Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
I nodded, realizing he was right as he brushed comforting circles on my back. We had to do this. We were going to do this.
“It’s time to go,” Gio reminded me as the clock hit 11:00 AM. We moved from our positions of being glued together to finally go and meet the woman who would give us our own baby.
The two of us were quiet on the ride there, both of us lost in our thoughts, but I refused to let go of Gio’s hand, even as we stepped out of the car and into the agency. Mrs. Ortez met us at the entrance again, quickly taking us back to what I was beginning to think was her office.
“Alessia is already here, so you can meet her as soon as you’re ready,” she informed us with a smile.
I nodded, holding Gio’s hand tightly as my heart raced in my chest.
“Ready?” Gio asked me, checking in on me as he did. I had no doubt that if I said I wasn’t, he would make the whole company wait for me. I smiled, the appreciation for my husband growing stronger.
“Ready,” I said, relieved to have him by my side.
We entered the conference room Mrs. Ortez led us to, and she joined us. It was a small four-person table with four chairs, and Mrs. Ortez took the seat next to the unfamiliar woman. I recognized her immediately from the photo.
Alessia.
She smiled, beaming almost, as she got to her feet and offered her hand. Gio took it and then me. She had soft, gentle hands, and her smile lit up her whole face like a star shining.
She was beautiful, on par with Dolly and her mother, if I was being honest. I felt a little inferior as Mrs. Ortez talked about the ins and outs of the program, and Alessia spoke about herself. She answered every question Gio threw at her without missing a beat, like she was answering questions in a Miss Universe pageant.
I especially didn’t like the flash of judgment that came across her eyes when she asked about our ages. The age gap was quite large, and it had caused a lot of friction for too long. She stared at the bands on our hands for a little too long to be polite, and by the end of the meeting, I was feeling a little nervous.
She’d been nice enough, but I just didn’t feel any connection to her. She was a stranger–that was to be expected–but if she were to be carrying our child….
I wanted to at least like her.
We barely had time to talk before Mrs. Ortez was whirling us to meet our next potential surrogate—Elena. I hoped I could get along with her better.
There was a knock on the door, and Mrs. Ortez beamed. “Here she is!”
“Hello,” Elena came in and sat across from me, and I had to suppress my gasp. For a moment, I thought I was looking into a mirror until I noticed a few details that gave it away. Her hair was shorter than mine, her eyes narrower, and she was clearly taller than me.
Older, too, considering she had lost all of the little baby fat I still carried on my cheeks. I would have assumed her to be my sister if I didn’t know any better. I’d noticed we looked a lot alike in her photo, but it was uncanny now that she was in front of me.
Elena smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners, and the resemblance faded a bit. I breathed a sigh of relief. It would’ve been a little weird to have a clone of me carrying our baby.
“It’s so nice to meet you,” she said, offering us her hand to shake.
Gio did, and then me. Her hands were cold, almost like ice, and there were clearly calluses from hard work in her life.
Elena, as we learned, wasn’t much older than me, and she had a similar love for art. As soon as she mentioned studying Picasso, I couldn’t stop my art nerd from rearing up to rant.
“My favorite piece was always ‘Girl Before a Mirror,'” Elena told me with a massive smile, just as excited as I was to meet a fellow art nerd. “I liked the way the reflection was so different from how she appeared in the painting. It was like she saw a different version of herself.”
“I know!” I beamed. “The colorful fragmentation delivered through the duality is iconic! You see it in ‘The Weeping Woman,’ too.”
“Is that your favorite, T’he Weeping Woman’?” Elena asked, her eyes bright with curiosity.
Gio chuckled as I blushed, having already gone over this a hundred times with him.
“No, actually,” I laughed, a bit embarrassed. “My favorite’s actually ‘Guernica.’ My mom introduced it to me. Maybe it was just me overemphasizing it, but the horse in ‘Guernica’ was my favorite. While everything was in chaos and people were dying, it was only the horse who looked truly horrified by the war around it. It felt like it was telling everyone to stop.”
Gio smiled, squeezing my hand as his eyes glinted with adoration as he stared at me.
“That’s a very unique take,” Elena said, a smile on her lips. “And a very optimistic way of looking at it.”
“That’s kinda me,” I laughed, flushing at the attention of the room now on me.
“Well, then, you two seemed to have struck a connection,” Mrs. Ortez laughed. “But I’m afraid we’re running a bit over time.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” I said, unable to believe I took up so much time ranting about art again.
“It’s no problem. I had fun,” Elena laughed. “It was lovely to meet you both. Thank you so much for your time.”
We both thanked her and got to our feet, saying our goodbyes to Elena and Mrs. Ortez. All we had to do next was decide who to pick and move forward. I was quiet as we left the building, my thoughts burning in my mind.
“Who did you like?” I asked Gio.
He smirked, glancing down at me. “Clearly, you had a favorite.”
I blushed, feeling a bit brighter after the talk with Elena.
“I did. I liked Elena the best, but I don’t want to make a decision without you,” I told him honestly.
“As long as you’re happy, I am. If you’re ready to decide now, then I’m all on board for it. Do you feel good about choosing her?”
I pondered a bit, still a bit nervous over this whole thing, but after meeting her and speaking with her, I felt so much better.
“Yes,” I said determinedly. “Let’s do it. Let’s hire Elena as our surrogate.”
*Giovani*
“Alright, can you send them to me?” I asked through the phone. “Okay, yes. Thank you very much. Arrivederci.”
I hung up the phone, tossing it onto the bed next to me as I stretched out my arms. My bones creaked with the effort, and I groaned, rubbing my shoulder. I was getting way too old, and it was showing. Past injuries came back to haunt me, and my muscles weren’t as kind to me as they once were.
It had been a lazy day, and the evening sun filtered through the open window, casting long shadows on the bed as I waited there with my back against the headboard and my laptop on my lap. The heat had been increasing the longer I kept it open, the vents working overtime, but I didn’t mind.
There was a notification on my laptop followed by a ding, and I grinned, diving into my email. Sure enough, the top spot had an unread email from Surrogazione Generazionale , the surrogacy center we had chosen.
Compressed files were tucked inside, containing all the information I had wanted to know. I waited for the files to download as I scrolled through the folder they sent. It popped up once it was done.
“Elena Greco,” it said at the top–the surrogate Olivia had chosen after meeting her. She was younger than I thought, only 22, which was pretty close to Olivia’s own age. No wonder they got along so well.
This was her first surrogacy; she was a volunteer for a few programs and a graduate from the University of Florence. I made a note to check her school records and delved deeper into the program. Her medical records were squeaky clean, with only a broken arm from a fall and a few cases of a cold, but nothing else.
There was no history of mental or physical illness in her family. She came from a lower-class background; her mother had worked at a diner for fifteen years, and her father was out of the picture.
I frowned as I noticed the similarities between her and Olivia. It was a bit odd, but nothing to really raise any red flags. For all intents and purposes, she seemed like a normal girl just looking to do her part to make the world a better place, as she had stated in the section of her candidacy interview.
I grabbed my phone, and the dial tone hit my ear before it was picked up with a gruff, “Yes?”
“I’m going to send you some files on our surrogate. Vet her as thoroughly as you can,” I told him, quickly forwarding the email. “I want to know if she’s had so much as a speeding ticket.”
