"Make another billion."
"No philanthropy? No fulfilling a life-long dream?"
“After finding me a good woman to make me an honest man, I’m going to make another billion will be fulfilling a life-long dream so I'm good."
I turned to Andy. ”You and Shana getting married?"
"Probably," Andy said, his hands folded. "She's getting antsy about getting pregnant before she's too old."
I nodded, but felt strange. "I guess I'm the odd man out," I said. "Not getting married or starting a dynasty. I want to create a legacy that will outlive me. Space. That's my life-long dream."
"You would have been singing a different tune if this happened a year ago," Andy said, his eyebrows raised suggestively. Of course, I knew what he meant. Before I found out Jenna had been cheating on me.
"You're right, of course," I said. "I would have been planning the biggest wedding of the year. But that was then. This is now."
"You're the last man in your family. If you don't procreate, there will be no one to keep the family name going."
"I'll donate my sperm. Someone will carry on the genes, if not the name."
"A name is everything, man," Andy said. "You'll get over Jenna. You'll find someone else. I bet in a year, you'll be talking about buying real estate somewhere with some pretty young woman you fell for while you were in some port."
I laughed. "Not likely, but whatever."
"He likes this woman he met last week," John said, a sly grin on his face.
"Oh?" Andy said and leaned forward. "Do tell."
I shook my head. "She's a great woman, but I'm a confirmed bachelor."
"He's falling already and doesn’t know it," John insisted. "He's trying to deny it, but I know the truth."
Now Andy was all smiles. "Seriously? Who's the lucky woman?"
Then John relayed the story of how Alexa and I met.
"She actually pretended to be a call girl?"
When I nodded, he laughed.
"Oh, that is such a great story. You two can tell that one the rest of your life on the anniversary of your first date."
"You're full of it," I said, unable to stop smiling. "We're just a couple out of convenience. I'm faking it for her benefit, to keep the skinny Teaching Assistant out of her hair, and she's faking it for me so I can let my adoptive mother's best friend down easy that I'm not marrying her daughter."
"Faking it?" Andy said, a grin cracking his face. "Is he faking it? That's a real smile on his face."
John shook his head. "He really likes her."
"Keep deluding yourself," I replied and stood up, gathering up my files. "Well, enough girl talk. I have work to do finishing off the presentation. We can go over it next week before the meeting. I'll send it to you when I'm done."
We left the conference room and went our separate ways.
I was somewhat amused by Andy's and John's attempts to paint me as infatuated with Alexa. Sure, I'd love to fuck her brains out, but that was it.
They both had to get a life. I had plans for the next fifty years and they didn’t involve becoming a lapdog to some woman just so I could get my rocks off.
I'd learned that lesson with Jenna and wouldn't make that mistake again.
* * *