Just before sunset, a rainstorm swept through the village and forced Gabe and the rest of the mission team to call it a day.
When they returned to the orphanage, they dispersed for some quiet time before dinner.
Most of the older children who lived in the orphanage were helping prepare tonight’s meal, so Gabe took the liberty of lounging on the sofa in their rec room. Sleep tugged at him, but before it won, he mentally tallied up the number of women and children he had examined during the day.
All of the AIDS patients in the area continued to visit the clinics where they routinely received treatment when the missionaries were in town, but Gabe had seen men, women, and children with just about every other kind of ailment.
Some needed the bulk supply of vitamin D supplements he had given them to prevent or slow the progression of rickets. Some needed kits to cure yeast infections. One child had a bug bite that had become grossly infected because it had gone untreated for so long. Gabe delivered two antibiotic shots and, through a translator, instructed the boy’s mother how to properly clean the wound.
Their faces floated across his mind’s eye, and Gabe felt satisfied, knowing that even on a workday cut short by the weather, he had done some good.
Veronica sauntered into the recreation room and joined him on the sofa. She knew as well as he did that it was inappropriate in Ugandan society for an unmarried man and woman to be alone like this, but Gabe decided not to play enforcer.
“Where’s everybody else?” he asked.
She shrugged, curled her feet beneath her, and moved closer. She rested her chin on his shoulder. “What’s up, Gabe?”
He frowned and glanced around to make sure no one was coming. “Veronica, what are you doing? We’re in a public place! And what are you talking about, ‘What’s up?’ We’re done, remember?”
She moved closer. “We don’t have to be, Gabe,” she said softly and nibbled his ear.
He felt his body betraying him and tried to move away. Veronica grabbed his arm. “I only broke it off because I was tired of being in second place, behind Miss Beauty Queen Rachelle. I didn’t mean what I said last month. I just wanted you to think I was going to the medical conference to find another . . . ‘friend.’ I was being silly and jealous. I’ll take you however you want—part-time, full-time, in between. We’ve been together too long to turn back now, Gabe. Haven’t you missed me?”
Before he could respond, she twisted her body and plopped on his lap. She leaned in to kiss his lips and pressed herself into him.
Gabe stood up quickly and she hit the floor with a thud.
“Ow!” She tried to stifle a scream. “What the—”
He scowled at her. “You must have lost your mind. We are on a mission trip, Veronica. With a bunch of Christians, and you are trying this? We agreed that it was over and it is. I . . . I love my wife.”
Gabe was surprised by his own admission, but uttering those words helped him realize they were true. He did love Rachelle; he’d just gotten caught up in life, and in acting out the American Dream, as defined by the world at large.
Just these few days away from that environment had begun to open his eyes to something more meaningful. And seeing the partnership Stevens had with his wife, Chrissa, made him wonder what he and Rachelle might be missing.
He glared at Veronica, still sitting on the floor. How had he allowed himself to get entangled with her? With her flawless ebony skin and high cheekbones, coupled with a voluptuous body that she took good care of, she was fine, for sure. A ten from head to toe. But she also was spoiled rotten. If life wasn’t going her way, it wasn’t going to go anybody’s way.
“Yeah, we’re on a mission trip, but you and I both said this was more about gaining professional clout than anything else,”
Veronica reminded him. “Now that you’ve arrived in this hot and raggedy place, you’re really beginning to care? Give me a break, Gabe.”
She stood up and dusted off the tight, designer jeans that accentuated her impressive curves. DKNYs seemed so unfitting in a Third World country, but he had realized Veronica was determined to turn heads wherever she could, no matter who she offended. Stevens would be furious when he saw her. He had repeatedly asked Veronica and other women making the trip for the first time to dress modestly, in deference to the culture they’d be entering.
“You don’t want this anymore?” she asked Gabe and ran her hand up and down the length of her body, as if she were a Price Is Right prize. “I’ve told you before, someone else will be happy to fill your shoes, baby.”
She rolled her eyes and strutted toward the door, where she paused.
“And by the way, if you aren’t afraid of what it means to ‘dis’ me, you need to be. I have your home number and your wife’s cell.”