It was Monday morning and Tiwa wasn’t having a very good day. She had woken up with a raging headache and a sore disposition, all from yesterday. She couldn’t understand it. Why was her mother always in support of Femi? Why did her mother treat her like her feelings didn’t matter? Why? Why did Femi even have to exist? She resented the hell out of her cousin.
When push came to shove though, it didn’t matter. She was 20 times the woman Femi would ever be. She was beautiful and Femi was not, she was a doctor saving lives and Femi was a teacher cleaning the butts of little children, she had her own apartment and car, while Femi was still living at home and jumping buses. She sighed at her own stupidity, wondering why she ever let the whole thing get to her, Femi wasn’t worth the though.
As she drove towards the hospital, she turned up her radio to beat FM so she could listen to a few songs and be cheered up, who cared about Femi anyway? On entering the hospital, she saw that Fiyin’s hummer was already there and she smiled to herself. Fiyinfoluwa Arowolo, her boss, her friend and soon, very soon, her husband and lover.
She remembered the first day she met him during her interview for her job 3 years ago, she had fallen instantly in love with his beautiful brown eyes, his voice that always seemed like chocolate, his big, beautiful surgeon hands, his intelligence, and when he stood up to shake her after the interview, she had gripped those hands, looked into his eyes and knew that she would never be whole again until he was completely hers.
Of course, things hadn’t worked out the way she had hoped. At that time, he was just 31 and had just lost his wife of 2 years to a fatal accident. He hadn’t been interested in a relationship with a woman and was too busy taking care of his 1 year old child. She had chafed at the time she needed to give him to grieve but realised she had to be patient with him or things were never going to work out between them.
Taking that into consideration, she had worked herself carefully and subtly into his life, using his daughter, his sister and his respect for her as a colleague. She was Aunty Tiwa to his daughter, his sister’s bestie and his father who was also a renowned surgeon and the founder of their hospital, really liked and respected her.
Recently, she knew she had gone from friend in his view to potential wife, she saw how he was beginning to look and appreciate her, she enjoyed how his eyes lighted up when he saw her and how he was always coming to talk to her over sundry and ridiculous things. She had heard from his best friend, another doctor in the hospital that he was always mentioning her name. The time was ripe,
Tiwa: Fiyin you’re mine, she thought as she stepped out of the car.
As she entered the doors of Saint Havers, she reported and signed in at the nurses’ station, made her way to her locker in the changing room, changed into her scrubs and planned how she would go see Fiyin as soon as possible. She was coming out of the locker room when she saw Seun, Fiyin’s sister, striding towards her.
Seun: “I’ve been looking for you,” she said excitedly, “I have gist oh”
Tiwa: “What happened?” Tiwa said with a little impatience, she was only friends with Seun because of Fiyin. The truth was the woman made her tired but she could not afford to close her off. She was forever having gist about irrelevant things and always had a story to tell that Tiwa didn’t want to hear. She feigned interest though, she couldn’t afford to loose Seun’s friendship at this point in the game.
Seun: “You know Tola na?” Seun asked and Tiwa nodded, even though she couldn’t care less about the 26 year old nurse who had also had her eyes on Fiyin last year. “Well, guess what?” Seun asked, the stars in her eyes winking dramatically.
Tiwa: “What happened?” Tiwa asked, trying not to bark at Seun. She couldn’t understand how a grown woman of 30, married with 2 children would take so much pleasure in talking about other people.
Seun: “Haha now, I thought we agreed you would guess,” Seun whined a bit but she saw the look in Tiwa’s eyes and decided to tell her anyway, “well, Tola, is pregnant”
Tiwa: “Really?” Tiwa asked, relieved, at least now nurse Tola will stop chasing Fiyin, not that Tola ever stood a chance anyway especially when they were put side to side. Although Tola was beautiful with good bone structure and bountiful breasts, she could turn heads and regularly did with her sexy scrubs, she fell short of the one quality Fiyin valued in women, intelligence.
Nonetheless, Tiwa had been worried about her because she had gone after Fiyin with boldness and assurance, another quality Fiyin liked in women. Then she realised she hadn’t heard who Tola was pregnant for. “Who is she pregnant for?” She asked Seun who was happy to see that her gist was well met.
Seun: “Don’t tell anybody,” Seun whispered quietly, “I think its Doctor Niyi, my sources say she was sleeping with him 2 months ago.”
Tiwa: “You and your sources!” Tiwa laughed, happy now that Seun dished necessary gist. She wondered how Seun would cope without hospital gossip to sustain her. Even though Seun was a gynaecologist and a very busy one, she still found time and energy to receive and dispense gossip.
Just then, Tola and another nurse passed beside them. The other nurse greeted both of them while Tola only greeted Seun and walked on. Tiwa shook her head and laughed, “Imagine, she still has the guts to raise her head up, whore!”
“Haha!” Seun exclaimed, “It was probably a mistake! Don’t say that, it can happen to anyone.” While she liked observing and talking about people, she wasn’t a critical or judgemental person, she couldn’t say the same for Tiwa though, who felt she was better than everybody else.
“Not anybody abeg, it can’t happen to me! Catch ya later.” She said and walked away from Seun.
“That girl…,” Seun said to no one, “…is too proud”. It didn’t say much of Seun that she was friends with her but she was one of those people that couldn’t stand not being friends with everyone. With Tiwa though, she had doubts, she had a strong feeling that by the time Tiwa got her brother, she wouldn’t have any use for Seun again. That’s life, I guess, she told herself as she entered the lift that would take her to the 3rd floor labour room.
==
After her rounds to check on her patients, she made her way to Fiyin’s office on the 4 th floor, she just had to see him. It had been a very long weekend as she had been on call Friday and Saturday but he hadn’t been around either day as he had a meeting in Abuja and had left on Wednesday. After the appalling way her parents had raked at her yesterday over Femi, all she needed was Fiyin’s smile and embrace.
She walked to the door that had Chief Medical Director written on it, strode in past his staring secretary, Ozioma, a complete village girl in her opinion and went directly to his door. She opened the door after hearing his deep throated “come in” to her knock.
Peeking her head in,
Tiwa: “Hi, Dr Arowolo, how do you do?” She asked and was instantly gratified when he smiled broadly at her.
Fiyin: “Tiwa!! Just the person I wanted to see…” he enthused, standing to his 6 feet 2 height and walking around his big desk to embrace her “…how are you?” He asked her.
“I’m fine, even better now that I’m seeing you.” He nodded in satisfaction at her answer. He had to agree she looked good, she was always beautiful, even without makeup.
“I missed you.” She said emotionally. He smiled at her, “I missed you too…” and turned back to his seat, “…sit down and tell me what you have been up to.”
“Nothing, I just wanted to see you.”
So they sat and talked for a while. He told her of his trip to Abuja, of seeing his father, who was currently the Nation’s minister for Health and of his daughter, Amanda’s progress in the new school she was in. She left only after her pager beeped that she was needed somewhere else.
Fiyin watched Tiwa leave and smiled to himself, he really, really liked her. She had all the qualities he liked in a woman, slim, sleek, intelligent, respectful, caring, bold and she was a real goal getter too. Just like his late wife had been.
When he had employed her 3 years ago, it was to balance out the overwhelming number of male doctors in the hospital. At the time, there were less than 4 female doctors on staff amongst about 47 male doctors. He, his father and sister, who had been the youngest female doctor at the time had felt it important to bring in fresh and young female doctors.
Truly, she had wowed him at the interviews, she had superb results, amazing grades and rave references but he figured he had met a lot of brilliant Doctors in his time so he wasn’t expecting much from her or any of the other 6 female doctors they had employed but she surprised him. Indeed, she did as she slowly but surely made herself one of the most important, hardworking and high achieving doctors in the hospital.
When she joined the hospital, he had being going through a tough time with the death of his wife and the responsibility of a young child that he hadn’t even had the time to think about women but 4 years had passed now since his wife had died in a ghastly motor accident and the thought of Helen was now a dull type of pain. As he had been told when she had first died, time only lessened the pain. And it had.
He had only started dating again in the last few months and it had not being as tiring a process as he thought it would be. He understood that he was a man and he did not want to spend the rest of his life alone. He wanted to have more children, he wanted Amanda to have a mother, he wanted to have a woman in his bed, his kitchen and to go back home to every day.
He was prepared for the step and while he had gone out with a few women, none of them seemed to fit his idea of an ideal woman as much as Tiwa, there was no other woman he respected as much, except his mother. When he travelled to Abuja, his father had advised him to snap her up, understandably, his father had always really liked her.
So, he figured it was time to take his relationship with Tiwa to the next level. Yes, it was, he nodded to himself.
Question: Do you think Tiwa will make a good wife to Fiyin?