"She doesn't want me. She just wants my sperm," Rick complained.
"What did you just say?" Melinda asked.
She was sitting at Professor Payne's desk at the university with papers strewn all around her. As usual, they were on one of their famous ghost hunts. But obviously, Rick had something else on his mind.
"Kate," he said. "She just wants a baby."
"Really?" Melinda asked, because this was the first she had heard of this. Rick didn't usually talk about his wife or their love life.
"Yeah," he said with a heavy sigh. "We can't get pregnant. That's all she thinks about day and night. Having a baby. She made an appointment at the fertility clinic. To have my sperm tested."
"How did that go?" Melinda asked, raising one eye brow.
"Do you really want to hear all the details?" he said with a chuckle. "Well, I went into this little room. I had this little cup. And then I had this not so small orgasm."
Melinda was breathless, staring into his blue eyes. "Ohhh my God," she finally said.
"Well, you did ask."
"Uhhh yeah, I did. Thanks for sharing... ummm... all the wild... and very intimate details. What I meant though was, how did the tests turn out?"
"Just fine," said Rick. "Nothing wrong with my sperm. I have excellent little swimmers."
"Ohhh... okay. So they are gonna test Kate now?"
"They already did. She isn't producing eggs. The doctor at the clinic says it's almost impossible," Rick replied. "But she still wants a baby."
"And you don't?"
Once again, Rick let out a heavy sigh. "I'm selfish," he said. "Maybe I just want my wife to myself."
"Maybe she doesn't have a lot of time. If she has viable eggs, she may have a very small window of opportunity," Melinda spoke. "Maybe you should go with it. It may be your only chance to become parents."
"Maybe," Rick said. "Can we talk about ghosts now? Something normal again?"
"You're the one who brought up your sperm," Melinda pointed out.
Rick leaned over Melinda and smirked. He didn't know what had possessed him to bring up he and Kate's fertility problems in the first place. What had compelled him?
Melinda was his best friend. He shared everything with her. Well, almost everything. There was one thing he could never say - one thing he had to keep to himself above all cost. It was the one thing that could destroy their friendship in an instant. The professor possessed feelings for Melinda he could never express, because in doing so, he could destroy everything.