Page 19 of Bred By the Minotaur
Eight
Hank
When my phone rang and I saw the caller ID, I knew. It was DreamTogether, ringing to tell me that I’ve succeeded, and my surrogate is pregnant.
There’s no more need for me to come in again and see her.
I’m out of chances. Now I’ll never know who she is. I’ll never meet her. I’ll never get to find out what she looks like, what kinds of foods she enjoys, how her face looks when she’s being pleasured. I’ll never get to lick her small pussy with the prominent clitoris, the soft petals of it swollen and waiting for my cock. I’ll never get to feel her around me again.
I stare down at the phone blankly as the person on the other end asks, “Are you there, Mr. Pittsfield?”
“I’m here,” I manage. “Thank you for letting me know.”
Then I hang up. Milo’s playing with Darla in the other room, building a little house of blocks around where she’s been sleeping on the floor, but when I look down I find him standing next to me.
“Dad?” he asks, tilting his head. “Who was it?”
I open my mouth to answer, then close it again. I haven’t rehearsed yet what to tell him because my mind has been too preoccupied with Phoebe.
“It was the baby factory,” I tell him, coming up with something on the fly.
“Baby factory?” His eyes grow huge. “What did they want?”
“They’re letting me know another baby is on the way to us.” I rub his head, scattering his shaggy hair. “A little brother or sister for you.”
“What?!” His mouth is round. “Another baby? For us?” He thinks through this for a long moment, then gives me a huge smile. “I can’t wait for them to meet Darla. And Grandma, too. Grandma will like that.”
I can’t help but smile. “I think she will, too.”
Milo skips back into the other room, making little beep boop sounds. “A sister or brother!” he crows so loudly that Darla gets to her feet and hurries out of the little fort he’s built with blocks. “Did you hear that, Darla? A baby!”
I’m so glad, monumentally glad, that he’s excited. This could have gone much worse.
When Mom stops by later, I give her the good news. But I can’t seem to summon much excitement for it, because of what it means.
She rubs my back. “I’m sorry she never tried to contact you.”
I shake my head, slipping into a chair at the dining room table. “No. It’s totally understandable why she wouldn’t. What if she has a boyfriend? What if she has other kids of her own? I don’t know anything about her. I shouldn’t have told her anything. I shouldn’t have?—”
“Coulda, shoulda, woulda,” Mom says. “You did what your heart wanted. And this time it didn’t work out, but following your heart is never a bad thing.”
I want to believe that’s true, but it will be a long time before my heart isn’t sore anymore.
Once Milo’s settled in with his grandmother, I head off to work. News has spread with my coworkers that I was trying again for another kid at DreamTogether, and they all slap my back when I tell them about the call today.
“The world’s most eligible single dad, blowing his entire wad on having another kid,” Ron says disapprovingly. “Surely it can’t be that hard for a guy like you to get a girl.”
There’s only one girl I want, and if I can’t have her... there’s no point, really. Milo brings me all the joy and love and satisfaction I need in life. And so will this new baby.
Eliza’s brought in donuts tonight, so we’re all sitting down to eat one when the alarm goes off. As we’re programmed to do, we jump to our feet and head for the truck, Ron calling out orders. He hops in the driver’s seat and I’m in the passenger, with the others in the back. The door to the garage reels open, and with the sirens blaring wildly, we drive off into the night.
“Five forty East Fourth Street,” the dispatcher says, and Ron swings a quick right. Cars move aside for us as we blow past them.
“There,” I say, pointing at the smoke billowing up into the sky. Another right and then a left, and the house comes into view, flames consuming the entire south side. When we pull up out front, everyone jumps out.
An older woman is shrieking as my coworkers unwind the hose. “She’s inside! She’s inside! There’s a lady living there!”
Fuck. Without thinking twice, my training kicks in, and I head straight for the house, throwing my mask on as I run. This is where my size comes in handy.
