The Billionaire's Surrogate: A BWWM Pregnancy Love Story (6 page)

“
Yeah
lets do that. You carry one and I’ll carry the other.”

“
Alright
then…lets stick with one.”

“
That’s
what I thought,” Christine said with a snort.

Max just smiled at her.

Once the procedure was
done, Christine was required to lay on the bed with her feet up for
an hour. Max and Martha waited outside for her to be done, not
talking much.

“
Are
you scared?” Martha asked at some point.

“
No,”
Max replied.

“
Liar.”

Max smiled, “I
don’t think you’re supposed to speak that way to your
boss.”

“
I
think that ship has sailed,” Martha commented with a side
smile.

Max sighed. “Thank
God. I’m not much of an employer anyway.”

“
Is
this national bullshit day or something?” Martha said.

Max laughed, “I
love you Martha.”

Martha just snorted.

*****

“
It's
not cancer,” Dr. Benson informed him two weeks later. “What
you have is something called CPPS. The symptoms are similar and so
are the tests and so it's easy to confuse. But the biopsy results
finally came through and you do not have malignant tissue.”

“
What
is CPPS? What’s my prognosis?” he asked not sure if he
should be relieved.

“
Chronic
prostatitis typically causes pain in the lower pelvic region of men.
Urinary symptoms such as frequency of passing urine and pain on
passing urine may also be present. Treatment can be difficult and may
include antibiotics and other drugs. Symptoms may last a long time,
although they may 'come and go' or vary in severity,” Dr.
Schofield recited as if he’d memorized it.

“
Great,
so I can expect pain…and resurgence of symptoms. Am I going to
be fainting all over the place from now on?” Max asked.

“
Not
really. But there are of life issues to be considered. The
possibility of developing autoimmune disorders, systemic
inflammation…every case is different; so planning a course of
treatment is dependent on your symptoms. Right now, you have a slight
inflammation in your right kidney that we’ll treat with
intravenous antibiotics. We require you to stay overnight in the
hospital. It will be painful but we can manage you better here. It
would be better if you weren’t alone…” Dr.
Benson’s voice trailed away uncertainly. He was aware that Max
had no family in Boston. Max said nothing for a long while.

“
How
long will I be out of commission?” he asked at last.

“
A
few days. Maybe a week,” Carlyle said.

Max just lay back and
closed his eyes. The doctor left him alone.

*****

A soft knock woke him
from a pain fueled dream a few hours or minutes later. He wasn’t
sure. He opened his eyes slowly, mainly because it hurt to move any
muscle in his body. The doctors hadn’t been exaggerating the
level of pain. If his brain was in any position to measure, he was
sure his pain would be about a 20 on a scale of one to ten. He tried
to focus on who was at the door but all he saw was a blur. A café
au lait blur, about five ten, big hair…Christine.

“
Hey,”
he said scratchily.

“
Hey.
I don’t know if it's too weird being here but Gra’s
arthritis is acting up and she didn’t think she could spend the
night in this hard uncomfortable hospital chair-“

“
I
wouldn’t ask her to,” Max interrupted even though talking
caused him severe pain.

“
Of
course you wouldn’t but she knows that you need her. So she
asked if I would mind…” Christine finished with a shrug.

“
You
don’t have to do this,” he forced out.

“
I
know I don’t have to. But I already took the day off tomorrow
so I kind of have to.”

Max smiled painfully,
turning his hand around so his palm was facing up. Christine looked
down at it and then up at him. She put her palm gently atop his.

*****

Christine missed her
period two weeks later but decided to keep it to herself until she
could do a pregnancy test. She was really busy at work though,
completing an electrification project on the north side of town which
involved upgrading all the systems to reduce the risk of electrical
mishaps taking place especially as winter was coming up and people
used electricity for heating purposes. Her grandmother’s
arthritis was also a problem and the fact that she refused to slow
down meant that Christine tried to take the brunt of household duties
away from her. It involved driving her to work instead of letting her
take the train like she enjoyed doing. She was also doing the cooking
because her gra hated take out. Max had hired additional help at the
house on the pretext that with his new invalid status, there was just
a lot more to be done. The number of visitors at the house had also
increased drastically since the whole state of Boston seemed to feel
it was their duty to visit Max in his time of illness.

Eventually, Max was out
of bed and at full strength and the flare up of arthritis was
relieved. The project was still at full throttle though, so Christine
still had a reason to put that doctor’s appointment off.

She was on top of a
ladder tinkering with a transformer when someone called her name on
the walkie talkie.

“
What?”
she asked irritably; she wasn’t one for interruptions.

“
Wow,
irritable much?” the voice crackled from the speaker.

“
Max?”
she said in disbelief.

“
Yeah.
Could you come down here? I need to talk to you.”

“
Should
you be out of bed?”

“
Oh
now you care?”

“
What’s
that supposed to mean?”

“
I
haven’t seen you since the night you spent with me at the
hospital. Now you’re concerned that I’m out of bed?”

Christine sighed in
exasperation, “I’m coming down.”

“
Great.”

*****

“
My
turn to bring you lunch,” he said as she approached him,
holding out a paper bag.

“
How
sweet,” she said taking the bag and opening it. She peeked into
the bag.

“
It’s
a cheese and onion sandwich,” Max said. But Christine could
smell it already. She’d put her head in the bag and then took a
deep breath so the deep fried smell of onions surrounded her like a
toxic cloud. The wave of nausea it evoked took her completely by
surprise. She thrust the bag back at Max and staggered to the river
bank, breathing in and out deeply. The stench of the Charles had her
staggering away as her empty stomach heaved.

“
Oh,”
she thought she heard Max say.

A hand came out to hold
her steady while another rubbed at her back as she heaved. A green
rope of bile hung from her mouth and she spit it out. Max produced a
bottle of water from somewhere and Christine drank; rinsing out her
mouth.

“
Are
you okay?” Max asked.

“
Do
I
look
okay?”
Christine replied irritably.

“
You
look like someone suffering from morning sickness.”

Christine glared at
him.

“
That’s
unlikely,” she said.

“
Is
it?” he asked eyebrow raised skeptically.

Christine said nothing.

“
Right,
so I’ll make the appointment,” Max said. “I’ll
come for you in the morning.”

Christine nodded her
head in agreement but continued to say nothing. Max stared at her
assessingly, wondering if he could leave her alone.

“
I’m
just gonna go get you something less…noxious…to eat.
Maybe an avocado sandwich? Or cucumber?” he asked.

“
The
latter,” Christine said.

“
Okay
then, coming right up,” Max said.

He walked off to find
the nearest sandwich shop, heart beating at a rate that could not be
accounted for by the walking. If it was true indeed that Christine
was…with child…

Max cut off the thought
before it could permeate his entire being and leave him shaking with
how much he wanted it to be true. Still he found himself planning to
stock his pantry with cucumber and water melon and other stink free
vegetables.

*****

“
You’re
pregnant,” Dr. Mulholland said as if she didn’t already
know. On the seat next to her, Max slumped back as if in relief.
Christine spared him a glance but her head was reeling with
confusion. She could not really process anything.

“
Well…what
now?” she asked.

“
Now…we
dance,” Max grinned.

*****

Christine was waiting
when her grandmother got home that night, sitting in the kitchen
alcove, a glass of milk at her elbow.

“
You
heard?” she asked.

“
That
I am to be a great grandmother? Yes,” Martha said.

“
Do
you have any thoughts, feelings, reactions about it? Share with the
class,” Christine said.

Martha
smiled. “Leave that aside for a moment; tell me how
you
feel.”

“
Me?
I feel…confused, uncertain.”

“
But
you knew this was a likely outcome when you had the doctor’s
appointment two weeks ago right?”

Christine shrugged. “I
thought it would take more time than just once, in spite of your
endless lectures,” she said with a smile.

“
Well
I am proved right yet again. So what now?” Martha asked.

“
We
haven’t even signed the contract yet,” Christine said in
a shaky voice.

“
How
come?” Martha asked.

“
First,
Max was sick and then I was busy and then he didn’t have cancer
and I thought that the point was moot…now I’m pregnant.”

“
Well
then I suggest the first order of business would be for you to talk
to Max,” Martha suggested.

*****

Martha got in to work a
bit late the next morning due to the late night she’d had with
Christine brainstorming on the next steps. Max was waiting for her in
the foyer.

“
Hi,”
he said.

“
Hello
Max. How are you feeling today?”

“
Well
enough to be worried about you. You’re late. Is everything
okay?”

“
You
mean is Christine okay,” Martha said dryly.

“
That
too, yeah.”

“
Well
you have her number. Why don’t you call her and ask her?”

“
I
will. Thank you for the suggestion. Now, are
you
alright?”

“
Yes
Max, I’m fine. Living the dream,” Martha was smiling,
even humming a little as she deposited her handbag in the closet and
took off her coat.

“
That’s
great. I made you breakfast.”

Martha turned to regard
him in surprise, “Why?”

“
Because
I can…and I need to speak to you.”

“
Well,
this is just…unfortunate because I just had breakfast at home.
My doctor advised me to lose some weight because of the arthritis so
I don’t think I should eat again.”

“
Okay
then, will you have coffee with me?”

“
Black,
no sugar.”

“
Coming
up. Go sit down and wait for me?”

“
Alright,”
Martha said walking toward the breakfast nook. She picked up an apple
from the fruit basket and bit into it as she awaited her coffee.

Max brought it, served
on a tray in a mug with “World’s Best Mom” on it.
Martha regarded it in amusement.

“
Where
did you get this?” she asked.

“
I
bought it at a flea market yesterday. After I dropped Chris home I
was…a bit restless so I went downtown and wandered about a bit
thinking about her, me, my parents, her parents…and you. I
just want to be the parent to my child that you have been to Chris.”

“
Don’t
put me on too high a pedestal. Have you met my daughter?”

“
You
blame yourself for that? At some point your kids grow up and they’re
responsible for their own decisions.”

Martha was silent.
“Well anyway, enough about me. What did you want to talk
about?”

“
I
just wanted your input on the way forward.”

“
What
do you have in mind?”

“
Marriage,”
Max said.

“
Marriage?
I thought you wanted to be a co-parent. Where does marriage enter
that equation?”

Max took a deep breath.
“I’m not dying; I don’t have cancer but that’s
about all that is certain. This thing that I have is of uncertain
symptoms. I don’t know what effects it's going to have on my
body. This may well still be the only child I’m going to get.
Even if it isn’t the only child that I’m ever going to
get, I owe it the chance to grow up with both parents.”

“
So
you want to get married because the girl is pregnant? How many times
has that worked out that you know of?”

“
I
don’t want to get married because she’s pregnant,”
Max said.

Martha grunted
skeptically.

“
What
I mean is…I’ve known that girl since she was ten. I know
who she is in a way that is different from the way I know other
girls. I know her heart. I know that my heart would be safe with
her.”