Ride Her Shoes

2- Seeking closure

Umuahia, Nigeria.

Akudo felt the need to go on ward round with the doctor but decided to stay behind and watch the out patients while other nurses went with the doctor.

She had a lot going through her mind and decided to stay there and think. She had no idea what exactly to think about whether it's her single hood or the fact that she can't even brag about a man in her life, not even a boy aside from her brothers.

It's not like she hadn't been in a relationship in the past but she has a problem with commitment, trust and of course men in general.

She has seen a lot of instances which made her decide never to go down with anyone especially her last relationship where she was doing most of the work only to find out the man whom she had been dating from their university days until just last year was preparing for his wedding even after spending the Friday night with her.

Staring into space, she hadn't realized that there was someone standing in front of her.

"Akudo?" The person called her before tapping her hand which she had folded in front of her.

Startled by the touch, she raised her eyes to meet the person only to find Tayo, Her ex who had gotten married the next day after being with her. He made her question herself and her sanity but even though it took her months to recover from the shock, she still acted like it didn't matter to her.

Putting on a professional smile as it was her work place and not a pleasure home, she said,"How may I help you, Sir?"

She sounded so formal that Tayo felt she wasn't talking to him and looked around him to see if there was someone else whom she might be talking to but when she realized that he was the only one in front of her, he sighed softly trying to relieve from the shock.

"Aku-" he began but She didn't wait for him to finish before correcting him.

"It's Nurse Akudo to you or just Nurse." She said still wearing the smile except that it got a little wider and toothier.

Rapidly blinking her eyes, she waited for his reply.

Tayo cleared his throat while trying to assimilate what had just happened. What was he expecting? A standing ovation? She thought and just then, a fair pregnant lady came up to them.

"Baby, why is it taking so long?" The lady asked Tayo while looking from him to Akudo. She must have sensed the tension between them because she faced Akudo and said.

"I'm here to register for Antenatal care," She said before nudging Tayo.

Akudo felt a pang in her heart as she stared at the woman. 'That would have been me', she thought.

She gently collected the Antenatal register to write down the woman's name.

"Your name?"  She asked the woman but Tayo replied.

"Adesuwa Tayo Ogunmefun." He replied as if trying to spite Akudo.

"A Yoruba lady, I see." Akudo whispered as that must have been the reason he didn't marry her. Tribe.

"Pardon," The lady said as Akudo wrote down her name on the book.

She heard the lady but decided to play deaf. All that went through her mind was how she would have been in the lady's position as Tayo's wife had she not been Igbo.

"Take a seat. The doctor will be with you in a few minutes." She said to them.

If Tayo felt hurt or embarrassed, he did a good job at hiding it.

After they returned to their seats, she prayed for the doctor to be fast with whatever he was doing and attend to them so she could stop seeing them in front of her.

She felt like using her phone but just as her profession demands, phones were not allowed until they were done with their duty.

So she had no other choice but to stare in the face of her ex and his dearly beloved wife.

If only she had been open enough to understand the signs that were so clear to her and how often his mother disregarded her, she wouldn't be in this dilemma. She would have fled a longer time ago.

Just while she was thinking, Tayo walked up to her and was about to say something when she purposefully glared at him.

"I said the doctor wou-"

"Forget about the doctor." He said in a voice that showed just how serious he was. "We need to talk." 

"I don't think we have anything to talk about and that's your pregnant wife sitting there. You shouldn't be talking to your ex in her presence." She advised him.

Getting up from the seat, she picked up the folder from the desk and made to leave the table but stopped when she noticed how the other nurses were staring at her. She knew they were paying keen attention as to how she acted towards him who to them was a patient as they had no idea on her ordeal with him.

Recollecting herself to the prim and proper behavior she was supposed to exhibit towards every and any visitor in the hospital, she smiled cautiously at him even though her eyes held more malice than he had ever known besides hell hath no fury than a woman scorned.

"Can you come with me to check your blood pressure?" She asked him and he didn't need an interpreter to get the point so he followed carefully behind her until they were both in an empty ward.

"What do you want?" She asked immediately they entered the ward and he sighed, shook his head and placed a hand on his waist.

"Akudo." He said her name and it pissed her off just how easily he said her name as if he's the one that named her.

"Just go straight to the point." She urged him, already tired of the conversation even though it hadn't begun.

"I know I did you wrong," he began and She rolled her eyes,"I didn't plan for any of this to happen."

"You're even wrong to think of approaching me about it." She informed him.

Tayo took two steps closer to her and just then the door of the ward where they were in came open and Tayo's wife stepped in.

"What is going on here?" She asked, looking from her husband to Akudo. "Are you not ashamed of yourself?" She directed her question at Akudo.

"Even under my nose you had to take my husband to a room. Don't you have any respect for the white uniform you're in." She spat and raised her hand to hit Akudo but a hand came between her palm and Akudo's face. Tayo's hand.

Akudo couldn't say or do anything. She just stood there petrified, wishing that the ground to open up and consume her.

"Stop it she was ju-" Tayo tried to explain but his wife wasn't ready to listen as she began to rain insults on Akudo.

The moment Akudo felt like the insults were really getting to her, she shoved Tayo to the side so hard that he could have fallen to the floor had it not been for the bed just next to him.

She stepped out of the room without sparing Tayo or his wife a glance. She wiped her eyes while silently giving herself words of encouragement.

'You're bigger than them,' her inner voice reminded her

'Even richer than them,' a louder voice yelled in her head.

'What more could I want?' She asked herself as she made her way down the stairs. She had a house, a car and a driver whom she pays and above all a well paying job and her beautiful family even though they get on her nerves more than they excite her.

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Xoxo
Taciann