There was something about Alexander that made me feel adventurous. He made me feel sexy in a way that no other man had before him. I knew it was probably bad to be considering getting involved with my sperm donor, or whatever he was, but I couldn’t help myself. This hunk had been coming into the clinic month after month, and I didn’t have the slightest clue how great we could be together.
Don’t get ahead of yourself, I told myself. It was only one date. After my first year in foster care, I learned to never get my hopes up until something was a sure thing. Every time I thought a family would be my permanent placement, something happened, and the rug was pulled out from under me. I didn’t want to have that same feeling with Alexander—or with the baby.
“Good morning,” I heard from across the apartment as I exited the bathroom.
“Hey there.” I walked over to Alexander, who greeted me with a hungry kiss. It was amazing to me how natural everything felt with him. We kissed like we’d been dating for months, and we had conversations like we’d known each other for years.
“What time do you have to be at the clinic today?” Alexander asked, looking at his watch.
“I actually have today off,” I said. “I’m working Saturday this week to cover the other admin assistant’s shift.”
Alexander grinned. “What a coincidence. I have it off too!”
“Don’t be silly,” I said, fake-shoving Alexander. “You’re the CEO!”
“Exactly. And I’m playing hooky today.” He paused. “That is, if you’ll have me.”
Like a giddy schoolgirl, I sat and listened as Alexander called into the office and told them he wouldn’t be coming in.
“Got anything in mind?” I asked.
“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Alexander said. “What were your plans today if this date had not gone so well?” A subtle wink only added to the adorable tone of his voice.
I sat down on the bed beside him. “I was thinking of heading over to Centennial Olympic Park to walk around a bit. I know it’s sort of cheesy, but—”
“It’s gorgeous there,” Alexander said. “Sounds perfect.”
Alexander decided that he didn’t want to do the walk of shame, walking around Atlanta in the same outfit he’d worn the day before, so we made plans to meet up in an hour at the park. As soon as I closed the door behind him, I pranced around my apartment the same way I had after my first date years earlier.
This guy had me smitten. I couldn’t think of one thing I didn’t love about Alexander—except, of course, the whole baby issue. I had to talk to someone about this. I needed some perspective.
“Hello?” Liana said through the phone.
I immediately regretted dialing, but it was too late. “Hey, Li!”
“What’s up?”
“I had a date last night… and this morning.”
“Shut up!” Liana exclaimed. “Tell me everything.” I told Liana everything—ok, not about the handcuffs—from the moment Alexander arrived at my door, to the moment he left a few minutes earlier. The one detail I couldn’t bear to tell her about was the pregnancy. I knew Liana would be completely shocked and confused by it, but maybe if this relationship with Alexander did blossom, it would soften the blow.
Liana was my best friend, but she didn’t hold back her opinion. Most of the time, this was a great trait that worked out in my favor. This time, I didn’t want her to burst my bubble before it inevitably burst itself.
“Case, this guy sounds amazing,” Liana said. “So, what’s the problem?”
“What do you mean?”
I could just picture Liana, wherever she was, smirking. “You only call to tell me about guys if something’s wrong with them.”
“You caught me,” I said. “The problem is that I can’t find a single damn thing wrong with him!”
I must’ve caught Liana in a sensitive mood, because she went on a five-minute rant about how I deserved the best and that fairytale guys did exist and that everything would work out. I thanked Liana for her well-meaning, albeit odd, advice and hung up the phone. I knew she couldn’t give accurate input on the situation without knowing that I was dating my sperm donor. I decided to wait and see how things went with Alexander the rest of the day before telling Liana anything else.
My watch revealed to me that Liana had taken up fifteen of the forty minutes I had before I had to leave for Centennial Olympic Park. Damn. I hurried over to my wardrobe and shuffled through my outfits. Nothing seemed good enough. I wanted an outfit that said “I’m interested” without saying “Come and get it, right here, right now.” It proved to be a surprisingly difficult task.
I tried on two sundresses before deciding dresses probably weren’t the way to go if we were going to be doing a lot of walking. After deciding on the perfect pair of comfortable yet chic jeans, I tried on three shirts before settling. It was a black top with a crystal design, showing a bit of cleavage without looking trashy. It was the best I could do.
I had to make a choice between putting on makeup and being five minutes late to meet Alexander, and I decided on the latter. I was lucky that most of my makeup had stayed on overnight, so he didn’t see me bare-faced. I wasn’t ready just yet for him to see me without concealer or eyebrow pencil. I quickly went through my routine—concealer, powder, blush, eyeliner, mascara, and lip gloss—and grabbed my sunglasses from my nightstand. With a flick of the light switch and turn of the lock, I headed toward my car.
I found Alexander sitting on a bench near the parking lot ten minutes after we were supposed to meet. “I’m so sorry,” I said. “I had to make the choice between being on time and putting on makeup.”
“Well, you look great, so it was worth the wait,” Alexander said as he smiled. “Lead the way!”
I took Alexander down my favorite walking path and couldn’t help but get butterflies in my stomach when he intertwined his fingers with mine. We made our way around the fountains and watched as parents and children ran through the splash pad and rings of water. For a split second, I imagined it being me and Alexander with our child someday. This was the first time I really thought of the baby inside me as our child. I quickly shook the thought from my head. It was too soon to be thinking like that.
As we strolled through the gardens, my stomach let out a loud grumbling sound. I was absolutely mortified, but Alexander didn’t comment on it at all. He simply said, “I’m hungry. Want to go grab a bite to eat?”.
We stopped at a local café and were seated at a table in the corner of the small restaurant. As we dined on soup and sandwiches, Alexander gave me a detailed critique of Grease, which I’d fallen asleep during the night before. He knew how much I loved the movie, so having him take the time to give me the commentary I’d missed was just the sweetest thing. I loved that he didn’t take himself too seriously. I also loved that he seemed to take me seriously.
As we finished our last few bites, Alexander’s cell phone vibrated on the table. “Sorry about that,” he said.
I offered him an understanding nod.
“Don’t worry about it! Answer it! I’ve had you all to myself since last night.”
Alexander glanced down at his phone, a frown appearing on his face.
“I’m sorry, Casey,” he said. “There’s an important meeting at the company in an hour that I completely forgot about.”
I immediately felt terrible for taking him away from his work. Sure, he had called out willingly, but I didn’t want to be the kind of girl to tell her boyfriend—or whatever he was—what he could or couldn’t do.
“Duty calls,” I said. “But thanks for halfway playing hooky with me!”
“I’m really sorry,” Alexander said. “I was looking forward to spending the rest of the day with you.”
I leaned over and offered him a kiss as a way of showing him that I wasn’t upset about him cutting out early. This had already been the longest—and best—date of my life.
“I’ll just have to take a rain check.”
&
nbsp; Alexander stood up from his chair and turned toward the door.
“You can count on it.”
The love songs on the car ride home made me wonder where this relationship was heading. Was it even a relationship? I put my hand on my barely-pregnant stomach, hoping it would hold the answers I was searching for. No such luck. It had been such a whirlwind eighteen hours that I nearly forgot I was pregnant. I was on an incredible date with an equally incredible man.
Now, as I wiped the raindrops that had begun to fall from my windshield, I questioned everything I knew. I finally had what I had been craving for so long, but it didn’t feel quite like I thought it would. I felt confused and excited and nervous and nauseous. I wondered if this was the universe’s plan for me all along. I wondered if Alexander felt the same way I was feeling. Most of all, I wondered what the etiquette was for dating your sperm donor.
Chapter 10
Alexander
I counted down the minutes until it was time to leave for my monthly appointment at the clinic, unsure if it was because I was dreading it or excited for it. Of course I was excited to see Casey, but I was also nervous about being back at the clinic for a reason I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Maybe I was worried things were going too well with me and Casey and going back to the clinic would mess it up. Or maybe it was that I was worried the doctors would find out about my relationship with Casey. What did it matter? There was nothing wrong with it.
I sat in on a meeting with the accounting department of the company, hoping it would help the time pass. Truthfully, I didn’t care much about budgets or profits at that moment—or really at all. That was the entire point of having a VP of Finance. Unfortunately for me, the VP of Finance had a stomach bug, so I offered to take his place in the meeting.
The other two meetings I had scheduled for the day—one in person and one via conference call— dragged on until 2:30 finally hit. I made my way over to the clinic, doing a quick check in my car mirror to make sure I looked ok. I had never felt this way about anyone before. I was falling for Casey, and I was about to go into her place of employment and masturbate. Our situation was as strange as it sounded.
My plan to act as nonchalant as possible lasted less than a minute, when I caught my shoe on the rug in the entryway and stumbled. I looked up at Casey, who buried the bottom half of her face in the sleeve of her sweater, clearly trying her best not to smile or laugh. I walked up to the counter and wrote my name on the sign-in sheet.
“Welcome back, Mr. Preston,” Casey said. “Please have a seat. We’ll call you back shortly.” If it wasn’t for the two couples in the waiting room, I would have jumped over the counter and kissed Casey right then and there. But, I retreated to the sitting area and took a seat with a prime view of the hottie behind the desk.
I scrolled through social media on my phone, doing my best to pass the time. Why was it going by so slowly? I reminded myself that I’d sat here a dozen times as Casey sat right behind that same desk, and I’d never made a move. I could handle waiting until our next date.
A visibly pregnant woman in a three-sizes-too-small dress walked into the clinic and up to Casey’s desk. For a moment, I imagined Casey six or seven months from now. She’d be waddling in here with her baby bump each day, sitting behind that desk and dealing with the same nasty patients I’d seen her encounter on so many occasions.
I still hadn’t quite grasped that she was carrying my child. There were probably other women who had been inseminated with my sperm that were carrying a child with my DNA, but it was different, I supposed, because I’d never had any interaction with them. Besides that, I was certain they had nothing on Casey.
I tried not to think about what would happen to my relationship with Casey as she became more and more pregnant, because I knew there were only two possibilities. We would either keep seeing each other and I would become a father—not only genetically, but emotionally and physically—to this child, or we would drift apart and I would have no part in either of their lives. Both of those possibilities scared me in different ways.
Get ahold of yourself, Alexander, I told myself. You’ve been on one date with this girl. Sure, it was amazing, but it was one date. See where it goes first. Start with another date.
“Mr. Preston,” Casey said, jolting me from my thoughts. I had to admit that it was weird to hear Casey calling me by my last name, in a professional tone, after days of calling me Alexander. “Follow me, please.”
I followed Casey to my usual room, but, instead of closing the door behind me, I pulled her inside. I leaned in for a deep kiss, which she accepted with ease. “Just needed some inspiration,” I said with a grin.
“Ok, but let’s try to keep it professional here,” Casey said. “I’m not sure what the protocol is for sleeping with the clients. Or, you know, being impregnated by one.”
Casey had a joking tone in her voice, but something told me she wasn’t kidding in the least. I understood her point. “Yes, ma’am.” I reclaimed her mouth for a final kiss and let her slip out the door.
Oh, how life had changed since the last time I was in this very room. One thing hadn’t changed, though. My inspiration for the task at hand.
I think I set a personal best for obtaining my contribution this time, which I could only attribute to my lovely inspiration. With images of Casey, her legs spread apart and nipples erect, still filling my mind, I set the plastic cup down on the counter and tried to cool myself down before leaving the room. I did my best to avoid eye contact with Casey as I walked out the door. I wanted to avoid any possibility of getting revved up again.
As soon as I stepped onto the sidewalk, I dialed the number of the clinic and watched from the window. “6th Street Clinic, Casey speaking. How may I help you?”
“Go on another date with me this weekend,” I said. A confused look appeared on Casey’s face as she looked around the room. Finally, she met my gaze through the window. I responded with a subtle nod and wave.
“Did you really call just to ask me that?”
I nodded through the window. “I didn’t want to risk getting you in trouble. So, is that a yes or a no?”
Casey giggled. “I’d love to.”
“Great,” I said. “It’s a date.”
Chapter 11
Casey
Driving toward Liana’s house, I wasn’t sure whether her last-minute dinner invitation was a blessing or a curse. The drive to Liana’s town home was exactly 2.2 miles, but it was enough to convince me that I should tell her the whole story about Alexander. After all, things were going well, and it might be nice to have someone to go to prenatal appointments with.
I walked up to the door with store-made white chocolate macadamia cookies—our favorite—and rang the doorbell. “Hey, Casey,” Greg, Liana’s husband, said. They had been married for about a year and a half, having met on a blind date set up by our other friend, Jane. I wasn’t extraordinarily close with Greg, but Liana was like a sister to me, so I made a mental note to get to know her husband better. Maybe there were even some double dates in our future.
Greg led me into the kitchen, where a very pregnant Liana turned to greet me. It had only been a month since I’d last seen her, but, apparently, a lot can happen in a month when you are pregnant with twins. “Look at you!” I squealed. “You have a bump and everything!”
Liana scurried over to give me a hug as Greg disappeared down the hall into his office. “Isn’t it crazy that it’s actually happening?”
“So crazy,” I said. “Doesn’t it feel like just yesterday we were little college sophomores, thrown together in a random room assignment?” I knew Liana didn’t like to talk about college unless I brought it up, because my dropping out hurt her almost as badly as it hurt me. She was devastated to finish senior year without me, and I knew she avoided bringing up Georgia State so I wouldn’t have to relive the awful ending.
Liana nodded. “It’s crazy how time flies.” With oven mitts on her hands, Liana reached into the oven
and pulled a disposable metal pan from the oven. “I didn’t really feel like making homemade lasagna, so I bought a frozen one from the store. Hope that’s ok!”
“Sounds perfect!” I said. Lasagna was the one food that Liana—a super picky eater—and I could both agree on, so it was our go-to dinner when we got together.
As Liana cut pieces of lasagna and put them on each of our plates, I drew in a breath. I knew I couldn’t hold in my news any longer. More than that, I knew Liana would give me a mouthful if I did. “So, how’s it going with the new guy you’re dating?” she asked.
“I’m pregnant,” I blurted. The words were out there, and there was no taking them back. Liana nearly dropped the plate of lasagna she was holding as she looked up to see if I was joking.
“You’re…what?”
“Sit down,” I said. “It’s a long story.”
“Are you serious?” Liana asked.
I nodded. “It’s still early, so it’d be great if you wouldn’t tell anyone.” I’m not sure why I even bothered adding that last part. Liana and I had maybe half a dozen mutual friends, so she couldn’t do all that much damage.
“Of course,” she said. “Now start with the long story.”
I didn’t know where to start, so I told Liana about how I’d been majorly crushing on Alexander for months. Then, I gave every detail I could remember about the day that changed everything. My story was interrupted with intermittent gasps of “Oh my gosh” and “No way”, but I finally finished up with the lowdown on the second half of our overnight date.
“I don’t know how this happened, Li,” I said. “I’m confused and anxious and unsure of what I want, but I’m also happy.”
“You’re pregnant!” Liana exclaimed. “We get to raise our babies together!”
In all the chaos of the past few weeks, I had forgotten that this baby growing inside me would be just a few months younger than Liana’s boys. “That’s right,” I said. “Kind of crazy how that happened.”
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