WILL I EVER LOVE AGAIN?

Andre Rivero POVMelissa Villar hesitated only a moment before climbing up into the helicopter. I politely waited until she was seated before following her inside. The roar of the rotors rose an octave, and then the helicopter lurched into the sky.I tried not to eye Melissa Villar sitting across from me. It was hard not to. We had waited years for the right surrogate. Joemar and I had spent much of the past two weeks researching this woman. I had only met her five minutes before, yet it felt like I knew her as well as I knew anyone.I pulled out my phone and started a group text.Me: We’re airborne. ETA ten minutes.Joemar: I’ll be waiting. How is she?Me: You’ll like her. She’s perfect.Joemar: There’s no such thing as perfect. Everyone has flaws. Sometimes, they aren’t apparent until you look closely.Me: Fine, Mr. Negative. Maybe she’s not perfect, but she’s about as perfect a candidate as we ever could have hoped for.Joemar: Very good.Me: She’s a little skittish. I can tell we

“I don’t want to waste your time,” Joemar finally said, “so I’ll get right down to it. The folder on the left contains the standard commercial surrogacy contract from the agency. I’m sure you’re familiar with in-vitro fertilization. Your eggs will be harvested, inseminated with my sperm, and then the resulting embryos will be implanted in your uterus.”I opened the folder and skimmed the first page of the document. My eyes automatically locked onto the dollar signs halfway down the page:$50,000 upon implantation of embryos.$50,000 upon a successful pregnancy.$100,000 upon the birth of the child.I re-read the numbers two more times. I had expected to earn around $200,000 for the entire surrogacy, but this was more than twice that amount! Maybe the higher payment had to do with the NDA I signed, and the secrecy that this yacht-owning couple desired.Suddenly, I stopped caring about how Joemar had access to my information before I was in the database. My instincts told me to sign the

I waved my phone. “I still don’t have a signal. But I can guess. He’s young, so he probably made his money in a Ponzi scheme like crypto, or NFTs. Or maybe he’s the son of an oil baron inherited all his money. Either way, he’s not someone I want to be involved with. And definitely not someone whose child I want to carry—no matter how I’m impregnated.”For a while the only sound was the dim hum of the engine. Andre stared at me calmly.“Do you want to know the answer,” he asked, “or are you happy with your assumptions?”I shrugged. “You can say whatever you want. It won’t change my mind.”“Mr. Soriano didn’t come from wealth. He got a full ride school scholarship to play basketball. He triple-majored in Computer Science, Chemical Engineering, and European History. While at school, he founded his first tech company something to do with efficient data encryption. He sold the company to Google before his senior year. Then he took that money and spent two years developing a more efficient

Roman Gomez was right where I had left him, in the small office anteroom to Joemar’s larger office. “I see you found your way back here without any assistance,” he said in that proper English accent.“Third time’s a charm. I’ve made my decision.”One of his blond eyebrows rose in surprise. “And which contract shall we be signing today?”“I’ve decided on… the first contract,” I said. “Traditional surrogacy.”To my surprise, Roman looked disappointed. “Very well. Please follow me.”Rather than opening the door to the larger office, Roman went back down the hallway and up the stairs. A pang of fear gripped my chest. Had this all been a test? Was he sending me home because I didn’t choose the sexy contract?“Where are we going?”“To see Mr. Soriano.”“He’s not in his office?”“He’s taking in the afternoon on the sun deck,” Roman replied.“Oh, of course. The sun deck,” I muttered.We reached the level with the lounge and laptop, but instead of walking out to the helipad, we made a U-turn a

The meal was, to put it simply, amazing. The first two courses were a bean and bacon soup, and a wedge salad. After that came a tray of small pastry puffs filled with a savory meat filling. The main course was elk tenderloin served in a tart wine sauce. It was the most delicious piece of red meat I had ever tasted. All of it was paired with a bottle of merlot that was more than twice my age.Andre glanced at me and raised both eyebrows. He seemed to be saying: get used to this.And to think I almost turned Joemar down.Dessert was a peanut butter cheesecake with a strawberry drizzle, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.Roman stood up and addressed the table while everyone else ate. “Our itinerary for the next few weeks,” he announced. “The Majestic will sail south to the island.”“What island?” I asked around a mouthful of cheesecake.“Mr. Soriano’s private island,” Roman replied simply.“Off the coast of El Nido,” Andre whispered to me.Roman cleared his throat and shot a l