I raise up my head in awe of the beauty standing in front of me.
She is a dark-skinned girl with bright pink lips and bold eyes. She is wearing a black dress with black stilettoes and a brown weave.
"It's me Nailah" She waves smiling.
I try to remember who she is; I take some time to remember but she helps me "I'm the girl you got paired with for a project in college"
"Oh, you," I say blandly because I'm not in the mood for meeting new people or should I say people from my past.
She frowns at my reaction, but I quickly flash her a smile to not seem rude.
An awkward silence takes over. To ease it I say "Nice meeting you Nailah. I have to get going now, I'm on my way to meet Miranda." I quickly add "She's one of the organizers of this event"
"I was just going the same way. She invited me; I've been at her place for a week now" She tells me.
"Then let's go then" I offer to walk with her.
I walk with her to meet Miranda and fortunately, she seems to be distracting me from my mental breakdown because she asks series of questions.
We find Miranda talking to some people and the moment she sees us she excuses herself and walks over to us.
Miranda is in a silk peach dress and her dark brown hair is put in a high bun. The golden hoops she puts on make her hazel eyes glisten.
"Andrew it's been so looonnnggggg" She stresses 'long' and pulls me into a bear hug.
"Same here" I return the hug. "The party is very nice, and you look not too bad" I compliment her.
"So, do you," She tells me. "Nailah where did you run off to? I looked for you" She asks her with a smile that shows that they know each other very well.
"So Drew this is Nailah and she is a family friend and I know if you've probably met her considering you both walked in here together" Miranda introduces her.
"Yeah, I've met her. We were once project partners in college" I tell Miranda and ignore her teasing.
Though Miranda didn't go to the same college we kept in touch and that was remarkable.
"And we have arrived" Benjamin and Salah make an entrance and I smile at their stupidity.
I glance at Benjamin to check if he is still angry at me because of the last time we met but he shows no emotions.
Benjamin is known to be the guy who always follows the motion 'Forgive and Forget' but I still want to be sure, so I corner him and greet him "Hey Benjamin"
"Hello Andrew" He returns the greeting blandly- as he always does when it comes to me- and keeps looking at me as if waiting for me to talk
"About the whole incident that happened between us-" I say but he interrupts.
"-oh that, no worries about that I was not being considerate that I stated the obvious when you couldn't handle it" Benjamin honestly tells me.
I'm about to speak but I get interrupted by a buzz in my pocket. I tend to ignore it and continue talking but it seems consistent, so I pick the call and he walks out.
"Hello?" I answer.
"There is an emergency at the hospital Mr. Briggs" Lucia screams and I can clearly hear the chaos in the hospital.
"What's wrong"
"There was an accident and it requires immediate surgery-" She tries to tell me but I interrupt her.
"So, aren't there people over there to go through the surgery? Lucia, there are so many specialists in that hospital, and I pay them to work. Why do I have to do their work for them?" I ask with annoyance not minding the stares people at the event are giving me right now because I am too loud. I give them a cold stare and they all face their business
"None of them are here" Lucia mutters in a low tone but still clear and loud enough for me to hear.
"What do you mean by that?" I sound more frustrated.
"Honestly, I don't know too, but you have to come to the hospital quickly before something bad happens." She warns.
"Something like what? Look, Lucia, I pay you to look after the hospital when I'm not around because that's your job, but it looks like you're not doing a good job. I'm doing something important right now" I sternly say.
"Look, after this, you can fire me or query me. Whatever you want to do, you can but right now a child is on the verge of dying if you don't come over, stop bickering and save the child, the child's blood would be on your shoulders." She shouts at me in a motherly tone and mutters some Spanish words through the phone.
"Andrew, I know what it feels like to lose a child, so I know what the child's mother is going through right now. It would be heartless of you not to help" She sighs and calls me by my first name for the first time and this scares me to death. "I get you're doing something important but I too had to leave my kids alone and unattended to the moment I heard about this emergency and I can bet on my life that what you are doing right now isn't more important than that child's life." She ends.
"I'm coming over, but I can't go through it alone, I'll have to find someone who can help me. It might take a while but just do anything you can to stop the child from bleeding until I get there. If there are any complications call me" I hang up not giving her the time to reply.
I go over to the corner where my friends are chatting, they all pause and turn to me the moment they realize I'm there and Salah asks me "Why were you shouting at the caller like that? What's wrong? Who was it?"
"There is an emergency in the hospital, and someone is on the verge of dying," I say trembling not minding whether I sound weak because my friends knew that I always got out of hand whenever I came across the topic of death.
"Aren't there specialists on duty in the hospital?" Miranda asks.
"For some reason no and I can't do it alone. So now I have to find a surgeon who can handle the operation with me." I say and start leaving.
"I can help. I'm a surgeon too" Nailah stands up and offers while I'm leaving.
I turn to reject the offer because it seemed too good to be true but Miranda urges me "She is really good, let her go with you"
I nod at Nailah signalling her to follow me and she quickly grabs her clutch and follows me to the car.
As I drive, I question taking Nailah with me to handle the procedure because I wouldn't want to put someone's child in danger.
"I don't feel like you can go through with this operation," I say with a serious look as I drive.
"Why" She chuckles showing off her dimples.
"No offence but you don't look like a surgeon," I say still focusing on the road.
"And how do they look exactly?" She asks with a firm look.
"I don't know, but you sure don't look like one," I say.
"Then what do I look like?" She says with a much firm look.
I must say now I'm getting more terrified of this woman because the stares she gives me are looks that kill. I gather up the courage to say "You look more like a pretty face influencer or someone that has a beauty brand or something"
I expect to hear her say words like 'That's so sexist' or 'Girls are more than just pretty faces' or get a slap from her rather she just chuckles.
"Not the reaction I expected" I glance at her and quickly look back to the road. She laughs harder so I let her be and I think over what I said praying I didn't say anything stupid.
After a while, she stiffens up "I'm sorry for my outburst. Did you just call me pretty?" She smiles.
"Um-" I look for a way to answer this question and run out of ideas but thankfully I pull up at Savier hospital and say "- we're here"
I alight from my car and walk into the hospital and she follows me without a word.
As I walk into the hospital a middle-aged blonde woman grabs me by the tail of the suit I was wearing and asks, "Are you Mr. Briggs?"
I nod and look at her face, her eyes look puffy like she has been crying for a very long time. She begs me "Please make sure my son is all right. He's just fourteen years old and he is all I've got please help me."
I don't know how to respond to the woman. I hesitate and that makes the woman terrified but Nailah cues in and tell her "Don't worry your son will be all right ma'am. We'll do the best we can"
The woman nods and lets go of my suit. I grab some scrubs and hairnets. I give Nailah the scrubs and we both change into them quickly.
The moment I walk into the theatre I get chills up my spine. Nailah notices that I tense up and she walks up to me and tells me "It's our job to get this boy to his mum safely. She is counting on us. We can do this. Let's try our best".
When she tells me this I shake off every bit of nervousness in me.
Lucia briefs me that she managed to keep him stable and that he has been given anesthetics and that the operation can begin.
AFTER THE OPERATION****
I take off my scrubs and put on the shirt and trousers and I throw on the suit on my shoulders.
I go up to my office wanting to take a glance at it because it's been weeks since I've been here.
I remember that this is the same office where I told my sister that she isn't responsible.
Thinking of this makes me think about the hell of a life I live in. Six weeks ago I was thinking about how my life was a crazy routine and nothing out of the extraordinary was happening and now things are starting to become extraordinary but I don't want it. I want a life of ease I don't want the complications my new life has now.
I want the old life back but this time I want to do something I love. I want a do-over.
I get a text from Salah *Hope everything went well because it's past midnight and everyone is worried sick.*
I text back * Don't worry I'll be home soon mom*
I go down to tell Nailah we will be going soon but I stop to watch her as she interacts with Lucia.
It seems she's a very social girl because Lucia is so carefree with her and that's strange because Lucia is not carefree with anybody.
"Seems like you ladies are having fun" I make an entrance.
"Yeah um, I have to get going now" Lucia tries to excuse herself.
"Wait Lucia here's my number we can talk later and I would love to meet your son one day he sounds intriguing" Nailah and Lucia exchange numbers.
"We have to get going it's late"
"Yeah me too. Bye we'll see later"
"I'll drop you off. You said you stay with Miranda right? I'll drop you there" She doesn't reject my offer because I don't give her room to.
The car ride is quiet but not tense and this is something I need after going through with this operation and I think Nailah gets it because she doesn't say a word throughout the ride.