The Donor (The Full Novella) Read Free Page A

light grey pressed shirt.
    “Yeah,” I say, turning back to the tank. “Not everyone can keep seahorses alive.”
    He lets me stare a while longer before he says, “Would you like to sit down?”
    I turn around, slightly self-conscious that I went all gaga over something he probably never thinks twice about. If one died, he could drop another two hundred dollars and get a new one over-nighted without much thought.
    I slip off my backpack and sit down on the couch across from the seahorses. I take off my coat too, and give it to Jonah when he holds out his hand. After he’s placed it next to his, he sits down next to me.
    When neither of us says anything, I say, “I like your house.”
    He rests his hands on his thighs. “Thank you.”
    Then silence again. He smiles. I smile. I adjust the hem of my dress over my knees.
    “So did you bring the paperwork?” he asks.
     
    ***
     
    In the weeks after I sent Gina my picture, my work life went on the same as usual. Eventually, she stopped talking about MyTrueMatch altogether and I started doubting she really sent them my photo.
    I was a little preoccupied by then anyway so I didn’t really care. All of my time was spent on trying to pick up extra hours to help pay for a surgery Dad had to get in order for one of his slipped discs to stop pressing on a nerve. There was also the small matter of gathering enough money for my own doctor’s appointment that was weighing on my mind. The headaches were getting worse. The nosebleeds were getting more frequent. Blurred vision was now added to my list of symptoms.
    Then one day, Gina stopped by my desk.
    “Hey,” she said, stepping into my cubicle.
    I was distracted, looking through my desk drawers for any aspirin bottle that wasn’t empty. I finally found a single pill, slightly covered in lint, at the bottom of my purse. I sighed in relief, took it with cold coffee, and turned toward her.
    “Sorry,” I said. “Hi.”
    “Just wanted to drop this off,” she said, handing over some manila envelopes I was supposed to file away.
    “Oh.” I took them and set them down next to my keyboard. The pounding behind my right eyeball was becoming more like a screwdriver being driven directly into my brain, so the idea of reading anything was enough to make me nauseous.
    “Still getting those headaches, huh?”
    “Yeah.”
    “You get them checked out?”
    I pinched the bridge of my nose and shut my eyes for a second. “Working on it.”
    “Well,” she said, already backing out of my space. “Feel better, okay?”
    For the hell of it, I checked my email once she was gone. I was officially invited to sit at the cool kids’ table.
     
    ***
     
    He takes the papers from me that I produce from my back pack. Then he opens a drawer in the coffee table to retrieve a black folder and a blue ballpoint pen. He crosses one of his legs over the other as he smoothes out the paper I folded in half and places it inside the folder resting on his lap.
    He uncaps the pen. “I just have to ask a few questions.”
    I feel a faint sharp pain in my temple, but it goes away before I give it a second thought. “Okay.”
    “How old are you?”
    I clear my throat. “Eighteen.”
    Jonah looks at the paper I’ve just handed him—a copy of my birth certificate—and marks something off on his own paper.
    “When is your birthday?”
    I think it’s pointless to ask these questions when the proof of my birthday and age are right in front of him, but whatever. “February third.”
    He raises his eyebrows. “That’s soon.”
    My smile feels tight on my face. “Yup.”
    “Do you have a boyfriend?”
    “I wouldn’t be doing this if I did.”
    He smiles to himself before checking off something else.
    “Why do you need to ask me this stuff anyway? You know everything already.”
    He shuts his folder containing his notes so he can look at me. “It’s for legal reasons, in case something should happen and you want to sue me,” he says with an edge of