Date With Destiny
Heather Maple looked around the cafe, staring closely at every male who entered through the large glass door. Any one of them might have been her sperm donor.
Sure, she had seen pictures of the man who had agreed to give her a baby online. But as she knew from earlier forays into online dating, reality often clashed with cookie cutter avatars. Their emails flew back and forth for months before they scheduled a meeting. It took her that long to check her sanity, but now there was no going back.
Jesus, this is really going to happen, she thought. I'm meeting a perfect stranger. If all goes well, I'll go back to his place, into his bedroom, and let Nature take its course.
She looked inward, ticking off the hard facts. Heather was twenty nine, nearly at her peak fertility, and there was no sign of a good man in sight.
Her family didn't have a great track record of producing babies past thirty five. If she wanted to have her first, she needed to start now, and that meant taking the only path she knew: electing a sperm donor who was fit, smart, and handsome from a personals' ad.
Leo Vogel fit all her standards. Or, at least, his online persona did. Better yet, he was an experienced breeder, claiming to have impregnated two women naturally in just as many years. Unlike most of the men, he offered financial support too.
Heather's heart began to pound. She looked at her cell phone's clock, now showing just a couple minutes past the time they had agreed on.
What if he doesn't show? Or he's ugly? Or not nearly as potent as he claims – maybe a scheme to use me for easy sex with no intention of making me pregnant?
Three dozen worse case scenarios flickered through her mind. The impure thoughts screeched to a stop when the man in the long leather jacket appeared.
His deep brown eyes darted across the room, seeking someone, seeking her. He was stronger and bulkier in person than he looked in his profile. He was tall, but powerful, like a young lion standing upright.
In their emails, eh said he was thirty five. Much to her relief, there wasn't a shred of gray in his hair or a wrinkle in his face.
He lived up to his grand stats, and Heather's knees started to shake at the reality. Could it be an honest one she hadn't expected? Leo spotted her and strode forward confidently, his arms pumping at his sides.
“ You're Heather?” His voice had the same deep tones she had heard just twice on the phone. Unmistakable.
His huge hands reached down and wrapped around one of hers. She nearly melted and struggled to push her sweater jacket around her curves, wanting to hide from his rock hard strength, her plumpness exposed in his firm handshake.
Wait for it. The disappointment will show up in his eyes any minute, she told herself, completely convinced. You have only yourself to blame.
You told him you were fifteen pounds lighter than you really are. Most of your pics were face shots. He barely got a hint of your body, and now there's hiding what you really are.
Leo smiled, flashing a set of near perfect white teeth. He sat down as she stiffly pressed into her chair. Heather was surprised that his eyes hadn't changed to reflect his disappointment. Not yet, anyway.
He sat facing her, crossing his hands like a great cat stretching. “Are you really ready for this?”
“ Yes. I've wanted to be a mother for as long as I can remember,” Heather said, blushing. “It isn't the ideal, of course, but there isn't much choice. I want to have a baby before I get too old.”
He nodded his head. The way he moved wiped away the uncertainty in her voice. With him, Heather couldn't have found a better specimen of a man...if he still wanted her after this meeting.
“ You've paired up with the right man. I will get you pregnant,” he said, not lowering his voice a notch. Heather looked nervously throughout the sparsely populated cafe, embarrassed that a barista or a bystander might hear what they were