“No,” I shook my head. “I don’t need to be venting to you about my situation. I’m sor--” Gerald kissed me and then pulled away slowly.
“Stop apologizing for how you feel.”
“You keep kissing me and I might have to apologize more often.” The words left my mouth before I even realized they were a thought. “Ugh. What the hell is wrong with me?”
“Relax, Kaylee,” Gerald laughed. “Go on about these five friends, school and-- isn’t the semester going to start soon?”
“Yes. That’s my other problem. Well,wasmy other problem,” I groaned and leaned back in my seat.
“What was the other problem?”
“Managing being pregnant and going to school. But now, I just need to worry about withdrawing from school, leaving, and telling the girls that I changed my mind.”
“When were you going to tell them?”
“When I get back home,” I shrugged and closed my eyes so I wouldn’t have to see Gerald’s look of disappointment. Not sure how I knew that’d be his reaction, but something inside me told me it would be.
It was low of me to do such a thing to my friends, but I couldn’t face them and the new lives they were about to embark on. They’d be at the school of our dreams facing no problems in the world. Meanwhile, I’d be going back home to be a part-time bartender and waitress or if worse came to worse, I’d be working at the hatchery.
“Can I ask you a hypothetical question?” Gerald’s words had me opening my eyes and looking at him.
He ran his hands through his short brown hair, and then took a deep breath. He seemed rather nervous.
“Remember, how we were talking about our mothers?” I nodded in response. “Well, my mother has been suggest--” he shook his head. “No. my mother has beennaggingme for years now about having an heir.”
I started to laugh at his emphasis onnagging, but his use of the wordheirhad my mouth gaping open.
“My friends… Ironically enough… there are five of us. Anyway, one of our other friends pitched the idea of using a surrogate to have our heirs.” He continued on. “He mentioned how the agency could narrow down ourperfectwoman...”
His use of air quotes made me want to laugh, but I didn’t want to ruin his moment of reveal. He sounded like he had it bottled up inside him for a while.
“We could pick a woman with a high I.Q., brown eyes, and Portuguese descent,” he looked at me, “That’s just an example. Not my preference.”
I nodded at his words.
“The way the guy made it sound, made it seem so easy. Like I just go select what features I wanted my kid to have, go jerk of--” he cleared his throat. “Sorry.”
I kissed him briefly and smiled.
“What was that for?” he laughed.
“You apologized.”
“Touche’, Kaylee. Touche’.”
“Go on,” I prompted, leaning against his shoulder. He pulled me closer to him and kissed my head.
“Where was I?”
“Jerking off.” I buried my head into his jacket to contain my giggle.
“Ah. Yes. The jerking off into a petri dish to create the perfect heir,” he groaned.
I never thought of it from the guy’s point of view. I just assumed that all of the men who went to the clinic were going with their significant others. I never thought of a single man using a surrogate so he wouldn’t have to deal with the mother.
“Did you… did you go through with it?” I asked faintly.
“Nope. Couldn’t even get it up if I tried.”
