“So you want to be the father? Not go through in vitro like I’ve been doing? You could just donate the specimen.”
He chuckled. “Where’s the fun in that for me? Can you imagine the sex we’ll have getting you knocked up? You said it yourself. There’s no strings attached between us. We won’t be a husband and wife.”
I was still vibrating with aftershocks from multiple orgasms. The thought of sex like this for months trying to conceive was tempting. The kind of temptation I didn’t think I was strong enough to ignore.
“What would we be?” He had to know I would ask questions.
“Friends with baby benefits?”
“Is that a thing?”
He smiled. It was a killer smile. The kind that made women do crazy impulsive things like have sex at an unexpected reunion.
“It will be our thing. You know it’s a great idea.”
I cou
ldn’t believe how quickly I was able to check off the problems the arrangement would solve. I could pay off my debt. I could fund my writing. And I could have my dream baby. I looked at Jeremy as he dressed.
But it wouldn’t be an in vitro baby, fathered by FY9987. It would be Jeremy’s baby. It could have Jeremy’s eyes and nose. What if it looked only like him and nothing like me? I was ok with that possibility when I was going to use an anonymous donor, but facing the father was entirely different. What if we had a boy and he wanted to be a professional athlete too? What if I ended up having nothing in common with my own child? The thought terrified me.
“What would people think about us?”
He turned, buttoning his shirt. It wasn’t as crisp as it once was. “What do you mean?” He shrugged.
“You haven’t thought about any of the details. You just blurted this out.”
He threaded his belt through the loops on his dress pants. “I thought about it the entire time you gave me that blowjob.” He grinned. “It came to me in a moment of carnal clarity.”
My eyes narrowed. “Asshole.”
“Hey, I want to give you everything you want. I’m not an asshole. I’m more of a benefactor who gets exclusive fucking rights.” He bit his bottom lip and I felt the thrill it shot through my body.
“This is what you want? A loveless marriage? Between two people who barely know each other? That’s just sad, Jeremy.”
“My parents were married for forty years and lived a cold and isolated existence. This has to be better than what they had.” He sat next to me.
“That’s not what my parents have.”
“But you’re the one who said you didn’t need to get married. You’ve given up on it. So what difference does a piece of paper make? We do it to get the money. It’s simple.”
“For how long?”
“What do you mean?”
“When can we get divorced?” I asked. It wasn’t something my family would be happy about. They favored traditional Italian values with marriages that lasted a lifetime. But I was willing to be realistic. At some point I would want my full freedom back.
“Oh there’s no out to this marriage. Til death do us part, baby.”
I stared at him. “Why in the hell would you want to do this?”
“Because neither one of us wants to get married. So let’s not think about it that way. We can stay friends. We have an agreement. Really it’s like we’re not married at all, and then we don’t have to worry about that option on the table anymore for the rest of our lives. It’s like we’ve solved the marriage problem. It’s fucking brilliant.”
“And the baby? How are we going to raise a child like that?”
“That’s up to you. I don’t have that parental thing you do. It’s your baby, Evie. All yours. You can have the baby.”
He checked his phone again. “Come on. Get dressed and I’ll call a car to take us to the airport.”