ACCIDENTAL LOVERS

“Not again, Doctor Stones,” Terry said, feeling so exhausted about the whole process as he went back to his seat. “I was told you are the best or am I wasting my money or you?” He asked the Doctor. Doctor Stones knew Terry’s story, so he was not bothered about the failure of several procedures they had gone through. “I think you can try adoption or, as I told you earlier, get a lady because there is nothing wrong with your sperm, but it just won't function outside a host as it should,” Doctor Stones said. “I truly do not care about all you are saying. I want a family of my own and one way or other I get what I want,” Terry said. Terry’s father, Mr. Carlton walked into the room after hearing his son's voice out loud about his frustration at getting candidates pregnant for surrogacy through artificial insemination or IVF. “I hope all is well,” he said in a shaky voice. He was still feeling slightly unwell as Terry had just picked him up from the care home the previous day. That day made it fifteen years he had been in the care facility after Terry’s mother left them. “No Dad, but you should be resting. I can handle this. The doctor here is just using my samples as trials,” Terry said jokingly, as he was now smiling to make his father comfortable. “Terry, you can also get the candidates yourself. You should try and do it. Maybe the problem is the candidates and not you,” Mr. Carlton said. “Dad, you know I cannot do that, I can not stand to hear about their problems or why they want to do it. I will just go with the Doctor’s candidates,” Terry replied. Terry had been going through this process for almost a year, and it seemed as if something was limiting him from achieving his desire to have a child. That he wanted to do this without intimacy with a woman should not be a problem, as Doctor Stones suggested, but right now it seemed like that was his only problem. “I am off to work, Dad, I will leave you with Doctor Stones, maybe he should try yours,” he said jokingly as he left and got into the latest version of the Ford Jeep he acquired a few weeks ago. Terry was a self-made billionaire, but the town knew him as a loner who hardly spoke to anyone. Unless Terry tells you his past, you might as well judge him in that category too. He stopped at the coffee shop. It was the coffee shop, where he would always get his morning coffees, and the girls at the shop would gossip about him. Sometimes he would hear what they were saying, and like always he would not react or talk to them. Abigail thought he was just a shy loner, while Shay thought he was arrogant. “The loner is here, and it is your turn to take his order,” Abigail said to Shay as she quickly moved to the back of the shop so that she would not attend to Terry. “I want the usual,” Terry said. “The usual what sir?” Shay asked if she knew what she was doing as she noticed that Abigail was watching from behind. She had wanted to prove to Abigail that Terry was not a loner but an arrogant wealthy fellow. “I come here every day, and you mean you do not know what I want as your good customer?” Terry said, sounding very impatient and irritated at Shay’s response. “You hardly speak sir, so I would not know if your usual has changed,” Shay said. “Do you just want me to talk or do you want to lose your job over a cup of coffee?” Terry asked. “I am so sorry sir, your usual coming right up,’ Shay said. Immediately, Terry left, and both girls laughed as they argued about who got the personality of Terry right. Shay was quick to say that Terry was arrogant and not that he could not speak to ladies, while Abigail reminded her that Terry had been coming to the shop for a long time and had not brought any ladies with him for coffee. “You don’t expect him to come with a lady in the morning for a coffee as if he does not have anything to do,” Shay said as if she was defending Terry’s choice of lifestyle. “No, but I expect him to take a lady home at least so that they can go to work together in the morning. That solves the issue of coffee because we would have an extra customer,” Abigail said, laughing. "Anyway, I kind of like him, like I really like him a lot," Shay said. "Wait, let me tell your boyfriend that you are eyeing a billionaire and see what Fred will do," said Abigail, as they both laughed at her remarks. “We should be the ones that are rich and not him. As rich as he was, he comes here every morning for a cup of coffee,” Shay said. “Where would you rather have your coffee? We operate the best coffee shop in this part of the town. I would rather have my coffee here, but you see that lunch. If I were rich, I would love to have it at Standard Heights Restaurant. Wow, you should taste their dishes!” Abigail said. Abigail had always encouraged Shay to try out the restaurant, even when she knew it required almost all her salary to have a meal at the restaurant and Shay would not indulge in such. “I wish someday I would have the kind of boyfriend that would take me to such places. I want to have fun. I want someone to take care of me too. If I dared spend that kind of money on myself, things would be tougher at home,” Shay said. “Don’t tell me you are planning on leaving Fred for a pot of porridge at the Standard Heights restaurant?” Abigail asked jokingly. “Not when I have Terry coming here every day for coffee, and you are talking about Fred,” Shay responded. Both girls have dreamt about being billionaires themselves, though they do not think it is possible unless they win a lottery, as Shay would say. Shay has the opinion that some people were made to be rich and others were made to be poor so that the rich could show the poor what they lacked. As Shay was leaving home she wondered what the inside of the restaurant looked like and why everybody talked about it, as it was the only restaurant in town. She saw the people coming out and entering the restaurant, and she maintained her thought that it was only made for the rich. She wondered if they had a coffee shop somewhere in there and made the assertion that they must be bad coffee makers for Terry to leave such a place to come to the coffee shop where she worked to get his coffee every morning. Shay felt so sorry for Terry. She thought that he must be a very lonely man with no one to help. Nobody knew how he made his money, and he did not talk to people. He neither gives nor shares and Shay felt it was a terrible habit. “This is the king of places he should be having meals, not the coffee shop,” Shay said to herself. Immediately as Shay was almost walking past the restaurant, she saw a figure she recognized, and she stopped and looked in the direction of the man walking towards her from the restaurant. “Hello Shay, do you want to apologize for what you did in the morning?” Terry asked. Shay could not believe what she had just heard. What did she do in the morning? Moreover, she had apologized, and why would he ask her such a question? “I do not think I owe you an apology, Mr. Terry. We had sorted ourselves out in the morning,” Shay said. Terry just looked at her and, without uttering any more words, walked past her and went into his car. Shay did not know how to react. She had judged the billionaire wrong. He likes good things too, she thought.