I kinda suspect she takes her relationship with God seriously — about like I do.
When she batted her pretty eyelashes at him, smiled sweetly, and then proceeded to fall asleep, he almost chuckled under his breath. Then he grinned. Hm, Dr. McCuite...that’s the first time I’ve ever been called that. He knew he should’ve called his nurse in to look after her and moved on to the next patient, but there was something about Lamesha Beeson that intrigued him. He finally turned his back on her and busied himself rearranging his surgical tools on the medical tray. He was sure that he'd met her before, he just couldn't figure out where. He definitely wouldn't forget a face as beautiful as hers.
Several minutes later, he snapped off his surgical gloves and threw them in the hazmat receptacle. He turned back around to check on his patient. He'd hated giving her an unusually high dosage of the anesthetic, but he'd really had no choice. Her body hadn't responded sufficiently to the normal dosage.
He looked down at her beautiful face and smiled again. She’s the real McCutie, he thought to himself. Right from her curly afro hair, down to her dainty feet. Her dark eyes were large and expressive, even though they were hooded due to the meds. Her button nose was adorable, her lips full and luscious.
Dr. Walker drew his eyebrows together. This was the first time that a patient had ever had such an effect on him. He didn’t understand why Lamesha was causing him to react the way he was, but he decided not to fight it and just go with the flow.
“Dr. Walker, I have Mrs. Parker in room number eight and she’s prepped. I can finish up in here if you'd like, Sir.”
Donovan's thoughts were interrupted by his assistant, Janice...who’d just opened the door and stepped into the room. He slowly nodded his head. “Thank you, Janice...I'll be on my way then. Remember, make sure that Ms. Beeson has a ride picking her up. She’s still gonna be too out of it a half-hour from now to drive herself home. Probably a couple of hours.”
“Of course, sir.”
<<<<<>>>>>
Later that evening, as he sat alone in his practice finishing his paperwork for the day, Donovan's hand landed on the patient intake card for Lamesha Beeson. He'd been debating all afternoon on whether or not he should do a quick checkup call to make sure she was okay.
As a common courtesy, his office always followed up with patients, but it would normally be either one of his assistants or his receptionist who made the call. He rarely followed up with patients personally. But in Lamesha's case, something inside of him was telling him to make an exception.
All things considered, her procedure had been pretty simple and straightforward — unlike some of the more complicated dental surgeries that he'd had to perform. Therefore, there was really no reason for him to personally call her, one of his assistants could easily handle it.
When there was a soft knock on his door, he looked up and said, “Come in.”
Mya smiled at her boss. “I’m about to do the follow-up calls for today, but I can’t seem to find Lamesha Beeson’s card. You haven’t happened to have seen it have you?”
Donovan held the card up in his hand. “I got it right here, Mya.”
Mya smiled. “She’s pretty, Donovan. And she’s a sweetheart, too.” Then she laughed. “Since you got her card, maybe you should be the one doing the follow-up call on her.” She winked her eye. “And while you at it, ask her out on a date. I know it’s been ages since you took a girl out. Your butt ain’t getting any younger. Keep messing around, you gonna wake up one day and be old and alone.”
Donovan normally didn’t let his employees be all up into his personal life. But he’d made an exception for Mya. After all, she was also his cousin.
Mya kept on talking. “You do know that being saved doesn’t have to equal being lonely. You need to learn to get out there and date a little. I’m gonna leave Lamesha’s card with you. You know what to do, Cuz.” Then she winked her eye and walked out, leaving him alone again.
He shook his head. “I’m gonna call and check up on Lamesha Beeson,” he said under his breath. “Not because I’m thirsty and trying to get the hookup, but because it’s the right thing to do. I’m just following protocol.”
He picked up the phone and dialed her cell number. It rang several times, but no one answered — his call didn't even go to voicemail. He was about to hang up when a low voice whispered into the phone, “Hello.”
Donovan smiled. “Yes, good evening, this is Dr. Walker, I'm trying to reach Lamesha Beeson.”
Lamesha closed her eyes, glad that the doctor had called. She'd taken Tylenol for her pain, just like he'd told her to do, but her jaw was still hurting her. She quickly explained to the doctor her problem.
Donovan nodded his head and frowned. He had given her a heavy dosage of an antibiotic as well, he wondered if the medication had been effective.
<<<<<>>>>>
Donovan maneuvered his vehicle in the heavy Atlanta traffic. As he changed lanes he thought to himself, I'm doing something else I've never done before — making a house call.
He brought his car to a stop outside of her house and exited the vehicle with his medicine bag in hand. He rang her doorbell. She must have been waiting for me, he quickly thought to himself because she’d pulled the door open before the buzzer had completely finished reverberating.
Lamesha's deep brown eyes lit up in gratitude when Donovan closed the door behind himself.
He gave her a friendly little smile that was full of compassion. Then he frowned. “Sorry you're in pain. I'd like to take a look at you, but first I'd like to wash my hands.”
Lamesha placed her hand to her jaw and nodded. She would have smiled, but honestly it hurt too much to do that. “Right this way,” she mumbled as best she could. She led him towards her kitchen. He went to the sink and scrubbed up, she took a seat on one of the barstools at her kitchen island.
Donovan made quick work of examining her tooth and gumline. He was happy that he didn’t find any real problems there. He decided that the cause of her pain was nerves in her other teeth reacting to the shock of the root canal procedure. He’d had the same thing happen to him when he’d gotten one of his teeth worked on, so he was sure that it was plenty painful.
“It doesn’t look like there’s an infection...so that's a good sign.” He gave her another sympathetic smile.
Even though she was hurting, Lamesha was surprised that her heart did a funny little pitter-patter from him smiling at her.
“Got any drinking water?” he asked.
Lamesha nodded her head and pointed to a cabinet.
Donovan walked over and pulled out a bottle, then he reached into his bag. “I'm gonna give you something a lot stronger than Tylenol. It should relieve your pain.”
Lamesha didn’t ask any questions. She didn’t care what he was giving her. Just as long as it was gonna take care of her problem, she was all good. She swallowed the pill with a quickness and chased it down with the water.
Donovan nodded his head. “You should be feeling better within a half-hour. I can stay here to make sure it works—,” he paused, “—that is, if you'd like me to.”
“Sure, that’ll be fine by me,” she mumbled. “The sofa and chairs in my family room are a lot more comfortable than these in the kitchen. And I have TV in there.”
Donovan followed her back towards the front of her home, noticing her tasteful décor as they walked along. He liked her urban-chic sense of style. He wouldn't mind her decorating his home out in the ‘burbs. It was too sterile and white, even for his simple taste.
Lamesha handed him the remote to the TV. Then she put an apologetic look on her face. “I’m kinda thinking that I'm not gonna be good company, doctor,” she mumbled. “Sorry.”
He knew she was still hurting. He nodded his head, acknowledging what she’d said. “I completely understand. It's okay.”
They both took seats on her large overstuffed sofa. Lamesha snuggled into the couch's corner and closed her eyes. She was suddenly feeling super drowsy. Donovan sat on the other end and clicked the TV on. He tuned in to a late-season college basketball game and pushed back on the plush pillows, his hands laced behind his head. He closed his eyes and sighed. He turned the volume on the television down low. His sixty-hour work week was finally catching up with him.
I'll just sit here like this for a little while, he told himself. Before he knew it, he had dozed off.
<<<<<>>>>>
Lamesha slit her eyes just a tiny bit in the darkened room, wondering what was going on. She knew she was on her sofa — she could tell that — but the solid band of brown muscle draped protectively around her midsection was completely foreign to her. She could hear a gentle snore against her ear.
What worried her the most was that she didn't feel frightened, even though she wasn't sure who was there with her or why. She felt safe, protected. She knew that nothing had gone on between them because they both were fully clothed.
She squinted her eyes, deep in thought, not wanting to move out of her cocoon of protection. Her mind finally recalled the events of the evening and she realized beyond a shadow of a doubt that the man who was holding her was Dr. Walker.
Donovan didn't open his eyes when he felt the warm, voluptuous body next to his own begin to move. He tightened his arms protectively around her. He knew he was dreaming, he was sure of it — what other explanation could there be for Lamesha's soft womanly form being pressed against his? And she felt like heaven in his arms, too. He grinned in his sleep enjoying the moment.
Lamesha pulled in a sharp breath when Dr. Walker's hand dropped down a little lower and ended up somewhere that it absolutely didn’t need to be. At that point she pulled away from the man causing his eyes to finally fly open.
He looked at her in confusion for a few seconds. Then he realized what was going on. He took in a deep breath before whispering in a guilty voice, “I'm so sorry, Lamesha...I mean, Ms. Beeson. I fell asleep and didn’t realize what I was doing.”
Even though several possible responses were flying through her head, she didn’t know quite what to say in response. By instinct, she knew the man was telling her the truth and that he wasn’t trying to push up on her or take advantage of her. She knew he’d simply fallen asleep sitting beside her on the sofa. But none of that explained her ending up in his arms.
Finally, she decided to just let it be what is was and take his words at face value. The situation was awkward, but she gave him a tiny smile and said, “No apology necessary. I hear doctors and dentists work long hours, I guess you were tired. Plus you came all the way over here and got me out of pain, so I guess we can say me letting you use my sofa for a little while was payback.”
He appreciated her for not thinking he was some type of pervert and for her handling the situation the way she was handling it.
There was an awkward silence between them for a few seconds. Then Donovan cleared his voice and stood up from the sofa. “I guess I’d better head on out of here.”
He reached into his pocket and handed her a business card. “Call me...I mean call my office if you have anymore problems with that tooth. Okay?”
She took the card from him. The minute their fingers touched, she felt shivers — not the bad kind, but the good ones. The ‘I’m-attracted-to-you’ type. Lord, she thought to herself. What type of magic this man got? Got me over here almost fiending over him.
“Uh, thank you, Dr. Walker,” she finally said. “I’ll be sure to call if I have any problems.”