by Tasha Blue
She nodded subtly. “Yes. Biologically it would be half mine, but the agreement going in is that I would give it up to the couple and not see it again. These are procedures that are done for couples who for one reason or another cannot have their own children. I’d be helping someone else have a family.”
When she spoke the words aloud, the deeper meaning of what she was considering doing touched her heart, and she remembered that there was a lot more to it than just being paid a large amount of money. There was the fact that she was helping to create a life and a legacy for a couple who could not have children without her help. It was selfless, caring, and compassionate work. She felt a surge of pride and goodness rise up in her.
Andre sat up in his chair and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he looked at her. “You’re telling me that you want to get pregnant with some other guy’s kid, and you’re going to carry it for nine months, and it may or may not be your kid, and when it’s born, you’re going to give it up to them, they’re going to pay you for it, and you are going to just give up the kid like that and let them take it away and you’re going to take your money and leave, and that’s it?” he asked, his dark eyes locked on her.
Jamaica nodded. “Yes, that’s pretty much it.”
He shook his head. “I’m not having it. I’m not having my girl getting knocked up by some strange dude and carrying his kid around and then giving birth to it. You’d probably want to keep it then and that would be a huge mess. Chicks don’t like giving up their kids once they have them. It’s not happening.”
Andre was adamant. A series of emotions flashed through Jamaica. She was miffed that he would tell her what to do. She was proud of wanting to do it. She was afraid of doing it. She was angry that he was so defiant and unwilling to even consider it. She was uncertain of how much his opinion in what she did with her life and her body should really matter to her. She was many things, positive, negative, and almost the full spectrum in between.
“Andre, you can’t do that. You can’t tell me what to do with my body and my life. You’re my boyfriend, not my owner. We’re not even engaged.” Her mouth formed a solid line as she looked back at him.
“So, what… you’re saying that you definitely want to do this? You want to have some other guy’s kid? What if you and I do get engaged? Huh? What then? I don’t want kids. I don’t ever want to have kids, and here you are sitting here telling me that you’re about ready to go off and have some other dude’s kid! How do you think I’m going to react to that?” his voice grew sharp and loud.
She sat up straight and lifted her chin. “I expect you to talk with me about it like a mature adult. We haven’t discussed our future because you won’t discuss it with me. Every time I bring it up you change the subject and you don’t want to talk about it. So now we’re talking about it, so let’s discuss it. You just said you don’t want to have kids. So… is that like, ever? You never ever want to have kids? No family for you?”
Her heart was beginning to pound and her blood started to rush through her. She hadn’t considered that he was never going to want children.
“No, I don’t ever want kids. I want you and that’s it. Just us. I’m not even sure I want to get married, but that’s nothing that we need to talk about right now. That’s something we can leave for later. Right now, we’re talking about you having some other guy’s kid. I don’t want kids. Not now, not ever. I don’t want to be a father. I don’t want to be with some chick who has kids from another guy. I ain’t raisin’ no other guy’s kids. So that gives us a problem. Let’s say you take this crazy-ass job that you’re thinking about and you get knocked up for this guy… God, it’s like being a hooker, like being a prostitute almost… you’re getting paid to have some guy’s kid. Anyway… let’s say you get knocked up for the money and then at the end you decide you want to keep the kid. Where does that leave us? It leaves us broken up and done, ‘cuz I already told you, I ain’t raisin’ no one else’s kid. You’re my woman, and you need to keep your body here at home for me. I can’t even believe you’re thinking about doing this. It’s the craziest thing I ever heard of.” He shook his head in disgust and looked away from her as if he couldn’t stand to have her in his sight.
She felt fire beginning to burn within her. “I can’t believe you don’t ever want to have kids, and I can’t believe that you’re having such a hard time wrapping your stubborn head around this. I told you, I don’t keep the baby. It’s agreed upon and all settled at the beginning. I’m just carrying it for them to help them. That’s all. Some women have a hard time with pregnancy and they can’t carry their own babies, so they hire someone else to do it for them. That’s all that I would be doing… Helping out another couple. Carrying their baby for them and then giving it to them when it’s born. They take the baby, I take the money, and that’s it. There’s nothing else after that. I only signed up for it in college because I needed the money then, and I didn’t want to have any student loans or debt or anything, and I definitely didn’t want to have a kid back then; I was focused on school.”
He turned and looked sharply at her, and she went on with what she was telling him. “And by the way, it does not make me a prostitute, or anything like one. How dare you talk to me like that! I’d be getting paid to help them have a baby, and there is nothing at all wrong with that. Actually, it’s a noble thing to do. You’re making it sound cheap, and it isn’t. I don’t want you to worry about this at all. If I do decide to do it, you’re not going to be troubled at all, you’re not going to be saddled with someone else’s baby, you’re not going to be inconvenienced whatsoever! So I don’t even know what your problem with it is!”
Andre narrowed his eyes more at her. “Oh, I’ll be inconvenienced. My woman will be knocked up. You’ll be going through a whole pregnancy and I’ll have to deal with that, and I shouldn’t have to deal with that. I never wanted a pregnant chick. What am I supposed to do with you in the bedroom while you’re pregnant? You going to be giving me head for nine months? You going to be pleasing me and just holding back for yourself? Because I’ll tell you something, I’m not about to screw my chick while she’s carrying some other guy’s kid. That’s disgusting. I’m not going anywhere near you like that, and that is inconvenient as hell for me, because I’m not going nine months without some satisfaction from you, but I’m sure as hell not going to be in between your legs for anything!”
She felt sick to her stomach. She knew that there was no way around intimacy and being pregnant with another couple’s baby. He had a point and there was no argument to it. Things would be different between them in the bedroom if she was pregnant. “You know,” she began in a quiet voice, “as I understand it, women can have sex while they’re pregnant, so if you don’t want to be with me during the pregnancy, then that’s your own choice, but it’s not something that we’d have to stop doing unless you wanted to stop. That’s all on you.”
He shook his head and sneered. “I’m not doing it. No way. You got some other guy all up in you like that, I’m staying out until it’s done and gone. That’s disgusting,” he reiterated.
She sighed and looked away. “I haven’t even decided whether or not I’m going to do it. I told the lady that I’d meet with her tonight, but I wanted to talk with you before I saw her. I only put myself in the program to begin with because I needed the money. I don’t need the money now, but it would be really nice to have it, and nine months doesn’t seem like it would be that long. I think it would fly right by.”
He sat in angry silence for a long while and then looked over at her. “I can’t even believe you’re considering this. How much money is it anyway? What amount of money would even make you think about doing something that sick?”
She turned her head toward him and spoke with a poker face. “Five hundred thousand dollars,” she answered in a level tone.
He froze and stared at her. Birds chirped in the trees above them. Cars sounded in the distance of streets a short distance awa
y. “Five hundred thousand dollars?” he repeated in disbelief. “You’re telling me that some guy is going to pay you a half a million dollars to carry his kid around for nine months?”
She turned her head away from him and looked out at the street before her home. “Yes.”
Andre whistled long and low, shaking his head as he sat back in the chair. “Well now… that might be a little bit different,” he said quietly. Looking back at her he raised his chin a little.
“So, you go to the doctor, they put the fetus in you, you carry it around for nine months, have the kid, they take the kid right away, and they give you half a million dollars.” He said it slowly and purposefully, as if he didn’t want to leave any part of it out.
Jamaica looked back at him. “That’s exactly it.”
He gave a nod. “All right then, you can do it, but only if you never bring that kid here, and only if you get paid that money. You bring the money home to us, and you make sure you get rid of that kid as soon as it’s out of your body. You do that, and I’ll be okay with it. I still ain’t touching you while you’re knocked up, but you can do it. You have my permission.”
She glared hotly at him. “I don’t need your permission!” she snapped at him.
He stood up and shot her a nasty look. “You do if you want to keep me around,” he said quietly, and then he turned and walked off of the porch and down the sidewalk to his car. She watched him go, seething inside as she watched his car disappear.
It infuriated her that he had responded the way that he had, and she had learned something that they had never discussed in serious detail before. He didn’t want to have kids. Ever. She let that roll around in her mind as she sat there and thought about him and tried to calm down. She did want a family, badly, and she knew that if he was that against ever having a family of his own, that she was probably going to have to make a decision about him, and soon. She was either going to have to give up on the idea of having her own family so that she could be with him, knowing that he might not even ever marry her, or she would have to break up with him and start guy hunting for herself, because she’d be starting from scratch again.
A short while later she got into her car and drove downtown to meet Cara Landers. If nothing else, she knew that they were going to have a very interesting meeting, no matter how it went.
Chapter4
They met at a coffee shop near the waterfront in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle. Cara was already sitting at the table when Jamaica arrived, and when she walked through the door, there was no mistaking that it was her.
Jamaica had a curvaceous figure, but her legs were long and her body was lean and strong. She looked as though she might have stepped off the cover of a fitness or fashion magazine. Her clothes were stylish and flowing, and her body seemed to move in the same way that her clothes did, as though she were pretty poetry in motion, floating through whatever air she happened to be walking through.
The smile on her face was warm and sweet, and her eyes were filled with kindness and friendly compassion. Cara stood up and reached out to shake her hand.
“Thank you so much for meeting with me,” she said with a smile and a lift of her chin. Jamaica nodded and smiled back at her, still in a state of shock that she had even gotten the phone call to begin with, and wondering at the miracle that she was facing directly across from her.
The redheaded woman before her was wearing a soft pink sweater dress and heels, and her hair was combed down around her chin, curling under at the ends. She looked partly like a sweet doll, and partly like a sexy vintage woman, but there was something else about her that Jamaica couldn’t quite put her finger on; something hidden and perhaps sharp, though she didn’t feel that it was of any consequence to her.
“I’m glad to meet with you Miss Landers. Thank you for calling me. I still can’t quite believe that I got this phone call,” Jamaica admitted, dazed at the surreal situation she had found herself in.
They both sat and Cara gave her a bright smile. “Please, call me Cara,” she began.
“Feel free to call me Jami, if you like. That’s my nickname,” Jamaica replied with a smile.
“Very well, thank you,” Cara responded as they sat together. She took a breath and leveled her gaze. “I’m going to skip the formalities and just jump ahead into the discussion. I am the private secretary of Henry Ellison. Do you know who he is?” she asked, wondering if the woman before her had any idea of the breadth of the tech world and just how important Henry was in it.
Jamaica shook her head. “No, I’m afraid that I don’t.” she told Cara honestly.
Cara nodded. “Well, that’s easily handled. He’s a billionaire, made so by his father’s work in the stock market, and by his own brilliantly innovative work in the technology industry. He is a considerable leader in the world of technology, on a global level.”
Jamaica gave her a nod and listened. She wasn’t impressed with money or power, and she was curious to see just what it was that was going to be offered to her, and what it was that the tech genius wanted from her.
Watching Jamaica, Cara could see that the lovely young woman wasn’t fazed at all by the name or the significance of it. She felt a little put off about it, but she knew that there was still a way to draw in the young woman.
“Henry is anxious to have a family started right away. He is ready to be a father right now, and unfortunately, he is officially single right now, so that presents a problem for us. Or, I guess… for him.” She laughed lightly and waved her hand dismissively in the air. “It comes down to this. We would like to hire you to carry and give birth to children for him, and we would like a multiple birth pregnancy. Two or more. If there are more than two, then that’s all the better. We aren’t concerned with how many we are able to have, as long as it’s more than two.” She watched Jamaica closely as she spoke, taking in every minute bit of reaction from the young woman, but Jamaica wasn’t giving off much reaction. She was listening, but not responding enough that Cara could tell just exactly what she was thinking.
Jamaica tilted her head a little and looked at Cara carefully. “If this is so important to Henry, why isn’t he here for this interview? Doesn’t he want to meet the potential mother of his children? Isn’t he even a little curious about who I am or what I’m like? I’d think that this would be such a big decision for him that he’d want to be part of every aspect of it.”
Cara’s mouth pressed into a thin line and the corners of it turned up just slightly, as if she was making herself smile somewhat. “He would have liked to have been here of course, but he does have other things going on that are not allowing him to be here for this. He has entrusted it to me. It is of great importance to him, but I am his right hand, and he does trust me with everything. We almost couldn’t be closer.” She looked proud of the fact.
Jamaica wanted to ask a little more about it, trying to work out in her mind just how it was that a man could want children so badly and yet not feel the need to meet the woman who might be giving him those children. Instead, she just nodded. Cara did seem to have a solid handle on the whole thing, and when it came right down to it, the only thing that she would really be responsible for was carrying and delivering the children, so the rest of it wasn’t actually her business. A thought occurred to her then and she leaned forward toward Cara with a questioning look.
“So I won’t be spending any time with these babies, will I? This is strictly just carrying them and then delivering them, but nothing more than that, right?” Andre’s sharp words were still echoing around in her mind.
Cara shook her head. “That’s absolutely correct. You will go through the in-vitro fertilization process, you will become pregnant, you will carry the children, and then you will give birth to them. There is no further responsibility after that. That will be all that you do. From the day of the birth, Henry and I will be taking over the parenting responsibilities and your duties will be completed. You’ll be paid the five hundred thousand dollars, a
nd you will be released from the agreement at that time.”
Jamaica nodded in comprehension. “Well, I have given this nothing but thought since your phone call, and I’ve talked it over with my boyfriend-”
Cara brightened immediately. “You have a boyfriend! That’s wonderful news. Is he all right with you doing this?”
“Yes, I guess he is. We talked about it and I’m here. He wanted to be sure that there would be no further involvement on my part after the birth. Since you said there won’t be any further responsibilities, then I suppose that this is an easy step forward, one that he would be all right with, and I can accept the position if you want me to.” Jamaica felt as if the entire universe was inside of her and that it was spinning madly in a whirlwind.
Cara smiled. “It looks like we’ve reached an agreement then. You are hired, and I’m so pleased to give the job to you. I think that you’ll be perfect for what we need, and you’ll do just fine with it. You’re really the best possible person for the position.”
“I’m glad to be of help to you. I know that the doctor’s office visits are covered by Henry, but is there anything that I’ll need to take care of financially?” she asked, beginning to wonder about the finer details of the agreement.
With a shake of her head, Cara answered, “No, you will have no expense coming from this pregnancy whatsoever. Your doctor’s visits are covered, your every need as far as clothing, transportation if it’s needed, all your groceries and health care will be covered, and anything else that might come up. Our first priority is keeping you healthy, strong, and well looked after while you’re carrying and delivering the babies. We’ll also be taking care of your post-natal care for three months. If there is anything you need after that, I’m sure that we can work it out. Do you have any other questions?”
Jamaica could hardly believe that she was answering the way that she was, but she shook her head and swallowed hard. “No, I don’t have any other questions. I’ll be glad to take the job if you want me, and I can go in to the doctor’s at any time, as you said that the timing on this was important.”