Page 46 of The Baby Bargain
"This." He turns the laptop screen to me. Points to the text in the profile. Reads it aloud. "I'm not going to waste your time and I hope you won't waste mine either. I'm looking for a man who's willing to get me pregnant. You'll need to work around my schedule. To providedonationsevery day I'm ovulating—" He looks at me. "Should I keep going?"
"It's not—"
"You're right. There are three reasons a guy would say yes to this." He countsonewith this finger. "He's a good Samaritan who wants to help a woman in need—"
"Is that too much to ask?"
Chase nodsyeah. Holds up a second finger. "He's excited about the idea of unprotected sex with you."
"What's wrong with—"
He holds up a third finger. "Or he's so into the idea of his DNA living on he's willing to overlook the weirdness of the situation."
"And… what, those guys go to sperm banks?"
"Yeah. But I won't push that."
"Thank you."
He nodssure. Looks at me funny. With this mix of respect and understanding. "You really know what you want."
"Is there something wrong with that?"
"It's different."
"Different how?"
"My ex… she was all over the place."
"Oh." I press my palms into my thighs. I am not asking about his ex. I am not seething with jealousy over his ex. I am not struggling to breathe because I hate that his ex owns his heart. It. So. Doesn't. Matter.
"At work… nobody stands up to me."
"No?"
"They mostly ignore me. Let me do my own thing."
"Isn't that how tattoo shops work?"
"Sometimes." He pulls up a word document. "We need something more like this." He reads the new profile. "I'm looking for someone to knock me up. No strings attached. A few weeks of fun, unprotected sex. Then we part ways."
"Is it that different?"
"Guys are dumb. You have to spell it out."
I can't help but laugh. "Isn't that… I'll probably get lots of people who aren't willing to commit."
He nodstrue. "So we add something to weed out guys who can't commit."
"What?"
"Ask for a pic of their latest test results. In a message with a specific code."
"A code?"
"So you know they're listening."
Okay… "I love going bareback?"
