Bear My Babies

“Melissa, I think we can go out to dinner to talk about these things. It seems a little too formal to have an appointment and talk about something so life-altering. Let’s plan for dinner tomorrow night.”

He was thrilled she wanted to do it, his mind was racing with the possibility of having a son or daughter sooner than he thought. In his culture, a were-bear was only as good as his offspring. That had been drilled into him from the beginning.

His parents were raised by very strict rule followers, but they were the last of the were-bears in each of their territories. No one in his family knew why the population had dwindled so, but his mother told him every year they knew of less and less.

“Thomas?” Melissa had been talking to him and he’d completely zoned out.

“Sorry, what did you say?”

“I said I think I can do it artificially if you don’t want to have s*x in order to plant the seed.”

“That would be more difficult for you, and probably not as efficient, correct?”

“Yes, but it’s a possibility.”

“No, we’re both adults and we’re both mature. We can do it the natural way and not develop any sort of feelings or obligations, can’t we?”

“I think so.”

He truly wasn’t sure he could sleep with her and not become slightly more interested, but he would do it for the sake of their child. A relationship might not work out and then the child would have parents that didn’t get along. It was really the perfect plan. He’d slept with Cherie a couple of times that week and he wasn’t really into her like that.

“Okay, well then, it’s settled. We can meet up for dinner in two nights. I have some work obligations the next couple of nights. I’m very happy you’ve decided to do this for me. Let me put you into contact with my accountant so he can set up your payment.”

After he gave her the information for his accountant and hung up, he was both thrilled and nervous. This was happening and soon he would have a child to carry on his name. AJ had been given their father’s name, Abraham Joseph, since he was the first and Thomas had been given his uncle’s name. He’d never met his uncle, only knew he died before he could have children to carry the name on.

His dad had always put pressure on him to live up to his name. It was interesting that more pressure wasn’t put on AJ since he actually had their father’s name, but he’d always sort of skated by.

That’s why Thomas ran McMillian’s Company and AJ got to be an entrepreneur. Now he had to find a way to tell his parents he was going to have a baby with a human woman and she was going to have to take fertility treatments with unknown consequences to make it happen. It wouldn’t be easy. He needed a drink.

***

Melissa hung the phone up and waited for Tilly to stop screeching her excitement before going to get her lunch from the refrigerator. She really hoped she was making the right decision for herself and her research. She found herself wondering if his work commitments were dates with other women. That was something she was going to have to reign in fairly quickly if she wanted to make it through nine months.

“Hi, sweetheart. Tilly.” Melissa looked up to see Nathan walk into the break room with a brown paper bag. “I thought I would come and have lunch with you today.”

“Don’t call me sweetheart, what do you want Nathaniel?” Melissa wasn’t in the mood for him today, or any day really.

“I need some money.”

“Of course you do.” Melissa rolled her eyes. It was a reaction she couldn’t help when it came to Nathan.

“You need to quit calling Melissa every few minutes, Nathan, it’s not healthy,” Tilly said out of the blue.

“You never have liked me, Til, and I think it’s good that we can still have an amicable relationship even though we’re no longer together.”

“Amicable would be you giving her space to breathe, amicable would be not calling her all day and coming by asking for money. Why don’t you get a job, Nathan? She carried you the whole time you were married, and now she’s not responsible for carrying you anymore.”

It was true, everything Tilly was saying, but it wasn’t good to point it out to him. His face was turning red and Melissa could tell things were about to turn really ugly for everyone involved in the room.

“Tilly, why don’t you go check the appointment book and see who is coming in next?” She gave her a nervous smile and jerked her head to the door.

“Fine,” Tilly huffed and walked to the door.

“You know you’re lucky I didn’t sue you for alimony, Melissa. I still could if you aren’t careful. You owe me this for agreeing to the divorce, for allowing you to make a fool out of me.”

Melissa knew he was bluffing, he didn’t have the money to sue her for alimony, and he had a record so it would hardly stand up in court that he’d use whatever she gave him to live a clean and respectable life style. It was a huge joke that he would even say something that stupid, but he was good at making threats.

“How much do you need Nathan?”

“Just three hundred. I got a good investment deal going, I’ll pay you back.”

“I thought you might use it to pay the motorcycle off that’s in both our names. There aren’t that many payments left, but this month is way overdue.”

“I’ll use the money I make back to pay it, promise.”

Melissa sighed and walked over to her purse to grab her checkbook. She knew better than him doing anything but buying drugs and booze with the money, but it was easier to just give it to him then listen to his threats and yelling for hours. One day, maybe soon, she’d get away from him. She certainly couldn’t let him know she was going to have any money from Thomas. He’d try to take it all. Some things would get paid off, and he just wouldn’t know about it. It would be a nice change for the phone not to ring night and day with people trying to get paid.