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Melinda
“I just don’t understand why you’re doing this,” my mother said on the phone.
“I told you,” I replied, barely suppressing my sigh as I drove across Providence, Rhode Island. “I need the money.”
“If you need money that badly, you should go back and beg for your old job. They would probably take you back.”
“It’s not that simple, Mom.”
“Why not? Have you even tried?”
I felt a pain in my jaw as I clenched my teeth. My mom didn’t understand the situation. I still barely believed it myself. After nearly a year helping get New England Digital Marketing off the ground, the two founding partners—Robert Ethier and Robert Beschloss, who I referred to as the Bobs—fired me. They did it in spite of me doing the lion’s share of the work while they sat back and had expensive luncheons every day that they expensed.
And they did it one week before my shares in the company vested.
It was my own damn fault for not reading the contract more carefully. I should have hired a lawyer. That was a mistake I would never make again.
“I’m not going back to the Bobs,” I said bitterly. “Even if it was my last option on earth.”
“You can always ask us for money,” Mom insisted. “Your father and I have a nest egg tucked away. We can help.”
“I’m fine, Mom.”
“It would be better than selling your body…”
“I want to do this, Mom.”
Her voice rose on the line. “You’re basically a prostitute! And what if you want to keep the baby at the end? You don’t know how you’re going to feel, then.”
“Surrogacy is a totally normal process that lots of people go through,” I said calmly. “It’s done. I’ve signed up. I’m actually meeting with a potential couple today. I’m driving there right now.”
“Really? Who are they? Do they work in Boston? I’m always hearing about rich Boston couples coming down and buying up real estate here in town. It figures they would start buying babies next.”
“I’ll tell you about it if it works out,” I promised. “I’ve got to go. I’m almost there.”
“Make sure they’re on the up-and-up!” Mom quickly said. “I don’t want you getting sex-trafficked like that girl on the news. Have you heard about her?”
“Love you too, Mom,” I said, then hung up.
I let out a long exhale. Talking to my mom was always exhausting. But I knew it came from a place of love; she only wanted the best for me. I was lucky to have people who genuinely cared about me.
I used to think that my business partners cared about me, I thought with a grimace. Just goes to show: the only people you can rely on are family.
Despite my protests to my mom, she wasn’t completely wrong. I was still kind of skeptical about doing this. Pregnancy was a big deal, even if it was a pregnancy for another couple. Hell, that made it an even bigger deal. I had to grip the steering wheel tightly to keep my hands from shaking, that’s how nervous I was.
But I had plans, and those plans required cash. Surrogacy paid a lot of money, and I was young and fertile. At least, that’s what my tests showed. Once I had that money in my bank account, I could start my own digital marketing company.
And put those asshole Bobs out of business.
“It’s just a simple surrogacy,” I said out loud. “Women get pregnant all the time. It’s, like, the most common thing a woman can do. Literally billions of women have been pregnant before. If they can do it, so can I.”
I didn’t know much about the couple I was meeting. The offer had come at the last minute, so I had jumped in the car without much thought. All I knew was that they also wanted to use my eggs. That meant more money than if I was the surrogate for another woman’s fertilized egg. And money aside, it meant I would be helping some poor woman who couldn’t conceive on her own. There was a lot of joy in that.
It was the best case scenario. The biggest bang for my buck. But I couldn’t shake this nervousness.
Nervousness is natural, I reminded myself. It means I’m pushing my boundaries, which is always a good thing in life.
