The Baby Maker

by Tia Siren

This gets weirder and weirder.

  “Just listen to yourself,” I snapped. “You lure these poor women. Oh, and use the pregnancy angle just to have sex. How twisted can it get?”

  “Piper, it’s nothing like that. It’s really to help women become pregnant. And there are a lot of women who are unable to. Yet they don’t want to go for artificial insemination. I mean, take yourself for example, did you not say you wanted it to be natural?”

  “Well, you can tell the bosses, it was me who changed her mind. You had no part of it, and I just decided against it. I’ll even vouch for you so that you don’t lose your job or get penalized, all right?”

  “Piper, there are no bosses. It’s me. I’m The Baby Maker. It’s my company. There’s no one else involved.” He was honestly the most cocky thing I’d ever seen in my life. I should have been appalled, but fuck me if I wasn’t turned on by him. So confident and full of himself.

  I sat there with my mouth open. Evan was the only one involved. What a mind-blowing statement. Why had his life gone this way?

  “Geez, that’s a lot to take in,” I said, amazed.

  Now is the time you should be bowing out. Get your shit together and go.

  “I bet. Do you want to go somewhere more private? This is a bit too crowded to talk properly.” He glanced around the restaurant.

  Careful, this can be a trick to get you alone for sex.

  “Yeah, sure. Where do you have in mind?” I forced myself to calm down. I wanted a baby, and if fucking Evan was the way to get one, bonus for me. I’d have no probably getting sloppy wet for him. He was the epitome of every wet dream and wanton desire I’d had in my adult life.

  Everything in my mind shouted, “Stop, don’t go with him,” but my heart knew. I had been in love with Evan since we were kids, and I mean, head over heels, I’ll be with you until my dying day, sort of love. I was besotted. Bowled over. I had loved him with every fiber of my soul. And the funny thing was, I still did.

  We took a cab and arrived at the Hotel Fardo. I had not seen this hotel before, and it was not the biggest one in the world. But it was nice, and it was quiet. We walked through the lobby toward the elevator, and I could see the staff nod in acknowledgment to Evan. He nodded back. The lobby was decorated in cream and a dark beige. It was very simple. It exuded elegance. The floor was highly polished. It had a mosaic pattern and was inlaid with what seemed to be brass.

  My body was so attracted to him. Just like it used to be.

  The lounge area contained large cream covered seats and a large flat screen TV. It played the news quietly in the background. A few people were by the bar, having a lunch time break, but apart from that, it was just like a very quiet and peaceful place.

  We reached the end of the hallway, and Evan opened the door of the suite. It was spotless and organized. It was also quite large. My apartment could probably fit inside it. I was expecting something different, especially since he had all this money.

  “Is this where you live?” I asked.

  “No, not at all. This is my place of work.” He closed the door behind me.

  The door locked, and it dawned on me. I knew Evan, but at the end of the day, I was still a prospective client, and he had to treat me that way. I’d just been blown away in the restaurant from seeing him again. Oh, and listening to everything he had said about us, and what had happened.

  Evan took my coat, and I walked into the living room and sat on the couch.

  “So, Evan, what is the next step? How do we do this?” It felt weird talking about this.

  I could see Evan hesitate with his answer. I think he had also become lost in the fact that I was still a client at the end of the day. He regained his composure and began to explain.

  “Well, basically, the contract has a few do’s and don’ts, but it covers four sessions over four months. Usually, that’s a long enough period to find out if you’ve conceived or not. And the success rate is ninety-nine percent within this four-month period.” He used a business-like voice.

  Come on Piper, do the math.

  Wham, it hit me! Evan had been having sex with all these women. Strangers, who had conceived… and there were kids out there, any number of children that he’d never seen. Even Jemima, that kid is Evan’s. Shit, if I carried this out, I would be a statistic. I would be a ninety-nine percenter.

  I can’t be just another woman walking around with one of his kids. Not now.

  The cold hard truth hit me straight in the face. I had lost all of what had intrigued me in the first place, and what had led me to this point. I was not sure how many women he had performed this service for. Wow, but nearly one hundred percent success. Fuck, that’s a lot of kids out there. In the world. The world of Evan!

  “Evan, I just can’t,” I said nervously. “I can’t do it. Because the whole thing is just too personal.”

  I was stifled, like the world was closing in on me. I found it hard to breathe. I had become anxious about the whole situation. It had become not only personal, but it had also remained too much for me to comprehend. I had ten years of thoughts banging on the door of my mind. I was not sure if they were saying, “let me in” or “let me out,” but either way, I was being squeezed.

  “I understand,” he replied and I could tell he was a little disappointed, but if I knew him well enough, he wasn’t giving up just yet on me.

  I fanned my face to cool down. “I want to leave. I feel a little overwhelmed.”

  “Of course, and can I just say, discretion is paramount,” he said.

  “You have no worries about that. I won’t tell a soul. Your thing is safe with me.”

  Why would I want to tell anyone, anyway? Damn, I would be too embarrassed?

  Evan helped me put on my jacket.

  “Piper, I'm really happy I had a chance to see you again after all this time. And, I know it may not mean anything… but every day since I broke it off between us, I have regretted that decision and hated myself for making it.” He sounded apologetic.

  He actually sounded like he meant it.

  “It doesn’t really matter anymore, everything has changed,” I said. I made my way out and down the hallway.

  I traveled down in the elevator and thought of what had just happened. Everything had changed completely. For over ten years, I’d held on to the dream of Evan. And what he meant to me and how I’d loved him. He had been with me for every single day of my life since he had ended our relationship.

  But now, that illusion had been shattered. My dream had been dragged into becoming a reality. Actually, it had died once it saw the truth. The memories had become tainted. They were no longer what drove me on.

  What the fuck do I do now?

  And having a child?

  It seemed, the further I traveled away from the hotel, the further the dream of having a child went with it. I couldn’t proceed with having a child any other way. It would be heart wrenching and unfair.

  Evan, you have left me feeling broken, again. Damn you. Why do you have to melt my heart so? My heart hurts…

  Chapter 11

  Evan

  Nearly a week had gone by without hearing from Piper. The way the situation unfolded between us made me feel terrible. She’d come to me, The Baby Maker, for help with her dream of having a child. But our past got in the way. She’d run away from me in a state of disarray, her dream in tatters. It was my fault. I had ruined everything with her again.

  Fate handed me a second chance with Piper, and I’d blown it. Fuck. I tried to be careful and ease her into the arrangement. Once she realized the whole company was based around me, she’d become overwhelmed. Piper wasn’t stupid. She understood that if I had a nearly perfect record of getting women pregnant, I obviously had a lot of children out there in the world. She couldn’t handle that fact, and she couldn’t go through with the arrangement.

  I’d made a mistake when I’d left her all those years ago. I messed up even worse by not trying to put things right with her afterward. Ten years
of my life had been wasted because of my own stupidity and stubbornness. I could have gone back to her. She might have forgiven me. Hell, she seemed happy enough to see me last week. I could have had a happy life with her, but I went the other way and lived a life of sex and women. It had all been for a good cause, but at what cost?

  You have to make things right with her, Evan.

  I wasn’t sure if I could fix things with Piper now. I’d had two chances to be with Piper, and things had gone wrong both times. It was all my fault. Even if I couldn’t erase the past and get back together with her, I still wanted to spend time with her. Any amount of time. Even minutes would be worth it to me.

  Piper didn’t understand she’d been the only woman I ever loved. Out of all the women I’d helped as the Baby Maker, none of them came close to Piper.

  I’d constructed the Baby Maker site to be secretive. While I built the site, I met people who knew how to find information about anyone and anything, even if that information was private. They could get me anything I needed.

  I called my contact and told him what I wanted to know. He got on the case right away. He returned my call in less than an hour with Piper’s home and business addresses. Pretty good service for a thirteen-year-old kid. He was young, but a genius with computers. Thank Christ!

  I decided to visit Piper at her home. Her place of work would draw too much attention to both of us. She’d feel safer at home, and I needed her to be calm. Or as calm as possible, considering how weird this situation was.

  I entered Piper’s apartment building. She lived on the second floor of an old brownstone which had been converted into apartments. I climbed the stairs. The wooden steps creaked beneath my feet, sounding loud in the silence. The second-floor hallway gave no indication of who lived behind the closed doors.

  I took a few deep breaths and knocked on Piper’s door. She opened the door and peered at me over the security chain. She looked shocked to see me. I said nothing and shot her a half-smile.

  Piper’s mood changed instantly. “What the fuck are you doing here?” she asked. “How the hell did you find me?”

  She was angry and freaked out that I’d found out where she lived. She probably thought I’d turned into a stalker overnight like some kind of weirdo. It was nothing like that. I just wanted to speak to her.

  Come on Piper, let me in. I’m not all bad.

  “I have my ways,” I replied. “Don’t worry. Your secrets are safe with me.” I grinned slightly, hoping to change her mood.

  Her apartment was the only one upstairs, but it would be better if she let me inside. There was no way we could have a decent conversation this way. Not while she cowered behind the door and looked over a security chain.

  “Can I come in?” I asked.

  “I shouldn’t let you,” she said. “But since you’re here, I guess you can come in.” She removed the security chain from the door and let me in her apartment.

  It was obvious an interior designer lived here. Her place looked amazing. The walls had beautiful lines, and spotlights highlighted the many details perfectly. It had a warm, vibrant feel. Her design style reminded me of her personality. The tiny accents on the doors and door frames elevated them somehow, taking them from the nineteen twenties and melding them with a twenty-first century sensibility.

  Design books and magazines filled the bookshelves. Obviously, she used these to inspire her in her work. The walls were an off-cream white, and numerous paintings hung on the walls by an artist called J. Larson, who I’d never heard of. They were rather abstract and probably not to everyone’s taste. They had a wild, manic style that really made them eye-catching. If the artist wasn’t already famous, it would only be a matter of time.

  “Who is this artist?” I asked, trying to break the tension.

  “My best friend, Jules,” Piper said. “I met her at art school a couple of years after you left for college. She’s been with me through thick and thin, unlike some people I won’t mention. She warned me about all the Baby Maker shit. God, I should’ve listened and stayed away.” She sat on the couch with anger in her eyes.

  “You knew who I was, didn’t you?” she asked. “From the moment you saw my picture in the email, you had to know it was me, and you still turned up to meet me.”

  “That’s true. I saw your picture, and I had to see you. Nothing could have kept me from seeing you again. Christ, all those years apart drove me crazy.”

  “How did you think I would react? Finding out that you’re the Baby Maker? Didn’t you know the shit storm it would cause? I mean, look at us now!”

  “I was excited to see you,” I said, trying to justify my behavior. “I dropped all my plans to be there. I even showed up early so I could see you arrive.”

  “And that makes it all right, does it?” she asked, super pissed. “You turn up early and cancel some plans? Plans to fuck other women, probably. You think that puts you in the clear?”

  “I came here to make things right,” I said. “I‘m eternally sorry how things went between us. And I don’t want to stop you from having a child, if that’s what you still want to do. Don’t let me ruin your life. I can’t be the one who robs you of her dreams, just because of something that happened so long ago.”

  “It all seems very easy for you, doesn’t it? Really? Goodness, a few words and everything just turns out right. Well, times have changed, and it’s not like that anymore! And for your information, I‘m not like that anymore.”

  “Please, just let me help you,” I said desperately. “Then you can have what you want in life. You can move on and have the kid you always wanted.”

  “And why would I let you help me?” Piper hissed. “So you can sow your seed another time and satisfy your urges? The ones you’ve had for the last ten years? Then on top of all that, you could make some money off of me?”

  I lost myself in Piper’s eyes. “I’m sorry, but you have it all wrong. Not a penny goes to me. Every single cent goes to charity. To an orphanage, in case you’re curious. This was never a money-making venture. It was all about helping women and giving them something they desired.”

  I waited for Piper to respond, but she sat in silence and stared at me. She shook her head in disbelief.

  “If you want my assistance, I’ll waive any charges. I just want you back in my life. Piper, I’ve wasted ten years, and now I don’t want to waste this golden opportunity.”

  Piper listened thoughtfully. “Back in your life,” she said. “What, for four months? And at one session per month? That equates to, um, not a fucking lot of time. Geez, maybe ten hours or so? And what happens if I don’t get pregnant during the four months? What then?”

  “Then we try for as long as it takes. I‘m happy for every single second I can spend with you. Something is better than nothing. Those brief moments would mean more than time to me.”

  I moved closer to her on the couch. I’d missed Piper over the years, and I wanted her to be close to me. I inched closer and put my hand on her cheek. My fingers ran over her soft, velvety skin. Her blue eyes pierced my soul, just like they did in school.

  “Piper, I’ve missed you so much,” I said. “Ten years. That’s a whole decade thinking of you.”

  Piper started to lean toward me. I could feel her warm breath on my face. The touch of her soft cheek under my fingers.

  Fuck, she feels like it was only yesterday…

  Piper leaned into me. If things went the way I thought they would, this would be one of the few times I’d had sex that wasn’t part of an arrangement or contract. Piper was worth so much more. I had thrown the rule book, my rule book, out the window for her. Piper had her own rules. All the other ones were worth breaking.

  Piper leaned further into me and gently closed her eyes. This was the moment I’d dreamed of for ten years. I leaned in, too, and placed my lips on hers. The smell of her hair enveloped me, and the heat from her full lips came over my whole body. I’d waited so long to feel this again.

  Her tender l
ips brought all the memories flooding back. The atmosphere was electric, and I was easily aroused. I ran my fingers through her auburn hair. I pushed it from her shoulder and softly kissed her neck. Piper tilted her head to the side in acceptance of my tender kiss.

  Damn, I’m still more than in love with her…

  I ran my tongue over her soft skin, and she moaned. The taste of her body was just as I remembered. She cooed softly into my ear. Our embrace became closer and tighter. I wrapped Piper in my arms and pulled her deep into my chest. Her breasts pushed against me. Her breathing became deeper and more defined. It was sublime.

  Piper opened her bright, blue eyes and gazed deeply into mine. She bit her bottom lip. Her fingers ran down my shirt. I was taken by her and could still see the girl I left broken so many years ago. I’d been a damned fool. It would have been easy for me to just go back to her, but by then, things had gotten out of control. Then, the urgency of seeing her had faded with each passing day. That memory lingered inside my lonely heart.

  Piper held her hand out to me. I took hold of her fingers and I stood. Piper led me towards her bedroom.

  “Come on, Evan. We’ve waited long enough.”

  There is a God. Amen.

  Chapter 12

  Piper

  I took Evan by the hand and led him toward my bedroom. All the fibers of my body screamed for me not to do it. The problem was, this was Evan, not just any guy. If it was anyone else, I could cast him aside without a second thought.

  I admired how Evan turned out. He looked similar to how he used to, but the total package had improved significantly. The way his clothes hung from him showed off his well-defined body. He took care of himself. Even his five o’clock shadow looked as if it had been perfectly trimmed. He looked like a model.

  Evan intimidated me. I wasn’t sure how to continue. It had been a long time since I had sex, and now I was faced with the man of my dreams, the perfect Evan.

  He must be super experienced after all those women.

  “I’m slightly nervous,” Evan murmured. He began to unbutton my blouse.