The Baby Package Read online

  There were a steady stream of names being called to go back to their appointments, but my name wasn’t called at all. There were a few women in the waiting room that had been there longer than I had, but soon even they had been called back to a room. I waited patiently. Certainly this was just another road block put up to keep women out of the process who weren’t totally dedicated, or at least that was my theory.

  Then a woman, who had just come in five minutes earlier, was called to go back to the patient area. I couldn’t take it any longer and jumped out of my seat, about to lose my cool before I realized this was not going to help me get accepted into this office. I had to keep my cool. Certainly a woman who could easily fly off the handle about a late appointment wasn’t going to be considered a good mother.

  “Excuse me, do you know how much longer it will be? I’ve been waiting for quite some time.”

  “Oh, yes, I’m sorry. I was just about to have you come up. Doctor Simon is still running late. If you’d be okay with seeing his partner I could squeeze you in, or we could reschedule you for a later date.”

  I’d already taken the day off from work and waited most of the morning. As much as I really wanted to meet Doctor Simon, since he was the one I’d picked, at this point I just wanted to get through this appointment and onto the next step in the process.

  “How much longer will the doctor be?”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t know. He could be just a few minutes or he might not make it in at all today.”

  “Oh.”

  “His partner is very good and I know they share notes when they have to cover for each other. It’s possible you’d even end up with his partner delivering your baby since they rotate their on-call nights. It might be a good thing to meet him now.”

  “Okay,” I said with all the fake acceptance I could muster. “I’ll see him.”

  “Great, it should be less than an hour and I’ll have you back there.”

  I clenched my fists tight and pressed my lips even tighter as I made my way back to my little corner of the waiting room. Another hour! This place was ridiculous. My stomach grumbled with hunger as I waited out my time and watched as other women went ahead of me.

  By the time my name was finally called I was in a thoroughly bad mood. Even her upbeat banter was lost on me as the nurse took my vitals and went over my pile of paperwork with me. When she finally stepped out of the room I was livid about the whole situation. This doctor’s office wasn’t behaving like one of the top-rated fertility centers in the city. They certainly didn’t appear to be the rising star that so many women were talking about.

  Granted I might have been confused by the dozens and dozens of offices I’d looked at. Each of them had blurred together and I couldn’t have been sure about everything I’d read, but I was positive the women who had come to see Doctor Simon loved him and to be honest I wasn’t even sure who his partner was.

  When I heard the doctor outside my room I hurried to get my agitation in check. Deep breaths, smiling, and I prepared for him to enter the room.

  “Where’s the chart?” I heard him said to the nurse.

  “Just go in, I’ll get it to you in a second. I’m finishing something up,” the nurse replied.

  As the door opened I took a deep breath again but then stopped breathing all together when I saw who was standing in the doorway.

  “Julia?” Mike asked with an awkward look on his face.

  “Hey, Mike. Wow, you’re a fertility doctor? I didn’t see this one coming,” I laughed nervously.

  He was totally silent as he sat down on the rolling stool across from me. I was sitting in a rather uncomfortable metal chair and laughed nervously about the whole situation. How did I not know that this was the sort of doctor he was? It was rather humorous, especially after the morning I’d had already.

  “Wow. I have a really busy day today. I thought we sort of handled this whole thing that morning when I left,” Mike said curtly as he crossed his arms.

  “What?”

  “I didn’t take you as the sort of girl who would do something like this.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m flattered, Julia, really. But I have a busy day. I’ll call you, okay,” he said and stood up to leave the room.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t come here to stalk you. Is that what you think is happening here? Wow, you are really full of yourself.” I felt the blood nearly boiling inside me at the insinuation that I’d purposely ended up in that room waiting for him. I had no idea he worked there. I certainly wouldn’t have showed up pretending that I wanted to get pregnant and hoping that would get me another date.

  “So, you just happened to make an appointment with me but didn’t know it was me? Come on now,” Mike said as he stood in the doorway.

  The nurse appeared behind him. “Here you go, doctor. Sorry it took so long to get her chart. She was another one of Doctor Simon’s patients that needed to be seen today,” she said and handed Mike what I assumed was my medical chart.

  He held onto it and looked back at me with only the slightest bit of remorse. In fact, I wasn’t even sure it was remorse at all. As he stood there about to open the chart that held all the secrets to my medical, sexual, and fertility history, I slapped the chart out of his hand.

  “I don’t know who you think you are but I’ve been waiting for months to see Doctor Simon. I waiting for hours in the waiting room and just finally agreed to be seen by his partner. I had no idea it was you and the fact that you’d even think I was someone like that means you obviously didn’t get to know me at all the other night. What sort of crazy narcissist thinks a woman who wants to have a baby would stalk her one night stand and show up at his office? That’s utterly insane.”

  “Wait a second. You don’t need to be so upset, Julia. I was just confused.”

  “Right. And the first conclusion you jumped to was that I was a crazy stalker? Great. Perfect. Could this day get any better?” I stood up and gathered my purse. There was no way I was staying. No way I was going to continue to talk about the biggest life decision I have ever made with a man who was so stuck on himself he thought I’d come there for him. Nope, I’d just wait for Doctor Simon and set up a new appointment with him.

  “I’m sorry, Julia. Please sit back down. I will see when Bruce is going to get in and you can see him.”

  “Sir, Doctor Simon hasn’t been answering his phone at all,” the nurse said quietly. “I’ve been trying him all morning.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I yelled and pressed past Mike. “Schedule me with him and call me with the time.”

  “Julia,” Mike called after me.

  “You know what?” I turned back to him in a furry of anger. “I actually thought you were a good guy. I had heard Rob talk about you for years. I had a crush on you since the moment you went off to college. But I definitely didn’t think you’d turn out to be such a jerk.”

  Then I realized that I’d just given away my own little secret. I just connected Mike to my brother Rob. His face was pale with acknowledgment as everything started to click for him. I could tell by his expression that he still hadn’t realized who I was until that very moment.

  I turned to leave. This was done. Whatever had been between us was done. Clearly I wasn’t going to run off and live happily ever after with Mike. I’d known it when he left that morning after our night together, but I knew it even more as I stood there in front of him watching his face contort at the realization he’d slept with one of his friend’s sisters.

  I was halfway down the hall before Mike even made an effort to respond. “Julia Rivas,” he yelled after me. “Rob’s little sister. I…”

  I didn’t wait to hear what else he had to say. I pressed through the waiting room door and stormed out the glass front doors to the office.

  Nervously I waited at the elevator, hoping desperately that Mike didn’t come running out there after me. I was mortified by the whole thing. Not
only by the fact that he never realized who I was, but by the fact that now he knew I was trying to have a baby and that he actually thought I’d stalked him and snuck into his office like that. Mike definitely wasn’t thinking as highly of me as I had been thinking of him.

  Even after realizing that I hadn’t stalked him, the whole thing was just horribly embarrassing. I was sure I wouldn’t be coming back to see Doctor Simon either and now was going to have to find a new doctor and wait months and months to get into them.

  As the elevator doors closed tears poured down my face. Nothing was turning out the way it was supposed to. My entire life had gone from feeling perfect to feeling like I would never be happy again. How quickly life could turn around.

  Chapter 6

  Mike

  “What was that all about?” Sheryl asked.

  She bent over and picked up the chart that Julia had thrown onto the ground. I just stood there in utter disbelief over all the information that was jetting through my mind. I still wasn’t really sure I understood what was going on.

  “I thought she was a crazy stalker like that one girl, remember that red head who showed up after I didn’t call her?”

  “Oh, yeah. That was crazy! So this girl was a stalker? That doesn’t make sense though, she was scheduled with Doctor Simon and not you.”

  “I know that now Sheryl!” I snapped. “It would have been much more useful information to have before I opened the door to the room.”

  “Sorry. How was I supposed to know she was one of your girlfriends?”

  “Don’t act like I have this long line of women I date. Come on, I’m not like that,” I tried to defend myself.

  “Maybe not DMV size long, but it’s definitely Starbuck size,” she laughed and I couldn’t help but smile. “So you did know her? She was pretty upset. Let me guess, you didn’t call her back either?”

  Not calling women back wasn’t something I did. Even if I wasn’t going to see them again I’d usually call and make some sort of excuse. I’d tell them how busy work was, or make some other excuse for why it just wasn’t a good time right now. At least since the stalking incident I’d made more of an effort to let girls down over the phone so they wouldn’t show up at my work. But none of that had anything to do with Julia.

  “Apparently it was just a wild coincidence,” I said. “She was really scheduled with Bruce?”

  “Yeah, looks like she had her appointment booked several months ago.”

  “But she had to have known it was me who worked here. She knew me. I was friends with her brother.”

  “So, you think she stalked you and set up an appointment three months ago with Bruce, knowing he was a basket case who wouldn’t show up for work today and that way she could wait in the waiting room for three hours and then get scheduled with you?”

  Sheryl was smiling at me. No, of course I didn’t think she had done all that. And if I had had a moment or two to think about things before going into the room I would have noticed Julia’s last name and I was sure I would have realized who she was. It was just a comedy of errors.

  “She is also my high school friend’s little sister. I met her at a club over the weekend and went home with her,” I ran my hand through my hair as I contemplated the fact that I hadn’t realized it was her. “I thought she looked familiar but I just couldn’t place where I knew her from.”

  “Oh, shit. You are a jerk,” Sheryl laughed.

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “No, really. I mean, I thought you were sort of a jerk for the way you acted when you saw her in the room. But wow, you really slept with your friend’s sister and didn’t even realize it was her? That’s pretty epic.”

  “Yeah.”

  “And this poor woman was planning on having Doctor Simon help her with artificial insemination. So now she is probably utter embarrassed that the man she slept with, who didn’t know who she was when he should have, also now knows about her fertility. Wow, if I could find her and give her a hug I would. And yep, you’re a jerk.”

  “Shit, yeah. So, she was really coming in here to start the process?”

  “Yeah, she was doing her initial consultation.”

  “She’s like twenty-five and beautiful, funny too. Why on earth would she want a baby with some sperm donor?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe because she’s tired of meeting jerky guys who don’t call her back and have no idea they actually know her?”

  “Ouch.”

  “You deserved that and you know it. Now we have a shit ton of work to do, so as much as I’d love to continue on with this conversation about your shortcomings, we really need to get through this day.”

  “I’m going to kill Bruce next time I see him,” I said as Sheryl handed me the next patients chart. “He better be dead already or there’s no reason for this shit. I just talked to him about showing up and being more accountable.”

  “Maybe he’s really dead?” Sheryl shrugged as we went back to work.

  We both knew Bruce wasn’t dead. He was just shacked up with some woman and had his phone off. He liked to pretend like he was totally dedicated and turn his phone off so the girl would feel comfortable with him. In reality, he had his phone off so all the women texting and calling him wouldn’t disturb his date with the new woman. And of course, so his business partner, me, wouldn’t be able to reach him when he abandoned me with all his patients for the day.

  The rest of the day was a blur. Patient after patient came into the rooms. I focused on them as much as possible and took copious notes to ensure I could look back over them later when my mind was clear.

  It was impossible to get Julia off of my mind though. I’d planned on calling her and setting up a date. I was going to make things happen between the two of us despite the way she’d pushed me away when I left that morning. Her distance was starting to make more sense too. If she knew who I was the whole time and I hadn’t realized who she was, well that probably didn’t sit well with her by the morning. Plus, she was planning on having a baby! That’s a pretty big deal.

  As the last patient left the building, I collapsed onto the couch in my office. The stack of patient charts was piled at least a foot thick on my desk and just then my phone rang with a call from Bruce.

  “It’s him, isn’t it?” Sheryl laughed.

  “He just called the main desk,” Miranda added as we all hung out in my office.

  “Oh, I’m going to kill him,” I said just before answering the call.

  “Don’t kill me,” Bruce said as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. “I’m sorry. I ended up breaking up with a girl and it went badly. The police were involved and I had a horrible day. I’m going to be there tomorrow. I promise this sort of thing isn’t going to happen again. Our conversation the other day is still true. I’m going to make an effort.”

  “Bruce, I don’t even know. To be honest, I don’t believe a thing you’re saying right now.”

  “I understand.”

  “You’re not even going to argue with me?” I asked a little concerned that my friend who normally argued about everything wasn’t even making the effort.

  “No, I really did have a horrible day. The woman tried to jump off my balcony after I broke it off. It was awful. I barely pulled her back and had to call the police. They took her to the psychiatric hospital.”

  “Shit, I’m sorry, man,” I said as I realized this story was likely true and not something he was making up.

  “Yeah, I’ll be there tomorrow and tell you about it. I need to crash. Emotionally exhausted,” he said before hanging up.

  “So what sort of crazy excuse did he have this time,” Sheryl laughed.

  “I’m not sure it was actually an excuse. He didn’t seem like himself at all.”

  “Well, I’ll be the judge of that tomorrow. You have a good time with all those notes tonight,” she said with a sympathetic smile.

  “That’s what he gets paid the big bucks for,” Miranda added as the two wo
men waved good-bye and headed out for the night.

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ll still be here in the morning when you come back,” I hollered after them.

  “We aren’t worried,” Sheryl laughed.

  I heard her lock the front door after it shut. I often had to stay for an hour or two after patients left. It was a normal part of keeping up with my paperwork. But since I’d seen so many patients that day I hadn’t had time to put any notes into the computer or the patient’s charts officially. Instead, I had taken notes on paper during their sessions. Now I had to go through each chart and nicely write my notes for the day and then make a pile of patients that I’d have to talk with Bruce about.

  Our notes in the medical charts were a legal part of the patient’s case. If it was a patient of Bruce’s I liked to make sure I was reviewing the case thoroughly before adding to the chart. The last thing I needed was to say I gave a patient one medication when I really gave something else. Or to miss something important about their case.

  Luckily this day was filled with consultations and routine checkups. We liked to keep certain days of the week for certain types of appointments as much as possible. If it had been a Friday, I would have been much more upset with Bruce since Fridays are our complicated cases that really require the assigned doctor to review them.

  I moved to my desk and groaned at the amount of work I had to do that evening. It was entirely possible that I’d be there well into the night. But before I got too far into my paperwork, I dialed Julia to see if I could apologize to her.

  “This is Julia, leave a message after the beep,” her sweet voice said right away after the first ring.

  “Hey, Julia. I’m really sorry about what happened today. And about not realizing it was you. I did feel like we had a connection and I honestly felt like I knew you from somewhere but I just couldn’t place you. In my defense, you’re much prettier now than I remember you before. Crap, sorry. I didn’t mean that to sound bad. Sorry, just give me a call back. I’d like to apologize.”

  I hung up and then let my head fall into my hands with exasperation. That was by far the worse apology voicemail in the history of men. Why hadn’t I thought things through a little more before calling her?