A First Encounter: Part Seven

“Say something please. Have we messed up? Tell me there’s something I could do to make it better. Anything. Anything at all,” he said, wringing his hands together. Finally, my mouth and brain seemed to realise that they weren’t working. Forming the right words was going to be a challenge in itself. Careful not to utter any platitudes, I said, “I’m sorry, what did you just say?” Shay burst into uncontrollable laughter. He chuckled uncomfortably; trying to regain control of the situation at hand. The hilarity of the moment was painfully fleeting.

 “Got anything else to say please? Please say something else. Literally anything. Have we royally effed up, excuse my French?” He stared at me with a lost, little boy look across his perfect features. His hair was messier than usual as he wrung his hands in frustration. We had completely forgotten about the cupcakes in the oven. The ding of the timer brought everything into sharp focus; jostling me and awakening me from the haze of it all.

“I don’t know what you want me to say hun. I’m speechless right now. Nothing’s in my head.” My head felt absolutely muddled and befuddled. He walked over towards me with all the determination of an Olympic long jumper. Before I knew what happened, he had knelt down, took my face in the palm of his hands and snogged me again. Putting my palms on the nape of his neck, twirling my fingers in his hair, deepening the kiss with as much gusto I could muster. The emotions, the feelings, thoughts- I could not stress the level of levity and elation my inner vixen was in. I could not fancy him any more. He had my heart; wholly and completely. Yes, we had royally effed up in the effingest way possible. There was no turning back the hands of time. We knew there was no going back. The boundaries and lines were blurry. I was his and he was mine.

Kaya’s face entered the forefront of my thoughts. It was my turn to jump back. “Kaya, shit oh shit. Kaya! Dude! What are we doing? Shit, shit, shit.” The expletives flowed freely from my mouth. I was basically the other woman and I was angry at myself for putting me knowingly into that position. “I need to get out of here now”. Not even waiting for a small acknowledgement from Shay, I whizzed out of the room hastily. Goodbye was not an option in this case for I feared the worst. The worst being getting sucked into another amorous embrace. The electric wheelchair could not move fast enough. The smell of chlorine, again, wafted in the air. Ayomide was just getting out of the hydrotherapy pool with the only other Nigerian patient in the hospital.

“E..J! E.J!” She called out my name several times. Ignoring her completely, I headed for the elevator, eager to get back to my room – my sanctuary. For there would be safety from the elements. Not being able to suss out where everything went wrong and what one could do to rectify the predicament we had landed headfirst in with no net.  Plus, I knew my mother would help me out with a rational thought process. She would know what to do.

Breezing past the nurses’ station, I burst into my room. My mother was seated on the couch watching the Ellen DeGeneres show. The episode was the one that audience members had to sniff cologne sprayed on the abs of Usher Raymond and Adam Levine.

“Mama, mama. I need your help right now.”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“We kissed, Mama.” She immediately squealed with excitement.. ”Oh my gosh. Really? Wow! I mean, wow! Woah! “Seriously!” she said.

“Is that all you’re going to say. Wow? I’m freaking out over here,” I said, with disbelief and incredulity.

“So, what does this mean? What’s going to happen now?” she said, giggling like a schoolgirl.

“How the heck should I know? I’m just about coming to terms that his lips touched mine. I can’t think. I’m totally confused right now.  Maybe lying down would do the trick and help to sort out my feelings”

A quick transfer later, flat on my back and staring at the ceiling. My mum let me be because she got the feeling that I needed some quiet time.  A puzzling, swirling mix of sentiments beleaguered my thought process. What in the heck just happened and what could be done about it. The kiss, however, was worthy of Mills & Boons. Excitement and dread were siblings in the same household. Luckily, it was time for hydrotherapy; a welcome distraction from the hullabaloo and palaver. Future E.J. can take care of the snogging dilemma.

Ayomide walked in with canary yellow and emerald green resistance bands. She smiled, and set them down on the table. “You ready sweetie?”

“Sure.” Getting out of bed was easy enough.

“I just have to drop this at the gym then I’ll meet you shortly at the pool,” she said. My mother passed me my baby blue Kamokini tankini. Heading towards the basement as slowly as possible to avoid bumping into Shay because I had no idea how I felt about everything yet. But it seems Fate had another thing in mind, Shay happened to be at the nurses’ station, scribbling in the treatment file. He glanced up and our eyes locked. He turned crimson and quickly averted my gaze. Putting the electric chair into the fastest gear, I rolled past totally ignoring him. Parked in front of the lift doors, willing the elevator to move faster, pressing the down button in rapid succession. Hurry up, hurry up, I thought to myself, desperately searching for an escape from an uncomfortable interaction with him. Ayomide peered at me, puzzled by what she saw. She looked at Shay with suspicion. Looking everywhere else but at her for I was afraid she would guess something was amiss.  A damsel in distress I was not, but I wanted, nay needed to get out of there.

The doors opened and we stepped into the tight space as there were quite a few doctors in surgery garb. We rode down in silence. Silently thanking the gods of fortune that there were other persons surrounding us, we proceeded to the hydrotherapy pool.

“Ok, what was that?” she said, with her hands on her hips.

“What?”

“What do you mean what?” “You guys just totally ignored each other and he blushed when he saw you. Did something happen between you two?”

“Nothing happened. We’ve already seen each other today so there was no need to say hey,” I answered in my most casual tone; addressing her founded suspicion. Determined to throw her off her tracks, I struck up a conversation about The Flash. Ayomide was always ready to discuss the magnificent world of superheroes. The last episode was a crossover with the different characters from Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow so a lot happened.

As predicted, Ayo went into a tirade of her opinions of some of the characters. She was convinced that Legends of Tomorrow had the lamest powers except for Vixen who could summon the strength of whatever spirit animal she chose with her magical necklace. Grateful that she had forgotten the Shay line of questioning, we entered into a somber dispute about whether the White Canary was cool or not whilst we transferred to the hoist. The hoist was a mechanical chair that would lift and carry me into the pool.

Landing softly, looking down at my lifeless legs and trying desperately to focus on the lesson. Floating leisurely was also an option. The water caressed my body, the little waves soaking my décolletage. “Alright, now float on your back and swim towards the deep end of the hydrotherapy pool,” Ayomide said. Swimming the length of the Olympic-sized pool was certainly an achievement and a half. No floaties, just me in water, using my arms to propel me forward.

One hour went by in the blink of an eye. Confronted with the notion that I needed to sort my feelings about the kiss, I wheeled back to my humble abode. Twiddling my strands of hair around my forefinger, I went into a dream sequence. What happens now? Thinking to myself. How do I face him, where do we go from here? Is there even a ‘we’? My head was spinning with dread. What about his girlfriend, will he break up with her? How have I fallen so deeply so quickly?