* * * *
“Good morning, gentlemen,” Mr. Cox said when his receptionist showed Sean and Ken into the office. “Please, have a seat.”
Sean and Ken took the ones they’d used the previous day, as did Cox.
“Have you come to a decision?” Cox asked.
Sean waggled his hand. “We’re still debating whether we can afford the cost. Thirty-thousand is doable, in my opinion. The added twenty-thousand for the second mother.”
“I told you,” Ken broke in waspishly, “with the raise I’m getting it won’t be a problem.”
“If you getthe raise. You said yourself—”
“Steve, Kit, please,” Cox said, holding up his hand to stop them. “I know this is important to both of you. If you’d like, I can make arrangements with the college student and we forget about the other young woman. I only suggested both of them because it would up the odds that you would have daughter, not a son.”