Management is a Bitch

Chapter 1

Madelyn's point of view

My phone rings and wakes me up this morning. I groan and stretch my arm to take it from the desk next to me. My eyes burn when I look at the screen because of the lighting and see Andrea's name flashing on it.

I roll my eyes, what does she want?

"Hello?" I yawn

"Madelyn! It's your manager on the phone. I want to see you this afternoon, are you available at.. 2pm?"

I try to think clearly, it's already one o'clock, I guess I can manage to see her at two.

"Where do you want to meet?" I ask

"Let's say.... The restaurant next to my house"

"I've never been to it, I'm not even sure where it is"

"I'll send you the address by text message. Don't be late."

My manager hangs up and I stretch myself in my bed before to roll to the window. I pull the curtains and the view of London appears, I love this city.

I pull myself to the bathroom and what I see in front of the mirror frightens, I shouldn't have stayed awake all night watching my favourite TV show Dance Moms on my laptop. Dark circles are present on my face and my hair is just... A horrible mess.
I decide to take a shower with hope the water will somehow arrange my face. The hot water helps to fully wake me up and I quickly go out of the shower to dress myself. I quickly put on a pair of dark blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt. When I check my phone, I notice I received a message from my best friend Michael but don't pay attention to it and only notice the time, if I don't leave my house right now I'll be late.

I rush outside of my small apartment to the subway, I don't bother buying a ticket and jump over the barrels.

While I'm in the metro, I hear people checking the passenger's tickets. I look around me and the train stops at my station and I run outside the fastest as possible, I definitely don't have the time nor the money to pay a bill.

I finally arrive in front of the restaurant and freeze, I push the door and my worries are confirmed by what I see, this is one of the most expensive restaurant in the city and my outfit does not fit at all the dress code.
I bite the inside of my cheek and search Andrea in the restaurant when a waiter stops me:

"Can I do something for you madam?"
I blink quickly and answer unsure of what to say:"Well.. No thank you I'm searching for my friend I..." I spot Andrea "Here she is!" I point at her and rapidly walk to her.

Her eyes move to me and I seat in front of her.

"You could have told me we were having lunch in the most expensive place of the city"

I say while my eyes roam the room, finding multiple reasons why I don't fit at all here.

"Hello Madelyn, how are you?" My manager has the nerve to ask

"Terrible" I answer

"Well, you shouldn't be, as a model I would have expect you to have googled the address of the restaurant to be aware of which outfit is the best for this place. Am I right?"

I don't answer and play with my fork to distract myself from my obnoxious manager

"Anyway," she continues "I found out there is a fashion show in a couple of days and Ralph Lauren need a model, of course I said you were able to model for them and you would be very happy about it, aren't you?"

"So glad" I ironically answer.

A waiter comes in front of us and I look up at him

"Are you ready to order?" He asks

"Yes, I will take the Caesar salad" Andrea says and gives back her menu with the biggest fake smile I've ever seen.

"Well, I will have..." Andrea interrupts me:

"She's not having anything"

The waiter nods and goes away with my menu

"What the hell?" I say maybe a little bit too loud

"If you want to attend to the fashion show which is Thursday, you have to loose a little bit of weight"

I slightly open my mouth, I've lost so much weight the last couple of month she must be kidding me.

"Fuck that, I'm going to MacDonald's"

I walk out of the restaurant and head to the closest Fast-food and order French fries, I'm starving. My phone buzzes and I look at it, I have an other message from Michael.
I click on the button to open it and two messages appear on the screen.

*Hey Mady, I'm at the gym today, want to join?*

*Earth to Madelyn I repeat earth to Madelyn*

I laugh at the last message and type in I'm too tired to do anything, however my sub-conscious reminds me Andrea telling me I have to loose weight and tell Michael I'll join him in half an hour.

I leave the MacDonald's and take the subway to go back to my house take some clothes and then directly to the gym.

...

I push the big door and text Micheal and go directly to the cloakrooms. There's actually nobody today in the gym, no other women are in the cloakrooms. I take off my clothes, keeping only my underwear and put on a sport bra. I actually was about to put on a short but of course someone came in the cloakroom and this person was Michael

"Are you a aware this is the women's cloakroom?" I laugh, Michael doesn't care about anything. He approaches me and hugs me.

"Well," he says "I don't care because I'm gay, even though dating you could be awesome"
"Well" I exaggerate the word, "unfortunately you're gay, so go get a boyfriend"

"Shut up" he laughs.

I put on my shorts which are way too small for me but there's nobody here anyway too pay attention. We exit the cloakroom and enter the gym. I walk in and my heart nearly stops when I see a guy in it who's back is facing me.

I know him, I don't remember his name but I am sure he's a singer from a famous band. I try to think clearly, he doesn't want to have a screaming Fangirl near him, try to act natural Madelyn. I seat on the ground and start stretching while Michael is at the opposite of the room doing cardio leaving only me and this celebrity. I look up the mirror in front of me and this celebrity looks as shocked as me, did he reserved the whole gym for himself and I'm not supposed to be here? Or maybe it's because I look terrible even though I tried to arrange my face this morning... I can't tell and I can't neither figure out if my heart is beating so fast because of stress or sport.

I stare at his muscles flex as he picks up some weight, his t-shirt nearly transparent showing his tattoos and abs. I bit my lip and scrutinise him...

"Holy shit" I mumble

"Excuse me?" He asks.
(Hey :D Sorry the beginning is odd, it's just to settle the story)