“I want to protect you and our baby. I want to make your lives as comfortable and as safe as possible. Why won’t you let me do that?”
“Your baby. I’m just the surrogate, remember? If it wasn’t me, your doctors had a whole list of other disposable wombs-for-hire on standby.”
“Brenna…”
“I signed a contract to do this and I haven’t deviated from it once. Please, leave me alone.” I dropped her arm. She took off up the stairs and shut herself up in her room.
Disposable. Womb-for-hire. That was what I thought about surrogacy in the beginning too, but we didn’t go through the artificial insemination process. But then I showed up at the center and the doctors had managed to select the love of my life as my surrogate. That was the moment she stopped playing that role, honestly. She was not just an incubator for the baby. We had sex and conceived our child naturally. I wouldn’t be doing this without her. I didn’t have a baby, a future or the life I wanted without her. Disposable?
I ran up the stairs to her room. I knocked on the door. She didn’t say anything. I had to talk to her. I couldn’t let that conversation be the last one that we had together. I opened the door.
She was on the bed. Her eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks were flushed. Perfect. Well fucking done, Charlie. Go ahead and make the mother of your child cry. I never wanted to see her like that. Even more, I never wanted to be the reason she was like that. I walked in and sat on the bed next to her. We sat in silence for a few moments. I wanted her to know that I would leave if she asked me to, but she didn’t. I wrapped an arm around her.
“Can we talk about what’s wrong, babe?” I asked. She sniffed. I got up and grabbed a Kleenex box from the vanity and brought it to her.
“What’s going to happen between us, Charlie?” she asked.
“We’re having a baby, Brenna.”
“I realize that. That’s the problem,” she sniffed, dabbing her face dry.
I stopped. “Aren’t you happy about the pregnancy?”
“That’s not what I mean,” she said, grabbing another Kleenex from the box. “I’m pregnant. The baby’s going to be here in nine months. Have you told your mother yet?”
“Brenna, don’t…”
“Don’t tell me not to worry and don’t tell me everything’s going to be okay. Your mother is never going to accept me. We both know that.”
“Why are we talking about my mother all of a sudden?”
“I overheard your conversation when she came over. Everything she said about finding you a suitable woman? She didn’t mean me, Charlie, and don’t try and make me feel better by saying you can change her mind.”
“Let me deal with my mother,” I told her. She shook her head.
“I… I need this to work. If this falls through in any way, I’m screwed. I don’t think I’m going to have my job for much longer so this has to work.”
“What do you mean you won’t have your job for much longer?”
She shook her head again and waved a hand. “Forget about it. Basically, I need this to work.”
Something was going on with her job and she didn’t want to tell me. I hated that resistance from her. Hated it. I wanted her to feel safe telling me anything. Everything. But I couldn’t force her to get to that place. I had to show her that it was safe to be that vulnerable and let her do it herself. I pulled her in. “Brenna, you’re here because I don’t want you to worry about anything. Whatever happens, I am going to take care of you.”
She shifted away from me. “I don’t want your charity, Charlie.”
“I’m not offering it.” She sniffed and looked at me.
“You’re paying me, Charlie.”
“The money has nothing to do with it. I’d hand over anything for you. You’re the most important person in my life. Nothing, nobody, no amount of money could replace you,” I said to her. She wasn’t crying anymore but I couldn’t tell what she was feeling. I cupped her face and leaned in, kissing her. She kissed me back.
I hoped she believed me. I needed her to. A sign, any sign at all that I wasn’t in this alone and she realized how important this and she were to me. I cupped her face, then my hands run down her body. She grabbed one of my hands so I cupped her breast. My cock came to life. She broke the kiss and stood up.
“Could you unzip me please?” she asked. I got up and unzipped her dress, running my hands over her exposed shoulders, sliding it off. She shimmied it off o
ver her hips, stepping out of it. She was in a simple matching thong and bra set but seeing her undress and knowing what was coming next were making my mouth water. I started on my clothes, taking them off while she watched, taking her time with her own. she climbed onto the bed and waited for me, unhooking her bra.
I went straight for her breasts when I was naked. I kissed and sucked each one reverently. The day I got tired of her body was the day that the sun rose from the west. I wasn’t a breast man or an ass man, I was her man.