Love At The Wrong Table

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?”

THE

4

2

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

1. 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.

い

46

“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!