Brother's Best Friend's Package

by Cassandra Bloom

  She carried the strip downstairs and called the clinic. “I'm supposed to be undergoing artificial insemination and I've been testing my urine for ovulation. I just used my last strip, and I haven't ovulated yet.”

  “You better come in.” The receptionist made an appointment for that morning.

  Mila found herself in the same doctor's office. The doctor smiled the same reassuring smile. “This happens sometimes. We might need to test your ovaries. You might have some hidden fertility problem we don't know about.”

  Mila froze. “How can I have a fertility problem? I'm twenty-seven years old.”

  The doctor shrugged. “We see it all the time. You're never too young to have problems, but first we'll do some routine blood work. Sit right there. I'll do the draw now, and we'll have the results in fifteen minutes.”

  She tightened a strap around Mila's arm and took a vial of blood. Mila pretended to read magazines in the waiting area, but her heart raced. What if she had some fertility problem? What if she couldn't get pregnant at all? Her whole deal with Marcus would be off. She would have to find some way to return the $100,000 he already advanced her. That would mean she couldn't pay off her mother's mortgage after all.

  Nightmare scenarios haunted her. That was the longest fifteen minutes of her life. At last, the receptionist called out, “Mila? You can go inside now.”

  She resisted the urge to run back to the doctor's office. She sat there alone for another five minutes before the doctor came in. The doctor set a file folder on the desk and smiled at Mila. “The good news is you don't have a fertility problem.”

  “Really? That is good news. So why am I not ovulating?”

  The doctor leaned forward. “You're not ovulating because you're pregnant.”

  Mila blinked. “What?”

  The doctor opened her folder. “I guess it just happened naturally. Your partner Marcus's sperm samples are all strong, full sperm samples, so he doesn't have any fertility problems, either. You're pregnant. Congratulations.”

  Mila couldn't answer. How she got out of that office, she had no idea. She found herself walking down the street. People bumped into her, bounced off, and disappeared into the crowd.

  She was pregnant. Should she be happy or sad? Isn't this what she wanted? Isn't this what Marcus paid her for? She already sent the first $100,000 to her mother's bank, as well as half the first $10,000 of her spending money.

  Now what? Marcus would be pleased. She would go on living in that condo. She would go on working on her Masters' Thesis, just like he said she would. She would take her daily walks and work out in the gym. Nothing would change—nothing but her.

  She was pregnant, but not the way she thought she would be. She didn't get pregnant from lying on some doctor's table getting inseminated with a vial of sperm. She got pregnant from fucking Marcus in the back of his limo. That shouldn't make any difference, but it did.

  This baby was half her and half Marcus. This baby wasn't some test tube experiment. It was the product of their insatiable passion for each other. What difference did that make? Did the fact that they did it invalidate their legal contract?

  She shook her head to clear her thoughts. She couldn't go back on the contract. She didn't really want this baby. Did she? Of course not. She had a career, a life. She had her youth. She didn't want to squander that—and for what? To raise someone else's kid?

  Marcus could rally all the legal eagles in the country to enforce his rights. He could drag her name through the mud so she never worked in the corporate world again. Why would she throw his generosity back in his face by nullifying the contract? She didn't even want to nullify the contract. She wanted the money, not this kid.

  She found her way back to the condo, but she couldn't do anything more than sit on the couch and stare out at the view. I'm pregnant. The words kept repeating in her mind. I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant.

  The world looked different to her now. All the things she used to value no longer meant anything. She would never be able to break the news to her mother. Once she started to show, she wouldn't even be able to visit her family until after the baby was born. She would have to go underground so her mother never found out she was pregnant.

  Those simple logistical facts robbed her of all the joy she should have felt at being pregnant. Getting pregnant, looking forward to becoming a mother, should have filled her heart and soul with the greatest joy of her life. Instead, they left her hollow. She would never hold this child in her arms. She would never kiss it. She would never even know its name. In all likelihood, Marcus would never let her see it.

  For the first time, she hated her job. She hated her career. She hated her life. She wanted nothing more than to have a child of her own—and not just any child. She wanted this child. She wanted to nurture it, to care about what she ate and how she exercised for the sake of this child. She wanted to start mothering it now, and she never wanted that mothering to end, not even when the child grew up.

  She didn't want to let it go. She didn't want Marcus to take it away. She didn't want the money. Her mother could rot in hell before Mila would let this child go. To hell with the contract and everything else.

  She paced around the condo in a ferment of tempestuous emotions. Nothing made sense. Here she was, eating his food and living in his condo and taking his money. She should be throwing them back in his face.

  In the end, she got herself calmed down enough to think the situation through. She already agreed she would have no rights to this child. Even if she wanted to change something now and at least visit the child while it grew up, she had to talk to Marcus first.

  She positioned herself on the couch and sent him a text. I'm pregnant. That said it all, didn't it?

  She waited in the living room. He burst out of the elevator the way she knew he would, and she went to meet him in the entry. He exploded into her life like he never left. She hadn't seen him since that fateful day they did it in the limo coming back from the clinic, but he looked and smelled the same.

  He swept the condo with his eyes, and when he saw her, he rushed at her. He swept her up in his arms and spun her around before setting her down. His rolling laugh echoed off the high ceiling. “Yay! You did it! This is great, isn't it! Yeah! What a lucky break, huh? You did it! I knew you would. I knew you'd be perfect for this.”

  She tried to push him away, but she couldn't stop smiling at his joy. “Take it easy. It's great for you. It's not great for me.”

  He stopped and frowned at her. “It's not? Why isn't it?”

  “Don't you see? I got pregnant from us doing it in the limo. I got pregnant the old fashioned way. You didn't have to bank all that sperm after all.”

  He stared at her. Then he burst out laughing. “I'm glad it worked out that way. It just got the job done sooner.” He hugged her again. “Banking all that sperm doesn't matter. I would have been jerking off thinking about nailing you anyway. I always do.”

  Mila froze. “You do?”

  “Sure. Don't you know you make me raging horny? Come on and sit down right here. I want to celebrate. I brought a bottle of sparkling cider. I was going to bring champagne, but then I remembered.”

  She pushed him off. “What is there to celebrate? This is terrible.”

  “What do you mean? This is exactly what we wanted.” He wrenched the cork out of the bottle and a bubble of carbonation erupted all over his hand. He barely got it over the counter in time to catch the run-off. “You're pregnant. I'm getting my baby. You're getting the money to pay off your mother's house. What could be better?”

  “Don't you understand? We had sex. This baby was conceived by two people having sex. This pregnancy nullifies the contract. The contract states that the baby would be conceived through artificial insemination. This is a whole different kettle of fish. Legally, I have as much right to this baby as you do. We would have to go through the whole custody thing to determine who gets what and who has what rights.”

  Marcus stared at her. �
��You want to nullify the contract?”

  Mila started talking faster. “I don't want to let this baby go. We conceived this baby in one afternoon of unbridled passion. That makes this baby half mine and half yours. I never thought I would feel this way about getting pregnant, but now that I am, I feel differently. I want to keep this baby. I want to mother it and make it my own.”

  Marcus slammed the bottle down on the counter. The fizzy juice ejaculated over his hand and ran off onto the carpet. He bellowed through gritted teeth. “You are NOT nullifying the contract. I don't care how differently you feel. You're sticking to the contract. If you try to take this baby away from me, I'll drag you through all the courts. I'll ruin you. You see if I don't.”

  “I know you have a lot more money and power than I can shake a stick at, Marcus, but you'll never rob me of my rights as this baby's mother. We both wanted to have sex, and I got pregnant. Your contract doesn't mean spit now. This is my baby just as much as it is yours, and I'll fight you tooth and nail to keep it. You think you'll beat me with money and power? You'll see I'm not so easily beaten.”

  Marcus spun around fast. He snatched the sparkling cider bottle off the counter and sent it flying across the room. It smashed into the wall and shattered into a million pieces. Broken glass and fizzing cider cascaded onto the floor.

  He spun around the other way and pointed toward the elevator. “Get out of here! Pack up and get out right now. I never want to see your face again. Make sure you have the whole $100,000 transferred back into my bank account by the end of the day or I'll destroy you with everything I've got. If you take so much as a paper napkin from this apartment, I'll have you arrested and charged with fraud and conspiracy. Do you hear me?”

  Mila held up her hands. “Cool it, Marcus. Can't we talk about this in a civil manner like two intelligent adults? Let's not start this off on the wrong foot.”

  He thundered into her face. “Get out of here! Get out before I smash your fucking face in! You bitch! You fucking bitch! You played me like a cheap saxophone. You saw your chance to cheat me out of my money, and you diddled me to your heart's content. You fucking bitch! Get the fuck out of my condo now before I...I swear to God if I ever see you again, I'll rip your fucking head off.”

  Mila backed away in terror, but he didn't come after her. He grabbed up a bar stool from the kitchen counter and hurled it with all his strength at the big windows overlooking the city. Mila ducked and covered her head with both arms, but the stool bounced off the glass without doing any damage.

  When she looked again, she saw Marcus's back disappearing around the corner toward the elevator.

  Chapter 9

  Mila slumped down on the bed in the mezzanine bedroom. She buried her face in her hands, but she couldn't get Marcus's words out of her head. This was just frickin' great. This was absolutely brilliant. Why did she have to go make a mess of this?

  She couldn't sit here moping about it, though. What was done, was done. She couldn't go back on it. She didn't want to, anyway. She had a child to think about now. She had to get her act together in a hurry.

  She took her suitcase out of the closet and started packing it with all the things she just took out when she moved into this condo. She zipped it up and sat down again with her phone in her lap. She curled up on the pillows one last time and dialed the number.

  “Hi, Mom. It's just me checking in. Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a little tired, that's all. How are you? How's the clean-out going? Yeah, I know Dad had a lot of old stuff packed around the place. You'll manage all right. Have you heard from Charlie? That's good.”

  Mila let a long pause pass by. She listened to her mother's sing-song voice. She waited for a discrete opening.

  “Listen, Mom, I've got something to tell you. I'm coming home for a while, but I won't be staying. I've decided to stop working in New York for a while, but I don't think I'll work in Jersey, either. I was thinking about moving out to the West Coast. I need a change of scene.”

  “Why would you want to do that?” her mother asked.

  Mila took a deep breath. “I'm pregnant, Mom. I just found out. I want to spend some time with you and the rest of the family, and then I think I want to make a big change. I haven't really decided what I want to do yet. I need some time to think.”

  Mila sat in silence and listened to the explosion of exclamations and tears and congratulations she knew would come when she broke the news. She smiled at her mother's promises and plans. She knew her mother would rejoice at a grandchild on the way.

  How could she think of robbing her mother and the rest of her family this precious experience? She must have been out of her mind. None of them would trade this for all the money in the mint.

  She got off the phone as soon as she could and finished packing. She took one last look around the condo. It sure was nice, but she never belonged in a place like this anyway. She would go home to her mother's quaint little house. She had nine months to rebuild her life and get ready for the next phase of her evolution.

  She wheeled her suitcase downstairs and stood in the entry waiting for the elevator. The bell pinged, but when the door slid open, Marcus rushed out. He grabbed both her hands and started talking so fast she could barely keep up with what he said. “Oh, thank goodness you're still here. Listen, Mila. I'm a troll. I'm really sorry for saying all those things. You're absolutely right. This baby is as much yours as it is mine. I have no right to take that away from you, not after the time we spent in the limo. I don't know what I was thinking.”

  “I know what you were thinking. You were thinking we had a contract, and you expected me to stick to it. I understand that. You have every right to be angry.”

  He waved her comments away. “Just listen to me. I've got it all worked out. I figured out a way we can both get what we want. It's the perfect solution.”

  “I'm listening.”

  He took a deep breath and puffed out his cheeks. All of a sudden, he dropped on one knee in front of her. “Marry me, Mila. I'm crazy about you and I always have been. I was a damn fool to think I could go through this baby thing with you and not get attached to you somehow. Now we're both in up to our necks. This is the only way we can both get what we want. We'll both get to keep the baby. We'll raise it together instead of tearing each other apart fighting over it. You can keep the money for your mother's house. Everything will be perfect.”

  Mila's jaw dropped. “Marry you? You must be out of your mind.”

  He broke into hysterical giggles. “I know I am. I'm head over heels in love with you, Mila. That's why I lost it just now. I couldn't face losing you. Marry me, and let's raise this baby together.”

  “I can't marry you, Marcus. You're not thinking clearly. You're in shock because I said I wanted to keep this baby. When you have a chance to think about it, you'll realize you don't really want to marry me.”

  He didn't seem to hear. “We're a match made in heaven, you and me. We obviously have strong sexual chemistry. We work together well. We respect each other. It's the perfect solution in a thousand ways. I want to cherish you, Mila. I want to take care of you and support you through this pregnancy. Stay here. We can stay here together until we get all the arrangements finalized. Come on. What do you say?”

  She couldn't stop shaking her head, but her eyes shone. “I'm glad you're not mad at me anymore, but you're only saying this because you don't want to lose this baby. You don't really want to marry me, or we would have connected a long time ago. We had one afternoon of wild sex and I got pregnant, but that doesn't mean we should get married.”

  A shadow crossed his face. “Do you feel the same way about me that I feel about you?”

  She squeezed his hands. “You're a wonderful, smart, handsome, sexy man. You're a dynamite businessman and a great boss. I never had sex with anyone like I had with you. I don't know if I'll ever be the same, but this is all too sudden. I never thought about marrying you. I was thinking about moving out West and rebuilding my life mothering a ch
ild.”

  He frowned. “You can't move out West. You can't take the child away from me.”

  She raised him from the ground. “Please, let's not argue about that now. We both want what's best for this child. Let's work together to give it the best life possible, but getting married? That's putting the cart before the horse, don't you think?”

  Marcus nodded, but he couldn't stop frowning. “You're right. It's too sudden. I just blew up at you, and now I'm asking you to marry me. This is all too much at once. Why don't you stay here for a few more days? We can talk about this and decide what to do.”

  “I can't stay here. I'm going home to my mother's for a while. I just spoke to her on the phone and she's over the moon about this baby.”

  He kept nodding. His expression softened. “You're right. You need your family around you right now. Just let me know if there's anything I can do to help you. I want to be part of this. I want to help you and the baby.”

  What else was there to say? She walked him out of the condo. When the elevator opened in the lobby, they parted with a simple nod. Mila wheeled her suitcase out to the sidewalk to catch a cab when an overwhelming wave of exhaustion swept over her. She reeled on her heels and had to support herself against a pole before she collapsed on a bench by the bus stop.

  She cradled her head in both hands. Nausea ate at her guts, and she gasped for a breath of fresh air. A cold sweat broke out all over her body. Did she have nine months of this to look forward to? How could she ever get through it? How could she work like this, when she couldn't even stand up? All her energy drained out of her. All her motivation to rebuild her life crumbled between her fingers.

  She didn't want to deal with her mother right now. She didn't want to go anywhere. She wanted to lie down on the couch and fall asleep. She should have taken Marcus up on his offer to stay in the condo a few more days.

  What if he was right? She couldn't do this alone. Even if she could, she didn't want to. She didn't want to call on her family for help. She always prided herself on running her own life. She couldn't call on anyone for help. She was alone in the world.