AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Goodbye Charlie.”
I heard the bell above my door ding and breathed a sigh of relief. I hated it when Charlie stopped by. I got to work on replenishing the cupcakes I’d run out of, but no sooner had I gotten all of my ingredients together, my phone rang.
“Hello?” I asked.
“Yikes. Did Charlie come by again?”
“How do you always know?”
“You have that angry bitch tone of voice you only bring out after you’ve talked to Charlie. What the hell did he want this time?” she asked.
“To help, like always. Offered his advertising services free of charge or something like that.”
“Did you take him up on it?”
“No, Nikki. I didn’t take him up on it.”
“You really should consider it.”
“I’m hanging up now.”
“Okay, okay, okay! Sorry. Yeesh. That’s not why I’m calling anyway. I wanted to see how things were going with you. Have you come up with any ideas?”
“Well, I finally got a wedding cake order, so once I see it through, I can officially put that on my resume of things I’ve done here in the bakery. That might help boost customers.”
“That’s good. Have you found any other banks willing to loan you the money?” she asked.
I drew in a deep breath and closed my eyes. I knew bringing up what had transpired the past few days would be a sensitive subject for Nikki.
A few years back, she’d lost her own child at seven months pregnant. It had devastated her and was the real reason I’d stayed behind in Whitefish instead of branching out and taking my idea of a bakery elsewhere. I stayed behind to take care of my best friend, and I wasn’t sure how bringing this up with her would affect her emotionally.
“Heather?”
“Yeah. Sorry. Um, I actually have sort of found a way to get the money,” I said.
“That doesn’t sound good. Did you make a deal with the devil?”
“Not exactly.”
“I don’t like that answer either.”
“I’m just worried about how it’s going to make you feel if I say it.”
“Did you volunteer to put puppies down at the shelter or something?” she asked.
“Not exactly.”
“Okay, now you’re just freaking me out.”
I leaned against the counter and closed my eyes.
“I found this place called SurroPoint. They specialize in surrogacy services for very wealthy clients.”
The phone call went silent, and it made my stomach turn.
“I had a meeting with them and put in an application. I did an intensive health screening with them, and everything came back okay. They’ve already matched me up with someone, a man who wants a child but doesn’t want a relationship, and it could potentially net me eight hundred thousand dollars, Nikki. I can negotiate that over the nine-month span of pregnancy, which would dig me out of debt and give me the money to expand as well as put some back.”
And still, silence.
