Page 1 of Sassy Surrogate
1
Heath
Cape Town - Three Years Ago
The unexpected ringingof my cell phone is a little jarring in the quiet of my office as I work on troubleshooting issues with a current project. It’s buried somewhere in the chaos of papers on my desk. Cursing, I scramble through the mess and hope whoever it is doesn’t hang up before I find it. After a bit of a rummage, I triumphantly haul it out, noticing time has gotten away from me. Again. My online meeting with my attorney and ex-wife is now less than a half hour away.
“Hi Graham.”
“Hey. I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time. You got a sec?”
“Sure, I’ve got one or two. What’s up?” I ask.
“I got an interesting email last night about some investment opportunities, and I really think we should look at them.”
“Ah. Sounds intriguing, but that sounds like a conversation that needs more time that I have right now. I have a video conference with Noah and Felicia shortly, but I can call you back.” My dad recommended Graham Morgan’s company to me when I made my first million dollars. I’ve been with Morgan Financial Holdings for years and trust Graham implicitly when it comes to my investments, but right this minute I need to deal with Felicia. “It sounds promising, and I’d like to hear more about it. What time works for you?”
“Yeah, of course. I’ve got a couple meetings a little later myself, so probably any time this evening. Work for you?”
“Yep. Say hi to Soraya and hug the kids for me. Chat later.”
Hanging up, I take a deep, bolstering breath noticing, for the millionth time, that time has simply flown by, and it’s now time for my call with my ex-wife. I open the video call app on my laptop and brace for whatever fresh drama Felicia’s cooked up for today. As always, Noah’s punctual, and my laptop signals the incoming video call.
“Noah, hey. How’s it going?”
“Yeah, good. You?”
“I’d be better if we weren’t doing this.” I grimace, hoping Felicia isn’t close by. If she hears me, it will just piss her off. And a pissed off Felicia isnevera good thing. Noah chortles, highly amused with my comment. “Yeah, laugh it up, smart ass. At least I’m not the one stuck in a room with her.”
This time it’s his turn to grimace. “This is true.” Something about the way he says it has me frowning, but I have no chance to ask as he gets to his feet, saying, “Speaking of, Felicia’s waiting in the boardroom, so I’ll just take the laptop through there, and we can get this meeting started.”
I sigh, really not in the mood for this meeting. But it’s been a long time coming, so best to just get it over with. If it means I can get this damn woman out of my hair once and for all, I’m all for it. I’m truly hoping it will bring the dysfunctional relationship Felicia and I have shared for the past three years to an end, allowing each of us to finally move on with our lives.
It saddens me that she and I have reached this point when we’d started out as friends. I guess we should have remained such. We got married for all the wrong reasons. As a child, she’d lived a nomadic lifestyle with her parents and craved the stability of a home. I wanted a family to call my own.
It was one-sided from the outset.
While I brought the much-needed steadiness to the itinerant lifestyle her parents had forced on her, she had never intended on giving me the family I so desperately sought. She simply neglected to sharethatlittle nugget of information before we said “I do”.
By the time we called it quits, we were arguing all the time, going out of our way to hurt each other in anger and frustration. I’m not proud of my part in it all. In the end, I couldn’t wait to be out of it; to say our divorce was acrimonious is a gross understatement. Angry at me for forcing the issue, Felicia was loath to surrender her marital status along with the stability it brought. That’s when things got really ugly.
Now here we are, poor Noah once again squarely in the middle of all the ugliness. Thank God for Noah andourlifelong friendship. Hopefully, today would mark the end of years of fighting.
As Noah sets the laptop down on his boardroom table, the first thing I immediately notice is that Felicia is there on her own. The second thing I notice is that she smiles at Noah. An uncertain one, but a smile nonetheless. At best, the two of them tolerated each other in the past, despite the three of us growing up together.
“Ah, there he is.” As she’s sitting back from the camera of the laptop, I can see Felicia smooth her skirt over her knees, a sure sign of nerves, before she offersmea timid smile. “Hi, Heath,” she says softly.
“Hi,” I return her greeting, wondering what today’s ploy is.
“Alrighty folks, I know you’re both busy, so shall we get this meeting underway?” Noah asks awkwardly.
“Sure,” I reply.
“Yes,” Felicia says, almost at the same time.
Nodding again, Noah turns to her and continues, “Felicia, you called this meeting. Would you like to open?”
I’m a little taken aback by the nervous look that crosses her face at his question. Felicia may be a lot of things, but she rarely suffers an attack of nerves, and is even less likely to show it when she does. Today just seems to be get weirder by the minute.
