The satisfaction I craved never surfaced.
I waited for the sound of the back door to close before I arose. I showered quickly, opened the bedroom curtains, and sat in the center of the rumpled bed, legs crossed. My phone in front of me, I stared down at the business card and thought hard about making the call.
My stomach turned as I picked up my phone and dialed. It rang twice before he answered with a swift hello.
“It’s Mina,” I began. I bit the inside of my lip and told him what I needed. “You know that contact you have? I’m ready to see them.”
Silence followed, then he told me where I needed to go.
“Okay.” I wanted to smile, but couldn’t because my heart was caught in my throat. “Thanks, Pox.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, I called Nas and asked her a favor.
I needed a ride.
The clinic was small but clean, and a small woman dressed in scrubs saw me to an empty room. I didn’t want to go alone. Nas sat in one of the chairs, going through her phone.
I swallowed hard. “Hey,” I called, my tongue sticking to the roof of my dry mouth. “You coming?”
She blinked at me, searching my face a moment before seeing the fear in my eyes. She stood, and I breathed a sigh of relief as she followed me into the exam room.
We waited in complete silence. A few minutes later, a willowy woman with a messy bun and pink scrubs walked in, smiling. “Mina?” She looked from Nas to me, unsure of which woman was her patient.
“I’m Mina,” I said, sitting up straight and raising my hand like a schoolgirl.
Her smile widened as she sat. “Hi, Mina. I’m Dr. Henley. My brother called ahead. Told me you needed an IUD.” She paused then asked, “May I ask why you’ve chosen the IUD over the implant?”
Wait…Pox was her brother?
They looked nothing alike.
I wrung my hands together in nervousness and told her, “Lasts longer.”
She nodded in understanding then started to type on the open computer screen. “We don’t have them on hand, of course.” My face fell, but she went on. “I wouldn’t worry about that. I’ll hand you a script and send you next door. The pharmacist always has a ton of them.” She sighed lightly. “I have to tell you, Mina. I don’t like doing these rush jobs. In a normal scenario, we’d do an internal exam, a pap smear, and test for STDs before we inserted an IUD.” She glanced at me kindly and asked, “I don’t suppose you’d come back in a week?”
My voice weak, I spoke quietly. “I’d prefer not to. Doctors make me nervous.”
She nodded in sympathy. “Okay then.” Her face compassionate, she spoke gently as she told me. “I can’t do much without doing an internal first.”
I knew it was coming. Of course she’d have to look down there. It was where the darn thing was going.
Dr. Henley led me behind a curtained area, instructing me to remove my jeans and panties before pulling the sheet over my lower half. I did as ordered and found it easier knowing that Nas was only a yell away.
The exam was short and relatively painless and, satisfied with the results, Dr. Henley let me dress, leaving a glass of water and two painkillers on the tray table. I swallowed them down, stepped out, and she scribbled on a piece of paper before handing it to me. “Go on next door and ask for Marianne. She’ll have the order filled in a few minutes.”