by Cherry Kay
Elise raised her eyebrows slightly and took a breath. “You want to conceive it naturally? You mean… sleep with you?” her stomach turned upside down.
He nodded slowly. “Yes, that is, only until a pregnancy can be confirmed. Once we know that a baby has been conceived, intercourse would cease to be a part of the agreement. It’s solely to produce a child.”
Her nerves tightened all throughout her body. She knew there might be a catch and this was a big one. She had thought that it might be artificial insemination and that was fine with her, but the idea of having intercourse with the man sitting across from her interviewing her made her nerves feel like they were exploding and her stomach had dropped through every floor of the building all the way to the street below them.
David’s brow furrowed as he watched her face. “I see that you might need some time to think about this. I can give you a little time, but I do want you to know that we are anxious to get this started immediately. I would want to be married next week at the latest.”
She could not stop her eyes from opening wide and staring at him. He smiled kindly at her.
“I realize it’s a lot to take in. I’m sorry for that. I wish it wasn’t so sudden but it needs to happen quickly.” He looked at her with genuine empathy.
Elise felt little alarm bells going off somewhere in the back of her head. “Why do you need it done so quickly?” she asked, watching him carefully.
He never took his eyes off of her. “My public image is the face of this corporation and of many partnerships I have with other businessmen, politicians, groups and associations. I cannot afford to have my public image suffer anything detrimental and in order to show that I am a man of equality, I want to marry a woman with an African-American heritage and have a child with her. Three year’s time is enough to show that; hence, the period of the contract. At the end of three years, a divorce would be a believable course of events.”
Elise understood what he was saying and she knew that it made sense, even though her own scale was much smaller than his, she knew full well how important public image was to a business. It was why she had the smiling sign on her mirror in her office, to remind her to always show the world a happy face, no matter what was going on behind closed doors.
“Alright. I understand that,” she said, looking at him suspiciously. “What about the natural conception? Why couldn’t you just do artificial insemination?”
David blinked in surprise: a thing which hardly ever happened. He had never before had a woman who didn’t want to sleep with him. In fact, he frequently had too many women wanting the complete opposite.
“I’ll be honest, this is a delicate situation.” He leaned closer to her. “We’d like to keep it as far under wraps as possible. If I were to marry and then seek the aid of a medical team to perform an artificial insemination, word could get leaked out that I had done that, and it would be detrimental to the entire project as people might not believe I had found true love with a woman of color if we weren’t going to conceive our own child together. I cannot take the risk that anyone would find out that this has all been set up. It absolutely must be transparent that I have married for love and have conceived a child in that love.”
She lifted her chin almost in defiance. “You’re a successful, handsome man. Why would you hire someone for this? Why wouldn’t you just find a woman and do it the traditional way?”
He leaned over his desk toward her, looking her in the eyes. “I am a lot like you that way, I haven’t met anyone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, and I’m in a serious time crunch here. I need this done right away. I don’t have the time to try to fall in love and do it the traditional way. I’m betting that you of all the women I’ve interviewed, understand that the best.”
Elise nodded thoughtfully and bit her lip. It made something unfamiliar in David’s chest tighten. He realized that it must be nerves. He looked at Carlson. “Do you have any questions for Elise?”
Carlson shook his head. “Not right now.”
David looked at Elise intently. “I will tell you this. There are other women I have interviewed for this position. I want it to be you. It is clear to me, as you sit here before me, that you are precisely the right woman for this task. If you want the position, it is yours.”
Elise drew a deep breath. Her mind was a vortex of thoughts and emotions. This was a huge commitment, an immeasurable and life changing endeavor, and it felt like it was coming at her like a speeding train.
“Could I please have a little time to think about it?” she asked softly.
David saw her hesitation and knew that she would turn him down if he made her choose right away. “I’ll give you twenty-four hours to think on it, and if you agree, then remember that we would need to marry in one week.”
“Twenty-four…” she mumbled as she stared at him. Her mind snapped to attention and she knew there was one thing she had to ask. “David, I signed a non-disclosure form when I came in here, and I will adhere to it, but you are asking me to change my entire life and make that decision within twenty-four hours. I have to ask that you allow me to talk with one person about this. I have a best friend who I rely on as a confidante and would like to discuss it with her. I realize that might not be possible, but I want to ask. She doesn’t have any connection to anyone who might leak your project out to the press. Would it be alright please, if I talk with her about it?”
The nerves in her body twisted and arched as if they were transmitting bolts of lightning through her, but she held her ground, and David saw it.
He considered it thoughtfully for a long moment, and shifted his gaze to Carlson who shook his head no almost imperceptibly.
David looked at Elise closely and then took a breath and said, “Alright, you can tell your friend. If your friend ever discusses it with anyone but you, the non-disclosure will go into full effect.”
Elise breathed a huge sigh of relief. Carlson closed his eyes and shook his head. David wrote his cell phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to Elise. “Please call me as soon as you have an answer for me. Time really is of the essence.”
She nodded and stood up and he walked her to the door, shaking her hand warmly as she left them.
Carlson glared at him over the top of his glasses. “What are you doing letting her talk to her friend about it? We don’t know anything about that friend. We don’t know if she’s going to spill it all and make a huge mess for us.”
David just smiled. “I trust her. I think she’s going to keep it under wraps. Besides, if she does talk, we can always deny it. No one has any proof of it.”
Carlson just shook his head and rose, walking out of the room. David stood up and walked to the window with Elise’s file in his hand. He looked down at her photo and gazed at her sea green eyes. “I hope I can trust you. I believe I can. Please don’t let me down,” he said softly. He closed the file and looked out of the window, wishing for a yes from her.
Chapter4
Elise found her way to her shop that morning, though she had no idea how. Her mind was a tangle of thoughts, all of them pulling her in different directions. She had called Sarah as soon as she left David’s office and had reached her voicemail. She left a message for her friend and let all of the thoughts she was having run wild through her head until the store opened.
She tried her best to focus on the girls who worked for her, on her coffee and chocolates, on her customers, and on what she was actually doing all day long, but at the forefront of her mind was the feeling of a clock ticking down to zero, and her life hanging in the balance.
Sarah finally called her back later that afternoon and when Elise saw who it was on her cell phone, she went right for her office and closed the door.
“I need to talk to you,” she said quickly in a hushed tone.
Sarah laughed a little. “You are talking to me. What’s up?”
Elise shook her head, though Sarah couldn’t see her do it. “I mean I need to talk with you
in person. When can you come by?”
Sarah’s voice sharpened. “Are you okay?” she asked worriedly.
“Yes, I’m fine… I guess… I don’t know. I need you to come by, please. When can you be here?” she pleaded with her friend.
“I’ll be there at closing. Will that work?” Sarah offered.
Elise felt relief spring up in her. “Yes, thank you so much, that works. I’ll leave the back door open, just come on in when you get here.”
“Alright, I’ll see you then. You take it easy in the meantime!” Sarah’s concern was evident and as they hung up, Elise was profoundly grateful to have someone as close to her in her life as her best friend.
The day could not have dragged on any slower, and it seemed to Elise that every time she looked at the clock, it hadn’t moved at all. She tried her best to pay attention to every conversation she had with everyone, but her mind continued to slip back to the meeting and she would be lost in thought and not present with the people around her. It was unlike her and even the girls in her shop became concerned part way through the day, but she reassured them that she was just tired and they busied themselves around her.
Years later, it seemed, the shop finally closed and as Elise turned the lock on the door, she felt like collapsing right there on the floor. Instead, she walked back to her office and did her bookkeeping, trying to stop herself from listening for Sarah’s car or her footsteps through the back door. She finished her accounting and poured herself a hot chocolate, hoping to calm her nerves, and finally, almost at the bottom of the cup, Sarah walked through the door and Elise set the mug down and threw her arms around her friend.
Sarah hugged her tightly for a long moment and then let her go and looked up at her with worried eyes. “Well? What is it?” she asked tensely.
“I applied for a strange job and went to the interview this morning.” Elise answered as though she were in confession with a priest.
“So? What was the job?” Sarah asked still looking at Elsie with concern.
Elise sank down into a chair and looked up at her best friend. “It’s a completely confidential project, so you can’t say anything to anyone about this, okay?”
Sarah nodded and sat down across from Elise. “Okay. So? What is it?”
Elise closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again and said, “There’s a guy who wants me to marry him and have his baby. I stay married to him for three years and then we get divorced and share custody of the baby.”
Sarah’s mouth fell fully open. “What? Have you lost your… you have lost your mind!”
Elise shook her head. “I know that sounds weird, but-”
Her friend shook her head vehemently. “That’s not weird, honey, that’s just crazy. What in the hell are you thinking?”
Elise sighed and held her hands up. “Let me explain a little, please!”
Sarah sat back in her chair and folded her arms over her ample chest in a huff, then raised her eyebrows up about as far as they would go and looked at Elise. “Alright, let’s hear it.”
Elise took a deep breath and tried to find the right words to say to explain it. “Well, the guy is this really wealthy media mogul-”
Sarah stopped her. “How do you know he’s wealthy?”
“Because I went through less security when I visited the White House in Washington. I was at his office. He’s on the top floor of a high rise building downtown here. Now, listen!” Elise lowered her brows at Sarah and Sarah rolled her eyes and then looked back at her friend.
“So he’s this wealthy guy and he is worried about his public image. He wants to marry a black woman to show that he is all about equality, and he wants to have a baby with her. Uh… with me. The whole thing is contracted, so it’s all down on paper, and so I would be marrying him and then we’d be that way for three years, and then we would get divorced and I get paid a huge sum of money.” Elise stopped talking and waited for her friend to respond.
Sarah lowered her gaze and glared at Elise. “I can’t even believe you’re considering this. How much does he want to pay you for this sham?”
“One million dollars,” Elise almost whispered.
Sarah’s eyebrows shot right back up her forehead. “One million dollars?! Are you sure?”
Elise nodded, biting her lower lip as she always did when she was nervous or thoughtful.
Sarah shifted in her chair and looked at Elise with suspicion in her eyes. “Is he ugly? Is he a dog? What’s he want to hire someone like you for if he’s got all kinds of money?”
Elise sighed softly and leaned back in her chair. “He wants this to be all business. He seems to be like me. He doesn’t have the time to fall in love and then get married and have a baby. He’s in a hurry to make sure his public image is okay. I’m in a hurry to have a baby before my biological clock runs out, and I will tell you something, I sure could use that million dollars.”
Sarah narrowed her eyes at her friend. “What else is there about this? There is something else going on. I can smell it. It stinks.”
Elise’s mouth twitched slightly. “He’s white.”
“He’s white?!” Sarah stared at her with wide dramatic eyes again. “White? Girl, what in the hell are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking about the baby and the money, and that’s all he’s thinking about,” Elise said, looking from her friend to her fingernails and picking at them nervously.
Sarah’s gaze bored into Elise. “What else? I can see there’s more. Tell me all of it. Come on. Spill it.”
Elise sighed and couldn’t look up at her friend as she spoke softly. “He wants to get married in a week and he wants to make the baby… naturally.”
Sarah jumped straight up out of her chair and threw her arms out in the air at her sides. “Oh hell no! No way. What are you going to do, become a hooker? Is that what he wants? Some ridiculous fantasy that he’s paying you for? You’re not doing it. I’m not going to let you do it.”
Elise waited while her friend ranted and raved and then when she calmed down and sat down, Elise spoke again.
“I know it’s a lot to take in but it isn’t like we’d be intimate for very long. He doesn’t want to have a wife in the full sense of the word, he only wants to sleep with me long enough to get me pregnant, and then we don’t have sex again for the entire rest of the marriage contract.”
Sarah glared down at Elise through razor thin slits in her eyes. “He told you that. He’s only going to take you to his bed long enough to make a baby and then that’s it and you don’t have to be with him anymore, and you believe him?”
Elise looked at Sarah and put her hand up in the air to pause her friend before Sarah went off on another tirade. “Listen, Sarah, I believe him. This man is seriously wealthy and he is unbelievably good looking, like… he is beautiful. He doesn’t need to have me around for intimacy, he could probably have any woman he wanted, he just wants the baby and the good public image.”
Sarah planted her hands on her hips. “You think so?”
Elise nodded. “I think he’s a really nice guy, a good guy who is a lot like me. He wants to get this handled in a businesslike way and not get into anything emotional or time consuming. I think he’s just trying to fix his image. Seriously.”
Sarah turned where she stood and began to pace around the room, and Elise watched her silently. She paced for a few long minutes and then she turned and looked at Elise again.
“He wants you to marry him in a week?” she asked in a huff.
Elise nodded. “Yeah, one week. I told him I needed to think about it and he gave me twenty-four hours.”
“Judas Priest!” Sarah pseudo cussed. She paced a bit more and then sat down heavily on the chair again. “Well, what do you think you’re going to do?” she asked Elise.
Elise took a long breath and let it out slowly. “I think I’m going to say yes.” She looked up at her friend in uncertainty. “I guess. I mean, it’s incredible money, and then I’ll have a baby and h
e’ll have shared custody, so I won’t be raising it all on my own. I really don’t see a down side to this, other than having to sleep with him at first.”
“If he’s so good looking, how is that a down side?” Sarah asked with the first indication of a twinkle in her eye and a lift of the corner of her mouth that Elise had seen since she walked in the door.
Elise rolled her eyes and looked away. “Oh shut up,” she snapped back.
Sarah chuckled a little bit and then grew more serious. “Well, I’m going to tell you right now that I think this is a big mistake. This whole business sounds like malarkey to me, from top to bottom, but if you trust him and you think he’s going to do you right, then go for it and marry him, have his kid and get paid for it.”
Elise looked up at her friend with hopeful eyes. “You’ll stick around and help me through this?” she asked in a quiet voice.
Sarah sighed heavily and nodded. “Of course I will, you fool. Who else is going to bring you back here and clean you up when it blows up around you? And who else is going to be the Auntie? Me, that’s who.”
Sarah walked over and pulled Elise to her feet, hugging her tightly then she gave her a sidelong glance. “Now I suppose you’ll need some help preparing for this wedding?”
Elise could not hold back all of the stress, confusion, emotion and relief that she was feeling and it streamed out in the form of a river of tears from her eyes. “Thank you, Sarah. Thank you so much,” she whispered.
Sarah just hugged her tight again, and held her until she was calmed.
***
Elise called David after Sarah left; he answered right away.
“Hello? Elise?” he asked almost anxiously. He’d been waiting as patiently as he could for her call and it had taken ages for it to come.
“Hi, David.”
It took everything in him to stand on ceremony and observe polite order. “How are you doing?” he asked, wanting more than anything to know what her answer was.
