Buzz –Buzz – Buzz.  The quiet vibrating of her cell phone on the nightstand woke her from a soft sleep.  She reaches her right arm over, swiftly putting the phone on silent and leaning over to read the text message.  9 a.m.?  She types back a quick reply and then puts the phone back down on the nightstand.  She slowly slides out from under his arm, which is still wrapped around her waist so that she doesn’t wake him as she gets out of bed. 

He stirs and turns his head over to the other side of his pillow, but doesn’t open his eyes.  Once he settles back in she slinks towards the closet, quietly snagging a change of clothes.  She tiptoes across the bedroom and heads down the hall, not wanting to wake him by changing in their room. 

She slips her pajamas off and throws on jeans and a t-shirt.  She frowns realizing she had forgotten shoes and needs to go back to retrieve them.  She makes her way back to their room, careful to not wake him and snatches a pair of flip flops, keeping them in her hand to prevent making the flopping noise upstairs.  She makes it back to the doorway when she realizes her cell-phone is still sitting on the nightstand.  Crap.  She creeps cautiously back towards the nightstand and reaches out for the phone.  Without warning, he reaches his arm out across the bed and grabs her wrist.  She jumps from the unexpected movement. 

“Come back to bed…” he groans, pulling her back down to the mattress.  “Where are you off to?”

She sighs, “I have some errands to run...”

He nods, sitting up against the headboard.  “I have meetings through the evening, but I could be home by 9?”  He runs his hand through her long brown hair.  “We can do something, anything you want.  It’s a late morning tomorrow so I am all yours tonight.” 

She smiles, running her hand through his hair.  “Alright, Justin, maybe we can have a movie night?”

He leans over and kisses her on the forehead, “I’ll call you on my way home.”

She grabs her cell-phone and waves as she heads out of the room and he slowly slips back down under the covers. 

**

She walks into the café and her eyes dart to the left where she sees him sitting alone at a table in the corner.  She nods at the hostess and motions towards him, passing by her as she makes her way to his table.  He is fidgeting nervously while he texts and nurses a large coffee.  She makes it to the table and smiles softly as he looks up. 

“Whitney, thanks for coming,” he says, with tired eyes that indicate he has not slept well.

She takes a seat across from him, setting her purse down on the chair beside her.  “Of course, I’m just sorry I couldn’t meet up with you until this morning.”

The waitress stops by the table.  “Can I get you something?”

“A hot chocolate.  Thanks," she smiles as the waitress nods and walks away. 

He smiles at her order and then runs a hand nervously through his blonde hair.  She slides her arm across the table and puts her hand on top of his.  He turns and makes eye contact with her again.  The waitress returns with her mug and she thanks her again before turning her attention back to him.

“So, what happened?  I thought everything was all set,” she says, stirring the contents of her mug with a spoon. 

“I guess she changed her mind.  We were ready, but she just backed out and I now I don’t know what to do.  Jake is making some calls and consulting our attorney, but I just…” he stops, feeling himself getting emotional.  “…I was just so ready; we were so ready…now I don’t know what to do.”

She takes a sip from her mug, already knowing what he is planning on saying to her before he starts to speak again.  He had already brought it up to her once before more casually, but Jake had known someone else and the two hadn’t discussed it further.

“I don’t even know how to ask you this,” he says, exasperated.

“Lance, it’s okay.  I’ll do it,” she says, almost surprised by her own decisiveness in this moment.

“Really?  Are you sure?  You can think about it, I don’t want you rushing into making the wrong decision here,” he says, but she can read the excitement and the hope in his eyes and there isn’t a chance that she’ll take it back.

“You and Jake have been good friends to me.  This is something I can do for you.  I want to,” she says with a confident smile. 

“I have to call Jake…I….we’re thrilled,” he says, dialing Jake frantically.  “Yes, I know, she’s going to, I know, it’s incredible,” he chats back and forth as Whitney sits sipping her drink lost in thought.  It is exciting, but it is also making her nervous.  But it’s the right thing to do and she can do it and she should do it for her friends.  “Oh, I don’t know if she -,” Lance lowers his phone for a moment.  “Whitney – shouldn’t you talk to Justin?  Did you talk to him about this?”

She sighs and puts the mug down on the table.  “This is about you two.  It’s not about Justin and I.  We’re going to talk about it tonight, but don’t worry about it.”

Lance raises the phone back up, “Jake, yeah I’ll call you, yes, I know it’s very exciting.  Bye,” he hangs up and sets the phone back down on the table.

She slides her engagement ring up and down her ring finger, toying with it.  She suspects that Justin will not be on board with this, but she feels like it’s the right thing to do and it’s bigger than the two of them. 

“I mean, I know he doesn’t want to have children.  He did say that, didn’t he?” Lance says, knowing she is thinking about Justin.  She stops sliding the ring up and down and looks up.

“I…we…we never really discussed children,” she says, feeling her cheeks reddening.

“This is just such a wonderful thing, I cannot thank you enough,” Lance says, quickly changing the subject. He waves the waitress down for another refill.  “Is it going to affect the wedding?”

She stares back down at the diamond ring on her finger.  “We still haven’t set a date.”

**

Whitney adjusted the dress she had put on, glancing over at the clock.  It was nearing 9:30 p.m. and she knew he would be home any minute.  She had spent the remainder of her day trying to plan a perfect romantic evening at home for them, partially because she wanted to have a romantic evening with him and partially because it would be the necessary setting to break the news to him.  The kitchen wafted with the smell of the pot roast that was cooking in the oven and she had some jazz playing in the background on the sound system.  She uncorked a bottle of red wine and sat down on one of the stools waiting for him. 

Everything needed to be perfect.  He needed to be in the perfect mood.  She wasn’t sure how she was going to actually tell him.  There would be no ideal moment during the course of the evening, but she was hoping he would be in good spirits and everything would fall into place.  She was prepared to surrender her choice of which movie to watch so he would be settled in and complacent before she broke the news.  She knew Justin well enough to know that he would not like this arrangement, but he would not object.  He knew it would not be his place to.  Still, she did not want to have any sort of spat over this and she hoped he would listen to what she had to say and accept it. 

As the door clicked open, she sat up, pouring a second glass of wine for him.  He made his way into the kitchen.  “Dinner smells delicious,” he said, as he reached for the glass of wine.  She smiled at him as she slid her oven mittens on and pulled the roast out of the oven. 

They headed to the dinner table and ate quietly.  He talked about how his day went, how his meetings were and what the rest of his schedule would be like for the remainder of the week.  After clearing the table, they headed to the living room.

She sat down next to him on the sofa and he ran his hand up and down her leg.  “You’re being quiet, what’s going on?” he asked, sensing her nerves.

“I met up with Lance for coffee today,” she said.  She noticed his eyebrow rise.  His mind was already wandering, wondering why she hadn’t told him ahead of time.  Wondering why Lance had called her and not him. 

“And…?” he waited for a response, crossing his arms.

“Alright, it’s a long complicated story.  The bottom line is that their plans fell through and I told them I would be their new surrogate.”  She stopped, watching the words sink in.  He frowns, but she can tell he is trying to keep it together.  She takes advantage of his silence and continues.  “They are friends and they need me and if I can help someone have a child, how can I not?  I could keep defending this situation, but I know that you know that this feels right…” she stops now, waiting for his response.

He remains silent, scrunching his mouth like he wants to say something, but his body is stopping him from opening his mouth. 

“Did Lance set this up?  I cannot believe he would drag my fiancée into this without speaking to me first,” he says.  She can sense the agitation in his voice. 

“Jake and he are in a tough situation and we had talked about this before back when they were first planning this.  All of this unfolded last night and Lance reached out to me.  Don’t be upset with him, please.  He didn’t pressure me or anything.  I want to do this,” she watches to see if her words are calming him down. 

“I have my reservations about this,” he says, itching at his shirt collar.

“If you and I were in their position, I would do everything and try everything I could.  It would only be natural to reach out to all of the people in our lives who could help.  Wouldn’t you do the same for us?” she asks.  She is trying to read him, to see if he will take the bait and talk about their future and marriage and the possibility children. 

“Alright, fair enough.  I am not going to try and stop you,” he says. 

She is disappointed at him dodging another opportunity to discuss their future, but takes his reluctant agreement as a start.  "Justin, I just really need you to support me through this.  And the guys," she looks at him, trying to read his face again.   

“I am going to need some time, Whit.  And I’m going to speak to Lance and Jake in the morning,” he says slowly. 

She nods, “Alright, you can do that.” 

“We’re going to have a lot of things to discuss,” he says.  “But, I guess I am going to try and be on board for you.  Now, let’s try and enjoy the rest of our romantic evening.”

She is relieved to have avoided an argument with him this evening.  The gravity of the situation is starting to hit her and the nervous excitement hits her.    

“Well, this changes my movie choice for our evening,” he says, getting up and heading towards the movies lined up on the shelves to the side of the television set.  He makes his selection and heads to the DVD player and slides the disc in.  He heads back to her and slides his arm around her back as they settle in. 

“What movie did you choose?” she asks.

“Knocked Up,” he says with a grin and she laughs nervously in response.