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“Okay. I’ll play that game. When you feel his child move for the first time, this is going to become a different story. When you feel that baby move, when you feel the evidence of your body growing a human, this is going to change.”
“The agency provides extensive counseling for the woman throughout the process to deal with things like that.”
“It’s biological, Heather, not psychological.”
“But the psychological has a lot of bearing on what happens. Look, I love you, and I know you’re looking out for me. I know you’re talking from experience and a place of hurt, but I’m not going to get hurt. You were right; this situation is totally different from yours. This won’t be a child conceived out of a loving relationship. I’ll be okay. If I have this meeting with Andrew and things go well and I feel comfortable with him, then I’m going to do it.”
“And I know you well enough to know I can’t stop you once you’ve made up your mind. Just keep yourself safe, okay? And keep me in the loop. I might not agree with any of this, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to help you.”
“I will. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
The rest of the day at the bakery passed with almost no customers. I had a couple of people come in and ask for samples, but they didn’t end up purchasing anything. That was the downside to samples. By the time I shut down the bakery, I was fed up and ready to go home. I packed up all my things, locked up the store, and then walked back to my studio apartment a mile up the road. When I entered my apartment, my cell phone rang.
“Hello?” I asked.
“Heather?”
I pulled my phone away from my ear and looked at the number.
Holy shit, it was Andrew.
“Yes. Is this Andrew?” I asked.
“It is. I hope it isn’t too late to be calling.”
“Not at all. Just got in from work. Is there something I can help you with?”
“I know the agency is supposed to set up a meeting between the two of us this week, but I was hoping you would let me take you out for dinner tomorrow night.”
“Um.”
“I’ve already called the agency and told them I’d be placing this call, and you have the option to refuse at any time. We can make it the negotiation dinner if you want, or we can meet up at a separate time to do that. But I do want to thank you for the decision you’ve made to help me. I also want to give you another chance to get to know me, since our coffee shop meeting left you a little flustered.”
“I wasn’t flustered,” I said.
“You were a little bit.”
I could hear traces of a grin in his voice.
“Okay. If I said yes, and then I called the agency, they would know about this phone call?” I asked.
“Every bit of it. I gave them the address of the restaurant I would want to take you to if you agreed,” he said.
I sat down on my couch, and my mind twirled the idea around. It would be nice to get dinner out. It had been a very long time since I’d done something like that. And I didn’t hear any traces of manipulation or anything in his voice. I’d be calling the agency to make sure his words were backed up with proof, but we were meeting this week anyway.
“Sure,” I said. “Dinner sounds nice.”
“Perfect. How does seven o’clock sound? I could pick you up?”
“You want to pick me up?”
“If you’re comfortable with it.”
“Um, sure. Yeah. You can pick me up. That’s fine.”
“So, seven o’clock tomorrow?”
