Page 4 of His Best Friend's Baby

Again Seth looked amused, or perhapsbemused was a more accurate description. And Polly couldn’t blame him for being puzzled. She knew she would soon have to come clean with her purpose for this visit.

Unfortunately, this necessity arrived a little earlier than she would have liked. The expensive shiraz was promptly brought to their table, was offered for tasting and approval, and then, almost as soon as she and Seth had finished clinking their glasses and toasting each other, Seth leaned back in his chair and eyed her shrewdly.

‘So, Polly Martin, are you going to tell me what this is about?’

It was so not the right moment to blush. Polly dropped her gaze quickly.Just treat this like a business deal. A transaction. Like applying for a loan at the bank.

But her request wasn’t exactly business and Seth wasn’t just a school buddy now. He was a man in his thirties and he carried an air of maturity, a worldliness that Polly, foolishly, hadn’t anticipated.But that should be a good thing. Surely it would mean he’s more open to contemporary ideas?

Bottom line, Seth was waiting for her to spill, so she had little choice. It was now or never.

Polly took a hefty slug of wine, set her glass down, and dived in. ‘The thing is,’ she said, completely forgetting the last-minute, safety-check questions she had planned, or any of the opening lines she’d rehearsed, ‘I’m preparing to have a baby by in-vitro fertilisation and I was hoping you might be interested in donating.’

Seth remained very still for such a long time he seemed to be frozen in his chair.

Polly swallowed again. ‘I’ve shocked you, haven’t I?’

His response was a dazed smile and a small huffing sound that held the hint of a laugh. ‘Well, I’m assuming you’re not asking for a donation of money?’

‘No, of course not.’ Her cheeks were burning overtime. She should have known this conversation wasn’t suitable for a restaurant.

Perhaps Seth realised this too. Leaning a little closer, he spoke in a discreet undertone. ‘You’re suggesting I should be your baby’s father?’

‘Well, yes, the genetic father.’

‘No chance of doing things the old-fashioned way?’

‘No, Seth.’ She hadn’t meant to glare at him, but she was fighting off fireworks at the mere suggestion of having sex with him. Sure, he was desirable—way more so than she had actually remembered—but the prospect was nonsensical. Impossible. She needed him to take this seriously. ‘You wouldn’t have to be involved beyond the original—ah—donation. I plan to be a single parent.’

Seth continued to stare at her, frowning slightly, the expression in his hazel eyes hard to read. Polly had the sense he was measuring her, trying to work her out, but she didn’t think this was the time or the place to try to explain how she’d arrived at her line of thinking.

Her old friend didn’t need to know that she’d given up on true love after a decade of disappointing relationships. And surely he understood that she’d been brought up by a single parent, so she had firsthand knowledge of how perfectly fine a family of two could be. And now certainly wasn’t the time to discuss her mother’s death in childbirth, or to try to explain the complicated ways this tragedy had fed into Polly’s yearnings.

Besides, he could probably work out for himself the very practical consideration that Polly was already into her thirties and, given the well-known statistics on fertility, she shouldn’t wait too much longer.

‘So, tell me something…’ Seth spoke slowly as he set down his wine glass. ‘What’s the population of Melbourne?’

Huh?This was a strange and irrelevant question, but it was easy enough to make a check on her phone. Polly quickly found the answer. ‘About five million and sixty-one thousand. Why?’

His response was a wry smile. ‘I wasn’t expecting exact figures, but whatever.’ Now, he gave the stem of his wine glass a thoughtful twist. ‘So, you’re looking for someone to father your child, right?’

Polly nodded stiffly.

‘And assuming half of those five million or so people in Melbourne are males, and allowing for children, married men et cetera, I’d say that there’d still be a fair swag of guys you could choose from.’

‘Oh? Well, yes, that’s true in theory, I guess.’ Polly’s cheeks were flaming. She couldn’t help it. ‘But I don’t know them, do I?’

Again, Seth stared at her. Hard. ‘You’ve been living in Melbourne for fourteen years, Polly. Surely you must know at least one or two males?’

‘Well, of course, but any of the guys I know who are still single, are geeks. IT nerds. Introverts with more than their share of hang-ups.’Like me, she almost added, but stopped herself just in time. ‘I want a guy who’s nice and normal.’

A small silence followed. ‘Nice and normal?’

‘Yes.’ As far as Polly was concerned, to describe someone as both niceandnormal was high praise indeed.

‘And you want this guy to turn up at a lab and—’ Seth stopped in mid-sentence. The waiter had arrived with their meals, which smelled delicious and were attractively arranged on beautiful stoneware.

Fortunately, by the time their plates had been set in front of them and their wine glasses were topped up, Seth chose not to continue a detailed discussion of the expected procedures in an IVF laboratory. Nevertheless, he was clearly hoping for clarification.

---