Chapter 10

Piper

My eyes were fixed on the business card. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. The Baby Maker company had sent me the one person who I would least expect to meet. God, and he’s the one person who broke my heart all those years ago, too.

It was ironic. I loved Evan, and all my relationships had failed because of him. Now that I was thinking of having a kid on my own, I ended up sitting opposite the person who had made me contact the baby maker in the first place. I felt so embarrassed.

“Evan, I don’t know how all this has happened, but if you’re uneasy about the situation now, I understand. So, if you want to pass up on it, that’s okay with me.”

Piper, could you have wished for a more complicated scenario?

“Why would I want to do that? I’m happy it was you that came to see me.” He gave me a warm smile. Was this shit really happening?

“Well, I was not expecting to meet anyone I knew. That puts a whole different slant on it. Um, and especially seeing how it’s you.”

Come on, stand your ground, and get your point out.

“And don’t forget,” I said in a slightly loud tone. “You’re the one who broke things off with me. I just stood there, all those years ago, with a broken heart and watched you sail off to college as if nothing had happened between us.”

Maybe he’s just using the baby maker front to find women for sex. Gosh, could Evan lower himself that far?

I thought about the situation so far. Sitting across from me was the man who broke my heart. The one who just happened to be one of the best-looking guys I’d ever seen. He broke my heart and rode off into the sunset, so to speak. Now he was here and was either just going to use me for sex, or he did, in fact, work for this baby maker company. Wow… and life has played a cruel trick on me.

The kid I so very badly wanted as a single parent would come from the person who I wanted to have children with in the first place. I never could have imagined things would turn out this way. Not in a million years. And I wasn’t sure if I could go through with it now. This situation wasn’t at all healthy. Not for us anyway.

Anything is possible, and this has now well and truly blown out of context and proportion.

“Piper, all those years ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life by letting you go. At the time, it seemed that I was doing the right thing. After a while, I realized it had been a huge mistake. But by that time, my world had crumbled and turned completely upside down. My father died. And my conniving uncle tried to drag me through the courts to get his greedy little hands on Dad’s inheritance.”

“That sounds like a bad time, but you could have come back for me. I mean, there was no stopping you coming back to me.” I could feel my defenses rising up. Everything inside of me screamed for me to get my ass up off the seat and run for the door, but no. I was a big girl. I could get through this shit. I had to.

“I wanted to, but I stayed away. Piper, I assumed you had moved on and gotten married. I knew how guys thought about you. You were that dream girl that every man wanted.” His head bowed.

Is he showing remorse or is it still a trick?

“Where is your friend anyway?” he asked.

“Things changed. I came by myself in the end.” I smiled, embarrassed.

You can blame Jules. She’s probably still nursing a hangover.

“Jesus, Piper, you know how stupid that is? You’re here to meet a complete stranger. Shit, and you turn up alone?” His expression tightened, and I could almost feel the concern rolling off of him. I had to stop myself from leaning into it.

I shook my head. Did he just scold me for arriving alone? The guy who is out looking to put babies in complete strangers is giving me crap for showing up alone? He lured me here under false pretenses, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it now.

This gets weirder and weirder.

“Just listen to yourself,” I snapped. “You lure these poor women. Oh, and use the pregnancy angle just to have sex. How twisted can it get?”

“Piper, it’s nothing like that. It’s really to help women become pregnant. And there are a lot of women who are unable to. Yet they don’t want to go for artificial insemination. I mean, take yourself for example, did you not say you wanted it to be natural?”

“Well, you can tell the bosses, it was me who changed her mind. You had no part of it, and I just decided against it. I’ll even vouch for you so that you don’t lose your job or get penalized, all right?”

“Piper, there are no bosses. It’s me. I’m The Baby Maker. It’s my company. There’s no one else involved.” He was honestly the most cocky thing I’d ever seen in my life. I should have been appalled, but fuck me if I wasn’t turned on by him. So confident and full of himself.

I sat there with my mouth open. Evan was the only one involved. What a mind-blowing statement. Why had his life gone this way?

“Geez, that’s a lot to take in,” I said, amazed.

Now is the time you should be bowing out. Get your shit together and go.

“I bet. Do you want to go somewhere more private? This is a bit too crowded to talk properly.” He glanced around the restaurant.

Careful, this can be a trick to get you alone for sex.

“Yeah, sure. Where do you have in mind?” I forced myself to calm down. I wanted a baby, and if fucking Evan was the way to get one, bonus for me. I’d have no probably getting sloppy wet for him. He was the epitome of every wet dream and wanton desire I’d had in my adult life.

Everything in my mind shouted, “Stop, don’t go with him,” but my heart knew. I had been in love with Evan since we were kids, and I mean, head over heels, I’ll be with you until my dying day, sort of love. I was besotted. Bowled over. I had loved him with every fiber of my soul. And the funny thing was, I still did.

We took a cab and arrived at the Hotel Fardo. I had not seen this hotel before, and it was not the biggest one in the world. But it was nice, and it was quiet. We walked through the lobby toward the elevator, and I could see the staff nod in acknowledgment to Evan. He nodded back. The lobby was decorated in cream and a dark beige. It was very simple. It exuded elegance. The floor was highly polished. It had a mosaic pattern and was inlaid with what seemed to be brass.

My body was so attracted to him. Just like it used to be.

The lounge area contained large cream covered seats and a large flat screen TV. It played the news quietly in the background. A few people were by the bar, having a lunch time break, but apart from that, it was just like a very quiet and peaceful place.

We reached the end of the hallway, and Evan opened the door of the suite. It was spotless and organized. It was also quite large. My apartment could probably fit inside it. I was expecting something different, especially since he had all this money.

“Is this where you live?” I asked.

“No, not at all. This is my place of work.” He closed the door behind me.

The door locked, and it dawned on me. I knew Evan, but at the end of the day, I was still a prospective client, and he had to treat me that way. I’d just been blown away in the restaurant from seeing him again. Oh, and listening to everything he had said about us, and what had happened.

Evan took my coat, and I walked into the living room and sat on the couch.

“So, Evan, what is the next step? How do we do this?” It felt weird talking about this.

I could see Evan hesitate with his answer. I think he had also become lost in the fact that I was still a client at the end of the day. He regained his composure and began to explain.

“Well, basically, the contract has a few do’s and don’ts, but it covers four sessions over four months. Usually, that’s a long enough period to find out if you’ve conceived or not. And the success rate is ninety-nine percent within this four-month period.” He used a business-like voice.

Come on Piper, do the math.

Wham, it hit me! Evan had been having sex with all these women. Strangers, who had conceived… and there were kids out there, any number of children that he’d never seen. Even Jemima, that kid is Evan’s. Shit, if I carried this out, I would be a statistic. I would be a ninety-nine percenter.

I can’t be just another woman walking around with one of his kids. Not now.

The cold hard truth hit me straight in the face. I had lost all of what had intrigued me in the first place, and what had led me to this point. I was not sure how many women he had performed this service for. Wow, but nearly one hundred percent success. Fuck, that’s a lot of kids out there. In the world. The world of Evan!

“Evan, I just can’t,” I said nervously. “I can’t do it. Because the whole thing is just too personal.”

I was stifled, like the world was closing in on me. I found it hard to breathe. I had become anxious about the whole situation. It had become not only personal, but it had also remained too much for me to comprehend. I had ten years of thoughts banging on the door of my mind. I was not sure if they were saying, “let me in” or “let me out,” but either way, I was being squeezed.

“I understand,” he replied and I could tell he was a little disappointed, but if I knew him well enough, he wasn’t giving up just yet on me.

I fanned my face to cool down. “I want to leave. I feel a little overwhelmed.”

“Of course, and can I just say, discretion is paramount,” he said.

“You have no worries about that. I won’t tell a soul. Your thing is safe with me.”

Why would I want to tell anyone, anyway? Damn, I would be too embarrassed?

Evan helped me put on my jacket.

“Piper, I'm really happy I had a chance to see you again after all this time. And, I know it may not mean anything… but every day since I broke it off between us, I have regretted that decision and hated myself for making it.” He sounded apologetic.

He actually sounded like he meant it.

“It doesn’t really matter anymore, everything has changed,” I said. I made my way out and down the hallway.

I traveled down in the elevator and thought of what had just happened. Everything had changed completely. For over ten years, I’d held on to the dream of Evan. And what he meant to me and how I’d loved him. He had been with me for every single day of my life since he had ended our relationship.

But now, that illusion had been shattered. My dream had been dragged into becoming a reality. Actually, it had died once it saw the truth. The memories had become tainted. They were no longer what drove me on.

What the fuck do I do now?

And having a child?

It seemed, the further I traveled away from the hotel, the further the dream of having a child went with it. I couldn’t proceed with having a child any other way. It would be heart wrenching and unfair.

Evan, you have left me feeling broken, again. Damn you. Why do you have to melt my heart so? My heart hurts…