He chuckled. “Never. I’m just checking on behalf of a patient I came in with. She’s had a nasty fall and is in pain.”
Audrey looked over his shoulder. “That’s a pretty dress.”
Solomon shook his head. “Priorities.”
She leaned forward, almost bumping into his shoulder. “I heard there was a little bit of a commotion in here. Of course, besides the usual. I saw the tail end of a bride and groom, our Hope Springs celebrities. Was she a part of the wedding?”
Solomon remembered the story one nurse had told him about a cesarean section last January. While the mother was being cut open, the medical crew shared updates about the Alabama football score.
“Hey, Audrey, can you focus on the patient who is here?” he said playfully.
She fanned herself. “It’s hard to focus when fine is in the room, honey.” She winked at him. “But he’s not as handsome as you, of course.”
She grinned, her hazel eyes sparkling behind her thick glasses. “Don’t worry, your girlfriend is about to be called up, and lucky for her, Dr. Grant is on rotation.”
Solomon cleared his throat. “Great to hear ... about Dr. Grant. He’s always good at treating these types of injuries. But she’s not my girlfriend.”
Audrey peered at him. “Hmm, okay, whatever you say. You don’t have to pretend you don’t care.” She sashayed from around the desk. “Especially since the reason you came my way was to check on her progression.”
“Sounds like my cue to leave.” He scanned the counter, but there was nothing here for him to review. Most of his visits to thehospital outside of his morning shifts were for patient referrals before or after surgeries.
Audrey walked with him toward the waiting room. “We sure miss your presence around here. You got a busy weekend ahead of you?”
He shoved his hands into his pockets, willing himself not to look in Kenya’s direction. “Since I shifted my schedule to attend this wedding, I need to get some studying done.”
“Oh, that’s right, you have the big exam coming up in a couple months, right? Have you even registered yet?”
Solomon tipped his head. “You always remember everybody’s stuff.” He paused right before the main part of the waiting room. “And yes, I’ll get to that. For now, I’ve got dinner with my mom and dad and siblings.”
Audrey crossed her arms over pink scrubs. “I bet you’re a mama’s boy. The way you said her name first, with the rest as afterthoughts.”
He chuckled. “Mama’s boy?”
“Don’t laugh like that. I see your denial. I married one, so I have firsthand experience.”
“I’ll let you think what you want.”
Audrey’s playful tone didn’t help diminish the tightening in his chest. He was excited about seeing his family, but the arrival of his parents filled him with dread. They would expect answers from him that he didn’t have and for the timeline they had set in place to start coming to a close. What they wanted for him would be exciting to most, but in all the plans they’d carefully laid out, they hadn’t factored in him falling in love with this place. He enjoyed helping his patients, and now that he was in an outpatient clinic, he was able to build regular connections based not on his name but on his skill.
Once upon a time, he’d been excited to walk in his father’s footsteps. Unbeknownst to his parents, the path they had set him on hadn’t made him a better protégé, instead it shifted hisattention to the most unlikely of places. But they wouldn’t allow him to veer off the path for too much longer.
These were not thoughts he would vocalize anytime soon to anyone, much less his parents or siblings.
He’d watched his parents’ faces melt in disapproval when his sister Nneka started her post-grad career in social work instead of accounting. But that hadn’t deterred her ability to work for their company on the side or to snag financially stable boyfriends. At least that helped buffer what her parents had seen as a foolish choice. And when his younger brother Simon initially wanted to pursue entrepreneurship, he might as well have bought a tombstone for his parents while he was at it. So, to appease them and pick up his older brother’s slack, Simon took a detour and grudgingly made his passion a side dish instead of the main course. Because, in their minds, what self-respecting child of Nigerian immigrants would even conjure up such a thing? Content creation? Was that another way to saypoverty cultivation?
Solomon willed away the melancholy creeping in. There was enough heaviness in the emergency room, no need to add his own. He lifted his hand in departure from Audrey, who was already processing a patient discharge. He glanced at the princess in the wheelchair, a twinge shifting that heavy weight just a little.
Solomon’s watch lit up. A text with four urgent words.DUDE,WHERE AREYOU?He should probably call his friend since the message had come in all capital letters. That was just about equivalent to yelling, in his book.
He backed away with reluctance. Kenya waved her fingers at him, her features pinched. He hated not being able to ease her discomfort. Or maybe the fact that he was probably partly the cause for it.
4
IHOPE YOUdon’t have any overly active plans for the next few weeks.” A kind-faced doctor stepped farther into the exam room, tapping a sheet on the clipboard he held, full of all the details of Kenya’s unfortunate state.
Because, unfortunately, yes, she did have plans. Some very active, need-to-have-feet-for-walking types of plans. She released a soft whimper, envisioning the upcoming 5K fundraiser race she was partially in charge of planning, as well as the rest of her event schedule, flying away like unbound paper caught in the wind.
“Let’s hear the man out first.” Her mama, ever the professional. She wore her no-nonsense, principal face. Mercy to the student caught on the wrong side of the rules and ending up face-to-face with Mrs. Justine Stewart. Too bad she was the one caught on the other end of her mother’s scrutiny.
