‘Do you ever think maybe you’ve spent too much time on the farm?’
‘Just answer the question,’ she said wearily.
‘Uh, no. No family medical history to be worried about.’
Alva made a note on her pad. ‘And how long have you worked as a chef?’
‘Since college. So my whole working life, basically.’
Alva hummed, tapping her pen against her chin. ‘That could be a drawback.’
‘Well, the hours are pretty unsociable. It’s very full-on.’
‘That’s immaterial. But there’s the fact that your scrotum might be fried from all that time standing in front of hot ovens.’
Aidan gave a surprised hoot of laughter. ‘Oh, we’re going to talk about my scrote? Great! I find that really breaks the ice on a first date.’
‘It’s well known that lots of chefs suffer from low sperm count,’ Alva continued, undaunted. ‘But Finn tells me you already have a child?’
Aidan nodded. ‘A daughter.’
‘And how old is she?’
‘Five.’
‘Hmm. And nothing since then?’
‘Yes, I’ve had sex since then, thank you for asking.’
‘But no more children?’
‘No – not that I’ve been trying.’
‘So you don’t know if you’d be up to the task now. I mean, that’s plenty of time to have developed fertility issues.’
‘Right. Look, forgive me if I’m being rude, but don’t I get a say in all this?’
Alva frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, you haven’t asked me if I want to have a baby with you. And say I did, how would Bo fit into all this?’
‘Bo? Who’s Bo?’
‘My daughter. If we were to have a baby together – which I’m not completely sold on, by the way, just so you know – they’d be Bo’s sibling.’
‘Oh, no. You’ve misunderstood me. I don’t want to have a baby with you.’
‘You don’t?’
‘No. I just want to get pregnant by you – possibly. Once that happened, your part would be over.’
‘You don’t want your baby to have a dad?’ Why was he surprised, after everything she’d said about men?
‘Why would I want it to have a man in its life? No, I plan to be a single mother – plenty of women bring children up alone and they’re just fine.’
‘I know that.’ Aidan thought of Lou. ‘But it’s not usually something they choose. They might not have set out for their child not to have a father.’
‘Fathers are vastly overrated, in my opinion. No offence, but they do more harm than good in most cases.’
