His Precious Lies

10

Time passed, and my leave was done. We got busy working. Especially me; I’ve been busy in the hospital. Since I was only an intern, I need to learn more. Hugo was also busy with his photoshoots. Almost every day he has shoots. But even so, we are still working on a way for the two of us to have quality time.

“Lara, aren’t you upset with Hugo? He’s taking pictures of women,” Jessie asked me.

We are currently having lunch in our cafeteria today. I know. Occasionally I get jealous too, but what can I do? It’s his job. I didn’t worry about that as long as he remained faithful to me.

“Sometimes I do. But it’s his job, so I understand.” I shrugged and told her.

“Oh, for now. However, imagine this—ah, what if he gets tempted?”

I frowned at Jessie. I don’t know what she’s really up to.

“I mean, what if he gets tempted by one of the women, he’s taking pictures of?”

“Nah! I’m sure he wouldn’t do that to me. I know Hugo. He loves me. And I trusted him too.”

“I see,” Jessie answered me seriously.

There seems to be something strange about her. She used to push me toward Hugo, but now she seems to be lying low toward Hugo and me. I don’t know what she’s up to.

It was past twelve in the morning when I got home. Earlier, I looked at my phone, waiting for a call or text from Hugo. I talked to him earlier, but he was rushing to turn off the call. I understand him because he is chasing a deadline for his shoots.

Furthermore, I fell asleep waiting for his call. The next day, I looked at my phone, but there was still no text at all. I couldn’t stand it anymore; I just texted him first.

Hi babe! Don’t forget to eat your breakfast.

Message sent!

I got up and took a shower. My shift is later in the afternoon, so I can breathe at least a little. I finished taking a bath, and all in all, I turned my phone back on, but still no reply from him.

I sighed. Furthermore, I’m just going to the mall to buy something to give him as a gift. It’s our monthly meeting tomorrow. He knows that, so I hope he comes tomorrow. We already talked about where we would celebrate our anniversary.

I drove to the mall. I went into the gadgets section. I was planning to buy him a DSLR, but only later when I knew what brand he wanted. I switched to watches. I noticed when I last saw him, his watch was old. I wrapped it up as well. I ate at a fast-food chain for a while before going home.

I was about to start my car when suddenly my phone rang. It was Hugo; he replied to me.

I’m sorry, I just got to reply to you. Yeah, I remember our anniversary tomorrow; I’ll be there. I love you and miss you so much. Message content.

I took a deep breath and thought that this day would end without me getting a reply from him. Even though she didn’t mention their anniversary in the text, she’s happy because he still remembered their anniversary tomorrow.

I love and miss you too. I can’t wait to see you. I replied.

I was happy to come home. Mom and dad are always at work. What else can I expect? Anyway, I’m so excited; I’ve prepared what I’m supposed to wear tomorrow. It was a simple white silver-lined dress with black silhouette shoes. I also prepared my perfume. It was lunchtime when I decided to take a swim, but I couldn’t swim when I got a call from Jessie.

“Sis,” Jessie said sadly to me on the other line.

What’s wrong with this woman? Her voice sounds so sad. She’s not like that.

“Did something happen?”

“I-I’m fine. I just called you to say I can’t work tonight. I’m not feeling well right now,” Jessie said to me.

“Wait, are you crying? What happened to you? Where are you now? Do you want me to come to you?” I worriedly asked her.

“I’m not crying, my dear friend! It’s not in my vocabulary, I’ll just take a nap and I’ll be alright,” she growled at me, but her hoarse voice was still obvious.

I knew she had a problem. But I don’t force her to admit it anymore. I’ll just wait for her to tell me. These past few days, Jessie has been secretive, but I understand that she also has privacy. I don’t need to know everything; sometimes it helps that we don’t know anything.

“Okay, okay, take your meds, okay? Get well soon,” I said.

“Thanks. Yeah, I will,” she said, then hung up the phone.

She didn’t even wait for me to answer her. She immediately hung up the phone.

Despite my surprise at Jessie’s call, my spirits returned when I remembered that Hugo and I would meet tomorrow. It’s been months since the last time I saw him.

After swimming, I ate first and then went back to the room to get ready for work. I work from six o’clock until six in the morning, when I finish. And in the afternoon, Hugo and I have a dinner date tomorrow.

It was five o’clock in the afternoon when I arrived at the hospital. “Oh, it’s a miracle that you’re early tonight, ah?” Doc Welson said, one of the seniors, I consider here.

“I just feel like working tonight, Doc.”

“It’s like you’re full of inspiration tonight, intern Lara, so you’re like this,” Doc Welson teased me.

I just gave him a simple smile before entering the locker room and getting dressed. I was just a junior doctor. That means I need to learn more from my seniors. I was just assigned to the ward area. They call them simple treatments. These are simply simple injuries, though there are days when patients are admitted in a row, but typically they are taken to the ER.

That night, the departing house officer handed me a barely legible list of jobs—patients needing cannulas placed in their veins, blood tests, or urinary catheters—before fleeing into the night. The medical registrar, the senior doctor to whom I was meant to turn for help should I find myself out of my depth, told me in no uncertain terms that he’d be busy all night in the ER but to bleep him if I absolutely had to. The other doctors dispersed, all looking grimly competent.

Jessie is absent tonight, so I am all alone now. I mean, I didn’t talk. Although there are many nurses here, they don’t pay attention to me or even talk to me. They will only talk to me when Jessie is here. I just noticed that.

Bleep. It started. Nurses are calling me about the patients on their wards with racing hearts, plummeting blood pressure, or worryingly low levels of oxygen. Bleep. They all wanted me to come immediately to assess their patients, but even as I tried to answer the first bleep, the second and the third were lighting up my pager.

‘For God’s sake. Will you please bleep somebody else because I have only two hands and want to say that to them?

There was. Of course, nobody else was around; I was alone at the start of my shift, wanting to cry, with a job list already covering two pages.

It was shameful of me to feel like that. It was my first time feeling down. Furthermore, it was as if heaven and earth had fallen on me when another patient came into the ward.

The excitement I had felt earlier was gone. Replaced by fatigue and difficulty breathing. I don’t know who’s going to go first. Almost all nurses call me by my name. Again, the bleep starts. I want to leave and just leave them like this, but they need my help. Life depends on it. And it’s in our hands now. I am a doctor, and my duty is to save lives, not to save my plea.