“Ouch, best friend,” Bruce said from behind me.
He put his hand on my shoulder as if consoling me through a hard break up. I wasn’t sure I liked the idea of being called her friend so much, but it was better than not being her friend at all. This whole thing with Julia was a new frontier for me.
“Yeah, I’m not loving hearing that.”
“So she’s going to have your baby? Did you guys do it in there? Should I have housekeeping clean up the room before the next patient,” he gave me an elbow nudge.
“No, we didn’t do it. Didn’t you hear? I’m her best friend now,” I growled back at Bruce and stormed off to see my next patient.
I was busy reading the next patient’s chart when Sheryl came up next to me. She stood there, silent, not saying anything but waiting for me to say something. I narrowed my eyes onto her gaze and shook my head.
“What?” she asked.
“You want to say something, just say it already.”
Sheryl and I had worked together for a long time. She was my employee but also a friend since we worked so closely for so long. I could see it in her eyes. She had something to say about this whole situation and if I didn’t just let her say it right away I’d have to look at the stare the rest of the day.
“Friends make the best couples,” she shrugged, smiled and then walked away from me.
“Interesting,” I mumbled before heading back to work.
It true though. The best couples I knew were friends first. Perhaps this was the start of something that would last for a very long time. Or it was possible I’d just gotten myself into a heaping mess that I’d regret forever, only time would tell.
Chapter 9
Julia
“Mike agreed!” I yelled at Kendra when I returned from my doctor’s appointment. “I was totally going to go with the anonymous donor and then Doctor Simon started talking about how it was better to use someone you know. I told him I asked Mike and he said no, but Doctor Simon went and talked to him and Mike agreed! I’m so excited.”
“Yeah, you seem a little excited,” she laughed as I sat with her on the couch.
“You don’t even understand. The big thing holding me back was deciding on the donor. Then when I started thinking about Mike I knew he was the right one. But when he said no I started to question everything all over again. Now I’m so excited! I’m going to be a mother. Can you believe that?”
“No, I actually can’t.”
“It’s happening, girl, it is happening!”
“So did you guys do it in his office or something? How is this going to work since the two of you have already slept together?”
It was a good question and one I’d worried a little about on the way home. I hadn’t clarified with Mike that I was totally fine with doing this through artificial insemination. I absolutely didn’t want to make him uncomfortable or put him out anymore than I already was.
“We will do it the medical way. He’s already doing so much for me I don’t want to make it weird.”
“Then wouldn’t it be better for him if he got to have real sex instead of using a cup?” Kendra asked.
“No, no, he didn’t even want to agree to this before. I really want to keep things as friends and try and not be weird about it. If we are sleeping together it would be more like a relationship and I don’t think that’s what he wants. I’ll stick to the cup.”
“Probably something you two should talk about and you need an attorney and some sort of legal agreement. I have a friend who could help you out, let me get you his number.”
“Perfect, I’ve got a document about this already from Mike’s office. I just need someone to look it over and make sure it is good and I’ll be ready to go.”
“Wow, Julia. I really can’t believe this.”
“I know, it’s so exciting!” I yelled and hugged Kendra who wasn’t hugging me back all that much. I could feel the tension in her body regarding this whole situation but I wasn’t going to let it get me down.
Everything was working out better than I could have imagined. I just couldn’t wait to get things started and hurried off to my room to get my new ovulation kit out. It used an app on my phone to measure my temperature and last period in order to find the perfect ovulation day for insemination.
For the next few days I did all my due diligence. I followed a healthy diet, got good sleep, and took my prenatal vitamins. I met with the attorney and scheduled my insemination for Friday since that was my perfect fertility day and so I could spend the weekend resting after.
The week flew buy with so much to do in order to get ready for my big day. I had waited and planned for so long that it really seemed impossible that it was going to happen this Friday. I was trying to hold back my expectations a little bit since I knew it possible that I wouldn’t get pregnant with the first try. That was okay with me though, now that I’d found Mike I had a great feeling about the overall process and if I had to give it a go for a few months I could manage that.
By the time I walked into the clinic for my appointment I felt like a girl getting ready to go on a date. I was so nervous. All my confidence from the week was gone and I had to make a purposeful effort to take deep breaths while I waited in the lobby.
“Miss. Rivas,” Doctor Simon’s nurse called me.
“Yes, that’s me. Oh, okay,” I babbled as I grabbed for my purse but only grabbed one handle so all the contents went tumbling onto the ground.
A nice pregnant woman was next to me and leaned over to help me. She ended up holding my purse for me while I threw all the items back in there. My hands were shaking I was so nervous.
“Is today the day?” she asked when I stood up.
“Yeah, I’m so nervous.”
“Don’t worry. It is easier than the other way,” she laughed and then rubbed her belly.
“I guess it is,” I said nervously as I walked back to the room with the nurse. “Um, is Mike around? I mean Doctor Cooper? I, think I need something from him.”
“He’s going to stop in and visit with you before Doctor Simon,” she laughed. “I think he’s been as nervous as you are all morning.”
“Really?”
“Yes, go ahead and have a seat. I’ll go get him.”
I tapped my feet on the ground and flipped through a magazine without reading any of the pages. I couldn’t even focus my vision I was so distracted by everything going through my mind. This was really it. This was going to happen.
Knock. Knock.
“Come in,” I said and dropped the magazine on the floor.
“Are you okay?” Mike asked as he closed the door behind him.
He had on the same light blue set of scrubs that I’d seen him wearing every time I had been in the office but on this day he looked different. His smile was brilliant white and the dimples on his cheeks seemed a little bigger than I remembered them before. He was so handsome standing there that my breath caught and I couldn’t even respond to him.
Mike leaned over and grabbed the magazine from floor and set it on the table then grabbed the extra chair in the room and pulled it up right in front of me. His knees touched mine and he put his hands on my hands and squeezed them softly.
“Julia, are you doing okay?”
“Yes,” I finally managed. “Oh, I have the document too. It’s in here somewhere,” I grabbed for my purse and spilled the contents on the ground again. I couldn’t believe just how out of sorts I felt around him. “Sorry, I did this in the lobby too. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“I think you’re nervous.”
“Maybe, but I know I want to do this. Are you still going to do it? Please don’t back out.”
“I’m still game to do this. I brought my favorite ammunition back in my office.”
“Oh,” I said a little in shock. “You mean you are going to go do it right now? I um…”
“The fresher the better,” he laughed.
“So here’s the contract,” I thrust the pap
er between the two of us. “I don’t want you to think that we have to date or anything like that. I did accept your request for yearly updates on the child if you and I weren’t in contact anymore. Um, what else?” I tried reading through the contract and remembering what else the lawyers had updated but I just couldn’t think straight.
“It’s fine, Julia. I read it over after the last update. I’ll sign it right now,” he said and pulled a pen out of his pocket and signed the document. “Here you go.”
He handed me the pen and his fingers lingered over mine for just a second. The warmth of his hands calmed me down almost instantly. Why was he so calm about this whole thing? He was the one who had said no before and now he appeared to be perfectly fine with it all. And why was I so damn nervous all of a sudden? All week I’d been excited and ready for this day and now with Mike in the room I was losing my shit.
“We don’t have to date or anything like that. I really meant it when I said we could be friends. As much involvement as you want is cool with me. I’m just so excited you agreed to do this. I feel so much more comfortable about this all.”
“It’s kind of exciting, isn’t it?”
“Yeah it is,” I said as his hands touched mine.
“Are you sure? I just want to ask one last time.”
“Yes, I’m sure. I’m so excited to be a mother, Mike. I never wanted to be an older mother and I didn’t want to get stuck with some loser guy. I love that this is working out and I absolutely can’t wait to meet this baby.”
“Well then, I better go get to work,” he winked at me.
“Wait,” I jumped up from the chair as he was just about to leave the room. “Can I give you a kiss for good luck or would that be too weird?”
“Right here,” he smiled and pointed to his cheek. “I won’t need luck though.”
My lips pressed softly against him and he let one of his hands wrap behind my back as we stayed in that spot for a moment. This was the start of the rest of my life, I could feel it. It was unconventional and a little crazy, but it was my life and I was so damn excited for it.
“Okay, go get um, big guy,” I said and gave him a pat on his butt as he left the office.
He flashed me a mischievous smile before disappearing down the hallway. Did I just flirt with my sperm donor? Well, he was also the man I’d slept with only a few weeks before and my brother’s friend from high school so maybe that gave me a little more leeway in the flirting department. But it was probably sending the wrong message to him since I didn’t actually want a relationship from him. Friendship would be nice, though. I had already fantasized about what it would be like to stay friends with him while my child grew up.
We wouldn’t have to see each other often but a couple times a year we would get together. Mike would comment how much our son looked like me and I’d tell him about all the things our son did that reminded me of Mike. Or maybe we’d have a pretty little girl and I could dress her up for her visits with Mike. I still wasn’t sure if we would call him their father or not, that seemed like a sticky situation. Also, what would happen if I met someone and decided to get married somewhere down the road? There were a lot of little details I’d have to work out along the way but I was really excited to get going on that path already.
The nurse knocked softly but didn’t wait for me to answer before she entered the room. She had a gown in her hands and some paperwork for us to go through.
“This is the office paperwork that we need to have you sign. Take your time reading it and then sign and date each page. The doctor will be in after you push this button to turn the light on outside your room. Please disrobe from the waist down and wait for the doctor on the table.”
“Okay,” I said trying to take in everything she had just said.
She closed the door behind her and I glanced through all the paperwork. It seemed like pretty standard paperwork to me. Talked mostly about the procedure and the minimal risks that there were, infection seemed like the big one and I wasn’t concerned about that. There was a form stating that this was a one-time procedure and I would have to pay additional fees for additional procedures, that seemed pretty normal.
I signed all the papers and got undressed before clicking the call button to show that I was ready. Quickly I hopped up onto the table and tried to look as put together as possible with my naked butt sticking out behind me and a blue paper drape across my lap.
Knock. Knock.
“Are you ready?” The nurse asked.
“Yep.”
“Doctor Cooper wanted to know if you’d like to have him in here for the procedure,” Doctor Simon asked.
“No,” I said.
“Okay then, let’s get this baby-making going.”
The nurse had a small container in her hands and turned to work at the counter for a minute while the doctor and I talked. Doctor Simon was just as handsome as Mike, but in a different sort of way. He was a little older with blonde hair and blue eyes. He seemed a little rougher around the edges than Mike but still was a very nice man.
“Can you tell me about the process first?” I asked with my hands crossed in front of me.
“Sure, the nurse is putting the specimen into a device that I’ll use to insert near your cervix. It will only take a moment but then I’d like you to lay here for thirty minutes or so after. There’s a lot of research that says lying down isn’t really necessary, but I’ve just got a thing about it and would appreciate you giving it a try.”
“Of course, no problem.”
“Then I usually suggest patients take it easy for a few days. But you don’t have to go too far out of what your normal activity level is. And that’s it. I’ll have you back into the office in two weeks, but you can also get an over the counter pregnancy test that sometimes works as early as ten days.”
“Great, okay, let’s do this,” I said and eagerly lay back onto the table.
The paper under me crinkled as I adjusted myself as the doctor guided my feet into the stirrups. It seemed just like a normal doctor appointment, in fact, the whole process was much faster than a normal OBGYN appointment had ever been.
“Okay that’s it,” Doctor Bruce said about a minute after he started.
“That’s it?”
“Yep, I’ll have the nurse get you a few magazines and you just lie back and relax. We will come let you know when thirty minutes is up.”
“Thank you.”
“I know Doctor Cooper was interested in visiting with you. Would you mind if he stopped in sometime during the next half hour?”
“Sure,” I said just as the nurse helped to pull the blue paper drape over my legs and situate them so they weren’t in the stirrups anymore.
“We will see you in two weeks,” he said as he shut the door.
“I’ve got a warm blanket I’ll grab for you,” the nurse said. “Here are some magazines too. I’ll check on you in a few minutes.”
“Great. Thank you.”
She quickly came back with a blanket and covered me up so I didn’t look quiet as weirdo lying there waiting for Mike to come into the room. I kept my knees pulled up a little but otherwise just tried to relax and let the baby-making process happen.
When Mike arrived he had that damn adorable smile on his face again and it was infectious. I couldn’t help but smile back at him.
“How’s the baby-cooking going?” he asked and pulled a chair up next to me.
“It’s good,” I said and rolled my eyes.
“So would now be a bad time to ask you on a date?”
“Ha, ha, very funny.” There was a nervous silence between the two of us. Obviously he was joking. Why on earth would he want to take me on a date now? I was clearly trying to get pregnant. “Don’t you have patients who need to be seen? I’m going to be fine. Just going to let this soak in for a little bit and should be out of here soon.”
“I’ve got a few minutes free.”
“Is it weird?” I asked.
“What?”
“Well, I would have preferred the old fashion way, but the cup will do.”
“Thanks again. I’m so excited. This is the most perfect way I could have imagined this happening. I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”
Mike’s pager went off and he pulled it out to look at it for a minute before putting it back on the side of his pants. I’d never realized he even had that thing. He didn’t pull it out at all the night at the club or even when we sat and ate at the Italian restaurant.
“Duty calls. I’ve got some twins on the way tonight or maybe tomorrow if they are stubborn.”
“Of course, I understand. Go take care of your work. I’m just going to head home and spend the weekend vegetating on the couch.”
“So that was a no on the date option then?”
“I’m going to be eating pizza and watching Netflix on the couch all weekend. You’re welcome to come hang out if you’d like.”
“Sure, that sounds fun. I’ll text you after these babies make their debut.”
“Okay.”
“Congratulations, momma to be. I’ve got a good feeling about my swimmers,” Mike gave me a hug as he talked. The sweet scent of his cologne and stubble of his days’ worth of beard growth sent my body into a fit of tingles.
My face flushed at his touch and I even felt like I got wet with excitement. We had made a baby with just a hug and a kiss on the cheek, but that didn’t mean Mike didn’t turn me on like crazy.
“I’ll see you, um yeah, tomorrow then,” I stuttered.
“Yep, let me know if you want me to bring anything. I’m an excellent pickle and ice cream shopper if you want to get ahead of the cravings.”
“Oh you are?”
“I assume I am. I love food, so pretty much any craving you have I’m ready to deliver the goods at a moment’s notice.”
“Thanks, Mike. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Take care of yourself, see you tomorrow,” he said and shut the door behind him.
The Baby Package Page 10
