Page 19 of The Green Card Baby Deal

“Good.” He leaned back and crossed his arms. “Then you and I will get along just fine.”

They pulled in to the parking garage at the fertility clinic so Luis and Clara could exit the vehicle and enter into a private waiting room without prying eyes. “You’ll learn to hate the paparazzi,” Luis said. “But don’t let it dissuade you from our arrangement. I can protect you, no problem.”

Why did he feel the need to reassure her? Finding another woman to take his deal would be easy as pie, but the very thought of it made Luis feel sick. For some reason, losing Clara felt like the worst thing that could possibly happen to him. He considered why, and then denied it immediately. No one fell in love that quickly except in the movies. It was ridiculous. He was just emotional because he was stressed, obviously.

While the private waiting room was far more comfortable than most, it had the usual lack of good reading material. Some magazines here and there, which Clara picked up and started leafing through. They were mostly maternal magazines for obvious reasons. Luis hoped they weren’t just stressing her out more.

Soon enough, the nurse called Clara back, and Luis almost followed. His muscles tensed as he forced himself to sit back down. Though he was pretending to be her partner, he had to recognize the reality that he was not. In a situation such as this one, he would not be the person she went to when she learned whatever she was about to learn. He was not her shoulder to cry on and not her triumphant hug if everything went her way. That would probably be her sister. She did seem unusually close with Dawn, and Luis had to admire that. Family was deeply important to him, too. He thought about his own family back in Colombia, how his mother would want to be there for the wedding. But would she still want to attend knowing the whole thing was a sham just to validate his continued presence in the US? Maybe not.

Just as Luis was about to pick up a magazine himself to quiet his own thoughts, Clara returned with the nurse. It seemed far too quick for a whole appointment, and he looked at her quizzically.

She shrugged. “Pregnancy test.”

The nurse explained. “It’s just standard procedure. Doesn’t mean anything more. We make everyone do them.”

“So now we wait,” Clara said.

“More of that, is it?” Luis tried to smile, but the stress was starting to get to him. He needed this to work out for more reasons than one, whether he wanted to admit it or not. What if they told her she couldn’t have a child even with IVF? What if it was hopeless? He’d given Clara the don’t-worry speech, but he still seemed unable to take his own advice.

The nurse broke in, “It shouldn’t be too long. You two hang tight, now.” And she left them alone together.

Clara glanced over at Luis and smiled knowingly. “You look even more nervous than I am,” she said, teasing him. “Don’t want your family to find out you’ve been living in sin?”

He laughed with her, but of course, that wasn’t it at all. Whether she knew what was really bothering him, he had no idea. Every minute felt like an hour until the nurse finally came back into the waiting room. “Follow me,” she said, and this time Luis just obeyed. There was something odd in the way she was speaking, and Luis didn’t like it.

When they both got into the examination room, they sat side by side. Clara reached over and held Luis’s hand. Her own hand was shaking, and he squeezed it to reassure her. “It’s going to be okay,” he said. “You’ll see.”

The doctor, a willowy woman in a crisp white coat, walked in with a clipboard and sat down at the desk. “So, you’re here to discuss the possibility of fertility treatments?”

Clara nodded. “I’ve been told my fertility is declining at an accelerated rate. I just want to make sure I don’t lose my chance.”

“You won’t,” the doctor said, and she seemed awfully sure of it for someone who had yet to even take a stethoscope to her patient. “If it’s a baby you want, then I have good news for you.”

Luis found himself leaning back in his chair, away from the news that he could sense was coming. Before the doctor even said the words, “You’re already pregnant,” he heard them like an accusation in his head.

Clara’s jaw dropped, and then she burst out laughing. “Good one!” she said.

The doctor didn’t laugh. “I’m not kidding. We can retest you, of course, but I can almost guarantee it’ll be the same result. The test wasn’t ambiguous. You are absolutely, one hundred percent pregnant.”

“But I… haven’t…” Clara cut herself off, and her eyes slid to Luis. Now the accusation was crystal clear.

“Are you sure it’s mine?” he asked quietly.

She rolled her eyes. “I suppose it could be a supernatural entity who entered my womb while I was asleep, but other than that…”

He tried to shrug casually, but his heart was thundering in his chest. “I guess my family is pretty fertile. I do have quite a few brothers and sisters.”

“You could have mentioned it before,” Clara said.

“You told me you couldn’t get pregnant.”

“Okay but I was also drunk.”

“So was I,” he countered.

“And you were really, really hot,” Clara added.

“So were you.”

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