5. Leah
CHAPTER 5
LEAH
L eah couldn’t believe this was happening.
One moment, they’d been practicing the presentation. The next, she’d been spilling all her worries and wishes about becoming a mother, which had been more than a little ill-advised, yes, but didn’t explain what had happened next. Could her boss really be asking her to be his girlfriend? His fake girlfriend?
“Let me explain.” Dan leaned forward, hands clasped. “My father is still technically the head of the company, like I told you on Saturday. Last week, he told me that he won’t hand over the company until I’ve, quote, fulfilled my personal life as well as my professional one. And apparently, the only way I can possibly do that is by starting a family.”
“That’s what you meant when you said your father was old-fashioned,” Leah said slowly. Things were clicking into place — though she was still spinning at the thought of dating Dan, even if it wasn’t for real.
“Exactly. Meanwhile, you want to become a mother but are facing certain roadblocks. I can help you. All we’d have to do is pretend to date for a little while, long enough for you to meet my father and for us to convince him that we’re seriously dating and that I’m personally fulfilled, whatever that means. Meanwhile, we can use a fertility clinic to help you get pregnant, with me as the biological father. What do you say?”
“I mean…” Leah was struggling to answer. Of course she wanted to get pregnant. She’d always wanted to be a mother. And she could admit that Dan would provide good genetic material to her children, with his good looks, athleticism, and clear intelligence.
This just wasn’t how Leah had imagined becoming a mother. Pretending to date Dan was one thing. But having a baby with him was something completely different. She knew she should say no, yet she hesitated. It was a kind of perfect offer.
“How involved would you want to be in… I can’t believe I’m saying this… the life of our child?” she asked.
“I would provide for both you and the baby in every way possible — full financial support. You’d want for nothing. As you probably know, money isn’t an issue for me. As far as emotional involvement, I would of course like to play some role in the child’s life, but I would leave that completely up to you. If you want an involved co-parent, I’d be there. If you want the money and nothing else, I would understand that too.”
“I’m just a little confused by how you see this going.” Leah bit her lip. “We’d pretend to date, I’d hopefully get pregnant, and then, once you got the company, we’d… what?”
“I’d imagine we could stage an amicable breakup and continue as friends.” Dan spoke calmly, almost casually, as though this were the kind of conversation he had every day. And perhaps he did make deals like this all the time. Leah really didn’t know him that well, as this conversation was proving.
And yet. The thought of a baby of Leah’s own, a baby that would inherit Dan’s attractive traits and never want for anything, was very appealing. Perhaps she was diving in at the deep end, but she found herself nodding slowly.
“Um… okay.”
“Really?” Dan’s eyes widened, the first sign that this conversation had fazed him at all. Perhaps he hadn’t expected Leah to agree. “That’s wonderful. You have no idea how much this will help me.”
“We both get what we want,” Leah said. “You get better career prospects, and I get a baby.”
“Exactly. Really, Leah, I do appreciate this so much. Let me just grab my laptop. We can start drafting some guidelines.”
“How romantic,” Leah said numbly.
Dan paused. “Are you really okay with this? I know it’s a lot to spring on you.”
“I am. I think I am. It is quite a lot to wrap my head around, but I do think it’s for the best.”
“Good. The last thing I want is for you to be uncomfortable or unsure.” Dan reached for Leah’s hand and gave it a quick squeeze. Then, to her surprise, he kept holding on as he raised his gaze to hers. “I admire you so much, and I think you’ll make a wonderful mother. And a wonderful fake girlfriend, too.”
Leah felt a shiver rush up her arm from where Dan held her hand. His gaze was intense, though in a good way. She felt truly seen.
“Um. Thank you.”
“Of course.” Dan released her hand as quickly as he’d taken it, and Leah felt the absence of his touch acutely. He took his laptop and opened a blank document. “Let’s start with some ground rules. I think we can agree that it’s best to use assisted conception for the pregnancy. I’ll leave choosing the clinic and everything up to you. You can just let me know what your preference is.”
Leah took a mental note of her new responsibility. She didn’t know much about fertility clinics in the area, but she had worked with several fertility doctors to discuss recommendations about Forenal. She was confident that she could pick a good one.
“That works for me. I’ll look around and let you know.”
“Great.”
“Let’s start with a few weeks to get to know each other,” Dan suggested. “My father needs to believe that we’re really dating, and if we don’t know anything about each other, he’ll never believe it. I know you in a professional capacity, but we know hardly anything about each other’s personal lives.”
“Fair enough. We should probably meet outside of work, to help keep that separate.”
“That’s a good point. But we will need to tell people at the office that we’re together. Many of them know my father and might give up the game if they tell him that we aren’t really a couple.”
Leah nodded. It made sense that they’d need to perpetuate the ruse in the office. Still, most of her friends were from work, so this meant lying to almost everyone she knew. Leah’s stomach did a somersault. Was a baby really worth all this deceit?
But then she thought of the child on the little push bicycle. The way his face had broken into a joyous grin. His tiny shoes. The little helmet that had made his head look enormous.
And she thought of Dan. His good looks. His professional and personal competence. His smile. She imagined his features in a child like the one at the park, and her heart warmed. Becoming a mother was worth a little discomfort.
“I understand,” she said. “We can slowly tell the people we know that we’re in a relationship.”
“Then, in a few weeks, we can meet my parents. My mother, Jane, is very relaxed. She really just wants me to be happy, whatever that means for me. Richard is the main problem. It’ll probably take more than one meeting for him to believe that we’re in a relationship and decide that I’m ready to take over. We should plan on being in a fake relationship for at least the next six months.”
They spent the next hour hammering out specific details, from how often they should plan to meet over the next weeks to how they should tell people their romance began. Leah suggested that they could stick close to the truth and say that working late at night on a presentation had brought them together. She also suggested that she could start taking Forenal to better their chances of conceiving, and Dan agreed without hesitation.
“I’d believe in anything you made,” he told her with a wink. They were almost finished when there was a loud knock on the door.
“Oh!” Dan sat up straighter. “I completely forgot, I have a lunch meeting today. It must be almost that time.”
“No problem. We were wrapping up anyway.” Leah got to her feet and knotted her fingers together. She felt inexplicably nervous, as though this really were a first date. “The conference is in a few days, so we can discuss everything in more detail then.”
Dan extended a hand across the table and took Leah’s in a firm handshake, as though they were sealing any other business partnership. “Have a nice day, Leah. And thank you again.”
“Thank you, too.” Leah smiled and let go of his hand. Then she left his office, smiling at his secretary as she passed. The secretary raised his eyebrows at her, and she wondered if a rumor about her and Dan dating would begin to spread all on its own.
Leah returned to her office. She’d planned to take her lunch to the cafeteria and eat with a few friends, but she’d missed a significant amount of work while speaking to Dan, so she decided to eat at her desk. She wasn’t sure if she could face her friends, anyway, not when she’d be expected to lie to them.
She went through the rest of the day in a blurry daze. She couldn’t believe that she’d agreed to have a baby with her boss. Or that she’d be pretending to date him for the next six months, at least. Or that she’d be lying to everyone she knew.
Still, there was a silver lining. A big one. At the end of this, Leah would have a baby of her own. A little dreamily, she imagined leaving the hospital with an infant in her arms, being pushed in a wheelchair. The baby in her imagination had Dan’s dark brown hair and her green eyes and was looking up at her sleepily. Dan came around from the back to help Leah to her feet, and together they nestled the baby into his car seat…
Leah shook herself, alarmed. Already, Dan had sneaked into her daydreams. She needed to be very careful. If she started thinking of him as a real boyfriend and partner, this whole agreement would become beyond painful. She needed to put aside any crush she’d ever had on Dan right now. Before there was a baby in the picture. Before they started pretending to date. Before things went too far and she became unable to imagine her life without him.
Leah took a deep breath. Then she opened her computer, where she’d been reading up on the current market for fertility drugs to help build a better marketing profile for Forenal. It wasn’t part of her job description, but she liked to think that she could play a role in helping her drug succeed.
The rest of the day passed with barely any thoughts of Dan or the baby.