Royal Engagement

by Chance Carter

  I found myself smitten and obsessed in a way so unlike myself. I was known as the laid-back guy amongst my buddies. Most of my relationships ended because I realized they weren’t going anywhere—and that it didn’t bother me. This was the complete opposite. Casey was a girl I’d spent maybe an hour with, and I had all these visions of a future for us. I knew it was a bit crazy, but my gut was rarely wrong.

  A few nights earlier, I was at the gym with two of my college friends, and even they—who, admittedly, weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed—noticed something was different. “Dude, what has you completely distracted?” Wren asked.

  “I think it’s more like a ‘who’,” Dustin chimed in. They knew about my regular sperm donations, but the situation with Casey was so bizarre that I didn’t want to explain it. I simply told them I met a gorgeous girl I couldn’t stop thinking about. Wren and Dustin, the last two single buddies of mine, told me to make a move. Even they had to admit that one-night stands and meaningless relationships were getting old.

  With my friends’ advice in mind, I walked back to my office and grabbed my wallet and car keys from my desk drawer. I knew what I had to do. “Leah, I’ll be back later,” I said to my assistant, walking out the door without so much as a glance back.

  The ride to the clinic was filled with bumper-to-bumper traffic, but that gave me time to prepare. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. Was I overestimating how much I liked Casey? Had I built up this silly fantasy in my head? I figured the only way to know was to talk to her face-to-face. This also worked out well because, well, I hadn’t even thought to get her phone number.

  I took a deep breath as I rounded the corner on which the clinic sat. This was it. If Casey didn’t have feelings for me, then at least I’d be clearing the air before my appointment the following week. I walked inside and the chime on the door went off. Within seconds, my gaze was fixed on Casey’s deep, gorgeous eyes.

  “Alexander,” Casey said, as if my name were somehow poisonous. Not exactly the reaction I was hoping for, but I had to take it into account that she hadn’t been expecting me. “What are you doing here? We don’t have you scheduled until next week.”

  I looked around at the patients that filled the waiting room. “Can we go somewhere and talk?” I asked. Casey moved her eyes around the room, as if to tell me she had work to do. “That’s alright. I’ll wait.”

  Grabbing a magazine from a corner table, I took a seat. I glanced at the cover of the magazine I’d chosen. Maternity Monthly. While it wasn’t exactly TIME or The New Yorker, I had time to kill.

  Every time it seemed as though the waiting room was clearing out, another woman or couple would walk in, and I knew my wait was beginning all over again. Every once in a while, Casey glanced up to see if I was still there. She pretended we weren’t making eye contact, but I knew she knew I saw her looking. There was no use in leaving. I knew I wouldn’t be able to focus on anything until I talked to her. I spent nearly two hours reading four issues of Maternity Monthly cover to cover. I was now an expert on choosing the proper bottles for a baby and what to pack in your hospital bag.

  Finally, the last person in the waiting room was called back, and I had Casey to myself. I walked up to the reception desk. “Can we talk now?”

  Casey hesitated, then came around to open the door for me. We went into the same break room we spent time in the last time I was at the clinic, but I got the feeling that this was where the similarities ended.

  “There’s no way you could possibly know already,” Casey said.

  I couldn’t even guess what she was talking about. “Know what?” I asked.

  “Never mind. Why did you come here?”

  “Look, I know we sort of…not in so many words… agreed this was just a crazy idea,” I said. Why was I so nervous? I’d never been this tongue-tied around a girl. “But I really like you. I can’t stop thinking about you. Something just told me that I had to see you today.”

  Casey patted down her dress that hugged every inch of her perfect curves.

  “I have a guess what that something might be.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Our mission was successful,” Casey said.

  Gulp. I had to make sure I understood what she was referring to. “You mean…”

  “I’m pregnant,” she blurted. “I’m having a baby!”

  “Congratulations,” I said. What exactly was the right thing to say to someone you had impregnated voluntarily? I gave Casey a clumsy hug and patted her on the back. I had never acted so awkwardly, yet there was nothing I could do to stop myself. I didn’t know how to feel about the pregnancy. Sure, we agreed that this would just be like any other sperm donation, minus the plastic cup and insemination. On the other hand, this was much more personal than simply offering up some bodily fluids in a cup. I was drawn to Casey, regardless of whether or not she was carrying my child.

  I couldn’t decide whether this was the best possible time or worst possible time to ask Casey on a date. She was carrying my child—but it was debatable whether that made things more awkward or less awkward. I decided I had nothing to lose.

  “Casey, there’s a reason I came here.”

  “What’s that?” she said.

  I drew in a breath. “I’d really like to take you on a date.”

  Casey’s laugh wasn’t the answer I was hoping for, but it was the answer I got. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Well, why not?” I pushed. I hoped I wasn’t overstepping, but I wanted some sort of answer.

  “Did you miss the part where I told you I’m carrying your child?” Casey said.

  I nodded my head, trying my best to convey my understanding.

  “Sure, it makes things a bit…uh… unconventional. But I really like you.”

  “I like you too,” Casey said, a subtle smile making its way onto her face. “But I just don’t know if it’s the best idea.”

  Casey said the words in a way that made me question if she actually meant them. It almost seemed as if she were trying to convince herself it was a bad idea, but that she didn’t quite believe it. I understood her reservations. After all, we’d had a sort of unspoken agreement that the sex was just a one-time thing so she could have the baby she’d always dreamed of. But it felt like so much more than that, so I had to try.

  “Just give me one date,” I said. “Let’s see how it goes.”

  Casey put her hands on her hips and shrugged her shoulders. “Alright. One date.”

  “You won’t regret it!”

  I had Casey write down her phone number, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and bolted out of the clinic before she had a chance to change her mind.

  Chapter 7

  Casey

  Time had never passed as slowly as it did from 6:54 PM to 6:58 PM. It had only been four minutes since I’d finished curling my hair and putting on a slightly-too-tight black dress, but the nerves made it feel like a lifetime. There wasn’t exactly protocol for going on a date with your patient-turned-sperm donor-turned-potential love interest.

  I applied some lipstick and rubbed my lips together, sighing as I looked in the mirror. Alexander was so hot, and I was just so blah. I was certain that, by the end of the date, he’d want nothing to do with me. He seemed so certain when he asked me out, though, that I decided it was worth taking a chance. Before I could overthink things any further, there was a knock on my door.

  “Wow,” Alexander said, eyeing me up and down. “You look incredible.”

  In a maroon button-down shirt and khaki pants, Alexander looked even more handsome than usual. I didn’t know that it was possible. “Wow, yourself,” I said. From behind his back, he pulled out a bouquet of red roses.

  “Oh my goodness. They’re beautiful!”

  “Just like you.”

  Beaming from ear to ear, I left Alexander by the door as I put the roses in a vase. It was too soon for him to see my tiny apartment. I was certain it would scare him off. Shutting the door behind me,
I asked Alexander where we were going.

  “It’s a surprise,” he said. “I’m hoping you haven’t been there before.”

  Considering my meals consisted mainly of frozen dinners and cheap takeout, I figured it was a safe bet I hadn’t been to wherever he was taking me. It was exciting to have an element of surprise. Like a true gentleman, Alexander followed me to my side of his car and opened the passenger door for me.

  “Thanks,” I said, blushing.

  The car ride went much better than I had anticipated. Instead of being filled with a mixture of awkward silence and small talk, we had a surprisingly engaging conversation about some of our favorite places in the area and our hometowns. It turned out that both Alexander and I were native Floridians, he from the outskirts of Tampa and I from a small town outside of Tallahassee. It was nice to talk to someone else who had grown up by the ocean and not in the big city.

  “I moved here to go to Emory for college and never looked back,” Alexander said. “It’s hard to be away from my family sometimes, but I have a great group of friends here, and I still go back to Tampa for the holidays.”

  “Any brothers or sisters?” I asked. I always imagined I’d end up with someone with a big family, since apart from a few distant cousins in New York who I hadn’t seen since my mom’s funeral, I had virtually none.

  “Two brothers and a sister,” he said.

  “Wow!” I hadn’t meant to say that aloud, but I was genuinely surprised. We were truly opposites. “Older or younger?”

  Alexander put his turn signal on. “I’m the oldest. Let’s see. I’m thirty, which makes Emily twenty-eight, and the twins, Connor and Patrick, twenty-four.” Glimpsing over at me with a grin, Alexander pulled into a parking spot at an unfamiliar, dimly-lit restaurant. “Here we are.”

  As he walked over to open my door, I stared at the building in front of me. With a few small waterfalls and gorgeous stenciled stones, I knew it had to be fancy. I followed Alexander into the restaurant, wondering what he had in store for us.

  “Welcome to Lotus,” the hostess said. Based on the restaurant’s name and the outfits of the wait staff, I decided it was a safe bet we were having Asian. It was unlike any place I’d ever eaten before, filled with paper fans and porcelain tea mugs and a live quartet. Alexander went up and spoke to her, and she soon brought us to a table in the center of the restaurant.

  “This place is gorgeous,” I said as I sat down. “You really didn’t have to do all this.”

  “Of course I did!” Alexander said. “Besides, I wanted to. And you mentioned you love Chinese food!”

  I nodded with a smile. “I’m guessing this is going to be miles better than the takeout place I usually order from.”

  “Which place is that?”

  “Han’s Dynasty,” I said.

  Alexander threw his napkin on the table in fake disgust. “Han’s Dynasty?! That’s what you’re basing your love of Chinese food on?” I nodded as he continued laughing. “Boy, are you in for a treat!”

  “I’m looking forward to it.” I perused the menu and tried not to have a heart attack looking at the prices. Wow, was I living beyond my means tonight. One of my foster moms, whose home I had been at when I went on my first date, had told me to always offer to pay on a date. It was a piece of advice that had stuck with me long after she had. I always offered, but only a few pathetic guys had taken me up on it. I was certain that Alexander would pick up the tab, not just because he surely knew I couldn’t afford such a meal, but also because he had been nothing but a complete gentleman.

  We decided to split a few appetizers, none of which I could pronounce, and I opted for a chicken dish, while Alexander decided on shrimp.

  A thought popped into my mind that I felt compelled to share. I liked that he hadn’t pressured me into ordering anything like other guys I’d gone out with. No matter how this date went, it was already a step up. “I know the cardinal rule is to never talk about a prior date on a first date,” I said, hoping Alexander understood where I was going.

  “If you have a good story, lay it on me!” he said with a chuckle. “I won’t hold it against you.”

  I sighed loudly for dramatic effect, making Alexander’s laugh grow and his gorgeous dimples appear even more pronounced. “Worst date I ever went on. I had just started at the clinic and a guy who worked a few doors down at the pizza place asked me out. For starters, he insisted we go to the pizza place he worked at.”

  “No way!” Alexander said. “That’s awful!”

  “That isn’t even the worst of it,” I said. “He insisted that I had to try their supposedly-famous mushroom pie, which had mushrooms and olives. Guess who hates both mushrooms and olives?”

  Alexander raised his eyebrows. “The stunning girl I’m having dinner with tonight?”

  I tried not to blush as I continued. “I told him that, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He ordered us a mushroom pie. I was out the door before the pizza was even out of the oven.”

  “I don’t blame you,” Alexander said. “Sounds like a real jerk.”

  “Pretty much,” I said. “How about you? Any good stories?”

  Alexander ran his hands through his gorgeous hair in a way that said he had quite the story to tell. “About awful dates? I should write the book on them. There was one girl in college who wanted to take me to meet her parents after the first date because she was so certain we were meant to be.”

  “I’m guessing you weren’t,” I chuckled.

  “Not even close,” Alexander said. “A few years back, I went on a date with a girl I met online.”

  “Oh no,” I said. I’d heard my fair share of online dating stories, and none of them ended well.

  Alexander shook his head. “Should’ve never gone. After our second date, she was already talking about our future babies…” His voice trailed off, and I could tell by the bead of sweat that poured down his cheek that he immediately regretted what he said. “Casey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by that. This whole you-carrying-my-baby thing is still new to me.”

  “Hey, I’m already two dates ahead of her,” I said, laughing it off. “Seriously, don’t worry about it.”

  “You sure?”

  I nodded. There was no use making him feel bad over something that didn’t really bother me. “It’s going to take some getting used to, this whole pregnancy thing. Don’t feel like you have to tiptoe around it. I know it’s a weird situation.” I paused. “So, any other good first date stories?”

  In between bites of dumplings and spring rolls, Alexander ran through his list of horror stories. I thought my dating history was bad, until he told me about the girl who asked him to pop her pimple in the middle of a date. That one was the definite winner.

  In between appetizers and the main course, Alexander picked up our conversation from the car. “So, how about you? Any siblings?”

  “Nope,” I said. It came out more curtly than I had intended. To make up for it, I added, “But I’d love to hear more about yours! What do your siblings do?”

  “Well, Emily’s finishing up her medical residency at a hospital down in Tampa,” Alexander began. “Connor is in his second year of teaching high school history. And Patrick, well, I’m not really sure about him. Keeping a job isn’t his strong suit. Last time I saw him, back at the start of the summer, he was working at a shoe store. I wouldn’t bet on him still having that job though.”

  I picked at a dumpling on my plate, searching for the words to say back. “That must be tough.”

  “Yeah,” Alexander said. “I’m sure he’ll figure out his way, though. To be honest, our grandpa died a few years back, and that hit Patrick hard. They were really close. Patrick dropped out of school and started working odd jobs to pay the rent.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I said, putting my hand on top of Alexander’s. Just as I thought a kiss was about to happen, the waitress brought over our dinners. My eyes grew wide as I got a clear view of the giant plate in front of me. Th
ese two dishes could’ve easily fed five or six people.

  Alexander smiled. “Dig in!”

  I wanted more than anything to spill my soul to Alexander. I wanted to tell him about growing up in foster care, and having to deal with my mom’s death. I wanted to tell him that I wasn’t scared of being a single mother, because my dad had left before I was born and my mom had done just fine until she passed away. Instead, I held it all in. The only thing I could bear to mention was my lack of a college degree. “I have to confess something,” I said.

  Alexander wiped something from his chin with his cloth napkin. “What is it?”

  “I don’t have a college degree,” I said. It felt embarrassing to say, not because it was something I was necessarily ashamed of, but because it made me feel so lame compared to this guy who ran his own company. “I mean, I went to college, but I never finished.”

  “Can I ask why?” Alexander asked, tilting his head in curiosity.

  I drew in a breath. “I was two semesters away from graduating, but I just didn’t have the money to finish. I found the job at the clinic and never looked back.”

  “I see.”

  “Look, I know you have this big, fancy company, and I didn’t even finish my degree…” My voice grew quiet. I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going with this. Luckily, Alexander took over before I could figure it out.

  “Casey, I don’t care about what degrees you have,” Alexander said. “I care about what kind of person you are. And, so far, you seem pretty great.”

  As if he wasn’t already swoon-worthy enough, Alexander continued to surprise me with his charm. “Thanks. By the way, this food is incredible!”

  “I told you you’d love it,” Alexander said. This evening was already more amazing than I ever could have dreamed, and, from the look on Alexander’s face, I could tell it was far from over.

  Chapter 8

  Alexander