Surrogate For The Billionaire: A BWWM Pregnancy Romance (3 page)

“I
did. But when you didn’t answer I figured I’d tell you in
person. I also wanted to see why everyone was ‘lovin’
McDonald’s,” he said with a smirk.

Lateisha
laughed. “Well enjoy.”

“I
will,” Bryce answered, taking an exaggerated bite of his
burger.

He
waved and the Town Car drove away. His absence left Lateisha feeling
empty and she didn’t like it one bit.

*****

The
next morning Lateisha woke up early. The unexplained anxiety at the
appointment today made her unable to sleep. Normally she was a ‘sleep
till ten’ kind of girl but today she was up at six. Rubbing her
sleep encrusted eyes, Lateisha climbed from bed after tossing and
turning for an hour. She needed a shower and coffee, in that order.
Stumbling to the shower, Lateisha snagged a towel from the linen
closet and moved down the tiny hall to the bathroom she shared with
her friend Becky in their two bedroom apartment. Lucky for her, Becky
was already at work and she didn’t have to explain why she was
up so early when she didn’t work until four.

Lateisha
switched on the shower and stepped in, rubbing her eyes as she ducked
her head under the hot water. The anxiety she had felt when she woke
began to melt away and after twenty minutes she felt like she was
awake and shut the shower off and stepped out. Towel drying her hair
gently she stepped into the walk-in closet. Becky took the bigger
room but Lateisha got the walk-in. It was a trade off. Now what
should she wear to a doctor’s appointment in which she would be
checked out like a piece of meat to make sure she was fit to carry
someone’s baby? Lateisha snorted; her life right now resembled
a bad Lifetime movie. Eventually she chose a fitted black t-shirt and
dark skinny jeans, deciding it was not necessary to dress up for this
part of the ‘job’. Running some frizz serum through her
curls, Lateisha glanced in the mirror. She looked pretty good. Not
that it mattered, this was a business deal.

Lateisha
went downstairs and ate a quick breakfast; Lucky Charms and coffee,
before realizing she still had two hours until it was time to leave.
Sighing, Lateisha sat at the kitchen table with her laptop. Maybe it
was time for a job search. She waded through all of the ads for
nurses.

Part-time
help at nursing home.
No, she needed full-time to live.

Night
shift at the hospital ER.
Lateisha couldn’t stand being up
all night.

RN
wanted for private practice.
She sat up straighter; that was a
job she could do. Opening the ad she read it over and frowned.
Minimum 3 year’s experience.

Fuck!

Discouraged,
Lateisha closed the website and slammed her laptop. She was never
going to find a good job. Running a hand through her hair she stood
and glanced at the time on her phone; still over an hour and a half
before the appointment. Anxiety began to grip her stomach, what if
she didn’t get this surrogacy gig? Not being able to give Becky
the rent money at the end of the month would be humiliating. Lateisha
couldn’t do that to her, not after all Becky had done for her.
Sighing with frustration, Lateisha stood and grabbed her purse. She
needed to get out of the house a bit before this appointment to clear
her head.

*****

Bryce
ran a hand through his tousled brown hair. It was time for a haircut.
He checked his watch again; Lateisha was now fifteen minutes late for
the appointment. Maybe trusting her with something as important as
carrying his baby was a bad idea.

“Sorry
I’m late!” Lateisha said loudly as she flew into the
waiting room, leaving a trail of coconut scent behind her.

Bryce
felt a stirring in his chest, and somewhere farther south, at the
smell of her but repressed it. He wasn’t so happy about her
being late.

“What
happened?” He asked rising.

“I
got a flat tire. I left my house over an hour early to go get some
Dunkin Donuts and my damn tire blew on the highway.” Lateisha
said slightly out of breath.

Bryce
wasn’t sure whether to believe her or not. “Did you
manage to fix it?”

Lateisha
shook her head. “Nope. I don’t have a spare. Well, that’s
not true. I was riding on my spare and it blew out. My car is on the
side of I-95. I had to call my friend Becky to pick me up. I felt
even worse because she had to leave work in the middle of her shift.”

Bryce
nodded, still not sure about her story. Seconds later a tall,
slender, strawberry blond woman came through the door.

“Teish,
call me when you’re done and I’ll bring you home.”

Lateisha
shook her head vehemently, “I don’t want you missing more
work for me. I’ll take the bus.” She waved the woman away
dismissively.

“Fine,
suit yourself.” The woman who must be Becky answered, shaking
her head. “Call me if you need me.”

With
that she turned and sauntered out of the building. Lateisha visibly
relaxed, as if the disappearance of her friend gave her room to
breathe. She looked at Bryce as if waiting for him to take the lead.

“The
nurse will be back out in a moment,” Bryce told her, motioning
for her to sit in the chair next to him.

“I’m
so sorry,” Lateisha said hanging her head in her hands.

Bryce
watched her. She seemed every bit the irresponsible college graduate
but at the moment he knew he believed her, especially since she
looked as if she was going to cry.

“Don’t
worry about it. Car trouble is the worst,” Bryce said and she
picked her head up and gave him a weak smile.

“Ms.
Aaron, the doctor will see you now,” a tiny red-headed nurse
said as she peeked her head out of the door leading to the exam
rooms.

Lateisha
stood, wiping her hands on her pants. Bryce watched her and wondered
why she seemed so nervous. Without thinking, Bryce guided her with a
hand to the small of her back. Lateisha turned and looked at him with
a smile. Her smile took his breath away and he pulled his hand away
quickly. This was a slippery slope and if he wanted this surrogacy
thing to work he had to keep his distance. Sighing heavily, Bryce
followed Lateisha into the exam room, wondering if maybe this wasn’t
the right choice for him after all.

*****

Lateisha
watched Bryce from the corner of her eye. He sat, his back ramrod
straight, in the chair of the exam room. For a moment she was a bit
confused as to why he came into the exam room with her, but the
doctor assured her she would be clothed for the whole exam. They also
wanted to take a bit of blood and a urine sample to make sure she
wasn’t already pregnant. Lateisha almost laughed at the
implication. You have to actually have sex to be pregnant and that
was something she had not done in quite a while, despite the fact
that she had just broken up with someone.

“Ready
to get started?” The doctor asked, snapping Lateisha from her
thoughts.

She
nodded.

“Great!
I’ll just do a physical of sorts and then have the nurse come
in and take some blood.”

Ten
minutes later, Lateisha was stepping into the bathroom with a little
cup. After that was over the doctor told her it would take three days
for her results and they would get back to her.

“I
can assure you I am not pregnant,” Lateisha said laughing as
she and Bryce walked out of the office.

He
laughed, the sexiest sound she ever heard, “I believe you, but
I would like to have all of the paperwork in order so there isn’t
any issues with the lawyers later.”

Lateisha
mulled that over for a minute. Did he suspect she would change her
mind and try to take the baby from him? Before she could think
further into it she decided to set him straight.

“Don’t
worry. I don’t want children so there’s no fear that I
will try to keep the baby,” she said, stopping at the curb to
turn to him before moving on to the bus stop.

Bryce
nodded again, his look pensive. He looked sexy when he was thinking.
Lateisha wanted to smack the thought right out of her own head. She
repeated the phrase,
just a business deal,
three times over in
her head to clear any thoughts of a relationship with him before
turning back to wave goodbye.

“I’m
going to catch the bus now. I’ll be in touch once the doctor
calls with my test results.” She turned to walk down the street
to the nearest bus stop.

Bryce
grabbed her arm, “You don’t have to take the bus. I can
drop you at home if you’d like.”

Lateisha
shook her head. “It’s alright. I’m used to taking
the bus. My old Toyota has been in the shop a lot lately.”

Bryce
frowned again but she waved off his worry. “I’ll be fine.
Talk to you soon,” she shouted, practically running down the
street before he could change her mind. Spending anymore time alone
with him at this point would be a bad idea.

*****

Three
days later, Lateisha received the call from the doctor’s
office. She had a clean bill of health and was obviously not
pregnant. Now all she had to do was call Bryce. With a rapidly
beating heart, which she brushed off as nerves related to the
surrogacy, Lateisha dialed the number on the business card he gave
her.

“Mr.
Henderson’s office.” Fuck. It was the snooty blond bitch
of an assistant.

“Hi,”
Lateisha began, ignoring the woman’s haughty tone, “May I
speak to Mr. Henderson. Tell him it’s Lateisha Aaron.”

“And
what may I tell him this is in reference to, Ms. Aaron?” She
asked, saying Lateisha’s name as if it left a bad taste in her
mouth.

Lateisha
sighed. “He’ll know,” She said with irritation.

The
woman made an unladylike
harrumph,
and put Lateisha on hold.
Bitch,
Lateisha thought, strumming her fingers on the kitchen
table as she waited for Bryce to pick up the phone.

“Lateisha?”
Bryce breathed into the phone and Lateisha gasped.

He said
her name as if he had been waiting to hear from her for days; almost
as if he missed her. No, who was she kidding. He was Mr. Prim and
Proper Billionaire and she was a fast food employee with barely a
dime to her name. The desperation she was detecting in his tone must
have come from his want for a child.

“Yes.
I heard from the doctor and all is good. I told them to fax you the
reports so you could see for yourself.”

She
heard Bryce release a breath. “Great. I’d like to meet
with you tonight, if you aren’t busy, to sign the contracts. I
can meet for dinner downtown if you are free.”

Nerves
assailed Lateisha at the thought of dinner with Bryce. It wasn’t
a date though, but a business dinner. Another wave of nerves
assaulted her stomach when she realized she couldn’t possibly
have anything appropriate to wear to a dinner with him. He would pick
a fancy and expensive restaurant, she was sure of that. With little
money to get her car fixed let alone go shopping, Lateisha was going
to have to resort to borrowing something from Becky. She padded down
the hall and knocked on the door gently. Becky was on night shift
this week and even thought it was about two p.m., she was still
asleep, especially since her shift didn’t start until six.

“Come
in,” A groggy voice answered.

“Hey
Beck. Can I borrow a dress?” Lateisha asked, hoping she
wouldn’t ask what for.

“Why?
Do you have a date?” Becky asked excitedly, sitting straight up
in bed.

Lateisha
shook her head slowly, “No, nothing like that. I’m
meeting Bryce for dinner downtown to sign the contract.”

Becky’s
face turned cold. “Oh. Well in that case, no,” she
snapped.

Lateisha
frowned. It was no secret how Becky felt about Lateisha signing a
contract to ‘sell’ her body and baby, as Becky put it.
But Becky had a great job and was making a decent amount of money.
Lateisha wasn’t in such a great place financially and just
wanted something to help her along so she could quit her job at
McDonald’s and search for the perfect job. If there was such a
thing.

“Beck…”
Lateisha started.

“Don’t
‘ Beck’ me. I told you how I felt about this and I am not
going to help you along with it,” Becky said with anger,
climbing out of bed and pulling on a large hooded sweatshirt and
sweatpants.

“Please,
Becky. This is the last favor I will ask you about this whole
situation. I promise,” Lateisha begged, “I really need to
do this.”

Becky
sighed, “Fine. Let’s look in the closet. You are a good
deal shorter than I am so we will have to find my shortest dress.”

For the
next forty-five minutes Lateisha tried on dresses from Becky’s
closet and despite their size and height differences managed to find
one that fit. It was a short, black wrap dress that dipped at the
neckline to show off Lateisha’s ample cleavage. She turned to
look at the back of the dress in the full length mirror and liked
what she saw.

“I
may give you that dress. It never looked that good on me. And you
fill out the top so much better.”

Lateisha
chuckled, “If you’re sure, I’ll accept the hardship
and take it off your hands.” Both women erupted into a fit of
laughter, for Lateisha it was mostly nervous energy and for Becky it
was likely from lack of sleep.

Checking
her appearance once more in the mirror, Lateisha nodded. This was the
perfect dress. Now if she could just calm the butterflies that rioted
in her stomach. Didn’t they know this wasn’t a real date?

*****

Promptly
at five, Lateisha exited the cab, because she was too dressed up for
the bus, in front of a fancy Italian restaurant. She took a deep
breath, the damn butterflies not getting the memo and dissipating
like she had ordered them to do. Lateisha entered the restaurant
feeling a bit out of place. This restaurant was somewhere she would
never have set foot in before she met Bryce. Bryce told her he would
meet her in the front by the hostess desk but when she looked around
she didn’t see him. Maybe he changed his mind?