by Tia Siren
You forgot to mention he calls you quite a few times in the day, most days.
“All this reminds me of the former guys I dated,” I said. “They made promises, but they bailed on me by cheating.”
Mom went to get a refill of the iced tea. I took a moment to reflect on Evan. He had a free pass to see whoever he wanted, whenever he wanted. He was not actually tied down by our contract. It was me that was completely restricted.
He had it structured so it looked as if it was me that was benefiting from the whole thing. In truth, he could do as he pleased, and I had been restricted from seeing anyone else apart from him.
Is this the way a trusting relationship should be? Regardless of an agreement, why didn’t we have similar restrictions for both sides?
I hated to be tied down that much. I had to have my own control and my own freedom. I was being restricted, and my life would suffer because of it. The more I thought about it, the more I thought it would be better just to forget the whole thing and get on with my life in a normal way.
If Evan wanted to be part of my life without an agreement, fine. If not, that was also fine. Then, I could make my own choices and make my own mistakes.
“Here we go,” Mom said. “Another pitcher of cold, iced tea.”
Mom had just finished topping the glass when there was a knock at the door.
“I wonder who that is?” she asked.
Mom went and opened the door.
“Come on in,” I heard her say.
She walked back into the living room. Kyle, the neighbor, followed behind her.
“You remember Kyle from next door?” Mom asked.
“Yeah, sure,” I said. “Nice to see you again.”
He looks fit.
“You have grown up so much,” I said. “You look so different.”
“It’s amazing what a few years can do for you,” he said.
“What can we do for you, anyway?” Mom asked.
“You’re parked in my spot,” he said, looking slightly annoyed. “Could you move it, please?”
“Oh, yeah, no problem,” I replied.
I grabbed my keys and followed Kyle to the street. I was just about to climb into the car when Kyle started chatting.
“I thought it was you when you parked,” he said. “I was in the garage, but I wasn’t sure.”
“Yeah, I just came to see Mom for a change. She typically ventures uptown. Busy, busy, busy, if you know what I mean.”
“I see her going out sometimes,” he said. “She does well for her age. I hope I have her energy once I’m like that.”
“I know, she is like a dynamo,” I replied.
“I do keep an eye on her, though,” Kyle said, smiling. “Just to be on the safe side.”
“Thanks for that,” I said. “It’s much appreciated.”
“Anyway, since you’re here, I was wondering,” he said.
Is he hitting on you?
“Would you like to go out sometime? You know, dinner or a movie?”
He is hitting on you.
“To be honest Kyle, I’m so busy at work,” I said, slightly lying. “I have no time to date anyone at the moment, really.”
“Well, I never like to take no for an answer,” he said. “How about you take my number? And if you find time at some point, give me a call.”
“I’m not going to make any promises,” I said. “But if I have a chance, I’ll try and call. That’s the best I can do.”
“That’s good enough for me, Piper. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for your call. Even a text will do.”
Kyle pulled out his wallet and handed me one of his business cards. I waved it at him as an assurance I had it in my possession and wouldn’t lose it.
“I have it now,” I said. “I’ll just put it in my car, so Idon’tforget it.”
“Okay, I better let you go,” he said.
“Thanks, Kyle. Bye.”
I climbed into my car and placed the card on the dashboard. Kyle had certainly grown up into a fine figure of a man. But he was not my type, and I would toss his card when I was halfway home. I had no intention of calling him. I’d just been humoring him.
I wasn’t sure if he believed me, but that was normally how it went when you got snubbed. I pulled the car into Mom’s driveway. The workmen had now finished, thankfully. I wouldn’t really want to bump into Kyle again this quickly.
I walked back inside, and Mom was waiting.
“You could do much worse than him, you know,” Mom said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“He’s an excellent catch,” she said. “He has a great job.”
“Why would money affect anything? I have a huge business of my own. I work when I want, and all that.”
“It shows he is reliable,” she said. “That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
No, I want Evan. Only ever Evan.
I laughed to myself silently. It sounded like Mom was trying to match me up with Kyle. He may be sweet and he’d always been a good kid, but he had no edge at all. He was really quite dull. Numbers made him happy, so he’d gone into accounting. How fucking boring.
As much as Mom went on about how nice Kyle was, I just couldn’t picture it. He might not have all the money in world, but he did have one thing in his favor. Yep! He was not fucking and impregnating strangers for the fun of it.
It was almost time to head home if I wanted to beat the traffic. It was a nightmare, and the last thing I wanted was to get stuck in a jam. It was bad enough realizing the actual relationship and situation I was in. I had fallen for one of the richest guys in the country, which would have been nice, but he had his other side.
He was hell-bent on spreading his seed to any stranger who met his requirements and was willing to pay the high fees for the pleasure. He was like the Robin Hood of male prostitutes, sort of. It was not prostitution, but it was not one hundred percent ethical or moral.
Although he gave the wealthy something in return, he took a lot of money from them and gave it to the needy.
What the fuck had I gotten myself into this time? I mean, again?
Chapter 27
Evan
Piper was the first thing that popped into my mind when I awoke. She’d been correct; I was a creature of habit. A very limited range of habits. Whatever I did, I was either at home, at work, or the hotel suite, and all of these were linked somehow to me. And to Piper and the Baby Maker.
I had created my own little world and was not able to step out of it. Had Piper not come back into my life, I would be even worse. I would have less reason to go anywhere different. My home and the hotel suite were all I needed. I had to break this cycle and step away from my routine. Maybe I should golf. What better way to relax than beating the hell out of a small ball? The game itself was hard enough to keep my troubled thoughts at bay for a while, at least until lunchtime anyway.
Tyler joined me at the country club. The updates on the apps had been released, and the bugs had finally been eradicated. He deserved a small treat. I had promised him thirty-six holes at my own club. I used to caddy for my father until I was big enough to start playing with him. All the years I’d spent out here with him made me familiar with the course. I knew this place like the back of my hand. Tyler was finding it hard to keep up with me.
We decided to take a break and grabbed a table on the patio. “How the fuck do you even do it?” he asked.
“Do what?” I asked. “You mean the Baby Maker thing?”
“No,” he said. “On the course. Your ball never lands high and rolls down the hill. You always fall short and putt uphill.” He shook his head.
“I have my dad to thank for that little skill. Four fucking years I carried his clubs. Almost every weekend. Trust me, carry clubs up and down hills when you’re seven years old, and you’ll soon find the easy route.”
“Well, fuck me with a nine iron,” he said, laughing. “I thought you had some serious skills, but it turns out you’re just lazy.”
I wish we had not stopped for lunch; my mind is wandering again.
I started to drift away as Tyler chatted to me.
“Babymaker!” Tyler whispered.
“What?” I asked, startled. “Oh, sorry. I was miles away.”
“Yeah, I can tell,” he said. “Something is definitely up with you. What is it?”
I glanced around to make sure no one was in earshot. I turned back to him and leaned over the table.
“It’s this Piper situation,” I said, quietly. “Things are getting a lot deeper than I was ever expecting them to. I even turned a couple down.”
“Well, you know what these couples are like,” Tyler said.
“You should have seen the wife,” I said. “Her tits were fake, but fuck me, they were divine. And you wouldn’t believe the shit she did to convince me to take their case. She slung her leg up on my chair and finger-fucked herself right in front of me.”
“And you turned that down?” he asked. “Christ, are you crazy?”
I shook my head. “She wasn’t the problem. It was more the husband. He wanted to watch me fuck his wife. They had no intention of becoming pregnant. They just wanted to play me and get a threesome going.”
“I still would have thought about it, especially if his wife was that hot,” Tyler said. “Seriously though, maybe you should take a step back from the Piper situation for a while. I mean, if it’s affecting your work.”
Iwant to, but I can’t. I am hooked bad.
“I have,” I said. “I’m here playing golf, and I haven’t spoken to her since Wednesday. I just find all this ducking and diving makes things harder. The more I’m away from her, the more I end up thinking about her.”
“Yep,” Tyler said. “That’s usually how it goes. Sometimes you have to face things head on to make your peace with it.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I said. “I’ve had two inquiries on the Baby Maker website since I turned that couple away. The new applicants have sent pictures already. Check it out.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my cell phone. “Here are their pictures.”
I opened the photos for Tyler to look at.
“You have women like these begging for you, and you spend your time playing golf with me? Are you crazy?”
But it isn’t that simple, is it?
“It’s not a matter of jumping into bed with them,” I said truthfully. “I would gladly do that, but it just complicates things even more now.”
“I know one of those girls who’s applying for your services,” Tyler said. “She is smoking hot.”
“Which one?” I asked.
“The blonde. We dated around Christmas time. She’s a great girl in every aspect. Fuck, she can swall—”
“You do know where you are?” I asked, grinning. “Show some respect. So why did you stop seeing her?”
“All she did was talk about having a baby. We’d only slept together twice, and she was already talking about how much she wanted a kid. Kind of scary when you’ve just started seeing a girl, but she’s ideal for you. She’ll sign any goddamned contract you give her to have a kid. Plus, she’s single. So no couples drama.”
Tyler spent the next fifteen minutes telling me what he knew about the woman. Her name was Samantha, or Sam for short. Had she not been giving him the “I’m ready for a baby” speech, Tyler thought he could have kept dating her for a few months, breaking his record for relationships.
If I wasn’t with Piper at the moment, I would have forsaken my day golfing and taken these two women up on their offer. They were both hotties, but the same old problem would be there. It would be Piper I thought of when I came. Definitely not them and how sexy they were. It would be Piper who took their place in my imagination.
It was not that simple anymore. Piper was there all the time. These two girls would have had everything they wanted from me and more. I would have made sure they got the VIP treatment. A couple of fucks, maybe three, in each session. It all depended how quick I recovered in between, and my recovery time had been quick when images of Piper popped into my mind.
These days, I didn’t just think of Piper when I came. I thought of her before I made any decisions regarding the Baby Maker. I had dumped the couple, and these two girls were on hold for the time being. At least until I could understand what my feelings for Piper actually were. I was damned if I did, and damned if I didn’t.
“Tyler, I’m screwed at the moment,” I said. “I really am screwed.”
“You’ll get over it. Just follow your gut and don’t make any reckless decisions that you’ll regret.”
“Yeah, but Piper has been hurt so much in the past,” I said. “I feel like I started that pattern. First, I broke it off with her, and then every guy she’s dated since has cheated on her.”
“What those other guys did isn’t your responsibility. You had no control over any of that.”
“Well, in a way, maybe I did. She always used me as a benchmark for guys she dated. And they always came up short in her eyes. So she couldn’t really let herself get close to them, and they cheated on her.”
“You must have had a serious effect on her, then,” he said. “If you have totally fucked up her life and made it impossible for her to look at other men for who they really are.”
“Thanks for blaming it all on me. I’m finding it hard enough to deal with my own guilt, never mind you rubbing my nose in it.”
“You’re the one blaming yourself,” he said, smiling. “I’m just agreeing with you.”
“I know,” I said. “I just need some validation.”
“I’m not sure what you want me to say. Go after her. Don’t go after her. I don’t know what you want. You talk in riddles half the time.”
“I can’t do it,” I said. “No matter how much I try to tear myself away from Piper and keep the Baby Maker thing going, I just can’t hurt her anymore.”
It was the truth. I really couldn’t.
I’d already hurt her enough for one lifetime. Every bad relationship in Piper’s life always came back to me. I couldn’t hurt her again and mess up her life any further. Continuing with the Baby Maker business would hurt her.
As much as she understood the business side of things, she didn’t like it. I knew it bugged the crap out of her. And there was more; she wanted more than the agreement said could be achieved.
The agreement limited and restricted her until my services were complete. From my side, I wondered what she would do. I couldn’t face her being a single mom. She also wanted more from our relationship once the contract was complete. But the damn agreement stood in the way of it all.
“Set up,” Tyler said.
“What?” I asked.
“You weren’t listening, were you? I suppose you were thinking of her?”
I was miles away with Piper; she has a name you know. Just don’t forget it.
“What I said was, you have the ideal scenario, pussy on tap, plenty of women to choose from, and no commitments at the end of it. And I said, are you willing to give all this up for just one piece of ass, even though she is cute? You have the perfect set up.”
“You know Tyler, out of all the women I have met from the very start, Piper is the one woman I would consider packing it all in for. She really is that good; I would do anything for her. I’ve always wanted her.”
“Well, I just can’t see it myself. I don’t know how you can just change your tune after all this time. And you’ve had too much pussy just to let it all go and be with one woman.”
“I broke her heart in school, and I am not going to break it again. No way. It would just be rubbing her nose in it. That would totally ruin what little life she has at the moment.”
Tyler sat in silence, his mind drifting off somewhere. I thought about everything, but the main thing I needed to get out of the way was that damned contract. I went deep into thought.
Scenario one. Piper would become pregnant and continue to be a single mother. Maybe she would have a broken he
art when the contract was over. But she would have the child she wanted. And at the end, the business would continue.
Scenario two. Piper would become pregnant, and instead of being a single parent, the contract would be shredded, and we would be together. Forever.
Scenario three. We would continue to try and get pregnant, and I would carry on with the business and break her heart again. Piper would have a child and just leave as per terms of the agreement. I would then go through life, heartbroken that I had lost Piper for a second time.
Fuck, I couldn’t answer this by myself. Scenario two seemed the best option but the hardest to put into place. I wasn’t sure if we could pull it off. As for the other scenarios, at least one of us or both of us would end up with a broken heart again. And to top it all off, we would go through life alone.
I had to speak to Piper about it. We had come too far, and it was reaching a stage where our responses were crucial for both of us. She would hopefully have more of an understanding of the direction we were going. She could tell me.
I snapped out of my thought pattern and wondered where Tyler had walked off to. I could see him over by the bar, chatting to the waitress. He never missed an opportunity to bed another one. Actually, he would have been a good replacement for me as the new Baby Maker.
Chapter 28
Piper
I was working in the office again with Jules; she had nearly finished the work I had her do for the commission. She had completed most of the panels and had only two or three remaining before I could deliver them to the customer.
I had begun telling her about my visit with my mom the day before. She would find it hysterical when I told her about Kyle, Mom’s neighbor.
I had laughed about it all the way home. I had not seen Kyle for maybe two or three years, and then out of the blue, he bumped into me and asked me out. Had he been thinking of me that way the whole time he’d known me? Or was he just trying to grab any chance he could for a date?
It’s funny how men’s minds work. They are not logical like women’s. Not in the dating department!