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“You said it didn’t have to be the perfect guy, and I can’t promise you perfection, but I’ll be a giving lover, a good provider, and an even better co-parent.”
She frowns and I have the strangest urge to kiss her. Her lips are wet, like she just licked them, and her pretty blue eyes are trained on mine.
But this isn’t the right moment.
If we’re going to make a baby, there will be plenty of opportunities for kissing.
She has to agree first.
“Okay, stop fucking with me. This is ludicrous.”
“Why?”
She throws up her hands. Luckily, this time she’s not holding a pair of shoes with heels thick enough to leave a mark if they hit me. “Because you don’t just walk into the office of a coworker and announce it like it’s just another day.”
“I didn’t. We’ve been talking about the situation on and off all night. It’s perfectly reasonable.”
“It’s not.”
“It doesn’t have to be complicated.” I perch on the edge of her desk again. “You get pregnant, I make sure you have everything you need, and then we figure out how to co-parent. Maybe figure out if we like each other in the process.”
“Of course we like each other!” She glares at me. “But this…I mean, it’s insane. Who does this?”
“Us?” I cock my head curiously.
“Even if I didn’t think this was crazy…what about the getting pregnant part?”
A laugh rumbles out of me. “Princess, that’s the easy part.”
Her face is serious as she slowly shakes her head. “Actually, it’s not. It’s probably going to be the hard part for me. That’s why it’s so important for me to start now. Before I get any older. And then there’s the part about the sex.”
The sex? What on earth is she talking about?
“I’m not sure I’m following,” I say slowly. “All kidding aside, are you worried that the sex is going to be bad or that the necessity to have sex regularly is somehow a problem?”
“Would you even want to have sex with me?”
“Princess, I’m pretty sure I’ve answered that question multiple times tonight, just by virtue of how beautiful I think you are.”
She frowns but then seems to deflect. “We’d want to maximize our chances by keeping track of my ovulation, which doesn’t happen often. So, when it does, we’d have to—”
“Get right to it.” I nod. “That’s only a problem if I’m out of town, but that’s one part of this we can’t control because you occasionally travel too. I can request that I only take local assignments short-term, but some of the other guys have families, so we’re going to have to split the travel among all of us.”
“Yeah.” Despite saying yes, she’s shaking her head. “But what will we tell our friends? Our co-workers? Oh yeah, no biggie, Rage and I barely know each other but decided to have a baby…that sounds crazy. It is crazy.”
“That’s not what we’d tell people,” I say patiently. “We’re dating. You get pregnant. Guess we’re going to be serious. What we say or do privately is none of anyone’s business.”
She stares, eyes narrowed as if she can’t figure me out.
“You know you’re going to agree,” I say. “So why all the posturing? Just say yes and let’s get into the nitty-gritty.”
Her eyes widen. “Here?”
I throw my head back and laugh. “Not that nitty-gritty. The part where I should get a physical and some bloodwork done before we start getting naked without protection.”
“Oh.” Her cheeks are a delightful shade of pink. “Rage. Elliott.”
Uh oh. She’s pulling out my real name. Whatever’s coming should be interesting.
