Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 415 -

*Olivia*

"Okay, which of these tops says 'super supportive best friend who can't wait to be an auntie' more?" Dahlia asked while holding up a cream sweater in one hand and a yellow blouse in the other. I was laying on her bed as she prepared for our spa date with Elena. I had been ready well over half an hour ago, but Dahlia was struggling with indecision.

Her excitement to meet Elena was over the top, but I secretly loved it. Although choosing to use a surrogate was mine and Giovani's choice alone, having Dahlia's approval made me feel much better about the whole process. "Um, I kind of don't think she's going to care what you wear," I giggled.

Dahlia looked from the sweater to the blouse and back again, then settled on the sweater. "I guess we'll mostly be in robes anyway," she said.

"Exactly. And besides, it's not you who needs to impress her. It's her who needs to impress you!" I reminded her. And I meant it. Dahlia was a great judge of character, and how she felt about Elena was important to me. "Well, with how sweet you make her sound. I'm starting to feel like she's a damn saint," she muttered.

"Dahlia!" I gasped, "Is that jealousy I hear in your voice?!"

"No!" she exclaimed. "Okay... maybe a little. It's just that you make her sound so amazing and on top of that, she's going to carry your freaking baby, and you know, I start feeling like maybe she's going to end up being your new best friend or something."

I was shocked to hear Dahlia say that. All my life, I had felt like Dahlia was entirely too cool to be my best friend and that I was incredibly lucky that she had picked me. Now she was telling me that she was afraid I'd replace someone else to take her place? Fat chance.

"Dolly, you have to know that absolutely nobody could ever take your place in my life," I said seriously. "Elena might be my baby's surrogate, but at the end of the day, that's all she will be to me. Don't get me wrong, being our surrogate is a huge thing, but it's not the same as someone like you who is going to be there to see all of the baby's milestones. I mean, who else is going to buy the baby's first pair of designer sunglasses?"

Dahlia smiled, her face lightening as I reassured her. "You're right. I guess I forget that there's a lot more to a baby's life than the nine months in the womb."

"Exactly! And even though I think you and Elena and I will get along great, at the end of the day, my relationship with her is literally bound by a contract, so it's a lot different from my friendship with you." Dahlia bounced across the room and wrapped me in her arms. "I love you, Olive!"

I squeezed her back. "I love you too. Seriously, you're going to be the best auntie any baby will ever have."

With her worries subdued, Dahlia quickly finished getting dressed so that we could be on our way to the spa. In the car, she chattered with nervous excitement and had already given me about a hundred different suggestions for baby names by the time we arrived at the spa.

The spa was inside a gorgeous old stone building that reminded me of some of the architecture I'd seen in Venice. Elena was waiting for us just inside the door, and it was up to me to do the introductions. She and Dahlia hit it off immediately, just as I'd known they would.

We decided to start off in the steam room so that we could chat before getting hot stone massages. Inside the humid room, it felt like the perfect cozy atmosphere to get to know each other better.

"So, you both grew up in the States? Tell me what that was like!" Elena said once we were seated.

"It's hard to explain when you don't have much to compare it to, but honestly I loved it," Dahlia said. "I always dreamed of attending a university in Italy, but now that I'm here, I'm so glad I have those American memories. There's nothing quite like American culture. I feel like for me at least, Italy has been all about sophistication, which I absolutely love, but America was all about just having fun."

"That's so interesting," Elena responded. "I could definitely see that. The first time I found out that a lot of university students in America will wear gym clothes to class, I didn't believe it!"

We all laughed at that. Thankfully, Dahlia had told me that Italian students tend to dress a little nicer for class, or else I totally would have stuck out on our first day at the university.

"I've fallen in love with Italy, though," I told Elena. "I don't see myself ever leaving, especially now that I have Giovani. His whole life is here, and I just have my mom back home, so it's an easy decision to just stay here."

"I'm glad to hear that. I would be sad if I had this child for you and you immediately moved across the world! I know that once the baby is born that I won't really see him or her, but I would love it if I could occasionally have visits."

"Of course!" I said, and I meant it. Elena was an incredible person, and I wanted my baby to know the woman who had sacrificed so much so that he or she could be brought into the world. I didn't want her to feel like we were just treating her like an incubator when she was so much more than that to our family. Without her, Giovani and I would never have kids.

"Hell, with how much of a testosterone fest it is over at the compound, it would be nice to have an extra woman around once in a while," Dahlia joked.

"Ugh, I know how that is," Elena said. "I have only male cousins, so growing up it was just constant boy shit. Boys are great and all, but sometimes you just want to paint your nails in peace!"

We all laughed at that, and I wondered if the baby would be a boy or a girl. I knew we would be overjoyed to have either. Just having a healthy baby at all would be a miracle after everything we'd been through.

"Shall we head to our massages?" Dahlia asked.

I checked the time and was shocked to see that we'd already been in the steam room for a half hour. The conversation had flowed so freely that I hadn't even noticed the time passing.

"Oh, I can't wait!" I exclaimed. "These hormones have been really doing a number on me. It's so weird. I was expecting to be all weepy and emotional, but instead, I've just been kind of sore."

"Well, being sore is better than crying, I think," Elena said.

"True!" Dahlia threw over her shoulder.

We walked from the steam room to the massage room, and I gasped when the door was opened. The room was on the top floor of the building and had floor-to-ceiling tinted windows so that we could see the sky and the city, but others couldn't see in. There were three massage tables lined up and fluttery flute music played softly from a speaker in the corner. Our masseuses were busy heating the stones that they would soon be lying on our backs, but when they saw us enter they stood to greet us.

"Welcome!" One woman stepped forward. "Today we will be doing a hot stone massage. I was also informed that a man named Giovani called and gifted the three of you with an extra thirty minutes of deep tissue massage. We will begin with the deep tissue and then move on to the hot stone."

"Oh my, tell Giovani 'thank you' from me!" Elena turned to me, looking shocked. I wondered if she'd ever had someone in her life who spoiled her the way Gio spoiled me.

"Don't worry, I will," I smiled. I was proud to have such a thoughtful and caring husband.

"We will step out so that you can take off your robes and get situated under the towels. Please lay face down and cover yourselves however you are comfortable. We will be back in about ten minutes."

We all giggled awkwardly at having to disrobe in front of each other. Dahlia and I had seen each other naked thousands of times, but Elena barely knew us. I supposed that the nature of our relationship warranted getting comfortable with each other's bodies pretty quickly.

After a quick discussion to figure out who was going on which massage table, we were all lying face down and ready for our massage treatments. The gentle flute music was lovely to my ears and for a moment, I was afraid I would nod off before the massage even began.

The masseuses came back into the room and started up. We stayed mostly silent through the massages, just enjoying the relaxation of having a professional work on our muscles. By the end of it, I had forgotten all about the soreness that I had been complaining about since starting the hormone treatments, which I suspected had been Giovani's goal when he decided to gift us with an extra thirty minutes.

When the masseuses left us so that we could put our robes back on, we all were sighing with contentment and the afterglow of a great massage. Next up on our agenda was pedicures.

We spent what seemed like forever laughing and talking about which nail polish colors we were going to choose, finally deciding on a deep red for Dahlia, a light blue for Elena, and a soft pink for myself. As we got our pedicures, we got back to chatting about our lives and memories, and I smiled when I realized that it was starting to feel like Elena had been our friend for a very long time. She fit in so well with Dahlia and me that I couldn't help but think that it was fate that had brought her to be my surrogate.

After our pedicures were finished, we didn't want to stop the day, so we decided to all go out to lunch together. Elena had taken a taxi to get to the spa, so she rode with Dahlia and me to the restaurant for lunch. I could tell she was in awe of the fact that we regularly used a car with a professional driver, and I let her know that she was welcome to call us any time she needed a ride.

The day had gone so perfectly. I was totally put at ease about my relationship with Elena. In spite of what I had said to Dahlia about our relationship needing to stay professional, it was becoming obvious that we were going to be great friends.