“Again, I trust our country’s healthcare system.”
“That’s very noble of you, when there are over two hundred thousand people waiting for a first specialist assessment, and both adults and children waiting more than five months for elective surgeries.”
She glares at me. “I don’t want your money.”
“You don’t have to take it. But if you have a child with me, I’d like to look after it. Is that so terrible?”
She has another mouthful of wine, but doesn’t say no.
I lean on the table again. “Talk to me. Tell me what you’re thinking. Let’s discuss what you need to make this work.”
“I know you, Mars Ashford, you’re going to try to negotiate your way through this idea.”
“Absolutely.”
My admission makes her stutter. “F-for God’s sake…”
“I’ve already said that my only condition is that I’m not jerking off into a cup. Tell me what yours are.”
“I… what…” Her eyes glass over, and she blinks repeatedly. “I’m not having sex with you. I—I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Reasons,” she says.
“What reasons?”
“I’m not attracted to you.”
I lean a little closer. “I don’t believe you. Haven’t you ever wondered what I’d be like in bed? What we’d be like together?”
“N-no! Of course not! You’re far too young for me.”
“I have a lot of energy. I can keep going for hours.”
Her face flames. “Oh my God, stop it.”
I chuckle and have a mouthful of wine. “We’d have a lot of fun trying to make a baby.”
She’s scarlet now. “I don’t want fun.”
My smile fades. She looks genuinely terrified. There’s something else going on here. “You don’t enjoy sex?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” She’s stiff as a board.
Some men might worry at this point that she doesn’t like sex. Not all women do. But I don’t believe that. She’s scared, and that makes me ache inside.
“Tell me what you want,” I say, “to make it work.”
She’s breathing fast, her chest rising and falling quickly with each breath. “Apart from a syringe, you mean?”
“Apart from a syringe. You’d be gaining a partner, a husband, money, support, and stability. You don’t find that attractive at all?”
She hesitates.
“So tell me what you need,” I say.
She hesitates, and I see the moment she crosses the line from refusal to negotiation.
