ALPHA DOM AND HIS HUMAN SURROGATE

im in the

th hands and I type his name into the search bar like a

ic Si

ack in under a sec

. No verified romantic history. No public scandal. A few photographs at charity events, always at the edge of the frame, always looking

ly conceptualize. And somewhere in a fertility clinic's cryogenic sto

face-down on th

t up and read

t his personal life and he says, "I don't have one. I have a schedule." The journalist clearly thought this was cold. Reading

I just didn't expect

ive

arrives the

while I sign for it, and I think, this is what it looks like when people with money do things. No waiting. No st

at my kitc

allowance if I choose to relocate, security arrangements, and a clause at the bottom of p

t clause f

al language, that the circumstances of this pregnancy are private, that I agree not to discuss them publicly, and

king a dog that's clearly walking her instead, and I think about what it means that this docume

en from the drawer

t on p

while I'm on

she always opens calls when she

m f

ven last night to ask if I thought it was normal for a billionai

at are still too raw to say out loud, but en

ts a full four seconds, wh

onaire,"

es

sam

es

ll

kno

sent paperw

and a non-disclo

ce. Then, "Di

e seven wit

lf horror. "Okay. Okay, don't sign anything yet

awyer to cross ou

a fourteen-page agreement sent by a billiona

at least the first pass. Not out of stubbornness, or not entirely. It's more that I need him to understand from the beginn

efore I send it

mise

romi

d go back to

handwriting. The housing allowance I leave intact because I'm not an idiot and my apartment has a draft in winter. The security

from three pages

, email it to myself for a record, an

kes you feel underdressed just walking through it. I didn't call ahead. I considered it and decided that showing up

inutes later she tells me, with barely hid

s, which he probably partially does. He's standing when I walk in, jacket off, sleev

and put the env

ome chang

age and I watch his jaw do something careful and

When he gets to my handwritten paragraph he s

a clause,

d

al appointments unless I provide forty-eight

be involved," I say. "

city glitters behind him. And then, qu

a re

irely a com

yet, in a voice that does something to the back

it

icks up