Chapter Six
Max
“Ok, it says our driver’s ETA is about twenty-five minutes,” Aly says, setting her phone down on the coffee table and settling back onto the couch between me and Forrest.
“So, should we wait and talk over dinner, or do we want to just rip the band-aid off now?” I ask.
“Way to beat around the bush, hon,” Aly quips drily.
“Might as well just talk now, while we wait,” Forrest says with a shrug.
Aly turns to him. “Ok. Well, there’s no way to do this other than to just dive in, so, Max tells me you offered to be a sperm donor for us?”
He nods. “Yeah, I mean, obviously you don’t have to if it’s weird or anything, but if I can help…” he shrugs.
Aly reaches out and takes his hand, giving it a squeeze. “Well, before I say anything else, I just want to thank you for offering, it means a lot.”’
His face reddens and he averts his gaze sheepishly. “It’s really not that big a deal,” he protests, “I jack off in a jar and then my part is over.”
She swats his leg lightly. “Don’t be gross,” she laughs, “And seriously, it’s more than that and you know it.”
I find myself staring at the two of them, watching them interact. There’s an ease between them, something relaxed and casual that reminds me a little of my own relationship with Aly. And I feel like that should piss me off, make me jealous, but it doesn’t, at all.
It actually kind of turns me on.
The chemistry between them seems to bring out some weird voyeuristic side of me I didn’t know existed, and I wonder if maybe it just comes from residual feelings for Forrest or something.
Sometimes I look at him and it’s like I can forget everything between us and just go back to the good times six years ago.
But I have to keep reminding myself that Forrest is my past, and Aly is my future, and I don’t plan to change that.
“So what’s the next step, then, for that? Do we talk to some sort of clinic? Do we need a lawyer or something?” Forrest asks.
“To be honest, I’m not exactly sure where we go from here. I mean, I would imagine we could go through some sort of sperm donation place?” Aly says, turning to look at me questioningly.
I shrug, completely unsure, myself. “I guess? Seems kind of weird to go pay someone to just…put stuff together, you know what I mean? We’re providing all of the elements.”
Aly’s already picked up her phone and started googling.
“Maybe they don’t charge you if you bring your own donor,” Forrest says with a chuckle.
Aly snickers. “I mean, even if they do, what’s the alternative, I stand on my head and you fill me up with a turkey baster or something?”
Forrest grimaces. “Now who’s the one being gross?”
Both of them chuckle, but gears are turning in my twisted brain, and I find myself opening my mouth before I can filter my thoughts. “Or we could just skip all of the shenanigans and just do it the old-fashioned way.”
Forrest and Aly both chuckle again, but then when Aly looks at me and sees that I’m not joining them in laughter, the smile slowly dissolves from her face. “You…wait, you’re not kidding?”
Forrest’s laughter dies in his throat and he turns to face me fully, his expression shocked. I shrug. “It’s a thought. I mean, think about it, what are the chances that it’ll be just a one-and-done thing? Do we really want to keep going back to some clinic over and over again, or would we rather do this at home, just us?”
“Ok, but there’s kind of a big difference between a doctor inseminating her with my sperm versus me sleeping with your fiancé!” Forrest says.
“Yeah, one sounds a lot more fun,” I reply bluntly.
Aly’s expression is completely stunned. “You’re really serious…you’re into the idea of me sleeping with another man?”
“We’re all consenting adults, right? Why not just cut out the middleman and have a good time while we do so?”