CHORALE SANDERS

CHAPTER 18: ATTRACTION

Many weeks later

In the weeks that followed, Chorale realized she had come to like the new place. She realized that Jose Luis, on a regular day came later than he had come that Monday morning that they met. Sometimes he’d even come a few hours to lunchtime. She had also learnt to cover for him, annoyingly, but he was a real fun person to be with. He was also very experienced in the field and had taught her a quite a lot. They went for every lunch break together. On her first day, Jose Luis badmouthed the cafeteria food to her. He made it seem as though the food was so terrible. From that day forward, they always went out to eat. He introduced her to a lot of traditional Mexican food like tacos, tamales, discada, burritos and some others. Her especial favorite were the tamales. She even asked Margarita to teach her how to make them.

Over the period, she had come to know much about Jose Luis. He was forty-one years old and had been working for about twelve years. He was born and spent most of his life in Australia, hence the accent. He also used to be married to a woman whose name he had vehemently refused to mention to her, but was divorced now. He had no children of his own but took an extreme likeness to their pediatric patients. He was really good with children. Every day when he got to work, after going over to Chorale’s office to annoy her, he would go to the ward and tell the children stories. He also distributed sweets to them every day. Chorale loved working with him.

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This morning, Chorale was a bit tensed when she woke up. She and Luis had a surgery slated for later that day. It was not her first surgery. She had headed so many successful surgeries back in Ghana and even won awards for a number of them. She could not explain the anxiety and the tension she was feeling. She woke up very early too, at around 4:00 a.m. and couldn’t sleep again. She kept tossing and turning and thinking mostly about the child she was carrying. She was almost four months gone. For those who knew, they could tell. But if you didn’t know, her belly could easily pass for that of someone who was bloated.

She lifted up her pajama top and moved her hands in circles over her belly. Was it a girl or a boy? Were they twins? She didn’t know. She knew she could easily get an ultrasound done to determine the gender but something was holding her back. Probably, she wanted the father of the baby to be there with her so that they could both be happy about the gender of their baby, but no. Kay was back in Ghana with his new girlfriend while she was here, in Mexico.

A tear rolled down her cheek as she thought about the man she loved. She knew the decision to leave Ghana was a hasty one but it set her heart at some ease. She wouldn’t have to bear the guilt of burdening him with a child when he didn’t want it. She just hoped he’ll be happy with the new woman. The tears were flowing uncontrollably by this time. She didn’t want Antonio to hear her from downstairs so she went into the bathroom and cried. The sadness turned into anger and she decided to make good use of it. She took out her scrubbing brush and scrubbed the whole bathroom till she could literally see her face in the walls and on the floors. She was still feeling these emotions even after doing all that work. She did not know whether it was the hormones or something was actually not right. The time was 6:23 when she finished. She took a shower and got dressed. By 7:15, she was ready to leave. Margarita was already at work at the reception.

“Good morning, Chorale,” she greeted as she saw the younger lady come down the stairs.

“Good morning, Margarita. Did you sleep well?” she asked.
       
“I did. Did you?”       
                
Chorale smiled a weak smile, “I did.”

“You’re off early today,” Margarita noted, checking with her wristwatch.

“Yeah, there’s some work I need to finish at work.” She fished out her keys from her bag. She gave Margarita a brief hug and waved goodbye to Antonio, “I’ll see you both after work,” She said, walking towards her car in the garage.