Baby Be Mine (Spinsters & Casanovas Series Book 1) (8 page)

“Yes, a pleasant surprise indeed. Maybe next
time I’m going to surprise
you
with a potion that makes you
so sick you won’t be able to attend school,” Whitney suggested.

“For real, Whitney? Make me a potion now. I
could use a little break from classes.” Max went from Elise’s
shoulder to tugging on Whitney’s sleeve, like a little puppy
begging for affection.

“No, Max. Now, stop acting like a
five-year-old and start acting your age. We’re in the middle of a
discussion here.”

“What? About finding you a partner, cuz?”
Max asked.

“Yes, Max,” Clarice said.

“Why?”

“Because I need the sperm,” Clarice
answered, deadpan.

“Yep, I think a dating site would be
perfect,” Max responded, jumping up to get the laptop from his
cousin’s office.

“Really, a dating site?” Whitney asked in
disgust, watching Max carry the pink laptop into the room.

“Yep. Have you girls heard about it?” Max
said while firing up the laptop inputting passwords and
everything.”

“How did you know my password, Max?” Clarice
asked suspiciously.

“I know everything about everything, cuz,”
Max responded cheekily.

“I’m changing my passwords after this,”
Clarice added.

Once the laptop was booted up, all the girls
came to sit around Max while he typed furiously in the address bar,
navigating to the website.

“Most of the time these days, soul mates
meet this way,” Max explained. He loved it when all his sisters, as
he liked to call them, gave him their undivided attention. He felt
special. “Plus, they have lots of intelligent guys too, so plenty
of good sperm for you to choose from.”

“A dating site.” Clarice pondered. “Doesn’t
sound too bad.”

When Max reached the site, he gestured for
Clarice to look.

“Youandme.co.nz?” Clarice read the name of
the website. “Is that it?”

“Yep.” Max typed again, going from one page
to the next. “It’s pretty popular at the moment.”

All Clarice and the others could do was
watch while Max continued to enter this and that until it came to a
particular page.

“All right, here we are. Okay, cuz. Now you
take it from here.” Max swapped places with Clarice so now she was
sitting in front of the screen. “Type your name.”

“You want me to register on this website?”
Clarice asked, not quite convinced.

“Yes. If you don’t do this, then you’re not
going to meet anyone,” Max remarked. “Unless you want to turn into
a sour old grape, then that’s no problem.”

“All right, I get it. No need to be
sarcastic.” Clarice huffed in annoyance. She started entering her
details.

“There, go there.” Max pointed to the
criteria icon. “Put your list of criteria here. It matches you up
with your desired person.”

Clarice did as she was told. She typed in
her list, one by one. Then it popped up with the age group she
wanted to date, ranging from twenty all the way up to sixty.

Clarice selected the two age groups from
twenty-five to thirty-five. She didn’t want to date anyone over
thirty-five. Their sperm might not be functioning properly.
Selecting anyone younger than twenty-five would be bad as well. She
didn’t want to date a kid straight out of high school. By the time
he grew up, her ovaries might not be functioning properly
anymore.

Max, on the other hand, took matters into
his own hands and selected the twenty to twenty-five age group as
well, then pressed submit.

“Max! I am
not
dating anyone under
twenty-five.” Clarice swatted her cousin’s hands off the
keyboard.

Elise dropped her apple with a thud, which
in turn drew everyone’s attention to her.

“Sorry,” Elise said, fully aware of the many
eyes staring at her. “I’ll just throw this one away and grab
another one. Is that all right, Clarice?”

“Sure, Max can get one for you,” Clarice
offered, easily brushing aside the incident.

“No, I’ll get it myself. Max needs to help
you with the site,” Elise said, rushing to the kitchen.

While Clarice and Max went back to typing,
Whitney eyed her friend’s strange behavior with suspicion. Elise,
the calm and collected one, was never like this, not since she
returned from Australia three years ago anyway. What happened
there? Why would she act like this? Whitney would sure drum the
answer out of Elise once she had the opportunity.

“All done,” the other two shouted in
Whitney’s ears, cutting off her thoughts.

“Calm down, you two. It’s only a man,”
Whitney said.

“Yes, yes, I know. I know you don’t mind
being a spinster, but I do. My maternal instinct is yelling out to
me to find myself a man and have a family. But I’m not dating
anyone under twenty.” Clarice glared at her cousin.

“I’m starving,” Max said, rubbing his
stomach. “All that talking and typing about soul mates and babies
made me famished. Anyone up for pizza tonight?”

“No thanks. Please grab Cambodian instead. I
want my usual rice rolls. Make that prawn, please,” Whitney said,
not taking her gaze from the laptop screen.

“Why are we having Cambodian again?” Max
whined. “I want pizza. Clarice, say you want pizza too.”

“Sorry, Max, but I don’t feel like pizza
tonight. Cambodian it is,” Clarice said, bursting Max’s bubble.

“You two, sticking together like glue. Fine.
Elise?” Max shouted.

“Yes.” Elise came from the bathroom.

Where’s the apple from the kitchen?
Whitney thought.

None of the others paid her any heed, but
Whitney was very aware of her surroundings. Elise looked upset,
like she had been crying or something. She needed to talk to the
girl tonight, since Clarice was too preoccupied with her baby talk
and all that. The only way to clear the air would be to suss it all
out.

“Elise, tell me which one you like.” Max
went to wind his arm around Elise again. “Cambodian or pizza?”

“I…” Elise spoke, tossing up whether to go
for the healthy option of Cambodian, their favourite cuisine, or
pizza as Max wanted.

“Elise, we need your answer,” Max urged.
“You’re the last vote. I’m losing right now, two to one. You’ve got
to choose pizza, please,” Max pleaded, making his signature puppy
dog eyes at her. Elise felt a sting in her chest but pushed it away
again.

“We could always get both.” Elise finally
spoke. “It’s hard for me to choose. Why don’t we go together, Max?
I’ll drive,” Elise suggested, taking her keys out of her bag.

“No, I want to drive.” Max took the keys
from Elise’s hand.

“But you’ve only got a restricted. I have a
full.”

“All the more reason for me to practice
driving with a fully grown, licensed adult beside me.” Max smiled
cheekily. “Now let’s go. I’m dying of starvation here.”

“Okay, okay.” Elise turned to Clarice and
Whitney. “Be back in a bit.”

“Yes. Please grab me the char noodles with
seafood,” Clarice shouted, her face now glued to the screen
also.

“I know, your all-time favourite.”

“Okay, everyone already told us want they
want. Now let’s go. I’m dying here.”

“Yes, yes, Max, let’s go.” Elise ruffled his
hair playfully. Then they both headed out the door.

As soon as the door closed, Whitney turned
to Clarice right away.

“We need to talk.”

“I’m all ears.” Clarice had always been more
in tune with Whitney, but all three needed each other; otherwise,
they wouldn’t be called the three musketeers in high school or the
three spinsters now. No, wait, at the moment, she was the only
spinster who had turned thirty. Whitney’s birthday was coming up
soon. As for Elise, she was a good three years behind at only
twenty-seven.

“About Elise…” Whitney started.

“What about her?”

“She’s not happy.”

“I didn’t notice.”

“Of course you wouldn’t notice. You were too
consumed with finding the man to give you a baby.”

“I’m sorry. Am I being to forward with my
desire for a family? So much that it’s impacting you? I’m sorry. I
sound quite selfish now.”

“Look, Clarice, I don’t mind you looking for
a life partner. Stop apologizing, for God’s sake. I want to talk
about Elise, for you to keep an eye out for her. She doesn’t seem
too happy these days.”

“Yes, I suppose she’s still not over her
parents’ deaths.”

“That could be it.”

“We should do something to cheer her
up.”

“We could. But we need to clear the air
first. See what’s bogging her mind right now. See if she wants to
tell us what the problem is.”

“Yes.” Clarice agreed.

That night after they finished their
delicious meal of pizza, char noodles, rice rolls, and char satay,
Max left, saying he needed to head back to his apartment to finish
his homework. Once all was silent, Clarice eyed Whitney silently,
signaling whether it would be the perfect time to speak.

With Whitney’s confirming nod, Clarice began
her enquiry.

“Elise, we need to talk.”

Elise looked startled, dropping her chicken
nibble into her peanut sauce.

“What about?” she asked, avoiding Clarice’s
eyes.

“Why you’re always so easily startled like
this,” Whitney said simply.

“What’s wrong? You can tell us.” Clarice
reassured her friend.

“It’s nothing,” Elise said without looking
at them.

“Nothing? Then why are you like this?”
Whitney asked in frustration. The last time she saw something
resembling this was after her parents’ death, and she didn’t like
the outcome at all. Elise had almost committed suicide, saying
there was no one left in Australia for her, as she was an only
child. It was only when Clarice and Whitney went to help Elise and
told her to move here that she even resembled a human being
again.

Elise stayed silent again. Expelling a deep
sigh, Clarice went to hug her friend.

“Look, I respect you, Elise, and if you want
to keep it to yourself for now, then that’s fine too. We just want
you to know you have us,” Clarice said, hugging her friend. She
knew the feeling, having refused to speak up when people bullied
her when she was young. Clarice didn’t want to pressure her friend
into confessing anything until she was ready.

“We’ll stay by your side no matter what
happened,” Whitney added. “And we’ll give you our undivided
attention.”

“Yes, when the time comes, we’ll all be here
for you,” Clarice said. “Max included.”

“Thank you, guys. I love you so much.” Elise
hugged both of her friends. Somehow it would be a long time yet
before she could tell her friends what she had been storing in this
heart of hers. But it wasn’t the time yet, and she prayed it would
never come, hoping and wishing she would never have to face that
moment, hoping and wishing this feeling within her heart would one
day fade away.

“I miss my parents,” she finally said, just
to stop their curiosity for now.

“I miss them too. Just know we’ll always be
there for you,” Clarice said.

“Same here.”

And then they all went into a little
emotional downpour, with tears and snot mixed together. Three boxes
of Kleenex later, Elise finally broke the silence.

“Enough about me. I can’t wait to see who’s
first on your dating list,” Elise said, jumping to the laptop.
Whitney followed, sitting on the other side.

“There’s a list of potential suitors
already?’ Elise eyed the screen.

Clarice, interested now and eager to see
that list, squeezed herself between her two friends. She looked at
the different profiles of the many males on display.

“They sure matched it fast,” Clarice
exclaimed at the staggering number that appeared on screen.

“Life is all about living in the fast lane
now,” Whitney said. “Here, let’s see. Mmm, looks impressive.”

“That one looks nice. Pleasant, with
glasses,” Elise suggested, pointing to a man with mousy brown hair.
“What’s his name, Darcy or something?”

“No, too dorky. He needs to be
professional-looking. I don’t want Clarice’s man to be dorky,”
Whitney said.

“Well, how about this one? He seems nice.”
Elise pointed to another profile on the screen.

“Elise, you can’t judge if someone is nice
or not by their looks,” Whitney said.

“But you just judged that man by his looks.
You said he was dorky,” Elise countered.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” Whitney apologized.

“Enough, you two. It’s
my
man we’re
looking for. He needs to be attractive to me. Not you two,” Clarice
shouted at both of them. She was getting a headache again. Dear
heaven, all this talk about babies and partners was really draining
her energy.

“Okay, okay. Calm down, Clarice,” they both
said. They both knew when Clarice got mad not to go near her. It
was like a gentle pig transforming into a wild bore right in front
of their eyes.

“Now we just have to wait until tomorrow to
see which one they pair you with first,” Elise said simply, sitting
back to watch the laptop screen as more profiles popped up.

“Yes,” Clarice said, looking forward to her
very first date with the man that could potentially be the father
of her baby… and maybe more. She was looking forward to tomorrow
indeed.

CHAPTER 7

Hunter stared at the rigid woman in front of
him, sitting straight like a jukebox with palms folded on top of
each other, her eyes looking intently at the tablecloth, as if
finding the embroidered fabric so fascinating. He took his time to
eye her. She was of reasonable height, thinly built with glossy
blond hair parted to the left of her face, displaying dangling
silver earrings. If he could describe her, she would be classified
as pretty but definitely not his type. Hunter’s style would be
petite, with voluptuous breasts that would fit right into his
hands. This woman couldn’t be more than an A-cup.