Love on the ward

Did I tell you how much of an incurable romantic I am? I often build dreamy castles in my mind😊. Here’s a short fictional love story that played out in my mind

It was senior registrar (SR) ward round again. Josh had crossed all ‘t’s and dotted the ‘i’s. He had read about all the cases and ensured the patients were all sorted. He was the unusual fine boy; unaware of his looks and charm. He was also socially awkward bordering on timid. There was always attention from the female house officers and even final year medical students which he was blissfully oblivious to. They gave him the nickname, “fine boy, no game.” It was almost like he didn’t see the ladies. Until he resumed medicine posting and met his senior registrar, Dr. Phillips.

He had met all the other SRs first and they had reeled out the code of conduct in the unit. Easy peasy….did they know where he was coming from? Paediatrics with the ‘serious’ internal and external milieu where extra calls were flying around like manna from heaven. And he had survived it with praises from the head of unit when she signed his form. Medicine was going to be a walk in the park.

Dr. Phillips had been on leave and he didn’t know there was another SR he hadn’t met. He had entered the ward to do his evening round and had seen her seated at the table documenting. He didn’t know who she was then and because she didn’t have a name tag and she looked so petite, he had assumed she was an intern like him. He mumbled hello and went about his duties.

“Hey Dr, do you have some continuation sheet?” That was when he really heard and saw her. She had the most unusual eyes and he had almost asked if they were natural. It was an instant attraction on his part and till he left the ward, he couldn’t stop stealing glances at her. He had asked the nurses who she was. “Oh, that’s Dr. Phillips, she’s a SR in endo unit” and the response had shattered him. First, she was way above his league and she was in his unit. Best to banish such thoughts. But the thoughts germinated even more when he started working with her. She was the kindest person he had ever met. She cared about her colleagues and patients in a way that was different from anyone he had worked with. So, he did the next best thing….
He impressed her with his work ethics and ‘stuff moving’.  During her ward rounds, he always had the answer to her questions and the other interns looked on with a mixture of annoyance and admiration when they were exchanging stuff.

This ward round was not just his last in medicine; it was the last one as a house officer. The feelings he had were even more pronounced. He had glanced at her with  a longing look that even his friend had noticed.  “Guy, wetin dey worry you? You no dey respect yourself. Your mates dey there, na your SR you dey fantasize about. Na extra month you go use end this unit if you no dey careful.” He had imagined that pat on the arm she had given him when he answered the question right was because she also felt something. But when she did the same to another person, he realized it was just a figament of his imagination.

He signed all his forms in less than two weeks and he went to The Stone Cafe with a few friends to celebrate the end of ‘houseboy’ life.
There was a lady that looked strikingly familiar seated by herself in the left corner of the cafe. Almost like she wanted to be left alone. He took another glance and understood why his heart had been beating like that of someone with an arrhythmia. It always happened when she was around. He had downed his drink and told himself, “now or never.”

She looked at him in surprise with those eyes that seemed to drown him and before he lost his nerve, he had said his opening line quickly. “Hello Kaiso, my name is Joshua Adeyemi. I have always wanted to tell you that you have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. Mind if I buy you a drink and probably dinner afterwards?” Her expression remained unchanged and she looked at him without saying anything. Just when the ground was about to welcome him, she had responded, “I thought you’d never ask.”

She had asked him months later how he finally got the courage. “I realized that I would always be left wondering, and the worst that could happen would be to get a No. But I made sure I had signed all my forms sha.”

They were married two years later; he was 27 and she was 34. And they lived….happily ever after.

Finito.