Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
NYROBI
Iknew something was wrong when Tiffany called me into her office and closed the door. At least I thought something was wrong.
I sat down slowly.
"Did I do something?"
Tiffany looked confused.
"What?"
"Why you closing the door?"
She laughed.
"Girl, relax."
"People don't close doors for good news."
"Who told you that?"
"Life."
She sat behind her desk.
"You're not in trouble."
"Okay."
I waited.
She didn't say anything.
"Tiffany."
"I'm trying to figure out how to explain this without making it sound strange."
"That's not helping."
She laughed.
"Alright. Mr. and Mrs. Stylez asked to speak with you."
My stomach dropped.
"About what?"
"They'll explain that."
"See, now I definitely did something."
"You didn't."
"Was it the watch?"
"No."
"Did somebody complain?"
"No."
"Did I break something?"
"Nyrobi."
"What?"
"Would you shut up?"
I closed my mouth.
She laughed.
"They want to talk to you about an opportunity."
"What kind of opportunity?"
"I think you should hear it from them."
I stared at her.
"Am I still gonna have a job after this opportunity?"
"Yes."
"You sure?"
"I'm your boss."
"Technically Casey my boss."
"Get out my office."
I laughed.
"When?"
"Now."
My smile disappeared.
"NOW?"
"Yes."
"Damn, can I fix my hair?"
"Your hair is fine."
"What they want with me looking like this?"
"Nyrobi."
"Alright."
I stood up and smoothed my shirt down.
"Where they at?"
"Administration office upstairs."
"Both of them?"
"Both."
I grabbed the door handle.
"Pray for me."
"Girl, go."
I quickly got up and made my way to the elevator. And for some reason the elevator ride upstairs felt entirely too short.
Tia met me when the doors opened.
"You good?"
"No."
She laughed.
"They don't bite."
"Easy for you to say."
She led me down a hallway I'd never been through before. Everything was quieter up here.
No carts. No radios going off. No employees running in and out.
She stopped in front of a set of double doors.
"They're inside."
I looked at her.
"You ain't coming?"
"Nope."
"Wow."
She smiled.
"You'll be fine."
I took a breath and opened the door.
Kaizleigh was sitting on one side of a conference table.Billion sat beside her. Both of them smiled when I walked in.
"Hey, Nyrobi," Kaizleigh said.
"Hey."
Billion stood and pulled out the chair across from them.
"Have a seat."
"Thank you."
I sat down and put my hands in my lap.
I looked from one to the other.
"Okay, I'm nervous."
Kaizleigh laughed.
"Don't be."
"That's easy for you to say. Tiffany called me in her office, closed the door and then sent me upstairs to both owners. I thought I was getting fired."
"You're not getting fired," Billion said.
"Good, because I just paid my light bill."
Kaizleigh laughed.
Even Billion smiled.
"Actually, his doesn't have anything to do with your performance here,” he said.
"Okay."
"And before we say anything else, I want you to understand that whatever you decide after this conversation will not affect your job."
That made me sit up straighter.
"Decide?"
"Yes."
I looked at Kaizleigh.
She reached for a folder sitting in front of her.
"We wanted to talk to you about something personal."
"Okay."
She looked at Billion before looking back at me.
"You remember when we met at the hospital?"
"Yeah."
"I told you a little about what me and my husband had been going through trying to have a baby."
I nodded.
"I remember."
"We've been looking into another option."
"What kind?"
"Surrogacy."
I knew the word…well kind of. I had heard of celebrities doing it, but that was about as far as my knowledge went.
"Okay."
Billion leaned forward.
"We've met with a specialist, talked to our attorney and learned more about the process."
I nodded even though I still had no idea why I was sitting there.
Kaizleigh continued.
"At first, we thought we'd go through an agency and choose somebody that way."
"Okay."
"But the more I looked, the more I realized I wasn't comfortable choosing somebody from a profile."
I looked between them, still lost.
Billion took over.
"So we've been considering another route."
"What route?"
"Finding someone independently and having her go through the same screening process."
I nodded, then waited and neither one of them said anything.
My eyes moved from Billion to Kaizleigh.
It hit me so hard I almost laughed.
"Wait."
Kaizleigh smiled.
I pointed at myself.
"Me?"
"Only if you're interested in hearing more," she said.
My mouth opened then closed, shit I was lost for words to be real.
"Y'all want ME to have y'all baby?"
"We want to know if you'd consider being our gestational surrogate," Billion said.
I sat back.
I wasn't sure what the hell a gestational surrogate was, but I understood the baby part.
"Why me?"
Kaizleigh answered first.
"Because I like you."
I laughed.
"Girl, you barely know me."
"I know."
She smiled.
"That's why this isn't us asking you to say yes today. We don't know if you'd even qualify yet, and you don't know enough about the process to make that decision."
Billion nodded.
"If you're open to it, we'd pay for you to meet with the agency, have your own attorney explain everything to you and go through the screening. You'd have plenty of chances to say no."
I looked at him.
"And I wouldn't lose my job?"
"No."
"Even if I say hell no?"
He smiled.
"Even if you say hell no."
That made me feel a little better.
"Aight."
I looked down at the folder.
"So where does the better money come in?"
Kaizleigh and Billion looked at each other.
I caught it.
"What?"
Kaizleigh smiled.
"Compensation is part of surrogacy."
"Compensation like getting paid?"
"Yes."
"How much?"
Billion leaned back.
"The exact amount would be worked out with attorneys and depend on the arrangement, but it would be significantly more than what you're making cleaning rooms."
Now he had my attention.
"Significantly like what?"
Kaizleigh laughed.
"I knew you were gonna ask that."
"Hell yeah. Y'all called me up here talking about having a baby. I need numbers."
Billion smiled.
"Fair."
He opened the folder and turned it toward me.
I looked down.
My eyes immediately went to the numbers on the page.
Then I looked again.
"Hold on."
Kaizleigh watched me.
"That's for one baby?"
She laughed.
"Yes."
I sat back.
"Y'all rich people got life fucked up."
Billion covered his mouth.
Kaizleigh started laughing.
"I'm serious."
I looked at the paper again.
That kind of money could fix shit I had stopped even dreaming about fixing.
My car. Bills. A better place for me and my mama. Savings.
For once, I could have money left after everything was paid. But then I remembered what they were asking me to do to get it.
I looked at Kaizleigh.
"So I would be pregnant with y'all baby."
"If everything worked and you were medically approved, yes."
"For nine months."
"Yes."
"And then when I have it, y'all take the baby."
"It's our baby," she said gently.
"I know. That's what I mean."
"Then yes."
I nodded slowly.
There was still one part nobody had explained. I looked at Billion. Then Kaizleigh. Then back at Billion.
"Okay."
Kaizleigh waited.
I leaned forward a little.
"Don't take this the wrong way."
Billion's eyebrow lifted.
"That usually means somebody about to say something crazy."
"I just don't know how this shit works."
"That's okay," Kaizleigh said.
"That's what we're here to explain."
"Alright."
I pointed between the two of them.
"So if I'm the one that gotta get pregnant with y'all baby..."
I hesitated.
Kaizleigh frowned.
"What?"
There was no cute way to ask it.
"So that mean I gotta sleep with Mr. Stylez?"
Billion's head snapped toward me.
Kaizleigh's eyes got big.
I immediately held my hands up.
"I'm just asking!"
"Girl, HELL NAW! What the fuck you think this is? We asking you to carry our baby, not make one with my husband!”
“Well damn! I’m just asking!”
“And I’m glad you asked because clearly we need to start all the way from the beginning. Aint nobody fuckin’ Billion but me.”
I looked over at Billion and caught him pressing his lips together like he was trying his hardest not to laugh.
"See, he think this shit funny,” I said pointing at him assuming it was all a joke.
Kaizleigh cut her eyes toward her husband.
"He better not."
Billion cleared his throat and sat up straighter.
"I aint said shit.”
"Good," Kaizleigh said before looking back at me.
She continued, "because before we talk about another dollar, you need to understand exactly what we're asking you to do. You would be carrying our baby, Nyrobi. My egg. His sperm. Our embryo. Ain't no sex involved.”
I slowly nodded.
"Ohhhh."
Kaizleigh shook her head.
"Yeah, ohhhh. Now that we got you fucking my husband out the arrangement, we can talk."
TO BE CONTINUED…