by Lauren Wood
Tears sprang up in her eyes as she considered how much she had simply wanted to be loved. “Why couldn’t they just love me for me?” She asked herself, for what seemed like the millionth time in her life.
Shaking her head she didn’t want to focus on the bad things in her life. She looked up at the sign in front of the building, it read, Donors R Us.
Christy was frightened to take the step inside the door now that she had finally arrived. She thought to herself, this is a big step, are you sure you’re ready for this? Sure after she became pregnant, she still had a full nine months after to prepare more.
With that thought she opened the door and made her way to the front desk. The young woman looked up at her, a nice warm smile spread across her face.
“Hello, how may I help you?” Her voice was warm as well, it made Christy relax a bit more.
“Hi, I’m here for an appointment, Christy Simmons.”
“Yes here you are. This is a great day for you!” The receptionist stated.
“I know I’m very excited, but nervous as well.” Christy admitted.
“That’s normal for first time mothers. Now did you read the information we sent in your email?” The young woman asked.
“Yes.” She responded.
“You understand that this first time may not turn into a positive, but if not, you can come back.” The receptionist stated.
“I realize, but I’m hoping the first time will be lucky!” Christy smiled. She was beginning to feel more and more excited about having her own child.
“The doctor will be right out. You can have a seat while you wait.” The receptionist told her.
Christy went to sit down; she had picked out names for her child already. If it was a girl she would name it Alexandria, a boy she would name Alexander.
The truth was she didn’t care which she had, either would be nice. The main thing was she would have someone who was connected to her. Someone she could love unconditionally, and who would love her back.
The doctor came out and Christy followed him in back. The whole procedure took around ten minutes and she was back out the door. Christy decided she needed a little alone time, so she headed home to read a book.
Chapter 2
It had been around two weeks since she’d been artificially inseminated at the donor place. Christy sat on the edge of the tub, waiting for the results of her pregnancy test.
The five minutes seemed to tick by far too slowly. She put the stick down and tried to think of anything else. But her eyes kept going back to the stick, should she pick it up again?
With fingers shaking she grabbed the stick and closed her eyes. Saying a silent prayer before she turned it over, she saw the telltale sign, she was pregnant! Christy let out a whoop of celebration.
She picked up the phone to call the donor center to let them know of the test results. Surely they would want to see her to verify her results.
“Hello, Donors are us, this is Shelly.” The receptionist answered the phone.
“Hi, this is Christy Simmons; I was in two weeks ago.” Christy stated.
“Oh yes, hello Christy, is everything okay?”
“Yes, it’s wonderful. The results are positive; I just took a test this morning.” Christy felt elated.
“Wonderful, congratulations, this is great! I can bring you in today, around 2 or so. Is that good for you?” Shelly asked.
“That would be great.” Christy answered.
Since she worked at home as a freelance writer, she had no problem dropping her work and getting ready for the appointment. She smiled happily as she showered and got dressed.
Christy was on top of the world, she was going to finally have a child. “I’ll show them how good of a mother I can be, I don’t need anyone to help me.” She said proudly to herself as she drove to the appointment.
“Hello Christy.” Shelly welcomed her as she walked in the door of the center.
“Hello.” Christy smiled brightly.
“You can go right back to room 2, we had a cancellation.” Shelly said.
Christy went back to the room. She hated needles, but knew they would have to get some blood. As she sat thinking about the growing bundle in her stomach, she figured it was a small price to pay.
“Hello Ms. Simmons, I’m glad you could come in on such short notice.” The doctor said as he came into the room.
“Well I work from home, so it’s quite easy. I’m so happy about the positive result!” She said.
The doctor stopped for a second and looked at her. “Oh I thought you had come in because of the other thing.”
“What other thing?” Christy asked.
“Well it seems when we got the vial for your insemination. There was a mix-up and you got a different vial from the one you had picked. The donor you received sperm from isn’t the person you had chosen.” He said, looking down as he was quite embarrassed from the mix up.
“Wait, what happened?” She asked.
“You didn’t get the sperm from the donor you picked. Instead you received the sperm from another donor.” He said again.
“Oh, who is the donor I received from?” She asked. Christy had carefully picked the donor from a list. She had picked someone who had a certain look, that way the child had a better chance of looking more like her.
The doctor pulled a file from below his arm and handed it to her. “This is the sperm you received.”
Christy looked down. She read the name, Derrick Banner, age 22, college football quarterback. She looked at his picture; his dark black hair was a huge contrast to her blonde hair. His eyes were a piercing blue, while hers were brown. “But he looks nothing like me, or the donor I picked.” She said, not to the doctor, but more to herself.
“I’m really sorry. We can give you the name of a person who can end the pregnancy if you want. Then we can redo the insemination, at no extra cost of course.” The doctor said.
She looked up at him shocked, “End the pregnancy? Why would I do that? No I mean, I’m not really happy about this, however, I can’t end the life of this little person growing inside of me.”
The doctor smiled and appeared to relax a bit more. “Great, I’m glad to hear that. I personally don’t agree with abortion, however, you had the choice.”
“No I want to keep this child.” She said.
As he walked out of the room to get the nurse to draw blood, Christy sat thinking. The child would most likely come out with darker hair, though she wasn’t positive. She didn’t know enough about genetics. She absently rubbed her stomach as she wondered about the small pebble growing inside of her.
The test results showed up positive from the blood draw, and she left the center. “Derrick Banner, wow, who would have thought he was a sperm donor.” She said to herself.
She had met him a few times on campus. Christy had taken a few classes part-time at the University of Florida. Derrick had been in one of her classes once.
Christy thought back to the young man she had met around a year ago now. He had something about him, it screamed stardom.
Derrick was the star quarterback of the Gators football team. This year he would be a senior, and most likely be sought out for many NFL teams. He was hot; he played the game like he had been born to be a champion.
The thing about him she had remembered most was his kind manner. She hadn’t believed he was the sports star that everyone was talking about, he seemed so quiet and reserved in class.
They had worked on a few projects together during the year and had struck up a slight friendship. But after that class she had only seen him on television. Their paths hadn’t crossed on campus again.
She had requested that the center not tell him about the mistake, and that he was now a father. After all the people who donated to the bank didn’t have any responsibility to the children they helped to create. That was one thing she remembered about the paperwork.
Christy decided to stop by the book store on the way home. A nice read would b
e something to help her relax. She walked back to one of the sections with some older romance on the shelves. She loved reading those short stories; they helped her create her own spin on an older story.
She had picked up a few books and was walking while reading one of the covers. Christy went further back into the store. She loved the smell of all the old books that lined the shelves.
As she walked she suddenly ran into a brick wall and dropped all the books she had been holding.
“Oh I’m so sorry; I wasn’t watching where I was going.” A deep voice said as a hand was held down to help her up.
It hadn’t been a brick wall, but the chest of none other than Derrick Banner.
They both bent to get the books that had fallen, and banged their heads together.
“Hey, I remember you; we had a class together about a year ago.” He smiled.
Christy couldn’t believe he remembered her, but a warm feeling went through her at the knowledge. “Yeah, it was the creative writing course.” She smiled up at him.
“Are you taking any courses this semester?” He asked her.
“I was thinking about it.” She admitted.
“Hey you know what, I feel like I owe you a coffee for knocking you over. How about it? There’s a really nice place right down the block. Sometimes I take a book I’ve bought and go down there and read.” He said.
“How in the world are you left alone long enough out in public?” She asked him.
Derrick laughed, “It’s not easy, but there is this corner booth. I sit there, order my coffee and hold the book up over my face!”
“That’s a good idea! I would love a coffee.” She smiled.
Christy thought at the least she could get to know her child’s father, that way she would be able to tell him stories about his father. Not made up stories, but real ones.
They both went and paid for the pile of books both held. She looked at some of his choices and noticed him doing the same with her choices.
“You like those corny romances?” He chuckled.
Her pile had about 10 old romances and a couple of other books. “Yeah, they help me create my stories.”
“Your stories, oh that’s right, so you finally did the whole romance writing thing?” Derrick asked.
“How in the world do you even remember that?” Christy asked completely shocked.
“You know sometimes there are just people you meet that you remember.” He shrugged it off.
“Yeah, this is true.” Christy didn’t know what else to say.
He carried her books to her car for her. “You just want to walk to the coffee shop?” He asked.
“Sure, I usually walk, but had an appointment across town today.”
“Great.” He smiled and walked beside her.
Every once in a while their arms would brush against one another. Christy felt a spark ignite between them with each touch. But it could just be her, after all Derrick Banner probably had so many girls. She was surely plain looking compared to the beauties he could get on his arm.
“So how is the romance writing thing going?” He asked after they had ordered coffee.
“It’s going great. I mean I don’t have anything published under my name. Most of what I’ve sold is under other people’s names. However, I did just send out a manuscript for a story to a publisher. I’m hoping they will write back and my name will finally be on the front of a book!” She smiled. It had been her dream for years to have her name on the front of a book.
“Wow that’s really great. I’d love to read it.” He said.
“Right, you want to read a romance?” She laughed.
“No really, I’d love to see what you came up with.”
Christy looked at his eyes; he looked like he was serious. “Well I guess I could forward you a copy to your email. Just don’t share it with anyone else.”
“Oh never, I wouldn’t want to take any sales away from you!” He smiled.
“Exactly, I want to be a big seller!” She laughed. “So when does the new season start?” She asked.
“It starts next week. This is my last day off really. From here until the end of the season I’ll barely have any time to myself.” He said.
Christy noticed he looked a bit sad when he talked about it. “I thought you love the game?” She asked.
“Oh I love the game; I just seriously hate the hype that goes with it, especially when you are a good player. I have people approaching me all the time. NFL teams who want to convince me to go to them. It was the same when I was in high school. When I was a senior I had a lot of colleges come to games. They would offer me incentives to come to their school.”
“Oh wow. Isn’t that illegal?” She asked.
“Oh yeah it is. If I would have accepted something, and it was found out, well, all the records I’ve set, the championships I’ve helped win, they would be wiped off the record books.” He explained.
“That wouldn’t be good.”
“No so I turned them all away. You know the main reason I picked Florida?” He asked.
She shook her head no.
“Because all they did was give me a tour of their program. They never once hinted at anything to bribe me with to come here. I liked that honesty. It was between them and the University of Nebraska in my mind. I picked Florida because I hate the cold!” He laughed.
“Oh me too, I grew up in it, and don’t ever want to experience it again. But you know now that I’ve been in Florida for years, it gets so cold her during the winter months.”
“Where did you grow up?” He asked.
“A little town called Kearney, Nebraska.”
“Oh wow, that’s weird, my other choice was UN!” He repeated.
“Yeah I thought that was funny when you said that earlier too.” She admitted. “What about you, where did you grow up?”
“I grew up in Minnesota; it gets far too cold there. Maybe that’s why even the winters here seem so mild to me still!” He said.
The afternoon seemed to glide by and before she knew it the sun was setting. “Wow, how long have we been here? She asked when she saw the sun going below the horizon.
Derrick looked at his watch, “Wow it’s been a few hours. I hadn’t realized the time has flown by so quickly. You know I’m starving, how would you like to go grab a bit to eat?” He asked.
Christy couldn’t believe her ears, “Sure, I’d like that.” Right now she could image just how wonderful of a person their child could be, she almost blurted out that she had been inseminated accidentally by his seed. But she didn’t want to ruin his future.
Chapter 3
Derrick Banner wondered what he was doing, but there was something about her. In her presence he felt good. He knew he shouldn’t ask her to eat, should just leave now. But the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.
He was happy she had said yes, however, it would have been better if she had said no. Derrick needed to focus on his career completely.
It was his last year at Florida, and next year he would be in the NFL. He knew that his focus, all of it, should be on football. But when he had run into her at the bookstore, all thoughts of football had gone out the window.
He had remembered her fondly from the one class they had together. She had been so passionate about her writing, like he was about football. They had an instant connection; he had felt great around her then.
When she had accidentally bumped into him, he couldn’t believe his luck. Ever since that class, he had hoped to see her again.
The biggest thing he liked about her was, well just about everything. She was a simple girl, and she had it all together in her life. He wished he was like her in many ways.
She had a dream, and was on the brink of making it happen. He hoped that she would do well in the future. Part of him wanted to be a part of her future that was the side he should be keeping under control. But it was so nice to be sitting with her and just talking.
They took her car to the r
estaurant; he had walked to the store. He watched as she winded her little bug in between the busy traffic.
Derrick enjoyed the view from her side. He studied her profile several moments at a time, turning to look around when he thought she might notice he was staring at her.
“So what is the name of your romance?” He asked.
“Desert Storm, it’s set in Arizona, I think it’s a good story. But we’ll see what the publisher says; it may not be up to par.”
“I can’t wait to read it! I bet it’s great.” He replied, honestly meaning it.
“Thanks, I hope so.” She said, as he watched her skin turn a bright pink.
She looks so beautiful when she is embarrassed, he thought. He almost let the words slip out of his mouth. Derrick, you idiot, focus on football, not her, his mind called out. His heart though had other thoughts. He wanted to know more about her.
They parked and went to eat. The conversation was light; they shared stories about growing up in cold locations. Most of the talk centered on how neither of them wanted to live in a cold environment again.
“I will be so happy if I never live through another blizzard.” He stated.
“I know. I hate those storms. I walked home in one when I was in high school. I got frostbite on my one ear at the bottom. Man that stuff hurts.” She told him.
“I’ve seen some horrible cases of that in Minnesota.” He nodded his head.
Derrick felt his heart warming up to her quickly. He had always liked her; he had a secret crush on her when they had class together. He wondered if she was aware of it or not.
“You know I had this crush on you when we studied together. I always thought you were so passionate and intelligent.” He stated.
“Oh wow, I wouldn’t think I was your type.” She said.
He chuckled, “What is my type?” He had to see what she would say.
“I don’t know, like a model. You know one of those skinny girls who never eat but a few bites of food, so her figure doesn’t go over a size 1.”
He laughed hard, “Oh no, they are far too skinny. I like a woman who has some meat on her bone.” He answered, as his eyes swept over her ample body.