Saved and SAINTified (11 page)

S
aint rolled his eyes and shrugged. “So another big ass ego to contend with, huh?” He chuckled.

“I think he’d be great for this case
,” Lawrence offered.

“Does he know why you are here
, I mean specifically?”

“What? That I’m a second pair of eyes for you?”
Lawrence looked down briefly at his light tan carpeted floor. “Well, he knows that you do conferences and are famous but he doesn’t know about the organization. I kept that hidden. I blocked him.”

“So
, what can Jagger do?”

Lawrence
laughed. “I hadn’t told you his name yet. I love when you do that.”

S
aint smiled and looked at his glass, now half empty. “He can’t break through your blocks?”

“He can, but he didn’t. I assume he knew I had it up for a reason and it would have required great effort on his part to penetrate. I block very well
; it’s a specialty.”

S
aint smirked. “Yeah, I’d have to agree there. So, why don’t we do this?” He sat up again, swishing the glass between his knees as he stared down into the orange tinted liquid. “Why don’t you call Jagger, tell him the situation and let him know it will be worth his time?”

“Will do!”
Lawrence smiled. “I just know you two would work well together. Now, drink up and do you want another?”

“I better not. I need to be getting home but I drank a bit too much tonight so if you don’t mind, I’ll call a cab.”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort. I’ve been nursing this same watered down gin and tonic all evening. I just keep going up there adding ice.” Lawrence glinted. “I’ll drive you home, but first, let’s discuss the logistics concerning Jagger before I contact him tomorrow.”

“I can answer it all for you right now
. Salary, yes. Tell him we will negotiate it. A nice place to stay—taken care of.  I’ll put him over here near you, where they are building those new ranches. It’s nice and quiet there and he won’t be terribly far from work. I want to interview him, talk to him if you will, at least twice before his arrival. He needs to be open to let me read him, too. If he blocks, the discussions are over. I don’t want to play games with anyone. I don’t want to have to break through someone that is supposed to be working for me.” Saint pointed to his chest in emphasis. “Airline—paid in advance. Not round trip though, because we don’t know when he’s going back and shit. Utah doesn’t really seem his speed, from what you’ve shared. He may like it better here. And … I feel he is single. Do you think he’d be interested in any of the single Queens? Is that his style? If it is, I can get that ball rolling.”

“That’s not logistics; you just snuck that one in there.”

“I did. Well, do you? From what I’m picking up, he seems like a stand-up guy. I don’t like his preoccupation with greasy food, but we can discuss that later.”

Lawrence
burst out laughing. “Yup! He loves fast food—burgers, chicken, you name it. He’s in excellent shape despite it all though. I think Jagger is an open minded man. He never told me of a preference for black women, like you and I have, but he never gave me the impression he was against it, either. He never had any problems getting women, that’s for sure, but after his divorce, well  ...  Oh, I better not say anything else.”

“He’s divorced?”

“Yeah, he is divorced—has been for a while and very much wanting to meet someone new. I know this but, I dunno. Jagger is kind of hard headed and I think it messed him up.”

She was Asian. Thai, to be exact. Interesting
...

“
Well, I’ll find out what I need to know soon enough. I’m interested. Let me speak to him.”

“Sure thing and I know he will be all over the package you presented.”

“Good, that should sweeten the pot. Let him know that my wife has a laundry list of eye candy and if he is serious, I will introduce him to some possible prospects but more importantly, let me screen him real good, read him and discuss getting this mole the fuck out of the organization.”

“Sounds like a plan
. I’ll get on it. You
definitely
sweetened the pot.”

Jagger
turned, grabbed his keys and escorted Saint out to his car.

****

Several days later...

“And that’s why they do it.” S
aint nodded.

“Why does even the most innocent conversation have to turn into something sexual?”
Xenia put her hand on her hip. “We could be talking about,” she looked up at the sky as she moved the double stroller to and fro, “ice cream or ‘Spongebob SquarePants’, and you’d find a way to make it sexual!”

Saint huffed a light-hearted protest.
“But we’re at the zoo! The lions were there so I thought—”

“You thought nothing. You’re just nasty!”
She scoffed. “And they weren’t even mating, Saint. You just wanted a chance to say something foul.”

She chuckled as she looked down at Hassani and Dakarai who were nodding off. The burnt orange sun began to set and the typically bustling
San Diego crowd thinned. Xenia wrinkled her nose.

“Something stinks
...  Oh, the elephants.” They walked casually past the mammoth creature’s enclosure.

S
aint laughed and redirected the conversation. “You don’t want to know about the African lions? They are fascinating.”

“Why are we back on this?”
Xenia hissed.

S
aint ignored her and continued on. “For instance, there is always a dominant male.  His job is to guard the pride, and to mate with all the females in the group.”

“That’s his
job
, Saint?” Xenia smirked and gave him a side glance.

“Yes, it
really
is!” He managed to keep a straight face as they continued to walk side by side, passing the polar bear arena. “The males in the pride will fight to the death many times to maintain their position as dominant male in a pride.  When it is all said and done, the strongest male wins. He is usually the biggest of the bunch. That way, the breeding male is more robust than those he defeated in the fight, thus ensuring the strongest genetic traits for their offspring.”

Xenia
began to clap. “Thank you for that spiel about male lion dominance. Now, where can we cop some cotton candy?” She looked around at the snack hubs.

S
aint grabbed her around her waist and lifted her up for a playful kiss along the right side of her neck. Her legs moved back and forth as she struggled in his grip, their laughter echoing throughout.

“S
aint! Stop!” she managed through giggles. “You’re going to make me wake the boys!” She continued to squirm until he finally placed her back down on her feet.

“So, this discussion about offspring is supposed to actually go somewhere
,” he said after they took a few more steps.

“Oh
, is it? Do tell.” Xenia looked at him as she continued to push the stroller. They came toward an area with a steep uphill. Saint gently pushed her out of the way and began to drive the sleeping boys forward, switching sides with her.

“I spoke to a colleague of mine about our situation and about gender selection.”

“You did?”

“Yes. And though I don’t want to interfere with nature, there are some natural things you and I can do to possibly
—and I only say
possibly
, Xenia—encourage the conception of a girl.”

“Really? Do you believe in that stuff? I mean, I’ve heard about it
, but I have no idea if it actually works.”

S
aint shrugged. “Hey, he is an upheld and revered fertility specialist and some of what he shared with me really makes sense. He took a look at my family history and has determined that I’m boy dominant.”

“What does that mean?”

“My family has a predisposition for producing boys. It’s a controversial theory but if you look at my family tree, it makes sense. He believes that some of this is purely biological. Some men tend to produce more than female sperm, or vice versa. Rarely are girls conceived in my family, and I really never thought about it before now. Even on my mother’s side, girls were rare. I have six uncles on my maternal side. From her siblings, she was the only girl. My father—the exact same story. His family in Egypt, again, mainly boys.” He shrugged. “He has five brothers and no sisters. If we just sit back and do nothing, basically, we still have a much higher chance of having another boy, I believe.”

S
aint looked at Xenia and could see the disappointment on her face.

“Well
.” She clasped her hands together and sighed. “That isn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, but I’d still like to try and have another baby. Whatever it is, I just want one more, just like I told you before.” She reached over and traced his jaw with her fingertip. Tenderly, he took her hand in his solid grip and stared into her eyes.

I fall in love with you impossibly more each day, baby
. I want to give you another baby. I want you to be happy...

“That’s good to know
,” he said as they resumed walking. “So, here is what we can do. It’s too late to try for this cycle, but the next one, we will be ready. Now, you told me the other day that you were prepared once again to put your career on hold. However, I know that you worked really hard to get your own show up and running, so help me brainstorm ways we can work as a team.”

Xenia
was quiet for a few moments then stopped walking. Saint followed suit, mirroring her stance. “I’ve given this a lot of thought actually.”

“Yes, I’m listening.”

“You know that small unfinished area in our basement?”

“Yeah, we’ve got some storage boxes back there
—some of my old medical school books, bachelor-pad furniture and some of your stuff from your old place.”

“Yeah, well, what if we turned that into a radio studio, S
aint? I could still take maternity leave, but then, I could do my morning show from home and when I’m off air, preparing for the next show, I can have our daughter, or son, right with me. Look, I know it will be hard but I—”

“I think it’s a bad idea.”

He watched as Xenia’s smile turned into a frown. Her lips curled at the ends, seeming to melt right in front of him.

“You need your
own
space, not some small, cold concrete area, and you hate how it stays chilly in there. I love it down there, but you don’t. It isn’t fair to you. It needs to be nice and inviting. How about we build an addition onto the guest house so that you can have a better environment for your guests, security for the equipment, a separate place to work—but it is still on the premises? Your producer can come here instead. Julie doesn’t live that far, anyway.” He grinned, knowing she’d soon join him. He watched as her frown turned upside down, wider than the previous smile.

“We can work out the logistics later
, though I’m sure you’ve already investigated that as well.”

“Indeed I have!”
She laughed as she continued forward. “Thanks Saint, I hadn’t thought of that—the guest house idea. I think it would be perfect.”

“Okay, good. Now, back to the conception.”

“Do you have to make it sound so clinical?”

S
aint smiled and shrugged. “Sorry, I guess I’m still in my mode from the earlier chat with the specialist. Back to us fuckin’ and goin’ half on a baby…”

“Oh
, shut up!” Xenia cuffed him on the shoulder but she couldn’t stop the laughter.

“Oh? Was that not what you wanted either?”
he teased with a shake of the head. “Anyway, baby, I have a list of things I want you to start incorporating into your diet more, and the same for me. We also are going to time our interludes differently and even the sexual position used when I cum needs to be monitored. All we paid attention to before was making sure we knew when you were ovulating, but now that we’re trying to do a bit more than that, the game plan has changed. We can just try and see what happens. When the time comes, I’ll let you know all the details but for now, we will take care of the dietary issues.”

“Like what?”

Saint’s eyebrows rose. “You won’t like it.”

“No, tell me.”
Xenia smiled.

“Greek yogurt, milk, and
—”

“Ah! Stop right there!”
She grimaced and waved her hand around in the air. “You know I hate milk!”

“I know. But according to Dr. Pula, you need…”

“Can’t I just take Vitamin D?”

“Nope.
You need the real deal. Cottage cheese, eggs…”

“I think I’m going to throw up.”

Saint nudged her. “Hey, it won’t be just you. I have to eat it, too.”

“But you don’t mind milk!”

“True, but I’m not a fan of cottage cheese and some of the other stuff on the list. The whole point is to lower your acidic level and for me to up my female sperm count. Also, both of us will drink peppermint tea—you’ll like that,” he offered, trying to appease her while he continued to see the disgust painted on her face. “The worst part is that you’ll have to make sure I don’t approach you, and vice versa, for about seven days before you ovulate. I need to have a buildup of semen and this will be hard for me. You know I have a problem.”