Shay’s phone rang. “Excuse me, whilst I pick this up. Suddenly, Shay broke away and jumped back with no prior warning. Getting me out of my reverie was no small feat. “What? What happened? What’s wrong?” enquiring with a puzzled look on my face. “We shouldn’t be doing this,” he said. “This is wrong. I could lose my job if anyone finds out. I can’t believe I did this. I’m so sorry”. “Oh my gosh. What about Kaya? Shit. What have I done?” He got up abruptly and walked to the other side of the room. His scratched his head and wrung his hands. His shoulders were tense. I could sense his frustration, confusion and perplexity. He refused to look at me.
He started muttering to himself. Pacing up and down by the fridge, he would pause as if another bewildering thought had just occurred to him, then he would resume striding across the kitchen in an anxious manner.My lips tingled. I could barely think straight. My head felt like it was immersed underwater. Shivering from head to toe, I tried to wipe the memory of the kiss but I could not.
Thinking to myself, I felt like there were still fireworks still going off in my mouth; my tongue was doing a happy dance. I felt like I was suspended in mid-air floating on a fluffy white cloud. Things could only get more complex from this second onwards. The desire to stand up and walk over to pull him to a comforting hug was overwhelming. All I wanted to do was assuage his fears and tell him everything was alright.
However, I knew that statement was false. Nothing was ever going to be the same again.“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.
Wheelchair Girl 
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