“I can't imagine how difficult that has been for you and your family.” Another squeeze. I tried to pull away but his hand was firm.
“I value you as an employee here. It's been a joy to have you as part of the team. In the future, I look forward to working even closer together,” he said. One more squeeze and then he released my shoulder. I didn’t think I liked the way that sounded but I was pretty sure I had just gotten him to agree to give me more money.
“Thank you for your consideration,” I said. I got up and nodded politely at him. I walked out, feeling his eyes on my ass. He had never crossed a line before, but boy did he love to toe it. I stopped at my desk for a bit before going to the break room for a coffee. I was alone. I leaned on the counter, blowing on my coffee to cool it while browsing the paper someone left in there. I flipped mindlessly through the pages, looking for the comics. They weren’t in there. I kept flipping for something to look at and landed on the classifieds.
I chuckled at a couple of listings for massage services. Right, not the kind of massage you got at a high-end spa, that was for sure. A heading in all caps caught my eye. SURROGATES NEEDED. I put my coffee down and picked the paper up. The next thing I saw was the payment.
Fifty thousand dollars.
Well, if they wanted to get my attention, they had it. I scanned the ad. Gestational surrogate wanted. Mentally and physically healthy woman between the ages of twenty-three and thirty-three. History of childbirth preferable. A phone number was listed beneath.
Talk about a sign. Fifty thousand dollars was just what I needed. It would let me pay for my mother’s treatments. It probably wouldn’t cover the whole thing but this kind of windfall would go a long way before I needed to start looking for something else on top of it. I had never gotten fifty thousand dollars for nine months of work before. It was just having someone’s baby. I could do that.
Could I do that?
I had never thought about doing that. I could, you know, theoretically. I was healthy and I was between twenty-six. I hadn’t had a child before but I wasn’t on birth control, never been in my life, I didn’t smoke or do drugs and I didn’t have conditions that would make it difficult for me to carry a baby. I wasn’t in a relationship so it wouldn’t be weird for me to be pregnant right now. I had the time to be pregnant since I hadn’t had a social life since my mother had gotten sick. Maybe it would even be fun. I’d get to experience pregnancy and childbirth and at the end of it, I would have fifty thousand dollars. In theory, I could do it. Reality, however, was a different story.
Fifty grand was on the table though. What would I do for that much money? I looked at the ad while sipping my coffee. Fifty big ones. I took my phone out and snapped a picture of the ad, then left to go back to my desk.
3
Charles
“Do you realize what kind of position you put me in?”
“Mother, I…”
“Honestly, Charles. It's embarrassing. These women aren’t just girls I pick up off the street. Their parents know about the dates. Do you realize how humiliating it was when Denise Barringer called me to say you walked out on her daughter and said she’d always be a spinster?”
“I didn’t call her a spinster, I said I was going to be the spinster.” I paused, rubbing a hand over my face. “I just said I didn’t think it would work and I’d be better off single.”
“You left the girl alone on a date. Someone might have seen her,” she said.
“I know what I did was wrong. I’ll apologize to her personally, okay?”
“What was wrong with her?” she asked.
“What? Nothing. She was fine. She’s beautiful. She just isn’t for me.”
“Young people these days, I swear. It’s the diet of fairy tales you’ve been fed your whole lives. There’s no such thing as fairy tales, Charles. There are no soulmates. You meet someone you like, whose values you share, and you learn to live together.” More like you meet a rich woman of similar social standing whose parents I approve of and you marry her for the reputation of your family and wealth maintenance.
God, how bleak was that. I didn’t want a roommate and I didn’t want to marry someone because she came from the right kind of family. I didn’t want someone that I tolerated. I wanted to love my wife. Was that too tough an ask?
“I’m sorry mum, I wouldn’t marry a woman unless I loved her. I’m not going to.”
“You’re not like everybody else, Charles. You aren’t common. You have responsibilities. You have your title. You have your estate. It’s your job to make sure they are passed smoothly to an heir…”
I put the phone down and let her keep talking. I had heard this speech before. I had a duty to my family and my name before I had a duty to myself. I had to think about what my father would want and to carry on his legacy. Blah, blah, blah. I knew it was classless walking out on Annaliese like that. I really was going to give her an apology but if I had known that this was on the horizon, maybe I would have waited it out until dessert.
Mum was really mad this time. It felt like it got worse. In the beginning, when I’d turn down one of her handpicked beauties, she’d try and convince me to go on a second date with them. Now she was using straight-up shame tactics. What next? She’d set me up and I’d show up for the date and it would be at a chapel where she wouldn’t let me leave until I signed a marriage certificate?
“… do you understand?”
“Huh?”
“Not ‘huh’. Say ‘pardon’,” she said. I rolled my eyes.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you.”