Page 13 of The Best Friend Problem
He smiled, the left side of his mouth lifting higher than the right. “The absolute best.”
“Thanks, Finn.” She let out a deep breath. “Wanna help me pick out a donor?”
…
Finn was going to need something a hell of a lot stronger than beer if he was going to help his best friend pick out a sperm donor. Now there was a situation he’d never in his life thought he’d have to deal with.
“You’re only twenty-eight.”
Pru stared at him as if he were the one who’d just spouted the most ridiculous thing ever.
“I’m aware of how old I am.”
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t go ahead with your plan, but aren’t women having babies in their forties now? You could wait, see if you meet a nice guy.”
Something strange and dark churned in his gut at the thought of Pru meeting some guy and settling down to have a bunch of babies. She’d dated sporadically. He’d met some of the losers unworthy of his best friend. It wasn’t that he begrudged her a nice guy. So why did the thought of another man in Pru’s life always rub him the wrong way?
Her dark brown eyes turned sad. “Well, that’s the thing. Remember when I thought Terrence and I were getting serious?”
Yeah, he remembered the prick who left because he got some fancy high-paying job out on the West Coast, breaking her heart. Good thing the asshole ran halfway across the country before Finn could break his nose in return.
“The douchebag? I remember.”
Her lips curled up as she let out a small chuckle at his insult. “So, when I thought things were moving toward marriage and babies, I…I asked my doctor for a fertility test, and it turns out…”
She tugged on her ponytail, adjusting the already perfect hairstyle.
“I’m not going to bore you with all the medical jargon, but it appears I may not have as much time as the average woman. The longer I wait, the harder it will be, and since I haven’t found any man who is up to my standards—”
“That’s because your standards are impossible.”
He loved Pru, but it was true. The woman held men to an almost unachievable ideal. Which was fine. In his opinion, no one was good enough for her, anyway. But damn, it really sucked that she had to move up her timeline. He knew how important having a family was to Pru and how much it crushed her when Terrence the Terrible left and destroyed the goal she’d been working toward. And now she had to move on to plan B all because of whatever biological issue stood in her way.
Good thing Pru always had a plan B…and C.
“Just because I won’t sleep with anyone with boobs and a pulse doesn’t mean I have impossible standards.”
“Hey, I don’t sleep with every woman I date.” The rumors of his male prowess were highly exaggerated. “I’m just saying there are a lot of fish in the sea.”
“Yeah, well, as I told Mo earlier, there’s also a lot of garbage.”
Fair point.
They were interrupted by Laura, who arrived at the table with two plates piled high with steaming hot french fries and burgers with all the fixings. Because he needed it for this conversation, Finn ordered another beer while Pru ordered another cider.
“So, tell me more about this process.”
It might be weird, but he cared about her a lot. They weren’t the kind of friends who said “I love you” to each other, but he did feel for her deeply the way one did for their best friend or a distant cousin you sometimes had wildly inappropriate dreams about.
This was a big deal. A huge, life-shifting decision, and he wanted her to feel comfortable sharing it with him. Even if it made him uncomfortable as hell. Talking babies and sperm donation with anyone was strange. Doing it with his best friend—his female best friend—well, that passed strange and flew straight into a bizarre world.
He sat there, eating his burger and fries, not tasting the food as his brain whirled and he listened to Pru talk about hormone levels, percentages and failure rates, ovulation tracking… Things he never in a million years thought he’d be discussing with her.
“You seem prepared.” Overly so, but that was his Practical Pru. Never leaving anything to chance.
“Yup.”
“And excited.”
