Surrogate in Love - Richard Madden

chapter 3: The Mystery Girl

* Richard's P.O.V *

Taron and I were in the middle of discussing who should post what announcing the movie we were working on's date when Jess' door opened and slammed shut. I noticed Jess put her hand behind her head and rub her neck slightly when I heard the girl's voice. It was the kind of voice you expect to be reading poetry. Although what she said didn't justify that.

"Jessica one of your children is kicking my bladder like it's a football if I piss myself it's your fault!" I laughed slightly even though the sentence didn't make sense until I saw her. How could jess' child kick her like that when she could just put them down. When I saw her I realised what she meant the woman looked to be heavily pregnant and putting two and two together I guessed she was probably the surrogate that Taron had mentioned in passing one time in the trailers. While she wasn't particularly dressed up she was stunning. She had on a pair of loose around the leg but tight around the bottom of her bump, grey joggers, she had a tank top on the top that was slightly too small and left a small strip of her stomach showing and left nothing to the imagination around the cleavage. She had no makeup on and her hair, which was a chocolate brown color that made her blue eyes seem bright as day, up in a bun on the top of her head. I know people say that pregnant women glow but she was glowing. I recognised her as a memory deep down had been unlocked but I couldn't place her face for the life of me.

It was clear she was confused so Jess introduced us to her and when Taron and I had gone back to sitting down Iris and Jess went to the fridge to talk. Whilst I was trying to listen to the things Taron was saying I was trying to hear what the beautiful mystery girl was also saying. All I knew was that her name was Iris and it was running through my head again and again. I must have zoned out because Taron threw a pen at me and it hit me square in the forehead. He looked at me with a smirk on his face as though he had read my mind and could tell that I was majorly attracted to Iris. He laughed slightly and looked down to carry on his work when Iris spoke again.
"Right I will be back in two seconds your children are trying to cause an embarrassing situation for me" she quickly, well as quick as she could with her slight waddle, left the room and Jess turned back to give us her undivided attention whilst Iris was out of the room. Children? So there was more than one?

"I'm so sorry guys! I know this is a business meeting but she comes at this time every day and I lost track of time. I wanted you guys to meet properly after I had explained everything. Ris hates when people meet her at the moment because she doesn't want people to think she got knocked up by a random man. She's become self-conscious ever since she found out it was twins an-" I cut her off before she could continue to ramble.
"Hey, it's okay no need to worry this is your house anyway, and I'm sure Iris won't do anything to jeopardize our work since you haven't made us stop working. She seems lovely, bizarrely I think I recognise her." I finished without even realizing it. I didn't mean to announce that I kind of think I know her. I know how weird that sounds.

"Maybe you have read her book. She wrote a book a few years ago that went viral called 'passing on life' maybe you read it." Jess replied and as soon as she said it I almost screamed. I knew that book I had read it and had read all of her books since. I had even taken my sister with me to one of her book signings as they were both big fans.

"Of course Iris Hassall! I've read her books she writes some amazing things" both Jess and Taron laughed at that. I guess it seemed a little like I was fangirling for the beautiful writer I had just met. Just as they finished Iris waddled back in but had added a dressing gown to her attire. She was beautiful even while carrying twins. She came towards the table that we were all sat at and since the two seats on the opposite side were taken she slowly lowered herself onto the seat right next to me. She used the back of my chair to steady herself and at that moment I felt a pang of guilt for not trying to help her sit down. There was a moment of silence before Taron started to ask Iris about her pregnancy.
"So Iris, how far along are you?" He asked and to be honest I was curious to know the answer so turned my head slightly to look at her. I loved how her eyes flicked from Taron to me and then to the bump.
"I'm only 6 months along" she huffed, slightly out of breath it seemed " still got 3 months left with these 2 inside of me" she had such a beautiful voice, and while she sounded kind of down when she said she still had a while left she still smiled whilst staring at her friend. It was clear she was happy to do such a thing for her friend. I wanted to say something to her but I panicked and the first thing that came out of my mouth, in my opinion, made me sound dumb.

"I admire your work, I have read all of your books and I would dare to say you are my favourite modern author" her face lit up more than I had ever seen. It was different like she was genuinely excited to hear someone compliment her work.
"Are you serious! You have read my work! I just googled you whilst I was in the bathroom because I recognised you and I realised it's because I loved you in Game of Thrones. I never would have thought you had read my silly old books" she spoke in a way I had never heard. She seemed so ecstatic to have someone compliment her work. It was a different way than she spoke about her being pregnant. We spoke for a couple of hours between work about the things she had written and was working on and the things I had been in before she was almost falling asleep at the sofa we had moved to. She decided that she was ready to go home before it got too late, declining the offer of a taxi because she said her house was 4 houses down and then made her way out. Before she left we swapped numbers and she embraced me in a slightly awkward side hug due to her expanding stomach.
"Thank you" she whispered in my ear. I was confused about what she was thanking me for I hadn't done anything for her other than talk of her work highly.
"For what?" I whispered back.
"You didn't just constantly stare at my bump and ask about the babies. As lovely as that is, they aren't mine so I feel like I'm just a rent-a-baby carrier" she laughed quietly.
I realised at that moment that what she was doing, while it was a beautifully generous thing to do it must be quite a hard and isolating thing. At that moment I silently promised her to never just treat her as jess' surrogate