Surrogate For The Billionaire
By: Tyra Small“Uh, yes, I’d like a number three,” The man said. The voice sounded awfully familiar.
“What kind of drink?” Lateisha asked from memory. She focused on putting the order into the computer as the man spoke, the familiarity of his voice causing her mind to spin. Who was it?
“I’ll just have a Coke,” He answered, the pronunciation of the sentence proper and almost British.
Lateisha froze mid type. It was him; Bryce. Despite her best efforts, Lateisha was mortified.
“Pull around please,” She said, wishing to disappear.
A last frantic look around in an effort to find someone to take over the window was met with shrugs and shaking heads.
Dammit!
She did not want Bryce to see her like this. Sure he knew she worked at a fast food restaurant but that didn’t mean he had to see it close up; the hair net and silly hat specifically. Lateisha shuddered as she gathered the food and placed it into a bag. Pushing the window open she looked down at Bryce, his smiling face looking up at her from the Town Car. She resisted the urge to pat the hair net, not wanting to draw attention to it.
“Hello,” he said, the hint of British accent making it sound like hallo.
“Hi,” Lateisha said with chagrin, her hand reaching up to the hat; so much for not drawing attention to it.
Bryce’s eyes followed the movements of her hand and Lateisha stifled a cringe. Quickly removing her hand, Lateisha handed him the bag. Bryce passed her a few bills and she made change.
“I’m sorry to drop in on you unannounced. I just wanted to see you.”
Lateisha frowned. “What?”
“Where you work I mean,” he added quickly, a strange look passing over his face. Before Lateisha could identify it, the look was gone.
“Right. Well this is it. Lovely isn’t it?” Lateisha joked, waving her hand around like she was showing him a mansion.
Bryce chuckled and Lateisha ignored the flutter in her stomach. This was so wrong on many levels.
“That it is,” Bryce answered, looking at her oddly. He shook his head and his face changed, as if remembering something. Or remembering how he knew her maybe. “I spoke to the doctor. I’ve made an appointment for you tomorrow at ten if that’s alright?”
Lateisha nodded, “I don’t work until four so that’s fine. Why didn’t you just call?”
“I did. But when you didn’t answer I figured I’d tell you in person. I also wanted to see why everyone was ‘lovin’ McDonald’s,” he said with a smirk.
Lateisha laughed. “Well enjoy.”
“I will,” Bryce answered, taking an exaggerated bite of his burger.
He waved and the Town Car drove away. His absence left Lateisha feeling empty and she didn’t like it one bit.
*****
The next morning Lateisha woke up early. The unexplained anxiety at the appointment today made her unable to sleep. Normally she was a ‘sleep till ten’ kind of girl but today she was up at six. Rubbing her sleep encrusted eyes, Lateisha climbed from bed after tossing and turning for an hour. She needed a shower and coffee, in that order. Stumbling to the shower, Lateisha snagged a towel from the linen closet and moved down the tiny hall to the bathroom she shared with her friend Becky in their two bedroom apartment. Lucky for her, Becky was already at work and she didn’t have to explain why she was up so early when she didn’t work until four.
Lateisha switched on the shower and stepped in, rubbing her eyes as she ducked her head under the hot water. The anxiety she had felt when she woke began to melt away and after twenty minutes she felt like she was awake and shut the shower off and stepped out. Towel drying her hair gently she stepped into the walk-in closet. Becky took the bigger room but Lateisha got the walk-in. It was a trade off. Now what should she wear to a doctor’s appointment in which she would be checked out like a piece of meat to make sure she was fit to carry someone’s baby? Lateisha snorted; her life right now resembled a bad Lifetime movie. Eventually she chose a fitted black t-shirt and dark skinny jeans, deciding it was not necessary to dress up for this part of the ‘job’. Running some frizz serum through her curls, Lateisha glanced in the mirror. She looked pretty good. Not that it mattered, this was a business deal.
