Love at the Wrong Table (Emmanuel Lowe and Mackenzie) novel Chapter 9

Given Mackenzie’s fussiness, Emmanuel knew that things would turn out bad whether she agreed to go home with him or not. “I’m sorry, but my schedule is full. I won’t have time this entire week,” she answered. Emmanuel nodded at her reply, which, weirdly enough, made him both disappointed and relieved. Well, as I thought, it won’t be easy to get her home to meet my family. “Hold on!” Emmanuel saw a ray of hope when Mackenzie called out just as he was about to leave the room. Did she change her mind? Don’t tell me she’s found a suitable time to go home with me. To his dismay, he saw Mackenzie holding out a bank card toward him when he turned back. “What is this?” he asked with a frown, confounded. He had no idea why Mackenzie was giving him money, especially when he had not given Mackenzie the sixty grand his mother earned with all her hard work because he suspected their marriage might be a scam. What is going on? “I don’t want that kind of cheap food at home anymore. There’s a hundred thousand in this card, so use it to buy whatever is needed for our home. I hope you can find time to do some shopping for the house. We do need a lot of things here. Just let me know if you need more money.” From her no-nonsense way of talking, one would easily think Mackenzie was assigning a task to Emmanuel at work. Upset by how absurd the whole situation was, Emmanuel pushed the card back, insisting, “I’m the man of the house, and I have a job too. I don’t need you to pay for anything I’m using.” His response elicited a frown from Mackenzie. What’s with this fake chivalry? We’re already married. Did he really not agree to this because of my money and body? Having spoken his piece, Emmanuel turned to leave without even mentioning the sixty grand his mother intended to give to Mackenzie as her betrothal gift. He figured it would be a joke to her. The next day, Emmanuel went to work at the hospital as usual. Since it had only been two years since he retired from the military, he was only in charge of running various tests and procedures at the Department of Gynecology instead of being a doctor-in-charge. “Emmanuel! Did you go on a blind date again yesterday?” His best friend’s voice rang out from behind him. Before Emmanuel could reply, Frederick Lewis had lifted his arm and put it across Emmanuel’s shoulder. The two were close to one another since their friendship dated back to the time when they were classmates in middle school. After Emmanuel retired from the military, they met again as colleagues. “How did the date go?” Frederick asked out of curiosity when he saw Emmanuel nodding. “It didn’t go well.” A resentful smile broke out on Emmanuel’s face as he recalled the blind date with Milani that went south. “Seriously? That was your eighteenth date!” Frederick exclaimed with a face full of regret. “Did you do what I taught you? You should set your bottom line out there right at the beginning of a date. I can’t believe not a single one of them is willing to give you a chance.” Like Roselynn, Frederick believed that Emmanuel was a fine catch, although he could be a little clueless sometimes. Hence, he found it unbelievable that none of the women fell for Emmanuel’s looks. “You know what? I think I’m messing up every single date exactly because I’m doing what you told me to do. The date just fails every time I tell them I’m earning eighty grand a year!” Emmanuel complained. “Then you should improvise! Talk about something else!” Frederick argued, glaring at him. Emmanuel kept quiet at his retort, for he had deliberately mentioned his salary during the dates because he did not want any of it to work out. “What can I say? Women these days are very practical and materialistic.” “Tell me about it,” Frederick whined. “It’s hard finding someone who’s not materialistic. It’ll be a rare find if you get one.” Emmanuel understood where Frederick was coming from, since the latter had remained unmarried since his girlfriend ditched him for a man from a wealthy family. “Whatever. I have to go see my mom now. She’s coming over for a check-up today. Can you take over those patients who are doing their medical certificate tests?” “Sure,” Emmanuel agreed as Frederick left in a hurry. After that, Emmanuel went into the chest X-ray room. Soon enough, a woman entered with a medical slip. “Please take off your clothes and stand in front of the machine,” Emmanuel instructed mechanically while he took the medical slip from the patient, as he always did, but he was stunned the moment he saw the name on the paper. Milani Zimmerman? “It’s you!” The agitated woman pointed her finger at Emmanuel when he looked up. “You sicko! Are you trying to see my body? How is it that a male doctor is doing a chest X-ray for women? There’s no way I’m going through with this. I demand to change to another doctor!” Milani shrieked. At the uproar, other patients in the department began to gather around, whispering among themselves. Some came forward in support of Milani, arguing that a female doctor should be in charge since the check-up concerned their privacy, while others reiterated that there was no need to make a big fuss since doctors were professionals. What happened was nothing new to Emmanuel, as similar occurrences have taken place frequently over the past two years. In a situation like that, patients would usually give in in the end since Emmanuel had a reliable look to him, but that was not the case that day when Milani refused to budge no matter what. “You’re such a dirty loser. I finally see why you can’t find a wife. I bet you came to this department because you are a pervert and want to check out women’s bodies!” Milani became more aggressive when she saw that Emmanuel did not intend to call another doctor for her check-up. “What’s going on?” The commotion had attracted Frederick and the other gynecologists. “Milani?” When Frederick saw it was Milani—the prettiest girl two grades below his back at middle school—he rushed over to explain, “There must be a misunderstanding, Milani. We are professionals in the industry. We don’t prey on our patients. We treat men and women all alike.” “Lies! Do you think I’ll really buy all this bullsh*t? Did you say you guys treat men and women all the same? Well, then, why do both of you want to marry a woman?” Milani raged. Infuriated by her scathing riposte, Frederick fought with Milani until the head of the department finally arranged for a female doctor to do the X-ray for Milani after finding out what had happened. At the end of the day, the disaster seemed to have affected Frederick more than it did Emmanuel. “Do you know her, Emmanuel? She was two grades below us. Apparently, she was the campus belle back at Yeringham Middle School, but look at her! She’s a snob! Who does she even think she is? She’s not even that special! None of the other female patients had a problem with us!” When Frederick had finally finished his tirade, Emmanuel smiled weakly at him, saying, “She was actually my eighteenth date.” “She what?” Appalled, Frederick fell silent for a long while until he finally commented, “She’s got the looks, though. Why does she even need to go on blind dates? Actually, do you think something’s wrong with her biologically? Is that why she refused to let you run an X-ray on her?” Emmanuel had no clue what was the reason for Milani’s misbehavior, so he simply smiled. “Is it because her breasts are asymmetrical? Is she sick or something?” Emmanuel was still quiet, leaving Frederick to make all the wild guesses himself. Suddenly, Frederick stopped talking altogether when he caught a shadow beside him. The next thing he knew, Milani was already right before him. “Cut the crap out! You’re the sick one here! In fact, both of your families are sick. You two losers can never hope to nab a woman like me. That’s why you two will be single for the rest of your lives!” Milani did not leave until she had taunted the two to her heart’s content. Behind her, the mortified Frederick made a face at her, dissing, “I’ve never met such an arrogant woman!” Emmanuel could not agree with his friend in that respect, for the woman he had married at first sight was equally overbearing, except for the fact that Mackenzie was more tolerable. “All right. I’d better go get my mom’s report,” Frederick noted before rushing off to the CT scan room. Also concerned about the result, Emmanuel followed after him. When he saw Frederick shaking with the report in his hands from the door, Emmanuel knew something must be wrong. “What is it?” Emmanuel dashed over, sensing that things had taken a bad turn. He was aghast when he beheld the scan image. This is end-stage lung cancer!