Chapter 12

 

Mike

 

I stayed the whole weekend with Julia. We didn’t just have one night together, it ended up being both Saturday and Sunday night. Although most of Sunday was spent sleeping after our early morning romp in bed. We did manage to wake up and eat some food late in the day before finding our way back to bed after sunset.

I’d never had a true friend with benefits before. It was one of those relationships that guys talked about but I wasn’t sure really existed. What sort of woman actually didn’t want a relationship? Up until that weekend with Julia, I honestly didn’t think such a woman existed.

But we didn’t talk about a relationship at all. In fact, Julia and I talked about her and her baby. She talked about saving money over the last year, so she could buy a condo of her own, paying off her bills, and getting herself financially ready. Julia talked only about a future on her own with this new baby that she wanted so desperately. We never talked about going on dates again, or what I wanted; it was amazing.

It was a release to be able to have sex and not have to worry about calling for the next date. I didn’t have to worry if we would like each other in a few weeks or how I would get out of the relationship when things didn’t work out. Julia didn’t want those things from me and that gave me the freedom to actually enjoy our time together.

By the time I left early Monday morning, Julia and I had already made plans to go to a celebratory dinner after her pregnancy test. It didn’t matter if it was positive or negative, we were going to celebrate our friendship and her journey.

We did set some ground rules, at least for the time being. We were going to continue to use the artificial insemination process if Julia needed to try another round. She just thought it would help her separate things emotionally. And I was going to keep using a condom if we decided to have sex again, although we might not continue that side of our relationship. I didn’t get a lot of clarity on that.

Julia wasn’t going to call me every day, those were her words and rules not mine. She said she was concentrating on herself and wouldn’t be reaching out to me very much. Perfect, I couldn’t have thought of a more perfect situation. We were going to actually be friends. Just two people who happened to enjoy hanging out with one another and might be having a baby together as well.

By the time Julia came into the office to see Bruce for her two week check up, our friends with benefits situation was pretty solid. I’d even come over after her home pregnancy test was positive and we had some celebratory sex.

Julia and I were texting every day. Not because either of us were obligated to, but because we both genuinely wanted to see what the other was up to. We were friends and part of that meant that we liked to talk to each other.

On the morning of her appointment with Bruce, we talked on the phone to make plans for that evening. “Where do you want to go celebrate?” I asked as we decided on her celebratory dinner.

“Nothing spicy. Is it a thing to have indigestion so early on?”

“Everybody is different,” I offered. It was a pretty standard answer for most questions women had about their bodies so early in pregnancy. Every woman reacted very differently to the rush of additional hormones in her body as the baby began growing rapidly.

“What about a salad place?” Julia asked.

I liked meat. I enjoyed a good steak and I absolutely hated going to salad restaurants. It was like handing over my money and then getting nothing in return. I could eat a giant salad and half the time I still had to go somewhere else to get more food because I didn’t feel full at all.

“Sure,” I replied. More than willing to adjust my needs for Julia’s in that moment.

“Well, maybe pizza?” She asked, totally not worrying about her indigestion at all.

“We can decide after your appointment,” I laughed. “I’ll see you later today.”

“Yeah, I’m coming in at four. Will you be able to head to dinner after my appointment?”

“I should be able to head out shortly after,” I lied. “Have a good day at work, I’ll see you later.”

As I hung up the phone I realized just how many charts I still had to update from the previous day of seeing patients. I’d been getting behind on my work since Julia and I got together as friends. I was distracted, in a good way. But now I had yesterday’s work to finish and still had a full load of patients for that day.

I dove into my charts and was still working hard on them at eight o’clock when Bruce arrived. The nurses were checking in our first patients of the day and Bruce and I took a moment to get organized and catch up.

“You look like a well fed man,” Bruce joked.

A few days before I’d made a crack about the possibility of living off of oral sex as my sustenance alone. He thought it was hilarious, but also agreed that he believed he could live off a woman’s juices as well. There was something so nurturing about eating a woman out, so deliciously erotic that it made me feel fuller than any salad ever could.

“Yeah,” I laughed. “She’s coming in today for her official test. We are going to go to dinner after to celebrate.”

“So you’re dating?”

“No, not really. It’s more like a friends with benefits thing.”

“Oh, those never work out,” Bruce laughed.

“Well, our situation is a little unique. Isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but sooner or later one of you is going to get attached to the other. I’m just saying, they never work out. So keep yourself ready for that.”

“I know,” I said without really agreeing with Bruce.

Sure, most of the time this sort of thing didn’t work out. I hadn’t even believed girls were into it at all. But Julia and I were different. She wanted to be independent. She was the one who had suggested the whole situation. It was going to work out for us. At some point I could see us going back to being just friends without benefits. Sooner or later I’d meet some girl and start dating and I wouldn’t keep sleeping with Julia if that happened.

“But I think it’s cool what you guys have going on,” Bruce said giving me his thumbs up of approval. “It will help her relax through the pregnancy and it’s good for you too.

“Yeah?”

“Yep, she seems like a nice girl. I think this whole thing could go south pretty quickly, but it’s possible she’ll help you be less of a jerk with the ladies,” Bruce laughed.

“Me? I’m not a jerk.”

“I bet your last few exes wouldn’t agree with that statement.” He laughed and left my office.

“I’m not a jerk,” I yelled after him as Sheryl turned up at my office door.

“That’s a matter of perspective,” she retorted.

“Any possibility of me getting out of here by five o’clock today?”

“Not if you want to get your paperwork done,” she showed me the long list of patients we had.

“Okay, I’m going to bring my notebook and take notes and put them into the chart later. Not ideal, but I really need to get out of here by five today.”

“Big date?” Sheryl asked with a mischievous smile.

“Not a date like that. I’m just going to dinner with Julia after her pregnancy confirmation appointment.”

“Ohhh,” Sheryl replied with a knowing look in her eye. “So you have a time picked out and you shaved this morning. You’re rearranging your day so you can leave by a certain time, but it’s not a date?”

“It’s not a date,” I said again.

Sheryl wasn’t having any of my talk though. She just smiled at me and then went over to her nursing station to get ready for the day. It was only a minute later that she was at my door again, trying to pull me away from my paperwork and get me in the room with my first patient.

“If you’re going to make it to your date on time, you’ll need to see your patients on time,” she winked at me.

“It’s not a date,” I defended again.

But she was right. I had to stay focused throughout the day to get through my extra long list of patients. Even on the best of days, I never got out of the office by five o’clock. Inevitably there were delays or additional time I had to take with patients to ensure we covered all the bases. Not to mention the fact that any number of my patients could go into labor at any moment.

Bruce and I tried to alternate evenings and weekends that we were on call, but if a patient went into labor during the work day, we each handled our own patients. The whole process of building up our business was exhausting though and some months I swore I only got a few nights of full sleep the entire month.

Luckily, the business analysis had come back saying we could sustain two new doctors and we would be able to move forward with that plan for expansion. Although neither of us seemed to have the time to do in-depth reviews of the resumes for potential candidates. It wasn’t that much of a hurry since the tech firm across the hall still had six months on their lease. As much as I didn’t wish harm on anyone, I wasn’t going to be sad if their company went bust and had to terminate their lease early.

I made my way in to my first patient of the day with a fresh notepad and a determination to get through my day on time. I couldn’t wait to take Julia out and celebrate her exciting day. It was exciting to me too.

My day drudged along with patient after patient. I did my best to stop thinking about Julia while I was in the room with each patient, but the second I walked back to my office I was looking at the clock and waiting for her to arrive. Four o’clock couldn’t come fast enough for me.

Julia send a couple of texts in the morning talking about how excited she was for her appointment but other than that I didn’t hear from her for the rest of the day. This appointment she had with Bruce was purely an official checking in with her hormone levels and confirming the pregnancy. There wasn’t a lot to the appointment and I was relatively certain she’d be disappointment by how fast it was. The fun appointments wouldn’t come for a few more weeks when she got to hear the baby on the monitor and see him or her growing.

For me it was different than I’d expected things to be. I was invested in her pregnancy much more than I thought I was going to. I worried if she was sleeping and eating right. I wanted to tell her all the advice I had to give and it took everything I had not to butt in with my opinion.

She was having HER baby. This wasn’t technically my baby, at least that was how I was looking at things. I found myself trying to think about her separate from the pregnancy and separate from the idea that it was my sperm that helped to make the baby. We signed the legal documents for this. I’d agreed that she would be the parent and I would not have rights to the child, so therefore I didn’t have rights to anything while she was pregnant.

I was Julia’s friend. We had some delicious side benefits, but we were friends and that was it. Maybe in the future I’d have some sort of optional interaction with her and her child but I had to stop thinking about the baby as if I had any claim on him or her.

By the time four o’clock rolled around I was stuck with a patient for a good half of an hour before I could come out and see how Julia was doing. Sheryl had let Julia wait for me in my office without clearing it with me first, but I didn’t mind.

“Hey, I should be done shortly. Just one more patient. How did your appointment go?”

“It was good. It’s official. I’m having a baby!” She said loudly and jumped up to give me a hug. “Thank you, Mike.”

“Yeah, you know, it was a lot of hard work. I’m sure you’ll think of a way to thank me,” I joked.

“I am actually going to lay down and take a little nap while you finish working. I didn’t sleep well last night and I’m exhausted. Would that be alright?”

“Absolutely. In fact, we have a special sleeping room here for when we are on call and running back and forth to the hospital a lot. How about I get you set up in there?”

“Yes, that sounds nice.”

“I wouldn’t call it nice, but it’s better than sleeping on this hard couch,” I laughed.

Together we walked to the room at the back of our office where I showed her our not so fancy sleeping room. It used to be a closet and we had converted it to the sleeping room with a single bed in there and a small night stand next to it. We had investing in a good quality mattress and some nice linens for the bed purely to ensure we could get a good sleep when we were only able to be in there for short amounts of time.

“Thanks, I probably won’t be able to actually sleep, but I’ll give it a try.”

“I’ll come get you when I’m done,” I said as she sat down on the bed looking utterly exhausted.

After seeing my patient I went back to the sleep room to check on Julia and I was pretty sure what I was going to find when I got there. Sure enough she was fast asleep and I wasn’t about to wake her up. I wrote a note telling her I’d be in my office and for her to come over when she woke up. If she hadn’t slept at all the night before she needed her sleep more than we needed to hurry off to a date, or dinner, whatever we were calling it.

“I thought you and Julia were going out?” Bruce asked as he walked past my office when he was leaving around six o’clock.

“She fell asleep in the back room and I didn’t want to wake her up.”

“Oh, you’re good,” he shook his head as if he knew what secret plan I was up to.

“I’m just letting her sleep for a little bit. She was tired.”

“Yeah, you’re being the good guy. Let her sleep, be there for her, slip in as the friend she can’t live without. I see the long game here.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just trying to be helpful.”

“And get laid,” he grinned. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Enjoy your night,” he laughed a little as he headed out for the evening.

Bruce made me sound like some calculating individual that was plotting every detail of the interactions between Julia and I. That wasn’t how I was at all. I didn’t think and plan things through between us. If at any moment Julia decided to pull away or asked me not to be as involved, I’d comply in a moment. But she seemed to really need someone around. She seemed to like having me around and I liked being there for her.

While I waited for Julia to wake up I worked on my paperwork. By seven o’clock I went to check on her and she was still sound asleep, so I continued with my notes and finished them up for the day of work. I finished around 8:30pm and I didn’t want to wake her up but it was getting rather late and I decided I should get her up.

“Julia,” I said softly as I sat on the side of the bed.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. What time is it?”

“It’s almost nine,” I smiled back at her.

“What? Oh, why did you let me sleep that long? I’m sorry. I bet you’re starving,” she said up quickly and then looked like she was dizzy and quickly laid back down.

“Stay there, I’m going to check your blood pressure,” I hurried and grabbed what I needed and took her pressure. “Have you been eating and drinking okay?”

“I wasn’t really hungry today, or thirsty. It was probably the nerves.”

“Julia, you’re hypotensive. We need to get some fluids in you. If I get you a Gatorade do you think you could drink it?”

“Yes.”

She was able to sip on the Gatorade drink for a little bit but I was still worried about her. We certainly weren’t going to go out for dinner and I wasn’t even sure I felt comfortable having her go back to her house.

“Is Kendra at your apartment tonight?”

“No, I think she’s out.”

“How about you come home with me then?” I suggested and then quickly added the qualifiers to my question. “Just because I’m really close to here. I have a spare bedroom you can stay in and I have plenty of food and drinks to keep you nourished.”

“Okay,” she responded without much contemplation.

“Perfect, let’s get you some rest.”

It was a relief that she had willingly agreed to come with me. Otherwise I would have had to take her home and stay with her to make sure she was taking care of herself.

We took an Uber to my place. Normally I would have walked but I didn’t want Julia exerting any more of her energy than she had to. We pulled up to the building and I noticed her looked at it in awe.

“It’s a little big, but the condos are really nice.”

“I thought this was an office building. There are all condos?”

“Yep. I think there are forty five or fifty floors. I’m not sure, I guess I don’t pay much attention. My condo is on the thirty-fourth floor.”

“Wow this place is beautiful,” Julia said as we entered the lobby.

“It really is a nice place. Best door staff in the city,” I said loud enough so they could hear me. “Oh, and 47 floors,” I said as we got in the elevator and looked at the buttons.

“Is there a pool?”

“Oh yeah, there is actually a full gym, pool and business lounge here. They have an outdoor patio area too off the fifth floor. It’s a great place.”

“Yeah, it looks really expensive too,” she laughed.

There was no denying that. It was an expensive place to live, but I had plenty of money and just wanted an easy place to live and get around town. I’d actually bought a two bedroom condo just to make sure I had room for a home office if I ever decided to do that, but I never did. Instead, I used my second bedroom as a spare room for when people came to stay over, like my parents and other friends who wanted to come to town to visit. Although, it really hadn’t gotten much use in the last few months at all.

“This is me,” I said dramatically as I opened the door to my condo.

“What? Oh, my God, this view. You can see the whole city. Mike, this is so pretty.”

“I’m sure all the condos on this side of the building have similar views,” I joked. “It is nice though. Especially at night.”

Julia stood in front of the floor to ceiling windows for a few minutes while I went to the spare bedroom to make sure it was in order. I hadn’t been back there in a while and hoped I didn’t have a big mess of things to deal with.

“How about some left over Chinese food?” I asked when I returned to the living room.

“Yep, sounds great,” she replied without taking her eyes off of the view.

“Okay, well sit down then. I don’t want you passing out. I’ll definitely make you go to the hospital if you do that.”

“That’s silly, you’re a doctor.”

“Then do as the doctor ordered and sit down so you don’t end up at the hospital.”

“Wow, you’re a mean doctor,” Julia laughed as she moved over to the table and sat down facing the view.

“I’m the worst. Good thing you got Doctor Simon instead of me. You would have hated me.”

“Probably,” she laughed.

“Okay, how are you feeling about sweet and sour chicken vs broccoli and chicken?”

“Sweet and sour.”

“And I don’t have Gatorade but I do have some flavored sparkling water, will that work?”

“Yep.”

“Perfect,” I brought over her food and drink and then grabbed mine before joining her at the table.

Julia was distracted by the view and it dawned on me that I really hadn’t just sat and enjoyed the view in a long time. It was nice to sit there with her and eat dinner while taking in the magnificent sights of the city.

“I can’t believe I actually went through with this,” Julia said while still looking out at the city.

“You seemed pretty determined.”

“I know, but I often give up on things that take a lot of work. I’m pretty proud that I continued on with this. I’m so excited. This is going to be the start of the rest of my life.”

“I bet you’re going to be an amazing mother.”

“Thank you,” she said with a small tear in her eye. “I am going to do the best I can.”