Chapter 3

"Are you sure you don't want to go to the salon with me, doc? Don't you miss having wavy hair?" Helena, one of my close friends who married the CEO visited me at the clinic today. "No offense meant, but I always noticed your hair having split ends. Looks like your hair really needs a professional salon!" "I use a hair treatment on my hair, Helen. Not only is the effect very fast, but I can stand it if I must wait two to three weeks for its effectiveness. That's perfectly fine with me," I hissed, not actually being offended with what she had said. I'm overconfident to brag about the product I use on my hair to her just to let her know I won't be dependent on hairstylists at the salon anymore. I don't know if it's just me who doesn't like letting someone touch any part of my body except myself... and of course my husband. As much as possible, I want to take care of my body myself rather than relying on other people to do that work. "I'm just worried about you. Maybe because when you start to look older than your age because of focusing more on your work, your husband would lose his interest in you." I think she was threatening me. "I mean... Let's be realistic here, Doc Andeng. We know that today's men get bored easily. They will eventually lose their taste in us or find us boring, plain and not giving them thrill and chills anymore if they begin not liking our face or body no more, and then they begin to find another woman who has a different mold and smells fresh." I lost focus on writing the prescription because of the idea that Helen brought to my mind. Because Mike and I were fine last night, I supposed. The two of us have had sex, and I assume things between us have been fixed. And there comes Helen... visiting me at my clinic to give me another reason to overthink. "That's why I'm asking for your consultation, and that's why I'm here. I intend to do breast enhancement. Do you recommend me having one? Then how big should I add?" she replied laughingly. "You know... I need professional advice before I continue this, so I'm trying to ask for your help." "Uh..." My brain went completely blank. My focus was really broken a while ago because of what Helen mentioned to me. "Is your husband the reason you want breast enhancement?" "He's always the reason why I retouch my body, isn't he?" She's talking as if she's being proud of how desperate she has been, all because of her husband. "I noticed that he doesn't seem happy to have sex with me every time I try to entice him to do it. I'm looking at the factor, maybe he's no longer satisfied with the size my breasts have or the fluffiness it gives to him... and, uh... that's why I thought of investing money for this." Because I don't really know what I should answer, I just agreed to whatever she wanted. It is Helen's right to do whatever she wants to do with her body, because after all, it's her body. "Whatever choice you have for your body, go for it. As a medical practitioner, I don't see anything wrong if you choose to continue the surgery. If you know that it will be good for you and your husband, well... to make him satisfied by fvcking you... it's up to you." "That's not the only reason why I prefer to be young in my husband's eyes." Helen kept laughing at me without realizing that it was time for her to leave my clinic. She is not my only patient. "We know that men lose their interest in their women so quickly. They are very quick to be tempted by girls who are fresher than you, so for them to stop looking into another woman aside from you... well, you must be fresh yourself and look young in his eyes, right?" She also bid her goodbye to me after talking not so necessary words. I don't know if I still need to waste my time thinking about what Helen is saying to me or just ignore those? Where in fact, those are not helpful but more likely she's giving me reasons to doubt my husband even more. After the night he fucked me, my doubts about him disappeared like a bubble, eh. The case comes back suddenly because Helen told me something I should overthink again. "Doc, did you hear what I said?" I was brought back from my trance when I heard the new patient in front of me speak. For a moment, my brain went blank because of what Helen told me... which really bothered me a lot. "I'm sorry. What are you feeling again?" "Uh... I said I was feeling sick. Then I haven't experienced a menstrual period for two months," said a young woman. And after all, she looks mature for a young girl. "I was worried that something bad might be happening to me, so I ran in here." "Have you tested yourself for a possible pregnancy?" She shook his head at me. "I'm afraid to do it. Maybe it's just a hallucination that I'm going to get pregnant, and when I find out that it's confirmed that I'm pregnant, I'm scared that my parents would know about this." "So, what's the sense of going here? To ask me to diagnose you that you have another illness aside from the fact that you're showing symptoms of early pregnancy?" While she's just being silent, I just shake my head at people like her... who don't want to get pregnant because their parents might reject them, but that's also their fault. They don't even use protection during sex if they aren't ready to become parents. "I'm afraid you are," I said. "Unless you accept your situation, we will definitely be able to proceed with the next processes. For now, you have to test yourself to confirm." I handed her a pregnancy test which is always available in my clinic. For possible cases of patients who don't know they are pregnant based on the symptoms their body is trying to show them, my clinic is always ready for those kinds of incidents. Just in case, I wondered why she didn't want to pick up the PT lying on the table. "Let me ask you a question," I said to get the woman's attention. "Have you gone into sexual intercourse recently?" "You say I'm showing symptoms of early pregnancy, and now you're trying to ask have I had sex with someone?" She laughed at me while rolling her eyes at me. "In my fifteen years in the medical field, none from my patients have been rude to me-" "Okay, I'm sorry," she apologized. "Of course, I had sex with someone recently. That's why I'm afraid that maybe when it's confirmed that I'm pregnant... Apart from my parents, I'm also afraid that the father of my baby... I'm afraid he won't choose us." "Why does he have to choose?" "He has his own family. He has a son and a wife. He's a married man. And I'm still not sure that if he finds out that he got me pregnant, he'll be ready to trade his family for his son and me. He'll be willing to leave his own family and just choose us and his baby with me... and we'll start a new life." I suddenly got stuck in the process of organizing the folders in my table cabinet. I immediately returned to my composure and made myself presentable as I looked at my patient with fear on her face. Because if my beginning doubts are not mistaken, maybe this young lady I was facing is a mistress.