Page 53 of Had to Be You

"You did not." Kennedy’s jaw dropped.

"I did. At the time, it sounded like a brilliant idea. I assumed he would bow out of the date and then move on to someone else."

"I’m guessing from the context clues in your statement that that’s not what happened."

"Nope. Not at all. He went into the room with me while I was browsing potential donors."

"I bet he goes and buys tampons without getting all weird too. He just seems very self-assured, like he’s comfortable in any situation."

"Yeah, he was definitely comfortable. So comfortable, in fact, that he offered to be the donor. Anyway, on the way home, he started saying all this stuff and—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Record scratch. Rewind. You can’t drop that conversation like it’s the most common or natural thing in the world for him to say. He offered to be your donor? How did he say it? What did he say? I want verbatim, blow by blow, court stenographer-level replay."

Laura wasn’t sure she could give Kennedy that, but she figured she’d give it her best shot. "He was asking how I knew if the guys in the profiles were actually who they said they were, and then he said what about me? He even gave me a list of his qualifications."

"Oh, I’m sure he did." Kennedy’s response was the same as Laura’s, who had thought it was a joke.

"Right, and um, I sort of agreed."

"You sort of agreed."

Laura sighed and knew that she needed to backup and give Kennedy all the details that led her to her decision.

"Do you remember when I told you I was going to go to that fertility clinic just to make sure everything was, you know, good?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it turns out it’s not. I have cysts on my ovaries that will make it impossible for me to get pregnant naturally."

It was the first time Laura had said it out loud. She knew that most people would talk to their family about things like this, but the problem with Laura’s family was that it was so big and everyone was so close. If she told her mom, then her sisters would find out. Which meant her cousins would know, and then her aunts and uncles and all of their spouses.

There was no such thing as keeping a secret in that family. Not that her infertility issues were a secret. It was just something that was private and not a topic that she wanted discussed at every Sunday dinner.

Laura brought Kennedy up to speed on her diagnosis and the reasoning behind her decision. When she explained the entire situation, why she’d agreed, and that he was doing this under false pretenses, she asked, "Does that make me a horrible person?"

"Why would that make you a horrible person?"

"Because I know I can’t get pregnant, but I’m still going to have sex with him."

"Do you actually think he cares about getting you pregnant? This whole ‘let me be your sperm donor" thing is his way in. You said yourself that he doesn’t want to have kids or get married. He’s never had a relationship that’s lasted more than a few months, which is essentially what you’ve agreed to. But even better. This isn’t a relationship. You have zero expectations, aside from you two having sex. You’re handing him no strings, no commitment, and an expiration date on a platter. It’s an expirationship."

"What’s an expirationship?" Laura knew what a situationship was; she’d ended up in more than one of those without meaning to. But she’d never heard of an expirationship.

"It’s a relationship with an expiration date. It means that you are both agreeing to a predetermined amount of time that you will be spending together and then it ends."

Laura could barely keep up with all the new terminology. Usually, it was her nieces who educated her on the new phrases or meanings of words, but her bestie came through with new ones from time to time.

Laura checked the time. Knox was due in less than an hour, and she hadn’t even started dinner. She needed to wrap up this conversation.

"I have to go; Knox is going to be here soon."

"I would say have fun, but I think that’s a given."

Yeah. It was.

16

Knox couldn’t getthe conversation he’d had with Keaton out of his head as he made his way to Laura’s house. He knew it was ridiculous, but hearing that his cousin’s ex was engaged was fucking with his head.

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