Chapter 5 #3
"I don't know rich people problems."
"We ain't losing all the money."
"You don't know."
He laughed.
"Fair."
Kaizleigh leaned forward.
"If a pregnancy is established and we're the intended parents, we're responsible for our child. Our marriage doesn't change that."
"So if you wake up one day and hate him..."
"I still want my baby."
"And if he wake up and hate you?"
"He still responsible for his."
Billion nodded.
"Absolutely."
I looked between them.
"Okay."
Then I got to the question that mattered most.
"What if I change my mind?"
Neither one of them rushed to answer.
I appreciated that too.
"Before anything medical happens?" Kaizleigh asked.
"Yeah."
"Then you say no."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"You won't sue me?"
"No."
"Fire me?"
Her face changed immediately.
"Absolutely not."
"Because that's another thing. I work at y'all hotel."
"Tiffany is your employer," Billion said. "This arrangement isn't connected to your job."
"But y'all own it."
"And?"
"And if I tell y'all no, I don't wanna come to work next week and suddenly I'm the worst housekeeper in Florida."
Kaizleigh shook her head.
"That will not happen."
"You promise?"
"Yes."
I looked at Billion.
"Same."
I sat there for a second.
That had been bothering me more than I realized.
"So when does it become official?"
"After screening, legal review, and contracts," Kaizleigh said. "Nothing medical happens until everybody is cleared and everything that needs to be signed is signed,” she continued.
"And I get to read everything?"
"Every word."
"My lawyer too?"
"Especially your lawyer."
"And if I don't like something?"
"Your attorney negotiates it."
I slowly nodded.
Damn. They had answers. Not for everything. Some shit they straight up told me I'd need to ask the doctor or attorney, which I actually liked more than them pretending they knew it all.
I looked down at my phone.
There were still questions, but most of them belonged to somebody with a medical degree.
I locked the screen.
Kaizleigh watched me.
"That's all?"
"For now."
Billion laughed.
"For now?"
"Don't get comfortable."
"I wasn't."
I put my phone on the table.
"Can I ask y'all something that ain't on my list?"
Kaizleigh nodded.
"Why me?"
The room went quiet.
Kaizleigh looked at Billion before answering.
"Because I trust you."
"You don't know me."
"I know."
"Then how you trust me?"
She thought about it.
"I don't trust you with everything. I don't know you enough for that."
I appreciated that answer.
"But I trust what I've seen."
I waited.
"The day I met you, you were worried about your mother. You didn't know who I was, and you weren't trying to get anything from me. Then you started working here and found something worth more money than most people would've ever expected to find underneath a hotel bed."
"The watch."
"Yes."
"I was supposed to turn it in."
"Exactly."
I frowned.
"That don't make me special."
"No. But you didn't know anybody knew you found it."
I hadn't thought about that.
Kaizleigh continued.
"You could've walked out with it."
"I would've been scared as hell."
She laughed.
"Whatever the reason, you didn't."
Billion leaned forward.
"And none of that means we're skipping the process because Kaizleigh likes you."
"Good."
"You're still getting screened like anybody else."
"Good."
"And if the doctors say no, it's no."
"Okay."
I looked at Kaizleigh again.
She looked nervous. I don't think she realized it, but I could tell. Her fingers kept touching the edge of the table.
I thought about Mama.
Don't let being broke make every amount of money look like a blessing.
I thought about Kendra telling me she'd already be at Walgreens buying prenatal vitamins.
I thought about Nysheca volunteering her uterus before she even knew how surrogacy worked.
Then I thought about myself. My car. Mama's medicine. Bills. The apartment. All those job applications.
Every time I'd checked my bank account before swiping my card because I wasn't sure if the shit was going to decline.
That money could change all that. But for the first time since they'd made the offer, I wasn't only thinking about the money. I was looking at Kaizleigh. At a woman who had already lost sveral babies and still wanted one badly enough to trust another woman to carry it for her.
That shit was heavy.
"If I say yes, what happens today?"
Kaizleigh sat up a little.
"Today?"
"Yeah."
"Nothing."
I frowned.
"Nothing?"
"Not medically. We start setting things up. You get connected with the people you need to speak with, and the screening process gets scheduled."
"So nobody sticking nothing in me today?"
Billion leaned back and closed his eyes.
I immediately started laughing.
"What?"
"This woman is obsessed with somebody sticking something in her."
My mouth dropped.
"See! See! That's why I didn't want your ass answering!"
Kaizleigh smacked his arm.
"Billion!"
"What? That's the second time!"
"I am talking about NEEDLES!"
"That's not what you said."
"Fuck you."
Kaizleigh was laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes.
I pointed at Billion.
"And yesterday you was sitting there all quiet acting innocent."
"I was confused yesterday."
"And today?"
"Today I understand you just say whatever comes to your mind."
"Pretty much."
"Clearly."