• Bachelor never minds it when things move too fast, but should he hit the breaks?
Image: PEXELS
Diary,
I thought America had delivered all the shocks there is to see here, but boy was I mistaken. As it turns out, America saved the best for last. With the medical conference in Chicago now coming to a close, I sit at a table, taking stock of all I’ve seen and learned here. Then I hear the most beautiful voice behind me.
‘Already tired of the land of king burgers and mind-numbing slurpees?’
I look back and the speaker looks as beautiful as she sounds. Somewhere in my mind, a voice says, If she asks me to marry her, I’m in.
I mean, I’ve never been this smitten by a woman at first sight.
‘Cat got your tongue?’ she asks before sitting across from me. ‘Dr Tom Ojiambo from Kenya.’
‘You know me?’
‘You have a name tag that says “Dr Tom Ojiambo, Kenya.” But I did notice you since day one.’
‘Fair enough.’ I feel like a dolt. ‘And I see you’re “Dr Lilly Apiyo, Kansas.”’
‘Guilty as charged.’
‘Lilly Apiyo from Kansas?’
‘Long story. My parents moved here when I was six. End of story.’
We laugh, and it goes on from there. We take a walk that ends at the park, share an ice cream cone and get kicked out of a stranger’s gender reveal party.
By the time we get to the hotel where she is staying, we’re soaking wet from a sudden rain.
‘That was wild,’ I say outside the hotel. ‘I better go home and change into something—’
Lilly kisses me on the lips. ‘You can come up and take a shower.’
She disappears inside and I’m almost fainting outside. I follow her up to her room.
‘Mind if I take a shower first?’ she asks.
‘Of course not.’
Left to my devices, I walk around the room, admiring some knickknacks she had brought from home to make her room homey. I’m staring at a photograph when I hear Lilly’s voice behind me.
‘You can come join me if you want.’
I turn around, holding the photo in front me. Lilly is standing at the entrance to the bathroom in nothing but a towel. ‘What are you doing with that?’
‘How do you know this man?’
‘That’s my father,’
‘He can’t be. He’s my uncle Okech.’
In her shock, Lilly drops the towel and it hits me. My cousin is standing naked in front of me.