Clarisse sat nervously waiting for the doctor to arrive, she didn't have the time to travel to the medical center, so he would be coming to her today.
Clarisse had never felt uncomfortable about having to see a gynecologist, her mother always told her it was in her best interest, so when it came to answering the awkward questions they might ask and putting their tools inside her, she always felt at ease. That is until now.
Clarisse's hands were shaking wildly, she knew by heart the questions that would be asked by the doctor and she wasn't sure this time if she wanted to answer them truthfully.
There was a knock on the door which caused her to let out an accidental, "Ahh!"
Straightening herself up, she added, "I mean come in."
She rose out of her chair and started fidgeting, then smoothed out her skirt and tried to keep her hands still as the door opened and the doctor took her hand to kiss it, "Your majesty, a pleasure to see you again."
"Dr. Andrews, how have you been?"
"Quite well, yes, quite well, yourself?"
She stood still for a moment, "Uh...never better. Do sit down, can I offer you some tea?"
He opened his briefcase and sat on the couch, "Actually, no, it took so long to get through security that I'm now late for my next appointment."
"Oh I am sorry about that."
"Not to worry, I've called ahead and told them I'll be late."
"How very commendable."
Clarisse continued to shake and fidget while the doctor drew out his clipboard and began the questioning, "Let's get down to it, have you been experiencing any discomfort recently?"
She sighed with relief, "No."
"When did I last see you?"
"About a year and a half ago."
He wrote something down on his clipboard and looked up, "Have you been experiencing irregular itching or soreness?"
"No."
He scribbled some more notes down and asked the question Clarisse dreaded most, "Are you currently sexually active?"
Clarisse froze and began rambling, "I...well...I uh...you see the thing is...uh...I'm not sure what...I mean I...umm...I need a drink of water."
Abruptly she leaned forward and grabbed a full glass of water from the tray in front of her, drowned it down in seconds and slammed it back down. The doctor eyed her suspiciously, he'd never seen her act this way, "Are you alright?"
"Yes!" She practically yelled at him, "Sorry, it's just...I feel a little uneasy because of...because I...I am...sexually active at present."
Dr Andrews dropped his pen and it fell to the floor, because for the past fifteen years she'd been answering that question with "no".
Clarisse didn't make eye contact with him, instead she pretended to fix her hair.
There was an awkward silence in which both doctor and patient sat still. They didn't know what they were waiting for, but when Dr. Andrews leant over to pick the pen off the floor, the silence broke and he cleared his throat, "Ehem, so you are sexually active then?"
It was almost harder to say it the second time, "Yes."
"Okay then, how long have you been sexually active?"
Clarisse began to suspect he was interrogating her, she thought back when her son had passed, how long had it been exactly?
"Look, it's not what you think!" Clarisse began, "I didn't plan on...falling in love, it just happened! After Philippe's funeral I was feeling vulnerable so Joseph walked me up to my suite, we had a few drinks and he leant a shoulder to cry on. Next thing I knew we were in each others arms, making love on the sofa."
The doctor shifted uncomfortable realizing he was probably sitting on the sofa she'd just described.
"I didn't ask for it to happen, it's just one of those things! Ever since then I've been with him every chance I can get, it's as if he's awoken something inside me that's been sleeping for a long, long time. Now I can't get enough. Is that normal?"
Dr. Andrews sat wide-eyed, he couldn't believe what he was hearing, "O...kay...I'll ask again, how long have you been sexually active?"
Clarisse's face was bright pink from her earlier outburst of unnecessary information, "I'd say about thirteen months...two weeks, three days, nine hours and I don't know, twenty-seven minutes?"
Obviously the doctor was taken back by her attention to detail, "I didn't need you to be that precise, but thank you. In this time, have you had multiple sexual partners?"
"Oh no, just him, just...Joseph," she blushed.
"Have you engaged in unprotected sex at any stage?"
She closed her eyes and nodded, smiling inside as she remembered how happy he'd made her just last night.
"Alright, that concludes the questions."
For several minutes Clarisse lay down as he fiddled around inside her with metal objects, she felt an enormous amount of guilt at having admitted to a secret affair, yet at the same time she felt excited about finally talking openly to someone about how Joseph made her feel. She wondered what the doctor was thinking, she'd mentioned Joseph's name somewhere in her rambling. She thought he was probably silently shaming her for having sexual intercourse with a man who was not married to her. But as she lay back in thought, she realized it didn't matter what might be going through his head. What mattered most at that moment was what was going on in her head, all she could think about was holding the man who taught her to love.
And the mere thought of him was enough to make her smile.
Original or what? Something I came up with in the middle of writing something else. I thought it would be funny if Clarisse had to answer some awkward and embarrassing questions. Please REVIEW if you liked it, please REVIEW if you didn't like it ;)
Thanks for reading it!