Novel Xo
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 a*signing 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
cla*smates 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 Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.
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.
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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!