Shock Read Online Free Page B

an infertility clinic in Bookford, Massachusetts, out beyond Concord. That's what I learned form their website."
    "Why are they willing to pay so much money?" Joanna asked.
    "The website says they have some wealthy clients who are willing to pay for what they consider the best. Apparently these clients want Harvard coeds. It must be something like that sperm bank in California where the donors are all Nobel laureates. It's lunacy from a genetic point of view, but who are we to question?"
    "We're certainly not Nobel laureates," Joanna said. "Technically, we're not even Harvard coeds. What makes you think they'd be interested in you and me?"
    "Why wouldn't they be?" Deborah asked. "I think being grad students qualifies us as Harvard coeds. I can't imagine it's just undergraduates that they're looking for. In fact, the website specifies they're interested in women twenty-five and younger. We just make it under the wire."
    "But it also says we have to be emotionally stable, attractive, not overweight, and athletic. Aren't we stretching reality a bit here?"
    "Hey, I think we're perfect."
    "Athletic?" Joanna questioned with a smile. "Maybe you, but not me. And emotionally stable. That's pushing the envelope, especially in my current state."
    "Well, we can give it a go," Deborah said. "Maybe you're not the most athletically inclined female on campus, but we'll tell them we'll only consider donating as a pair. They have to take both of us. All or nothing. And our SAT scores are appropriate."
    "Are you truly serious about this?" Joanna asked. She eyed her roommate, who could be a tease on occasion.
    "I wasn't at first," Deborah admitted. "But then I got to thinking about it earlier in the evening. I mean, the money is enticing. Can you imagine: forty-five grand apiece! That kind of money could give us some freedom for the first time in our lives even while we write our theses. And now that you have so recently opted out of the economic security of the marital goal, the idea should be even more seductive from your perspective. You need some equity besides your education to maintain your resolve and, frankly to begin planning for the life of a single individual. This kind of money could be the start."
    Joanna tossed the school newspaper onto the coffee table. "Sometimes I can't tell when you are pulling my leg."
    "Hey, I'm not joking. You said you need time and space. This kind of money could provide it and more. Here's the deal: We both go out to this Wingate Clinic, give them a couple of eggs, and collect ninety K. Of that, we take about fifty K and buy a two-bedroom condo in Boston or Cambridge, which we rent out to pay the mortgage."
    "Why would we buy a condo to rent it?" Joanna asked.
    "Let me finish," Deborah said.
    "But wouldn't it be better to just wisely invest the fifty K? Remember: I'm the economist and you're the biologist."
    "You might be getting a Ph.D. in economics, but you're a babe in the woods in relation to being a single female in the twenty-first century. So shut up and listen. We buy the condo to begin establishing some real roots. In the previous generation females looked to marriage for that, but now we have to do it for ourselves. An apartment would be a nice start as well as a good investment."
    "My word!" Joanna exclaimed. "You're way ahead of me."
    "You bet your sweet ass," Deborah said. "And there's more. Here's the best part: We take the other forty K and go to Venice to write our Ph.D. theses."
    "Venice!" Joanna cried. "You're crazy, girl!"
    "Oh yeah?" Deborah asked. "Think about it. When you're talking about having some time and space, what could be better? We'd be in Venice in some nice cozy apartment and Carlton's here doing his residency. We get our theses done and live a little at the same time without the good doctor breathing down your neck."
    Joanna stared ahead with unseeing eyes while her brain conjured up images of Venice. She'd visited the magical city once, but only for a few days, and that