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“No, not yet.”
“What’s the holdup, then? I would have thought you’d want to get going as quickly as possible. You can’t start your treatment until you’ve finished with this surrogacy thing, right?”
“That’s right,” Adriano said. “I just want to make sure I choose the right woman. It’s not like choosing any other sort of employee, you know. Whoever I pick for this is going to be the biological mother of my child. I have to make sure I get it right.”
“Of course, that makes sense,” Santino agreed. “Do you have it narrowed down?”
“Not really,” Adriano admitted. “I’m having trouble making the decision.”
“What’s hanging you up?”
Adriano pulled out the folder of possible profiles. He carried it with him everywhere these days, as if the moment was going to come that would suddenly feel like the right time to make the decision. He laid it open on the table between them. Maybe having Santino here would help him do what he hadn’t been able to do so far.
Santino flipped the folder open and scanned through Adriano’s options.
“You have a lot to choose from,” he said. “It seems like any of these would be good. What’s with these markings? Is that your shortlist?”
“No,” he said. “Those are the candidates Amy told me I should consider not choosing, for various reasons relating to health and medical concerns. But she made sure to let me know that nothing she was worrying about was actually a big deal. All these women have been medically cleared for surrogacy—Amy’s just trying to give me pointers.”
“Or she’s jealous,” Santino said.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Maybe she wanted to eliminate medically fit women from consideration because she was jealous at the idea of another woman giving you a child.”
“Santino—you know that’s insane, don’t you? You understand how surrogacy works. I’m not going to be sleeping with any of these women. What is there for her to be jealous of?”
“You’re a rich guy. Maybe she’s annoyed she won’t be getting your full attention. Maybe she’s mad you’ll be financially supporting another woman when you could be supportingher.”
“God, Santino. Amy isn’t like that. She’s not after my money. Besides, Iamfinancially supporting her. I’m paying her to be my doctor. This is all too crazy for words.”
Santino was smiling. “Don’t think I don’t see you defending her, though.”
“What are you getting at?”
“I don’t really think jealousy is the issue here,” Santino said. “I was joking about that. But I do think the issue is this Amy woman.”
“She’s not trying to prevent me from finding a surrogate.” Adriano was certain about that, and in fact, he was a little annoyed at the accusation.
“That’s not what I meant,” Santino said. “What I’m saying is…I don’t think you’re taking this search completely seriously because I think your mind is still on her.”
That threw Adriano for a loop. “My mind isn’t on her,” he protested.
But it wasn’t the truth, and he knew it. He thought of Amy constantly. She was the first thing on his mind when he woke up every morning and the last thing he thought of before he went to sleep at night.
Every time he sat down to look at this folder and try to make a decision about possible surrogacy options, it felt as if the only thing he could focus on was Amy and the conversation the two of them had had about it. The moment their fingertips had met and the way it had felt. He had ached to forget all about the need to look for a surrogate in that moment. Just as he had that day in the hotel, he had wanted to forget about his troubles and focus on the allure of her body. He had wanted to lose himself in her again.
Just being around her was a reminder of how good that night had been. Nothing had ever been that amazing, and even if he got the full fifty more years to which he felt he was entitled, he was sure he would never be with a woman who made him feel the way she had. She couldn’t possibly have any equals out there.
“All right,” he said. “Maybe my mind is on her. A little bit. Some of the time.”
“I knew it,” Santino said. “As soon as I suggested she might be after your money, you jumped to her defense like I’d accused her of a crime. You really like this woman.”
“You make it sound like I have feelings for her.”
“Well, do you?”
“It isn’t like that,” Adriano said. He was almost certain that he was right about what he was saying. “There’s nothing personal between the two of us. It’s just that we had really good sex, and I enjoyed it.”
