WHERE THE LOTUS GROWS

MYSTERY MAN

Karen's steps faltered as she walked towards the room of the man who had been admitted two days ago to administer the day's dosage of drugs. Since he arrived, something about him had appealed to her, but she didn't know what and now she had to face him for the first time because some guy who knew some people had requested a personal nurse to attend to him in a personal ward, once he regained consciousness. She quickly breathed a silent prayer before she strolled into the room with a perfectly controlled expression. No one would have guessed what she had been thinking.

Turned out she had braced herself for nothing because she walked in on him sleeping peacefully. She half expected to hear a snore but it never did come, so that proved one thing- he was a silent sleeper; no snoring whatsoever. She moved closer to the bed and sat on the chair beside it, quietly placing the tray of drugs and a glass of water on the table. She found it hard to believe that such a man; imposing even in his sleep would try to commit suicide. She could not imagine what made someone like him look as vulnerable as he had yesterday after his nightmare. She was snapped out of her thoughts as she saw him stir and sit up from the corner of her eye. She quickly stood up and greeted him, slightly embarrassed that she had been so caught up in her musings that she forgot to wake him up.

"Good morning sir. It is good to see you are getting a good rest." she said in her Nigerian-flavored American accent.
"Yes, thank you. You are the personal nurse, right?" he asked, looking at her straight in the eyes.
"I am." She said, trying not to stare at him as she had done the night before and other days she had peeped into the room out of curiosity when he was still unconscious and she had not yet been assigned to take care of him. However, the most appropriate word for what she had done was ogled. She had ogled his shirtless body over and over again, and was only drawn away whenever she had another patient to attend to or she heard somebody coming. But he didn't and did not have to know about that.

He silently studied her and appreciated her good looks as she set out his drugs, checked his pulse and recorded his vital signs. She was definitely beautiful but he had no time to notice beautiful women at this point in his life. He was too busy getting over his ex-fiancée and thinking about putting his life back in order to be bothered about that.

"Someone will be here soon with your breakfast, so eat it all up and use these." She gestured towards the table. As she turned to leave, he caught her hand and turned her round, and she stared at him in question. His lips quirked upwards in a slight smile.
"Next time, please replace these colored drugs with sweets or better still, skittles, okay?" he teased. She couldn't hold it in and she burst out laughing.

"What's funny?" he asked, trying his best to sound as innocent as possible, when in reality he was dying to laugh too.
"You are. I can't stay long. Bye."
"Wait. I would really like to be able to call you something other than the 'personal nurse'." His eyes danced with laughter and she couldn't help the smile that bloomed on her face.

"The name's Karen Adebayo." She said checking her wristwatch and trying to look impatient while in actual fact, her heart was about to burst out of her chest for beating so fast. She wondered if he could hear the hammering.

"I'm Taiwo. It was nice meeting you." He hurriedly said, noticing her supposed impatience.
"It was nice meeting you too. Bye" She said and she almost flew out of the room in her haste.

'Thank God' Karen thought as she hurried down the corridor. She had survived that. She hadn't made a fool of herself. She was... Her train of thought was disrupted as she bumped into someone.
"Can't you watch where you are going?" Someone snapped with obvious irritation. She looked up to see Cook staring down at her angrily. The fact that Cook was a good three inches taller made her look all the more intimidating as she towered over her.