Sarah shook her head. “I told you not to get mixed up in online dating. There are some good stories, but for the most part, it’s not the way to find someone.”
Elise put a stack of several boxes of chocolates into a cardboard packing box and sealed it, then returned to the counter to fill more chocolate boxes. “I still want the family, though, you know? I still want to have kids and someday maybe have grandkids. I just don’t think I want the man to go with it anymore.” She laughed a little and tilted her head. “I wish there could be a whole family, you know, a good man and kids and the whole white picket fence picture, but I’ve seen what’s out there, and I’m positive that all I want to do is just have the baby and make my own family.”
Sarah’s hand paused in midair over the box of chocolates she was filling and she stared at Elise. “You’re kidding,” she said quietly.
Elise shook her head and smiled a little with a quick glance to her friend, and then she focused intently on the chocolates she was placing in a box. “No, I’m really not. I was thinking, as soon as the store is paid off, I’ll use all that extra money to get artificially inseminated.”
She had given the decision several weeks of thought and had determined that it was the right course of action for her. She knew her best friend would be surprised, and she knew that no matter what path she chose to take, her friend would be there for her, just as she had always been there for her all of the years they had shared together.
Sarah stared at her. “You must be out of your mind! What are you thinking about doing something like that? You can’t raise a baby on your own and run a business!”
Elise’s eyes shot up to look directly at her friend. She loved Sarah with all of her heart, but they knew each other so well that there was rarely a time when either of them would hold back their true thoughts and speak them.
“I absolutely could raise a child on my own. I have enough help here at the shop, it’s just a matter of being able to afford to get pregnant and raise the baby. Doing it on my own would be no problem at all.” The offended tone she spoke with softened and the corner of her mouth turned upward a little. “Besides, I’d have you here to help me.”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “Yes you would, you crazy woman, you know I’ll always be around here for you.” She began to smile a little herself and her face stilled as she gave way to thoughts about the subject. “I’d be Auntie Sarah.” Her grin widened. “I like the sound of that.”
“Well, Auntie Sarah,” Elise said with a sigh, “it’s not going to happen anytime real soon, so don’t get too excited about it yet. First, I have to pay everything off here at this store, then I want to open a few other stores, or at least one, just to get the ball rolling, and then I want the baby.”
Sarah was still grinning and thinking about it. “And then I’ll be the Auntie!” she almost sang in delight.
“And then you’ll be the Auntie,” Elise said and shook her head, chuckling at her friend.
They finished filling boxes with chocolates and Sarah hugged her goodnight and headed out of the door. Elise locked it behind her and headed to the back office in her chocolate shop.
It was a fairly decent-sized shop, not too small, but not big enough to hold all of the business she was doing, and it had begun to feel crowded to her. Shiny glass display cabinets were set around the main room, and a few tables offered patrons brightly colored seats to sit at while enjoying their coffee and the varying kinds of chocolates she served. There were enormous windows on three sides of the shop, so light poured in during the day, giving it a warm, sunny, pleasant feel. She had a few girls who worked for her selling her coffee and chocolates while she made the chocolates and ran her business.
It had been a dream of hers for years to own her own shop, and she had grown up learning about chocolate in her grandmother’s kitchen, so it came as no surprise to anyone that when she did open up her own business, it was a café and chocolate shop offering everything from latte’s and truffles to hot cocoa and all that came in between. It was a hit right away in the neighborhood she lived in. She was close enough to the touristy spots off of Fisherman’s Wharf that she got a lot of tourism business without being affected by the giant chocolate company down the road from her.
She entered her office and paused a moment before the full length mirror that hung on the opposite side of her desk. There was a sign above it that read, ‘Smile and the world will smile with you!’ She hung it there to remind herself that no matter what was going on in the office, whenever she walked out of her office door into her shop, she needed to be wearing a smile for the world outside.
Her eyes moved from the sign to her reflection. Her slender body was rounded out with curves that some women paid good money for. Her long curly hair was pulled up away from her face, adding to the high angled lines of her cheeks and jaw. Some people said she looked like a black version of Angelina Jolie, but with misty sea green eyes and fuller lips. She reached up and pulled the pins from her hair, watching it fall past her shoulders, almost to her elbows. She liked the way she looked, but it was her smile that made her shine most, she thought. She looked up at the sign over the mirror and then back at her reflection, giving herself a smile, and it had a warming effect on her heart. Love yourself, she thought. Always love yourself.
She turned to her desk and sat down with a sigh, looking at the stack of mail that had been delivered that day, which she hadn’t touched. She picked it up and began to go through all of it. She paid the bills and with each one done, she felt ironically torn; happy that she was able to pay them but disappointed that in doing so, she drained her account almost entirely.
She thought about the conversation she’d had at the bank with the loan officer. She had even brought them a box of her chocolates to show them how good her product was, and they were even impressed with her sales, but they weren’t impressed enough to approve a loan for her to get out of the tight spot she was in.
Sarah’s reaction to her decision to have a child on her own came back to her mind and she laughed a little and then pursed her lips. She didn’t know how long it would really take for her to get to a point where she was financially stable enough to have a baby, and it haunted her that her biological clock was ticking away faster and faster as each day went by.
Elise leaned back in her chair and covered her face with her hands, and then slid her hands over her curls, trying to somehow pull the tension from her mind and ease her thoughts. There had to be a way. There had to be some kind of option or avenue that she hadn’t yet explored that would enable her to reach all of her dreams that were just out of her reach. They weren’t unrealistic dreams, but they would be unattainable if she didn’t get to them soon.
She took a deep breath and sat back up, clearing away the last of the mail and turning on her computer. She entered the days sales and updated all of her accounting files, and then she sat there looking at the almost blank page of the search engine, the little cursor flashing expectantly in the box just waiting for her command. Waiting for her to go anywhere and do anything. Her hands hovered over the keyboard, and then she typed in the command for a job search, and a second later she was looking at pages and pages of jobs available in her area. She applied filters and skimmed through the ads, not finding much of anything. She had hoped for work she could do from her computer, so she would still have energy for her shop. She couldn’t really have a job that took any of her time or ability away from her own priorities.
She had just about reached the end of her patience when one unusual ad caught her eye. It read, ‘Be paid to become a mother’. She blinked and smiled a little, clicking on it to open it up.
Searching for the right woman to carry and give birth to a child for me. This is a contracted position with a six figure payout. Applicant must be healthy, single, educated, have no prior children and be African-American. Only serious applicants need apply. Please send photograph and bio.
She laughed out loud. It couldn’t be serious; it had to be
some kind of joke. She saw other ads for surrogate mothers around it and wondered if perhaps it wasn’t a joke. She shrugged her shoulders and thought, why not? It wouldn’t hurt to send in an application and see what might come of it. She wrote out her information in an email, attached her best photo and sent it off.
Chapter3
Elise worked in her shop the following day, creating beautifully crafted chocolates by putting all of her best effort into them. She had two girls working her counter and she could tell that they were barely able to cope with the business they were getting. The phone kept ringing, customers were almost constant and she was struggling to keep the cabinets full of chocolates.
The day was full from the moment she opened the doors until she closed them that night; and unsurprisingly, the little café did remarkably well. She wished the bank had trusted her enough to give her the loan she had asked for. It would make all the difference in her world.
She bid goodbye to her sales girls and went back to her office to do her bookwork for the day. As she looked at her numbers, she saw that they were getting consistently better and trending upward with considerable momentum. She knew she’d have to open another store soon just to keep up with the demand of her customers. She sighed and smiled. It was a problem, but it was a good problem to have. Elise finished up her accounting and then checked her email. She answered all of her business emails and printed out orders for chocolates, then perused her personal email.
Sitting halfway down in her inbox was an email from the ad that she had answered. She was a little surprised to see a response from it, and her curiosity piqued as she opened it up to see what the sender had to say to her. It read,
Thank you for the submission of your application for the position of becoming a paid mother. We are interested in interviewing you. Please contact our offices at your earliest convenience to set an appointment.
She looked at the message, bemused, and then decided to give it shot. It couldn’t hurt to see what they said. It wasn’t worded like the scam ads and emails were normally worded. She half believed that it was a legitimate inquiry.
Elise picked up the phone and dialed the number in the email. It rang twice and then a young man’s voice came on the line.
“This is Jason,” he said.
She wasn’t sure how to approach the conversation, so she explained herself, hoping she wasn’t giving too much away to the wrong person. It annoyed her to no end to give someone a long drawn out explanation only to be transferred to someone else and have to go over it all again.
“I’m answering an email I got for an ad I found online. It was an ad for a paid position as a mother. I was notified to contact this number about an interview.” She felt like she was stumbling over her words, but it just wasn’t easy for her to talk to strangers, especially about such an unusual and personal subject.
He spoke right away. “Good! Thank you so much for calling us back. May I have your first name please?”
She felt slightly relieved he knew what she was talking about and that she didn’t have to explain anything further.
“Yes, this is Elise.”
He was quiet for a moment and then responded to her. “Ah, yes. Elise. Your application was just what we are hoping to find. Would you be able to come in tomorrow morning, perhaps at about ten?”
She hesitated. She was curious about it, but this interview was not high on her list of priorities. “I have a business to open in the morning, could I come any earlier please?”
Jason was quiet again for a moment. “Certainly. I understand that you probably have a great deal going on. What time would work best for you?” he asked in a friendly and professional tone.
“Would eight be alright?” she asked, feeling hope begin to bubble up in her.
“Very good. Eight tomorrow morning it is.” He gave her the address and told her she didn’t need to bring anything, other than herself.
By the time she hung up, she felt quite positive about it, wondering how it would go and how she had gotten herself into such an unusual situation. She closed up the shop and headed to her house where she slept soundly until the morning light woke her with new opportunities.
***
She was dressed and ready by seven. She walked into the lobby of the enormous skyscraper by a quarter to eight. The clerk at the lobby desk checked her identification, gave her a pass, and sent her to the steel elevators that were situated behind his desk. A security guard at the elevator, who had watched the entire encounter, checked her pass and then admitted her to the elevator, entering the elevator after her and swiping his badge through the card reader inside the elevator.
Elise was shocked at the complexity of her admittance but said nothing of it. She looked at the guard and was about to strike up a conversation when the stoic expression on his face stopped her in her tracks. She could see that he was the strong silent type and she didn’t want to distract him from that. It was a shorter ride than she had anticipated, for such a long distance. They went to the top floor and when the doors opened, he walked her out and stood beside her as she showed her pass to the secretary at the desk near the elevator.
The woman at the desk was polite and professional as well, although considerably more cheerful than the guard. She nodded and smiled at Elise and the guard, and the guard turned and walked back to the elevator, disappearing inside. Elise was amazed at the levels of security they had and she began to wonder in earnest just who it was that was interviewing her.
The woman waved her over to the desk. “Before you go in for your interview, I need to ask you to sign these non-disclosure forms.” She pushed a stack of papers toward Elise and pointed to the arrows that marked the pages she needed to sign.
Elise stared at the pages and the woman smiled at her. “These just state that you will not ever speak about what is discussed in your meeting today without express permission from all parties in the meeting, or you will be held legally liable and will be taken to court for any and all damages ensuing from the information you share.” She winked at Elise. “Just sign it and then don’t ever say anything to anyone unless they tell you that you can.”
Elise nodded and signed the forms. She couldn’t imagine why she would ever discuss anything from her meeting with anyone, but she signed the forms anyway, completely baffled at all the red tape she was going through.
She was seated in a lounge with sofas and floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the city. There was a small kitchen counter with coffee, tea, spring water and various pastries and cookies set out. She wanted to try a pastry, but her nerves had sprung to high alert and she knew she shouldn’t put anything into her stomach.
She had never envisioned anything like this when she answered the ad, and it was beginning to intimidate her to the point that she was wondering if she should stay. She walked over to the window and looked out on the city, and then looked down and had to place her hands on the glass to steady herself from the dizziness. The distance that she could see downward did nothing to help her nerves. She took a deep breath and stepped backward.
Elise opened one of the bottles of spring water and sat on the sofa, waiting and wondering what would happen. Thoughts ran through her mind about who it was that she would be seeing and who it was that wanted to have a child and would be in this office. This was no small thing. She remembered that the ad had stated that the payment would be six figures, and she began to realize that that might have been truthful and accurate.
She wasn’t waiting long. It felt like an hour, and it felt like thirty seconds, all at once, but in reality she was in the room about five minutes before a thin young man with dark hair walked in and greeted her.
“Hello Elise, I’m Jason.” He smiled and extended his hand. He looked like he hadn’t been out of college long.
“Hi Jason, thank you for making this appointment earlier, I really appreciate that.” She smiled through her electric nerves.
“If you would like anything in here,” he gesture
d to the pastries and drinks, “please feel free to help yourself to them. If there is anything else you’d like, I would be more than happy to get it for you. We have a full kitchen with a chef on staff here. Is there anything you’d like?” He looked at her as if it was nothing at all in the world.
She couldn’t believe it: a kitchen with a chef in this building. “No thank you, I’m fine.” She wasn’t lying, but it wasn’t quite the truth, either.
He stepped aside and held the door open for her. “Well then, let’s take you into your meeting, shall we?”
She walked through the door and he closed it behind her and then led her down a long and well-lit hall to a wide set of doors. He opened them and ushered her in, and then closed himself outside of them behind her. She looked around the room and saw that there were two walls of floor-to-ceiling glass windows, a large dark leather sofa off to her right, a mini bar beside that, and on her left was a wall of books from floor-to-ceiling. In the far corner of the room where the glass walls met, was a large desk with two chairs in front of it and one chair behind it.
An older man sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk and leaning against the desk was a tall, gorgeous man. He had sandy blonde hair that was combed back neatly and trimmed at the neck, no facial hair and dark green eyes, almost like emeralds. He was built of solid muscle and dressed in the finest suit she had ever seen in person.
He watched her as she took in her surroundings. His first impression of her was that she was the picture of elegance without really even trying. Some women he knew wore elegance like cheap perfume, trying to saturate everyone around them with it as though it was a part of them, but a few women, including the one he was looking at, didn’t have to wear it, it was an inherent part of their character, as natural to them as breathing. She was lovely, he thought, almost arresting in a way, like someone who you could gaze at for a long time and not want to look away from. He realized he was staring at her and smiled, extending his hand to her.
The Baby Shower Page 18
