The Sidewalk Incident

26. The Secret MO Incident

James reached out to one of his friends from Cambridge who now works with Medecins sans Frontiers, better known as Doctors Without Borders. Arjun invited us to spend the morning with him at a rural clinic in Narok, mainly servicing the villagers of the Maasai Mara and those traveling back to the village when they work in the city.

Today is scheduled to be an outreach service at the mother and child clinic, and I've been tasked with consultations. It's amazing, something I usually consider mundane, being an outpatient, general practitioner, was surprisingly fulfilling. Despite the language barrier, I felt like I was really able to connect with these patients. Some of the consults were basic, some complex, some just fell behind with their vaccination schedule due to lack of availability. Arjun made sure to remind us about the importance about health education because the patients may not get a chance to travel this far for another month.

I looked over my shoulder and saw James applying some old school plaster of Paris cast to a kid who broke his arm. He smirks and winks at me. Making my heart jolt. It must be the flu meds working its way out of my system, right?

During my lunch break I hear the distinct laughter of children and find James in the middle of a football match with the kids in the courtyard of the clinic.

"Ah there she is! We need a defender, these kids are kicking my ass!" James laughs and spanks my butt as I walk past him, which is met by giggles and cute ooohs from the kids.

"Why would I join the losing team?" I tease as I limber up, and join the opposing, winning team. James is in his element, being with kids and playing a sport... shirtless thanks to the African sun. I see the way the nurses and doctors look at him; everyone and anyone is goo-goo eyed over him and I have a moment where I feel lucky to say his mine.

Is he though? Am I getting too caught up?

I snap out of it when he dribbles past me. "A bit rusty there, Charlotte." He chuckles. "Weren't you captain of the varsity soccer team?"

"Yep," I huff as I win the ball back, "and it's football, Princess."

Arjun reins us in, warning dehydration and insisting we have a water break in the shade. James is chatting to another doctor and Arjun smiles at me warmly, watching me gulp down the water while looking at the tall glass of water named James Li.

"It's nice to finally meet you." He says and I narrow my eyes at him. "James told me about you during your Harvard days. We were roomies at Cambridge."

"Ah. More like a vent I'm sure." But he shakes his head.

"He'll probably hate me for saying this, but I knew about you before Harvard."

"Before Harvard? We met once. The day of the Cambridge entrance exam." It's probably the first time I have said this out loud.

"I was proper crushing on him when we met," Arjun confesses, "but unfortunately James likes women and women like him."

I laugh. "Well if it's any consolation, if you were a woman, you'd totally be his type. Brunette. Brown eyes. Fair skin." Arjun is a beautiful man.

"Despite his popularity after his freakish growth spurt during our second summer at Cambridge, he didn't date any of those girls throwing themselves at him. And he told me about some girl he met and spent the day with in London once. And how she's consumed his thoughts ever since. Anyway, Jamie Dearest left for Harvard, on Mummy Dearest's insistence. He thought if he stayed at Cambridge you'd show up, so it was the last thing he wanted and he delayed his acceptance to Harvard until the very last moment. And thank goodness he did. When I texted him to ask if he arrived safely he sent a reply, two words: She's here."