The CEO’s Hired Surrogate

And besides that, it will be good for the both of you.

Kayla, you’ll be able to get some help when your belly grows and you start feeling ill. And Ryan this will help you fully digest what’s truly going on.”

Kayla bit her lower lips nearly draining the blood out of it. She did not know how much she liked the idea. But what was she to do? How was she to refuse?

“I agree on one condition. My mother comes with me.” Her voice was low, determined and cool. Like that of a true diplomat, trying to make it clear to the other side that her proposal was not negotiable.

“But of course darling. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Plus, our house is large enough to host your entire family,” Meredith gleefully said.

With that, Kayla took the piece of paper from the table and started reading through it. Carefully trying to take in every word and sentence scattered along those lines.

In the background, she could hear Meredith and her son as they whispered, clearly trying their best not to fight in front of her. But Kayla tried to block them out, too concentrated on the task at hand.

With shaky hands, she wrapped her fingers around the black pen beside her coffee. For a minute, she worried whether she was able to draw a straight line let alone write her name and sign the corner of the white sheet of paper.

But with careful gestures, and under Meredith’s attentive gaze, Kayla sighed and stained the paper with the black ink of the pen. A few seconds later, there she was, looking at the paper and realizing just how easily she was able to seal her fate, and surrender to the only solution life had given her.

“Okay then, I guess I can leave you two to it now.” Meredith was already standing, her purse under her right arm as she smiled at the two young adults at the table.

“What?” Ryan and Kayla said in unison, managing to stand at the same time and glance at the woman in pure astonishment.

“Look, kids, I have work that needs to be done. I did everything until now, and I think you two are old and responsible enough to get your asses in there and get the thing over with.” Sighing, she didn’t leave room for either of them to answer, because a second later she’d already turned on her heel and made a move towards the exit. “By the way, I’ll be expecting you two tonight by dinner time. I can’t wait to finally have the house full again.”

By this time, Kayla was no longer surprised, astonished or pissed. On the contrary, she was amused by the woman’s character and her son’s exasperated look. The entire scene reminded her of a movie she couldn’t exactly pinpoint.

“I guess it’s just us now, huh?” she asked with a slight smile, watching as Ryan turned towards her with slumped shoulders, surrender written all over his face.

“I guess so,” he shrugged as he retrieved his wallet from a hidden pocket inside his suit.

Kayla could barely stand straight, her lungs barely able to supply her body with the needed oxygen. She suddenly felt trapped in a room, one without a clear way to escape. But she encouraged herself to see the bits of light that penetrated from a far window near the ceiling. She urged herself to concentrate on those rays of light because that was the only way she was going to survive the rocky nine months that were to come.

*****

After placing a couple of ten dollar bills on the table, Ryan turned to her. “Should we go inside?” Truth be told, Ryan was unsure of how he was supposed to act around the beautiful, mesmerizing woman that had entered his life so suddenly.

He never had that problem before. Never in his life had he been left speechless by a pair of eyes, and incapability to pinpoint his feeling on the fact that she was meant to be the surrogate mother of his future child. But he was no fool, no kid so he knew better. But things were already fu*ked up enough. He was yet to discover how he felt about becoming a father, a single one at that, before discovering the source of the confusion revolving around the woman.

On the other side of the table,

*****

Kayla slipped into her dress with a swift move, unable to sit inside that horrible place for another minute. Truth be told, she’d always hated hospitals, doctors, and medication. Their mere name made her feel anxious and dreadful. And she had good reasons for that. After all, each and every time Kayla had visited a doctor, it had been with her parents, and not once had they given her good news.

Looking at the mirror inside the rather small dressing room, in the corner of the room, she searched for any sign of change. As if she childishly believed that she could get pregnant in a day. She’d been informed that it would take weeks to detect the pregnancy, let alone notice any major changes, yet she couldn’t help but check. After all, it wasn’t easy to get your head around the fact that you may be pregnant without even being in any kind of relationship.

“Miss Kayla, do you need any help?” It was only then that she noticed how long she’d been standing there, the voice of the nurse that had been attending to her slipping through the blue curtain of the dressing room.

“I’ll be out in a minute!” With a swift move, she tied her hair in a high ponytail and brushed her fingers under her eyes, trying to brush away a fallen lash.

Sighing she pushed aside the blue curtain and stepped out, smiling at the nurse that was writing some things down on a paper. At first, she didn’t notice Kayla, too busy scanning through the pile of papers in her hand.

“Should I fill anything out before I leave?” Kayla asked, trying to get her attention.

“No, Mr. Johnson already did that.” She smiled and then left the room before Kayla even had a chance to answer. On any other day, Kayla would have considered that as being rude, but on that particular day she didn’t care.

Somehow Kayla found herself in front of Ryan’s car. Her eyes taking another glance at the red sports car he owned. The car itself was the second thing that made her question Ryan’s job, the first one being the salary he was ready to give her, of course.

“So, what do you do for a living?” she asked, trying to sound as casual as possible. Ryan looked a bit taken aback by her question, stopping for a second, his hand hovering above the car handle. But he immediately shook his head, the corner of his mouth curling before opening the door for her.

“What do you think?” he suddenly asked, raising his right brow. Kayla could swear he was enjoying this a bit for some twisted reason. Was he not used to this question? “I’m a stripper of course, how else would I have this much money!” he suddenly said, his hands pointing at the car. Kayla’s mouth dropped, lost of words for a good couple of seconds.

She watched with wide, amazed eyes as he burst into a fit of laughter, then got inside the car. Rolling her eyes, she sighed and got inside too, her right hand holding the door as she did so.

“Oh come on, I know you work for The Samuel Company, but what exactly do you do?”

“Work there? Wait, so you really don’t know who I am?” Ryan gazed at her with amazement, his blue eyes sparkling beneath the penetrating sunlight like a thousand diamonds lost at sea. Kayla didn’t bother to answer she just shook her head, and turned towards him even further, now truly curious about what was about to leave his lips. “I’m the CEO of the company. Samuel was my father.”