Chapter 11 – Darren
“What do you need from me?” asked Hope, hesitantly.
She was skeptical, and rightfully so. I hadn’t given her any indication as to what I might want and, given the fact that we hadn’t started off on the best of terms, she had even more of a reason to be skeptical.
“Well, I need a baby for Christmas.”
She got quiet, for once, and had a blank look on her face. I silently urged her to say something. One of the reasons I hadn’t been able to get her out of my mind all this time was that she was a little spitfire of spunkiness and sassiness. She was always talking. But this time, there was nothing. Not a peep.
Then, she erupted in laughter. She laughed so hard for a moment that I thought she was going to fall out of her chair.
After what seemed like an eternity, she finally stopped laughing, sat upright, and stared at me inquisitively.
“You can’t be serious,” she said, in a way that sounded like it was more of a question than a statement.
“As much as I would love to be able to provide comic relief this morning, I am very serious.”
“That is more than the ‘please deep clean my bathroom’ request that I was expecting,” she said. “I’m going to need some time to process that. And I know that it’s not quite a baby, but…”
She pulled a pie out of a bag that she had been clutching under her arm and placed it on my desk.
“I baked another apple pie for you. I’m not sure if you liked the first one or not, but I like baking pies. I just wanted to thank you for being so understanding and not firing my mom. It means more to me than I can express.”
“You’re welcome,” I said.
I tried hard to resist the urge to smile. I think I failed somewhat because my lips creased slightly, despite my best intentions. Leave it to her to make me a pie.
Looking down at the desk next to where she had placed the pie, she asked, “Is this contract for me?”
“Well, yes, actually,” I informed her. “I was hoping that you might agree to the terms of the contract today, because time is of the essence.”
She glanced over the contract as if she was trying to make sense of it.
“Basically, I am willing to compensate you very well for what I want,” I told her. “The terms state that you will be paid one million dollars for carrying my baby to term. You will receive $50,000 upon signing the contract and agreeing to the terms and will receive the rest once the baby is delivered. And, most importantly, the terms state that you will have nothing to do with the baby once it’s born.”
Hope didn’t say anything. She just blinked a couple times. Had she been a cartoon character, she might have had stars around her head because she had a look on her face like she’d been hit over the head with a mallet. I knew that it was a lot to take in all at once, but I also knew that we didn’t have much time.
“Wow,” she said finally.
She sat on the edge of the chair, wringing her hands anxiously.
“There’s more,” I told her. “Once the baby is conceived, you can no longer leave this house You will stay here with me. Anything that you need will be brought to you. So, this means that you won’t be able to work with your mother anymore once you become pregnant.”
Hope jumped up from her chair, clearly upset.
“My mother needs me! If you understood exactly how much she needed me, you wouldn’t even think about asking me that!”
Hope turned to leave. I had to do something.
“What could a million dollars do to help your family right now?” I asked her.
I knew money always talked.
She stopped. I continued.
“I know that what I’m asking you is a big deal. I’m not asking you to make a decision right now if you aren’t comfortable with this. I really want this to work out for both of us. Take the contract home and think about it. The minute you sign the contract, you will get your $50,000. I have already withdrawn the cash and have it ready for you.”
I could see that she was torn. I walked over to the other side of the desk and put my hands on her shoulders.
“I know that you care about your family and even though we don’t know each other that well, I have grown quite fond of your mother. This could change things for all of you.” I picked up the contract and pressed it into her hand. “Will you at least think about it?”
Hope stared into my eyes as if she were trying to look directly into my soul.
After a few minutes, she finally said, “Okay, I will think about it. But, first, let me do the job that I came here to do, and clean your house.”
It wasn’t the exact answer that I’d hoped for. But I didn’t know what else I’d expected, from Hope. Something random was more her style than some practiced, polished bullshit she thought everyone else wanted to hear. That was why I liked her.
So, I knew that even though this response wasn’t what I was hoping for, it was what I had gotten from Hope. And I also knew that it would have to do for now.
Since I hadn’t known what to even expect, I was going to have to take it. All I could do was ask— or more like, demand. I’d done that, and now fate rested in Hope’s hands.