“Where are the twins?” I asked her.
“They are actually with their Uncle Eric. He took them for ice cream and lunch. He’s leaving tomorrow and wanted to see them before he left.” I frowned. Well, now what do I do? I glanced at Mark. His face was pale. He was almost shaking. This was a mistake. If he was that worried about it then he shouldn’t even ask. We both knew it was too big a thing to ask someone. I didn’t know why he kept pushing it so much.
Before I could say or do anything, he grabbed my hand and pulled me down the hallway to Ethan’s office. I tried to pull away, but he held me tight. He threw open the door and without hesitating he belted it out.
“Renee and I want you to have our baby!”
I had never been more embarrassed in my life. It was like all the air had been ripped out of the room. No one was speaking. Everyone was staring with our eyes wide and mouths open at Mark. Ethan was the first one to speak.
“What?”
Mark’s breathing was shallow, his chest rising and falling heavily. I heard him gulp when he moved further into the room. I groaned inwardly as I followed him inside. Ethan sat at the desk while Cleo stood next to him. We sat in front of them like school children being reprimanded by the principal.
“We can’t have-” Mark started and I put my hand up and then on his thigh to calm him and stop him from talking.
“I can’t carry a child. My uterus is all sorts of messed up. We have tried everything we could to get pregnant. I will never be able to do it. The only way for us to become parents is to get a surrogate to carry it. Mark and I wanted to see if you, Cleo, would do it.”
Cleo and Ethan both answered at the same time, but with two different answers.
“Yes!” Cleo exclaimed.
“No.” Ethan said.
Once again silence filled the room. Mark began squeezing my hand. I squeezed it right back. This was it. There was no going back.
Cleo looked at her husband blankly.
“Why no? It’s not your choice.”
Ethan stood up. “Yeah, but I would have to deal with it the whole time. That and we couldn’t have-,” he glanced at us and I urged my husband to stand up.
“We’ll just give you the room,” I said, feeling the heat rising to my face. We practically ran out.
Sitting in the living room we could hear them shouting at each other. We sat in cold, awkward silence on the couch.
“They could still have sex, can’t they?” Mark asked suddenly.
“I don’t see why not. Probably not until she is for sure pregnant. But once we know it took there really is no reason her and Ethan couldn’t.”
A moment later we heard the door open and Cleo came into the living room. Her face was blank.
“Could we see you guys in the office again?” We stood up and followed her back. Ethan’s arms were crossed and he looked furious. I tried not to make eye contact with him, but I got the feeling it wasn’t me he was mad at.
We sat back in our original chairs while Ethan leaned against the wall. Cleo sat down on the front edge of the desk. Her short legs swung back and forth. This was it. My heart was pounding in my chest. These two people determined whether we could have a child or not.
“So, there is no other way for you to have a baby,” Cleo clarified. I shook my head.
“What about adoption. There’s plenty of kids wanting homes,” Ethan snarled. I turned to look at him.
“We have been thinking about that. If you don’t want to, then that will probably be our last resort,” I said rather matter of factly. He snorted.
“Are you gonna be the one taking her to all of her appointments? Who’s gonna get up in the middle of the night because she wants those little chocolate oranges that you can only get at Christmas, but there is a holiday store an hour away that if you go right now you can get some before they close?” Ethan kicked off the wall and moved closer to us.
“Her being pregnant means she’ll be nauseous and not fit to work like she planned, and what happens if something happens with one of our kids and she can’t get to them in time because she’s waddling and carrying an extra fifty pounds? We’re just getting a routine down and now you want to throw a wrench in the kink just because you want a baby?” Ethan shouted at us, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was shouting straight at Mark.
Mark was shrinking into his seat. He was usually a hot head and snapped whenever someone looked at him wrong, but today he was a small child. He couldn’t argue with Ethan.
Cleo grabbed her husband’s shirt collar and forced him to turn to her. His cold blue eyes were glaring daggers at her, but her hard brown ones were enough to kill. He softened, crossed his arms, and shut his mouth. Cleo turned back to us.
