Second Chances 34

I met Sharon on a supposedly blind date. I had not expected much but as I saw her at the door when I picked her up, I was struck by how good she looked. Soft blonde, 160 cm and with a body with curves and bouncing tits beneath her dress. I was instantly captivated and a whirlwind 10-day platonic dating ended in my bed and a passionate session of love making. I used 3 condoms and wished I could go bare back, but she said she was not on the pill. It was a serotonin rush for both, and it lasted 10 blissful, sexually charged weeks.

We would meet almost every day, and passionate sex was always on. We did it in my car, her room at the nurses' quarters and in motels that doted Auckland. Some fellow students shared years later that they were woken at the student's hostel with sounds of our love making. We shared our history and grew close. She bought my condoms, and we were very particular about using them, despite the urgency brought on by passion. We somehow managed also to do our main job which was being a student midwife for her. She was enjoying her training and would tell me about her cases at work. Some of the stories made me blush, like the one about the woman who had 3 men in the birthing room accompanying her during her labour. They were respectively, the husband, another man who was the biological father of the baby being born and the then current boyfriend. I said, "Some people have complicated lives."

I had to go away during university break to visit my family in Asia. I was a medical student in New Zealand and about to start the final year. I had not wanted to do medicine but was "encouraged" to do so by my mother who also arranged social functions at home parading me, as she proudly announced that I was soon to be a doctor. I had studied enough to make sure I passed each year without drama but nothing more. I was duly reminded by my mother that I should now think about settling down and give her grandchildren. She already had a few potentially suitable ladies from good families. "After all, you are the scion of the family. You have responsibilities." My mother reminded me.

"What about love?" I asked.

"Love is for the romance novels. Marriage must be based on strong practicalities. These always win in the long run." She smirked and regarded me almost in indulgent disdain, as if I was an errant child. However, her choices, a succession of submissive, plain girls, made me think a long marriage with any of them would be purgatory.

I came back to New Zealand and was met at the airport by Sarah. She had a strained look in her eyes and although her embrace was warm, it was tense and off. "What is wrong?" I asked, sensing it immediately. I had expected the warm and passionate woman I left not so long ago. We were in the arrivals area of Auckland airport, and it was busy and a very public space. I had been away for 2 months, but I wrote (air mail letters) almost every day, declaring my undying love and passion. I even shared plans for the future which were predicated on the notion that she would be by my side. Her letters were somewhat more grounded and many very ambivalent. Those letters made me anxious and keen to return to New Zealand.

"I am pregnant. It is not yours." She said in my ear as she still held me in a hug. I looked at the ground and dropped my bag. I cannot recall much immediately after this. Apparently, I simply picked up my bag and walked to the taxi rank and went home. At home, I "came to" and I sobbed for hours. Sharon did not try to contact me and I hated the idea of seeing her again. I sublimated my rage and hurt into studying during that long and brutal academic year and graduated with results that were unlike any in my previous 5 years at medical school. I passed the final exams with excellent marks, prompting the dean to remark "You found your love for medicine?"

"Hell hath no fury greater than an Asian mother disobeyed." I said with a smile.

The years following graduating were busy and I was doing well in my specialist training. I enjoyed medicine a lot more when I was practicing than when I was studying it. Despite my mother's repeated efforts, I had not married any of her curated choices. There was a near miss but when I was presented with a prenuptial agreement by her lawyer father, I walked away. "Sorry to have been a bother. You keep your money secure." I said, my eyes focused on Lily, my then fiancée. She flinched at my unexpected response. She had thought shock and awe was the way to go with the pre nuptial agreement. I was shocked but not awed, at least not in the way she and her father had anticipated. She came from a very rich family and was docile and obedient to her family. My mother was apoplectic and required urgent psychiatric attention and I thought of smelling salts. The fact that my father had just run off with his secretary after enduring years of my mother's nagging and control was probably a factor to her brief psychological collapse.

Those initial years as a doctor were promiscuous and wonton. There were a lot of hook ups. There were wild parties almost every week and I hit on some one or was hit on almost every party. Work hard, play hard and pass your primary exam was the motto. However, the sex was often mechanical and the next morning was often awkward. It did not bother me. Four years later, I was sent to a relatively small hospital as part of my training to be an obstetrician. I went to the maternity ward to introduce myself as their new registrar. I had met the CE of the hospital, a tired Dr Hooper at the end of his career who was too busy to accompany me because he was engulfed by an irate husband in a medicolegal case conference.

The departing rotational registrar, a flirtatious buxom blonde took me to dinner at the local in pub and after dinner, went back to the quarters. In the flat, she knelt in front of me, unzipped my pants and was sucking my dick in a matter of seconds. I pulled off her panties and we made love almost fully clothed. She was on her way back to UK after 6 months rotation at the hospital. After that, she went without her panties to her farewell party. I heard later she had been on a sexual rampage during her time in the town and often took more than 1 man back to her hospital flat. However, apparently, she had been a good and competent doctor. Nothing like being away from your normal environment to test social boundaries. I met her years later at a conference and she was in a lesbian marriage.

As I approached the desk in the obstetric ward, there was something about the midwife who was at the desk, head down, writing clinical notes. She then lifted her head, looked at me and smiled. "Hello, Dr Lee. Welcome to our town." It was Sharon. She had known because they were told who their next registrar would be in advance. "Dr Lee, are you OK? You look pale." The charge nurse said, regarding me with a knowing look. Sharon scurried off to do something urgent.

The day before I started my duties, Sharon asked to have coffee. "We need to talk.' She said. We went to a nice café and restaurant for lunch. It was her days off. She looked stunning in her casual clothes and I was filled with unspeakable longing. "How have you been?" I asked in a friendly manner. Sharon and I shared only a magical 2 months so there was not really a lot of history and therefore few reasons for recriminations. "Did you have a boy or a girl?" I asked tentatively.

"Neither. You stormed off at the airport. I did not blame you. I think you should hear me out now because we will be working together." Sharon said in a low voice. Sharon was from the town and was engaged to marry when she met me. She was in Auckland to train as a midwife. She had been intrigued and then captivated by me. During the explosion of feeling of our initial time, she threw caution to the wind. She cheated on her fiancée, but she never mentioned Rob during our time together. After I went home for holidays, Rob came to Auckland, after hearing rumors and demanded an explanation. After the confrontation, they had unprotected sex and shortly after, Rob was unable to handle Sharon's infidelity and assaulted her, causing her to have a broken nose and two black eyes. Sharon realized she was pregnant a month later but she miscarried 4 weeks later the positive pregnancy test. Rob was sent to jail for 1 year and on discharge, moved away to Australia, all contact lost.

Sharon had decided to return to her hometown after finishing her training as a midwife. She had never contacted me although we were in the same hospital complex. Her father had died, and she felt she had to be there for her mother. She was eagerly snapped up by the local obstetric unit. A farmer courted her and proposed but Sharon declined because she realized she would not be happy being a farmer's wife. There had been a fling with a besotted rotational registrar, who asked her to return to Auckland with him. She refused. Her mother died unexpectedly in the third year after she came back. When I showed up in the town, she was alone and weighting her options.

As I listened to her, I wanted to hold her and comfort her. I drew her close to me and kissed her, not with passion but tenderness. Despite everything, she still had that effect on me. She took me to her home and said, "Welcome to my home." She said hesitantly. "I do not deserve you, but I want you. I cheated, but you were the reason I cheated on Rob. You overwhelmed me and swept me off my feet. I am here alone now." She had tears in her eyes. I went up to her and undressed her. Then she undressed me. We made love in between sobs. We quickly became a couple, and it was a minor scandal in the relatively small community until the folk realized we had been an item previously.

Sharon returned to Auckland with me after I finished my rotation. A year later, we went to Oxford where I did a PhD, and she did a course in hospital administration. She refused to marry me. "You can go any time, and I will understand. Know this, you are the love of my life, but you can walk out any time. I give you this as my act of devotion."

We remained a couple. I became a famous professor, and she eventually got to run a medium size hospital. We had 2 children. My mother died without ever acknowledging my kids and my father started a new family with his secretary. We were not close.