MY HEARTBEAT
****EPISODE 10****
Femi could not hide her anger all throughout the weekend. That Dr Arowolo, he had insulted her one too many times. What had she ever done to deserve his insults? Now, he wanted to turn her into his play thing on top of everything else.
She had been so mad, she had called Ronke to tell her everything and even told her aunt. Both of them were righteously furious on her behalf and her aunt even had plans to go to his house and set him straight. Femi was glad her Aunt did not know where he lived and she didn’t tell the woman where he worked too before she carried out her threat. Her aunt was fearsome when she felt her children could be hurt.
On Monday, her aunt had armed her with pepper spray and warned her that if the “oloriburuku” tried anything, she should use it on his eyes. Femi left it in school though because she didn’t think Doctor Arowolo for all his evilness was actually violent.
When she got there though, she experienced a strange pang of disappointment when she realised he wasn’t home. Her disappointment turned to dread when he didn’t come home during her lessons all throughout the week. Ose had called her to ask her why the good doctor was avoiding her and she hadn’t had an answer. His attitude now felt worse than what he had said to her last Saturday and she couldn’t help feeling low.
“Ki lo fe? What do you want?” Her aunt asked when she described how she was feeling at Dr Arowolo’s absence when she went there “He approached you, you said you don’t want him, now you’re sad he’s not at home waiting for you everyday! Ha, your own is plenty!”
“Mummy, I just don’t want him to feel like he has to avoid me in his own house, it makes me feel bad” she tried to explain although the truth was, she really couldn’t rationalise her own feelings. She didn’t understand at all why his absence had cast a pall on her classes with Amanda and even the little girl had seemed disenchanted.
“Mummy, I don’t even know again!” She admitted.
Her aunt shook her head at her, “Children of these days!”
Fiyin spent a lot of time in his office these days. 2 weeks had passed since the scene with Femi and he couldn’t help the sour taste the whole episode left in his mouth. He figured he deserved what he had gotten from her but underneath, where it really mattered, he was shattered.
He hadn’t really put a name to his feelings for her but now he realised he was in love with her and it hurt him deeply that she thought he was the kind of man who would play with her emotions. He wasn’t perfect, God knew, but he had never gone out of his way to hurt another human being before and for Femi, someone who really mattered to him to believe he could hurt her just for fun really cut him to the quick.
He hadn’t initially intended to avoid the house, he had only wanted to do it one day so she could feel comfortable again but when he was driving home the second day she was due to come, he had realised he couldn’t quite stand the thought of being in the same place with her and not having her. He decided if she was going to be in his house and not belong to him, it was better he didn’t see her there.
Unfortunately, while he made that decision to preserve his heart from more hurt, he found that missing her terribly was just as hurtful as not having her. Now, he was stuck because having avoided her for this long, he didn’t know how it would seem if he suddenly appeared at home again after all this time. But he missed her, a lot more than he had thought he could.
What if she decided she was more comfortable with him gone? What if she preferred it that way? He sighed, receiving no answer from the walls in his office.
His phone rang, disturbing him from his dismal thoughts.
“Sir, Dr Tiwa is here.” Ozioma said when he picked.
“Let her know I’m busy and unavailable.” He told Ozioma. He dropped the call, not feeling in the right frame of mind to handle Tiwa. She had been selected as part of a Team of Doctors to represent Lagos State and Nigeria at an International Medical conference and although it was very good for the hospital, he figured Tiwa could celebrate without crowing about her success.
He had gone for such Conferences when he was younger and they were widely educative as well as entertaining and you got to meet several new people in your line of work. However, since he had warned Tiwa about coming to his office unnecessarily, she used the excuse of preparing for the conference to disturb him often and see him as well.
He had to give her credit though, she had gone about it so subtly that he hadn’t even noticed at first. If it hadn’t been for his dismal hopelessness centred around Femi’s rebuff of his affections, he might never have noticed that Tiwa was trying very hard at insinuating herself into his life again. Fortunately, it hadn’t worked and she had in fact, made herself into a rather annoying pest.
He sighed again and looked at the time, 5:40pm. In a short while, Femi would have gone again and he would not see her today too. He closed his eyes and tilted his head backward suddenly feeling very tired.
Amanda stared at her teacher as she started packing up her books and prepared to leave. It was another week already and all her prayers for her teacher and her daddy to smile at each other like they used to before had been in vain.
“Aunty Femi” she whispered under her breath.
“Yes, dear?” Femi asked, surprised that the little girl was addressing her as Aunty, usually she addressed her as Miss.
“What is it?” She asked when she saw the small head bowed. She went to kneel beside her. “Sweetheart, what’s the problem?”
“I am sad.” She said quietly and raised shimmering eyes full of tears to look at Femi.
“Oh, why?” Femi’s eyes started watering too, she was quite distressed to see Amanda so sad.
“Daddy is very sad, he’s not talking or eating and he doesn’t throw me up anymore.”
“Why?” Femi asked, afraid of the answer and yet hopeful.
“I don’t know but I hear Aunty Ose telling mummy cook that it started the day he took you home, I wasn’t evedop, I just hear it. Aunty Femi, did you do anything to my daddy?”
“No, Amanda, I didn’t. I promise. I just……”
“Then why is daddy soo sad?” Amanda asked unhappily. “And he doesn’t come to our class again, why?”
“Amanda, how about I talk to your daddy? Ehn?”
“Okay!” she nodded her head.
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