Chapter 8

Mike

All she wanted was my sperm.

I had genuinely thought she wanted to go on a date with me. We had the chemistry and there was that something extra between the two of us that I just couldn’t explain. A level of comfort that I really enjoyed when I was around Julia, but it wasn’t at all what I thought it was.

How had I been so wrong about everything?

Julia had me locked into the friend zone harder than I could ever remember being. It was probably for the best. A relationship likely wouldn’t have worked out anyways, but damn I sure would have like to give it a try.

“You look out of it today,” Sheryl said as I showed up for work Monday morning. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, a rough weekend.”

“Aren’t all of your weekends rough?” she joked.

“Please tell me Bruce is actually here.”

“Yes, he’s in his office.”

“Thank God, I couldn’t manage another Monday like we had last week. I swear I didn’t eat or drink a thing for twelve hours trying to jam all those patients in. How does today look?”

“Half as busy as last week,” Sheryl laughed. “Dr. Simon will be taking care of his own patients.”

“Ha, ha, you’re so funny,” I snarled back at her as I walked down the hall to Bruce’s office.

We had worked out our issues over the last week and things were normal between us again, but I honestly was still waiting for the next time that Bruce didn’t show up again. I didn’t trust his promptness would stay. Building our business to the size that it was had taken a lot of hard work. I just didn’t understand why Bruce wasn’t taking part in it anymore. For so many years he had wanted the same thing I did, but now he always seemed distracted by his love life.

“Morning,” I said as I let myself into his office.

“Good morning. I’m here and ready to work again,” he said barely looking up from his paperwork.

“I appreciate your newfound dedication, Bruce.”

“Yes, I am dedicated again. This is my stack of patients for the day; I’m just making sure I’m up to date on what’s going on with each of them.”

“Cool. Alright, I guess I’ll leave you alone to work then,” I said and made my way back out of his office.

Something definitely seemed off with Bruce. Maybe that whole incident with the woman at his house had thrown him off? Or maybe there was something else going on with him, I wasn’t really sure but I was very happy to have him in the office to see his own patients that day.

The day was relatively uneventful until about three o’clock in the afternoon when I saw Julia in the waiting room. She was there for her appointment with Bruce and I did my best to stay out of sight. I certainly didn’t want her to be uncomfortable about coming to our office. Just to make sure I was out of the way I grabbed Bruce after I heard the nurse call Julia’s name. I pulled him into my office to talk really quick before she came down the hallway.

“Hey, this girl Julia Rivas is a friend of mine. I’m going to take a little break while you see her. I don’t want it to be uncomfortable if she sees me here.”

“If she’s your friend, why would it be uncomfortable?” Bruce asked.

“Well, she asked if I would be her sperm donor and I told her no. I just don’t want it to be weird now.”

“Oh, okay,” Bruce said as he left my office. “I’ll offer her mine if she wants. I’m happy to do it.”

“No, I didn’t mean…” I started to say and then heard Julia walking down the hall with the nurse and quickly shut my door.

For a moment I stood at the door contemplating coming out and running into Julia. It wasn’t the cool thing to do, but at least I could talk to her and try to explain why I had said no to her offer so quickly.

I was flattered that she had asked me. And if it had been some other female friend of mine I might have said yes. But something told me that it was wrong to do that for Julia. Maybe I was afraid that it would have put me in this endless friend zone when I really wanted to have more with this girl? Maybe I was just a jerk who didn’t want to help a friend out? Either way I definitely wasn’t comfortable with Bruce being involved.

What had I done? I didn’t want her to have Bruce father her child. There was no way that was a good idea. She should use an anonymous donor, that was best, or so I thought. There was no way she would want Bruce to do it. He wouldn’t offer it to her and I knew she wouldn’t bring it up to her new doctor on their first visit. Or at least I really hoped they wouldn’t have that conversation.

I continually opened my door to see if Bruce was done seeing Julia. Five minutes went past and then five more. How long was he going to stay in there? This was getting ridiculous. I’d never known Bruce to spend so much time in one room. Then again I didn’t normally pay attention to how much time he was in a room, but I was sure it wasn’t nearly as long as he was in there with Julia.

The anticipation was killing me. I finally came out of my office and was pacing in the hallway when Sheryl found me.

“You have a patient in room two that’s been waiting for a little bit,” she said and handed me the chart. “You should probably head in there if you want to stay on schedule today.”

“Yes, I’m sorry. Just a second, I need to talk to Doctor Simon really quick.”

“He’s doing an initial consult with that woman you know. I think he takes a little bit with those. You probably have time to see your patient. I’ll tell him to wait for you when he comes out.”

Reluctantly I hurried in to see my patient. It was a quick check up to monitor the gestational progress of her early pregnancy. I took ten minutes with her and focused on her issues as much as possible while trying not to worry too much about what Julia and Bruce were talking about.

Sure enough as I came out of my room Bruce was standing there waiting for me. He had a cocky smile on his face like he knew he was about to say something I wasn’t going to like. My stomach sank before he was able to say a word.

“So, she’s interested in having me do it. Are we okay with this now? Did you go over the contract with the lawyer? I’m cool with it if you are.”

“No. No I’m not cool with it,” I said in a panic. “You can’t father Julia’s baby. Bruce, you are not going to be giving her your sperm. No, absolutely not. Your swimmers are not going anywhere near her.”

“So the legal stuff is not in order?” he said playfully.

“No, I think that is fine. The lawyer didn’t have too many concerns but I haven’t finished checking all of that out. I mean you can’t father Julia’s baby. You are not putting your fluids inside of her. I won’t allow it.”

“Why?” he asked still smiling at me annoyingly. “And you won’t allow it? I wasn’t aware that this was a decision you were part of. Perhaps you should have come and sat in on the consultation,” he laughed.

“You are not saying yes to her. Please tell me you didn’t already agree to that?”

“I haven’t agreed to it. I told her I needed to step out. There seems to be a little unfinished business between the two of you. She asked about you. I saw it in her eyes. She doesn’t want me to father that baby. So is there some unfinished business?”

“Yeah there is,” I said. “Where’s your damn contract at?”

Bruce walked into his office and grabbed a contract which was scarily located right on top of his desk, as if he was ready to use it at any time. I took the contract from Bruce and went right to Julia’s door and knocked.

My hands shook and I tried to calm myself down before entering the room. I didn’t want to act like some crazy jealous boyfriend but I was not okay with Bruce fathering her child. Especially since she and I had been together. I’d already had my body inside of hers. I’d already felt her orgasms around me. No, if anyone was going to father this child it was going to be me.

“Come in,” she said softly.

“I’ll do it,” I blurted out. “Sign this and I’ll do it.”

“Mike, what are you doing here? Wait, what is that? What do you mean you’ll do it? The donation? You’ll be my donor?”

“Well I’m not about to have Bruce father your child! That’s insane,” I said a little louder than I wanted to.

Julia’s eyes watered and she started sobbing. She was crying so much that I instinctively wrapped my arms around her and held onto her. I wasn’t quite sure why she was crying. Had I said something wrong or was she crying from happiness? I stood there with her in my arms for well over a minute. I alternated rubbing her back and taking in her scent while I waited for her to calm down and tell me why she was crying. I couldn’t exactly guess at this point.

“Thank you, Mike,” she finally muttered.

“You should read through the contract first. I should probably read it too,” I laughed. “It is Bruce’s. I mean Doctor Simon’s.”

“I don’t need to read it. Just tell me what it says,” she said as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

“Let me read it to you,” I replied softly as we sat together in the chairs.

I read through the entire document as if it was some sort of story I was telling her. I used vocal inflections to make it sound less boring, but overall it was a very bland read. It was nice to give it a good look before signing it. Although I’d looked it over with the lawyer, I certainly didn’t have any stake in the document before and was much more interested in it now.

“So I pay you and you give me the sperm. And I’m agreeing that I won’t sue you for child support, right?” Julia asked when I was finally done.

“You should take it to a lawyer and have them look it over though. I really don’t feel comfortable with you signing it right now.”

“You’re right. I want to make sure and do this the right way. Thank you so much Mike. I really appreciate you agreeing to this. You are my ideal candidate.”

“Candidate, like a contestant on a game show or something?” I laughed.

“You know what I mean. Thank you so much. So what comes next?”

“Like the actual act?” I laughed.

“I mean if I have my lawyer look over this and everything is okay, then what?”

“Then come back in and we will figure it out with your doctor. I think Doctor Simon should continue your care so we can keep our friendship intact.”

“Perfect. Thank you again, Mike,” Julia said and gave me a kiss that took me off guard.

It was a quick peck, more friendly than anything else, but my body still reacted firmly to her touch. How had I let things get so far off course? I’d gone from eating up her delicious naked body to standing there hugging my friend who I was now going to have a baby with. This wasn’t at all how I thought things were going to turn out when I brought this lovely woman to bed.

“Okay, I better get back to my patients. I’ll talk to you soon,” I held the door open for her as she hurried out and down the hall.

“Thank you again, Mike. You’re the best friend ever,” she blew me a kiss and then made her way into the lobby.

Julia was smiling now and happier than I could have imagined. She really did want to have this baby. I couldn’t believe I’d just agreed to be part of the whole thing, but I also liked the idea of getting to be around Julia more. It was an odd mix of emotions for me as I watched her practically dance out of my office.

“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.