“And that was the date your last cycle ended?” Doctor Nicks asked, for the second time.
“Yes,” she said, finding it difficult to look anyone in the eye.
The doctor’s office was lovely; sleek and expensive looking. The receptionist was polite and the waiting room had been filled with leaflets and posters about infertility and the options available to aid conception.
They hadn’t been relegated to that intimidating space for long, thank God. After a minute or two, they’d been taken into a pleasant professional office for their appointment. At the far end of the room was a curtained-off area that kept drawing her eye. Yeah, that had to be the… turkey basting area.
Just as Guy had told her, Jaycee had blood taken, then she was ushered into the doctor’s bathroom to provide a sample that he thankfully told her to leave in there. If she’d had to come out carrying her pee when Guy was sitting there at the desk, she might have combusted on the spot.
For a minute, Jaycee had believed she’d dodged a bullet. But she’d have taken that hit if she could’ve avoided what came next. Doctor Nicks quizzed her on everything there was to know about her cycle from when she’d had her first period, to her flow, cramping, duration, everything. He also asked about STIs, infections, a million health questions, then another million about her parents and grandparents, not that she knew a lot about the specific details of their health.
Doctor Nicks scanned the tablet in front of him where he’d been noting her answers. Guy had just sat there. Saying nothing. This was mortifying.
“And when did you last have intercourse?” Doctor Nicks asked her.
Because she was so used to spouting out answers, Jaycee opened her mouth to speak, but then she glanced around at Guy and processed the question. “If we were sleeping together, why would we be here?” she asked the doctor.
“He means with someone else,” Guy muttered.
“Oh,” she said, but paused again. “Why does he need to know that? He’s taken my blood, he’ll see if there are any diseases in there that—”
“Because if you have had intercourse recently, sperm can survive inside your body and a pregnancy test may not register as positive.”
“You think I might be pregnant now?” Wouldn’t that be hilarious? If she got pregnant before Guy’s… sample was introduced, and then she took his money and abandoned him with some other guy’s kid. Ok. When she thought it through, it wasn’t so funny. “I’ve been sleeping at his place for the last two nights. So, if there’s any sperm in me, it’s his…” Turning to squint at Guy, she pretended to be suspicious. “You keep feeding me that wine, you been adding extras?”
Nicks inhaled his shock. “I wasn’t suggesting—”
“She’s kidding, Doctor,” Guy said, sneering at her. “She thinks she’s funny. It’s sad.” Leaning forward, Guy grabbed the wooden arm of her chair and yanked it to pull her chair against his. “I can pay this guy extra and he’ll go up there and look for evidence if you don’t want to out your boyfriend.”
“God forbid anyone gets outed,” she said, crossing her arms and legs and returning her focus to the doctor. “I haven’t had sex for months. In fact, you might need a weed wacker just to find the hole for your damn baster.”
The discombobulated doctor seemed to look to Guy for direction, but she didn’t even want to know how the man sitting beside her responded. “I… I have to say,” Doctor Nicks said, shifting and coughing before he put down his tablet and locked his fingers together. “I have to say that from the information you’ve provided your chances of conceiving are very high. We are recommended to advise couples that natural procreation is the—”
“You know that’s not an option,” Guy said. “So, give it to us, what do we have to do?”
He told her off for trying to be funny, but his impatience was making the doctor just as nervous. “We will run tests on Jaycee’s samples, and we’ll provide you with ovulation sticks that we’d recommend you use regularly to judge when her system is most fertile. She’s on approximately day seven of her cycle at the moment. Without knowing exactly how long her particular cycle is we can only guesstimate exactly which day is best for insemination. We can give you an injection which will force ovulation, and providing Guy’s sample is introduced about thirty-six hours after—”
“Wait, drugs, doesn’t that hurt?” she asked. “I didn’t think I had to do drugs if we weren’t doing the whole IVF thing.”
“I honestly wouldn’t recommend the drugs at this stage,” Doctor Nicks said. “It would be your first procedure and we have no reason to believe that there will be any obstacles to conception. With drugs there is a higher risk of multiple births. We could monitor you with ultrasounds, but as I say, I think it would be premature to go down this route initially. I will rush your tests, but I am conscious that we may miss your natural ovulation cycle this time. If we wait until next month…”
This time when the doctor looked at Guy, so did she. Jaycee wasn’t wild about the idea of rushing into this. What if something changed? Except if they waited another month and then it didn’t take, they’d be waiting another month, and she’d be sponging off Guy with no guarantee she’d ever give him what he wanted.
Guy spoke, “If we wanted to try the drugs after—”
“I don’t want to do the drugs,” she said, taking his hand. “They have side-effects… If we get to a point where we’ve tried and it hasn’t worked, then I’ll do it, but…” Compromise, hadn’t she just been thinking about how great they were at compromise? Keeping her fingers in Guy’s fist that was on the arm of his chair, she turned to the doctor. “I’ll ovulate in the next two weeks, right?”
“Could be as little as five days or more than ten.”
That gave them some time to work out contracts and stuff, and if they could do that then there was no reason not to give this a shot. If nothing else, she’d learn the procedure, and the truth was, the sooner she got pregnant, the sooner she got unpregnant.
“I’ll come in here and pee on the sticks and if you think there’s a good day, we’ll call Guy and… Guy will come,” she said, then scowled at herself. “I meant, come here. Not come. Though I guess he’ll have to do that too.”
Guy squeezed her hand. “Girl…”
“We’re not rushing this,” she said. “We still have to work things out with Pine. But I’d rather try this without the drugs now than have you stressed out and pushing the drugs next month.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said like she was suggesting he was getting some kind of perverse pleasure out of the idea of this doctor shooting her full of God knew what. “I’m just—”
“Impatient, I know,” she said. “That’s my offer, we try this cycle the natural way and the next one natural and I’ll consider the drugs for a third. Or we wait a month and try the natural way twice, and you have to wait until the fourth month to try the drugs.”
“We would recommend couples try up to twelve cycles before—”
“That’s a year,” she said and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Guy, but if this takes a year and we get nowhere…”
“I know,” he said. “There will be a cap on the contract.” It only took him a second to consider it. He picked up her hand to press her fingers to his jaw before focusing on the doctor. “I’ll be ready for the call.”
Jaycee didn’t get full vindication, but it was nice to hear Doctor Nicks telling Guy not to jerk off. There was no such instruction for her, and Guy must have sensed her amusement because he didn’t look at her as they left the doctor’s office and he ignored her grin when he put her on the back of his bike.
When they got back to Guy’s place, there was a car parked on the riverside of the property. Guy didn’t react, he just turned off the bike and went inside taking off his helmet and jacket as he did.
Jaycee trotted on after and walked in on him shaking the hand of a guy probably in his early forties, but buff and attractive in a very corporate way. After some knuckle bumping and finger clicking, Guy went to the fridge.
“So, this is her?” the corporate guy asked and she kept her eye on him. “Simon Pine.”
“I figured that,” she said, proceeding forward. “I’m just trying to decide if I like you.”
He smiled and sat on his stool again. “You think you can tell that without talking to me?”
“I think you want me to like you because then I’ll sign your contract without reading it,” she said. “I’m not going to do that, I want to read it.”
“Good,” Pine said, bending down to pick up a briefcase and a paper bag from the floor. “I brought you a present to soften you up, but I can tell you’re a straight to the point kind of girl.”
Yes, she was. But she was also a girl distracted by kindness and pretty things. “A present?” she asked trying not to get too excited, though she was intrigued. Pine pushed the paper bag toward her as he opened his briefcase and began to look inside.
“If there are condoms in that bag, I’ll kick your ass,” Guy said, pushing a beer to Pine.
The lawyer appreciated the joke as he pulled out a stack of documents.
Jaycee unrolled the top of the bag and peeked inside. Hmm, ok. Pulling out the cartons, she found he’d brought her yoghurt and milk.
“Figured it would help a woman who’s going into the dairy business,” Pine said, pulling a pen from his inside pocket.
Feeding? She wouldn’t be feeding the baby if all she was meant to do was pop him or her out and move on with her life. Sheesh, why did it sound so callous when she thought about it like that? Pine shot the contract across the top of the kitchen island and she caught it.
“I can’t even take off my shoes and get a cup of coffee first?” she asked.
“No coffee,” Guy said. “Or wine… drink the milk.”
“I haven’t signed your contract yet, sire,” she said, bending to take off her boots. “I have to get a shower and we’re due at work in less than an hour.”
“You don’t have to work so much anymore,” Guy said, pointing at the contract with his beer. “I’ve already read it. I made him change anything that was too… lawyer-y, but if you want someone impartial to look at it, he’ll tell you it’s fair.”
Picking up the contract, she bypassed the milk and everything else… including the pen. Jaycee might not have the time to read every word or get to a place where she was comfortable with signing it, but she was too curious not to at least glance over the document.
Moving around the island, skim-reading the top sheet, she noticed Pine wince and straighten with a pained exhale. Stopping, Jaycee tipped her head, then shoved the contract at Guy without looking at him.
“Problem already?” Guy asked.
Instead of answering, she took the neck of Pine’s suit jacket to pull it off and drape it over the next stool. “Uh, what’s she doing?” Pine asked.
“I don’t have a damn clue,” Guy said.
“Do you do sport or sit at a desk all day?” she asked, taking his shoulder in one hand and pulling back as she pressed her thumb and knuckles into the middle of his back.
“Depends on the day, but yeah,” Pine said. “Why?”
“When was the last time you got a massage?” she asked, pushing her fingers down his back and into his spine.
“Uh… long time ago.”
Dropping her hands, she sighed. “Take your shirt off, I’m going to get my oils.”
“Oils?” Pine asked, looking over his shoulder at Guy. “She has oils.”
“She has a contract to read,” Guy said, holding it up in front of her face from behind her. “You just said you wanted to go to work, it’s read now, or massage him and skip work.”
Fair point. She didn’t have enough hours in the day. Snatching the contract, she spun around and snagged Guy’s beer from him before making her way over to the couch. The men stayed where they were, huddled with each other, whispering. Jaycee sank into the sumptuous couch, tucked her feet under herself and began to read.
Eventually, she got so engrossed in the pages that she didn’t even notice what the guys were doing. She didn’t drink much of the beer either. Almost everything was as she expected. She was to sign over her rights to the baby as soon as was possible. The child would be raised solely by Guy and she would not have to pay any kind of support.
All her grandmother’s needs would be taken care of, her residential fees, nursing fees, and future medical bills would be paid by Guy. Jaycee could take full credit for said bills being paid and no contact was required between Guy and Mavis.
Full anonymity was assured on both sides, Guy wouldn’t advertise who the mother of his child was and she wasn’t to reveal the truth of who he was or his occupation to anyone. There was provision that they should try to conceive for up to nine months, and that did make her nervous because if it took that long to conceive, she’d be tied to him for up to eighteen months. But it was reasonable. He was taking a risk in not making it a full year; it was a compromise. Guy was good at compromise.
She was required to live here at Guy’s house for the duration of the contract. There were the expected restrictions of things she was not supposed to eat and drink, just like most pregnancy books would suggest. Alcohol was permitted at allowable levels, coffee too. She wasn’t to smoke. Wasn’t to take recreational drugs… duh.
There was just one point that stuck out.
“Uh, I’m not allowed to have sex?” she called over the back of the couch.
The men were still hunched over the counter. “What?” Guy asked.
Picking up the beer, Jaycee had a sip and returned it to the table. “Here in your contract, it says I’m not allowed to have sex after I’m pregnant. Before I’m pregnant I understand, you don’t want any confusion about who the father is, but after…” she said, waving the contract in the air. “Is that fair?”
“You can jerk-off,” Guy said. “Don’t think that’s against the rules.”
Jumping off the couch, she went toward them. “Oh, gee, thanks,” she said. This guy couldn’t really think that he had the right to dictate something so personal. “You can’t tell me I can’t have sex.”
But it turned out there was no limit to his arrogance. “Yeah, I can,” Guy said, straightening from his slouched position over the island.
That he dug his heels in just made her do it too. He might be able to fall back on his nonchalant, ‘nothing gets to me’ aloof attitude, but Jaycee was ok with getting riled if it put him in his place.
“Why do you care?” she asked, ignoring Pine and putting the lawyer at her back as she went to glare at Guy.
Swirling the base of his beer bottle toward her abdomen, Guy scowled. “I don’t want another guy’s… around my kid,” he said without saying the word he meant.
Jaycee was kind enough to fill in the blank. “Spunk,” she said. “And I don’t think the baby will notice.”
“I’ll notice,” Guy said.
Thrusting a fist to her hip, she scoffed. “Uh, no, you won’t. How the hell are you going to notice?”
This bastard was a piece of work; he didn’t even apologize or try to be reasonable. “You’re going to be living in my house; you can’t bring people back here.”
Turned out the limits were stricter than she’d thought. Maybe she should’ve read slower because she hadn’t seen that section. “Oh, so I can’t have friends now either?” she asked. “It’s fine anyway. I can have sex at his place.”
But her host wasn’t discouraged; he moved onto mocking her. “Who’s place?” Guy asked. “You said you hadn’t had sex for months.”
For a guy so big on keeping whopping great secrets, he was free with sharing her personal information. “Thanks. So much for confidentiality at the doctor’s office,” she said, swatting him with the contract. “And I might meet someone… I could meet someone tomorrow.”
The first flicker of his anger betrayed how she’d delivered a canny blow. “You can’t have sex with him tomorrow,” Guy said. “You promised you’d pee on the stick and we’d—”
“Do you know that there’s another person in the room and that maybe I don’t want to talk about my peeing and sexual habits in the same room with the guy who might be cross-examining me in civil court one day?”
Pine sniggered, and Guy rested a hip on the countertop. “If he was crossing you in court, you’d be against me, and I’d have told him everything anyway.”
Dumping the contract on the counter, Jaycee flattened her hand on it. “I’m not signing it,” she said.
“Unless we take out the sex bit?” Guy asked. She spun and began to flounce away. “That’s crazy! You’re not even seeing anyone!”
Whirling on him, Jaycee grabbed the bannister to help her come to a stop. “You want me for eighteen months,” she said. “I’m not going to take the risk that I might meet a guy… like a real guy and miss my chance to actually, you know, be happy.”
Pine jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “Guy is a real guy.”
“Guy isn’t even a real Guy,” she said. Obviously, the buddies would stick up for each other. Their alliance was only made stronger by the fact they were attorney-client too. “And it’s not fair to ask me to sit at home knitting booties while he’s out there doing whatever the hell he likes. Does anyone see a contract for Guy around here? Huh? Any contracts for Guy? Nope. None.”
Shoving away from the counter, Guy bypassed Pine. “So you won’t have sex if I sign to say I won’t have sex either?”
“There’s always condoms,” Pine said. “We could state she has to use protection.”
Leaning sideways to see past Guy, she growled at Pine. “And who’s going to police that? If my boyfriend stays over, does Guy have to do a cock check before he’s allowed to put it in me? I don’t think so.”
“No,” Guy snapped. “No damn condoms either.”
“What is your problem?” she demanded. “Condoms would mean no sperm near the baby, no chance of infections or diseases or—”
“You just said no to the condom clause yourself,” Guy said, opening his hand at her. “You just argue for the sake of fucking arguing!”
But that wasn’t it at all. “No condom clause because no no sex clause.”
“Do you really think that you’re going to hook up when you’re pregnant?” he asked, looking her up and down and she didn’t like the way his lip curled.
Lunging forward, she prodded his ribs. “You might think that pregnant women are repulsive, but there are a lot of guys who think they’re hot.”
“She’s right about that, there’s a fetish,” Pine said.
Jaycee wasn’t sure that Guy was listening to Pine. “I don’t think pregnant women are repulsive,” he said. “I was thinking about you. Your body will be changing, you’ll be tired, you could be sick—”
“In the first trimester, sure, but I was doing some reading after you went upstairs last night and for your information a lot of women see a surge in their sex drive after their fourth month and for some it lasts right through delivery.”
“Great,” Guy said, giving her a patronizing thumbs up. “Then as soon as you deliver, go whore yourself to as many guys as you want.”
Pine’s follow-up wasn’t helpful either. “Don’t know about the whore thing, but if you do meet a guy who’s, you know, the guy, then wouldn’t he be willing to wait until you’re not carrying another man’s child?”
“Why should he?” she demanded. “Why should I wait? For your information, I have a very high sex drive and—”
“Not if you haven’t had sex for months,” Guy muttered.
“I have had other things to worry about over the last few months,” she said. “And just because I haven’t had intercourse, as your wonderful doctor put it, doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy orgasms because I do… at least twice a day.”
Pine choked on his beer, but she wasn’t taking her attention away from Guy’s as it grew more piercing and less accepting. “I told you to flick your clit as much as you like, I don’t give a damn. Long as your toys aren’t of the monster variety, we’re good.”
“Wait,” Pine said, but she and Guy were still glaring at each other. “If she’s stayed here the last two nights, that means she’s… here…” He didn’t say the relevant word either.
But Jaycee was pleased of the opportunity to fold her arms and better her posture with triumph. “Damn right I have and as soon as you give me the code for your studio, I’m going up there to have a quickie.”
“A quickie?” Pine asked. “With what? A paint brush?”
“She’s sexually attracted to The Abyss,” Guy muttered like it was an afterthought.
Jaycee pushed his upper arm, though her effort didn’t move him. “Don’t tell your friends about my turn ons,” she hissed.
Guy gaped at her. “You just told him you come twice a day.”
“I told you,” she grumbled.
“Why the fuck do I care?” he asked, lifting those impressive shoulders. “Strip off your clothes and put on a show right here, I don’t give a damn. But you won’t be riding any cock while you’re carrying my kid.”
“Whoa, ho, ho, ok, guys,” Pine asked, coming up to put a hand on each of their shoulders. “Let’s think about this…” It seemed he was the level-headed one and his smile suggested he wanted both of them to calm down, but it dropped for a second when he asked. “How can you be sexually attracted to a painting?”
“Take her upstairs and she’ll show you,” Guy said.
She hated that. When he did that little mutter thing it made everything sound like a jibe. “Forget it, both of you are pricks,” she said, pushing Pine’s arm away from her. “I’m going to shower and then we’re due at work, Guy.” She drew out his name just to piss him off, though she doubted he cared. “You can fight me as much as you like, but his swimmers are going nowhere near my eggs while that shocking double-standard lies there in black and white.”
It didn’t matter that they were probably right. The chances of her finding someone who understood why she was having another guy’s kid were slim enough. But finding Mr. Right was even less likely, especially because she usually avoided commitment.
Her experience of living with her parents was enough to put her off relationships for life. Mavis got on just fine without a man. If it was good enough for Mavis, it was good enough for her.
Given that she was living in Guy’s house too, it was even more difficult to explain to a prospective partner why she couldn’t have him staying over.
But the principle was right; she was signing her freedoms over to Guy and could find herself sitting in this isolated building, alone, while nothing in his life changed. Her whole being, her body, her cycles, none of it would ever be the same again and she was giving him something precious of hers, the most precious thing a woman could give, her offspring. It didn’t seem to be too much to ask that he share a bit of the sacrifice with her.