Gina and Mike by Buffy Andrews Page A

I would have to run in the park more often.
     
    ****
     
    I looked at the caller ID. “Hey, Mom. I was going to call you later. Did you get my email with the donor profiles?”
    I heard Mom clear her throat. “Are you sure there’s no other way, Gina?”
    “Well, the only other way I know of is to find someone to screw. And finding a screwable guy that meets all of my requirements isn’t easy.”
    “I know. I know,” Mom said. “This just seems so, so unnatural.”
    “And picking someone off the street corner isn’t? Look, Mom. I kissed a lot of frogs in my life and none of them were my prince. That’s just the way it goes.”
    Mom wasn’t about to let up. “What about a good friend?”
    “Mom!” I shouted. “Are you suggesting I ask a good friend to get me pregnant?”
    “Well. It might work. People do it in the movies.”
    “That comes with other complications. Like what if the good friend decides he wants to be a part of my baby’s life?”
    “Well, you’re an attorney. Couldn’t you get him to sign something?” Mom asked.
    “Mom! And besides, all of my good male friends have wives or girlfriends and I don’t think anyone would be willing to lend her man to me for a night or two.”
    “What about that gay friend of yours? He seems nice.”
    “Scott? He is nice. But I could never ask Scott, or any other gay man, to get me pregnant.”
    “I was just thinking that he might be willing. It’s not like he needs his semen.”
    “Mom!”
    “OK. OK.  I guess it does sound pretty dumb.”
    “Yeah, Mom. But I love you. Look, I wish this wasn’t the way it had to happen either, but I have no choice if I want a child of my own. And besides, you of all people should understand what I’m going through.”
    I was an only child. Mom and Dad had adopted me as a baby after trying to have one of their own for years.
    “You’re right, Gina. Let’s just hope it works. I’ll pray for good semen. And I’ll get all of my friends to pray for good semen.”
    Mom made me laugh. She had a funny way of phrasing things.
    “I’ve decided to come home for the reunion,” I told her. “You gonna be around that weekend?”
    Mom checked her calendar.  “Bad news. That’s the Saturday I’m going on the overnight bus trip to New York. But I can cancel.”
    “Don’t you dare cancel. I’ll fly home Friday and spend the day with you before your New York trip. I won’t be around Saturday anyhow if I go to the reunion.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Positive.”
     
    ****
     
    Mike
     
    Jack was waiting for me on the curb in front of the school. I pulled up, and he opened the door and climbed in.
    “How was your day, bud?”
    Jack sighed. “OK.”
    “Just OK?”
    Jack looked like a deflated balloon. His eyes scrunched and he grimaced like he had struck out, dashing his team’s hopes for a come-from-behind win.
    “Well, I kind of didn’t do too well on my spelling test today,” he said.
    “What’d ya get?”
    Jack shook his head. “I don’t want to say.”
    “It can’t be that bad.”
    Jack nodded. “Trust me, it is.”
    “70?”
    “Lower.”
    “65?”
    “Lower.”
    “Lower than a 65? Geez, Jack. Didn’t you study?”
    “I kind of got an F?”
    “F?” My voice jumped a few octaves. “OK, Jack, what happened?”
    “I forgot to study, and I figured that I could cheat, just this one time. Turned out Miss Sharp caught me and I got an automatic F.”
    Inside I was smiling because I had done the same thing when I was Jack’s age and got caught, too. But the father in me knew I had to handle this moment in a fatherly way. “Well, guess that’ll teach you not to cheat.”
    Jack’s eyebrows arched.   “So you’re not mad?”
    “Of course I’m mad. Disappointed is probably a better word. Have fun telling your mom when you get home.”
    “Do I have to tell her?”
    “What’d you think?”
    Jack was quick on the draw. “No. I don’t think she needs to know.”
    I smiled. “Think again