Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
“Yes! Yes! Of course! I’m so happy you brought this up! I’ve been wanting to ask but I just felt so overwhelmed by everything….” She bit her lip as she fell back into her thoughts.
I felt like such an idiot for not bringing fertility testing up two months ago, but then again, based on the research I’d done, a doctor wouldn’t want to see us until we’d had several months with no success anyway.
“Were you too scared to ask me?” I asked her, needing to know if she felt like she had to hide her feelings from me. I hoped I had never done anything that made her feel that way, but we needed to get everything out in the open now.
“I wasn’t scared. I just didn’t want to offend you,” she said honestly, looking at me shyly through her lashes.
“Alright, well that stops right now,” I declared. “From now on, you tell me everything that you’re thinking, and I tell you everything that I’m thinking. And we won’t be offended because we know we’re on the same team.”
She nodded, her face brightening into a smile. I leaned down so that our foreheads pressed together and closed my eyes. It had been almost half a year since our wedding, and I still felt in awe that I got to call such a perfect woman my wife. Compared to previous obstacles we’d faced together, this would be easy as long as we were honest and open with each other.
“I love you,” she breathed.
“I love you,” I responded before settling her back into the bed and standing up. It was time for me to be the husband that Olivia deserved and go make some calls.
I spent the rest of the afternoon calling various speciaists and looking up reviews. Finally, I found one that specialized in high-profile clients and was well-known for its success and accuracy. I called them and booked an appointment for the next week. I couldn’t wait to tell Olivia that we had an appointment booked for so soon. I practically skipped around the compound looking for her. I found her in one of her favorite chairs outside on the patio, reading a book.
She looked up when she saw me coming her way and must have been able to read the happiness on my face because she broke out into a huge grin.
“Did you find anything out?” she asked.
“Better–I got us an appointment for next week.” I reached down and picked her up, twirling the both of us in a circle.
She laughed giddily as I set her down. “That’s way faster than I thought it would be,” she said.
“Never doubt your husband’s determination,” I teased, leaning over to kiss her.
“What did I ever do without you?” she asked.
I could say the same about her.
*Olivia*
Giovani and I were on our way to the appointment that he had scheduled for us. I squeezed his hand tightly, a mixture of excitement and nervousness fluttering through me. I was so happy to finally see if we could get some answers about why I wasn’t pregnant yet, but at the same time, I was terrified that my biggest fears would come true, and the doctor would tell us that we weren’t able to have children of our own.
I had never considered myself someone who was desperate to have children before, but I found myself desperately longing to be able to have a baby that was half mine and half Gio’s. He really would make the most perfect dad.
He squeezed my hand back, then brought it to his lips and brushed them against my knuckles. His gentle touch reminded me to take a deep breath; it was going to be okay. No matter what, we had each other.
We pulled into the parking lot of the doctor’s office, and I was put at ease by how modern the building looked. The ground floor had floor-to-ceiling glass windows with a heavy tint so that people couldn’t see inside, and it had a plain sign displaying the name: Centro Schmidt.
I appreciated that they had named it after the founder instead of having a more obvious fertility-related name. It seemed that their main objective was discretion. Giovani had explained to me that it was a place commonly used by wealthy Italians, including celebrities, and that they knew how to best handle clients who would need extra care to protect their identities. It made me feel much better knowing that Giovani’s enemies would never know that we were trying to have a baby.
Once inside the clinic, we were greeted by a woman who looked to be in her mid-50s working the front desk. She had gray hair cropped short to her head and a no-nonsense look to her.
“Welcome to Centro Schmidt! I’m Greta,” she said in a voice that was surprisingly warm. I immediately took a liking to her.
She stood up to shake our hands and handed over a folder of paperwork for us to fill out. It was overwhelming to look at the packet of documents, but Greta assured us that our doctor would go over them with us to ensure that we filled them out correctly.
Instead of having us wait in the lobby until our doctor was ready, Greta opened a door in the hallway behind her desk that led to a private waiting room. It was a peaceful little room with light blue walls and a large painting of a waterfall. There was a comfortable-looking loveseat pressed up against one wall and two small armchairs facing it. I sat down on the loveseat and Giovani sat next to me.
“Whenever you come for an appointment, you can just walk right through this door and wait here. We have a few private waiting rooms, and this one will be dedicated to you whenever you come, so you don’t have to worry about walking in on anyone else.”
“Thank you,” Giovani told her, and I nodded my agreement. I was amazed at the measures they went to to keep the identities of their clients safe. It made me wonder who else was coming here.
“No problem at all,” Greta responded with a little bow of her head. “Dr. Schmidt should be with you in just a few moments. She’s finishing up with another couple right now.”
She left us to go back to her desk, closing the door behind her. Gio wrapped his arm around me and leaned over to kiss my cheek. “How are you feeling?” he asked quietly.
“I’m impressed,” I told him honestly. “I really like this place. You seriously did your research.”
“Only the best for our family,” he said with a smile.
It was stuff like that that made me want to give him a child so badly. He went above and beyond in everything he did. It would have been easy to just take us to the first fertility clinic that had popped up on an internet search, but he had clearly taken the time to research exactly which one would be the best for us. I snuggled against his shoulder and sighed happily.
There was a sharp knock on the door, and we both sat up a little straighter, waiting for Dr. Schmidt to come in. She swung the door open and immediately introduced herself.
“Hello! I’m Dr. Ida Schmidt! You must be Giovani and Olivia,” she said in an endearing German accent.
She looked nothing like any other doctor I’d ever had before, which made me like her all the more. Her hair went down to her shoulders and was dyed a shockingly bright shade of pink. Instead of a white lab coat, she wore one that sported a rainbow tie-dye pattern. She had on a pair of rainbow earrings to match it. Looking at her, it was impossible not to smile.
“Hi, nice to meet you,” I said as she shook my hand.
“Likewise!” she exclaimed before sitting down in one of the chairs opposite us. “So, tell me, what brings you both in today?”
I glanced at Giovani, but he was looking at me, clearly waiting for me to tell her our story. He kept his arm around my shoulders, and I used that to center myself.
“Well, we just can’t seem to get pregnant,” I explained. I felt a bit awkward about having to lay out our sex life for a stranger but reminded myself that she was only thinking about it through a clinical lens. She was a doctor after all. “We’ve been having unprotected sex for about five months now, but unfortunely, I’m not pregnant.”
She nodded at me, her face neutral. I suspected that she was very good at keeping a poker face.
Giovani added, “I’m worried that my age might have something to do with it.”
I looked at him in surprise. I hadn’t known that he’d been worried about that. I reached my hand up to grasp the hand he had on my shoulder and entwined my fingers with his. I wanted him to know we were in this together.
“I see,” Dr. Schmidt said in a voice that didn’t betray what she was thinking. “Well, let’s get right to it then! For younger couples, it is recommended to wait until you’ve been trying for at least one year before worrying about fertility, but since you are a little older, Giovani, I think it’s good that you came in. There’s no harm in getting some testing done just to see where we’re at.”
Butterflies filled my stomach at her words. Was it possible that we just hadn’t been trying for long enough? I didn’t dare get my hopes up.
“So, first thing’s first. Giovani, we will need a semen sample from you so that we can check your sperm count and see how strong the little guys are. And Olivia, I will perform a pelvic exam on you just to see how everything is looking. That will be the first steps, and then once we have those results, we can discuss the next steps.”
We both nodded and waited for her to go on. I felt the tension in Giovani’s body and realized that he was just as nervous about this as I was. I was so glad that this was something we were going to tackle together.
“Alright, so we are going to get your paperwork filled out, and then, if you’re ready, Giovani, we can go ahead and get that semen sample today. Olivia, while he is doing that, I will take you out to Greta to get your pelvic exam scheduled.”
She talked us through the paperwork, and before we knew it, we were separated so that Gio could provide his sample. It felt strange to leave him in an exam room knowing what he was about to have to do, but he was a good sport about it. He didn’t even bat an eye when he was left with a little clear plastic cup and instructions about what to do.
After leaving Giovani, Dr. Schmidt led me back out to Greta’s desk. I wanted to schedule the pelvic exam as soon as possible, and they luckily had openings for the next week.
Dr. Schmidt then led me to her office, where we waited for Giovani to finish up. We made small talk while we waited, and I complimented her on her lab coat.
“Oh thank you!” she exclaimed. “I love rainbows, and it seems especially appropriate considering the number of rainbow babies that my services have helped to conceive.”
I must have looked confused because she went on to explain that a rainbow baby was a baby born after a couple had experienced a miscarriage.
