Grabbing Hold (The Motorcycle Kid #1)

54. Dirty Laundry and Brownie Points

Y'ALL. We did it. WE DID IT! I'd love to be super sentimental right now, but I'm exhausted and all I can say is THANK YOU. Gracias, grazie, merci, danke, 감사합니다, whatever language you speak.

75,000 reads. SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND READS. You guys are absolutely incredible and I can't thank you guys enough for everything you've done for me and for this story. Here's your long-awaited chapter (I'm working, so it's hard to find the time to write :-/)

Hope you enjoy this angsty chapter. Those of you who wanted to see what's been going on with Audrey, here you have it. Some lighter content? Here's a dash and a sprinkle.

TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of past abortion and divorce.

Morning sickness was an absolute pain in the backside.

Well, not the literal backside, of course. But if one more person asked Audrey how she was handling every mother's least favourite part of pregnancy, she was going to stab them in the eye.

With a pencil.

Not to mention, the "pregnant glow" people liked to fantasize about? An even bigger joke. Audrey was a complete mess. Bloated, moody, and incredibly lethargic. Not even the skilled hands of the makeup artists could rescue the bags under her eyes, the exhaustion that filled her face.

It had been a few days since she'd last heard from Derek, who'd been in Misty Vale tending to his daughter. Emma was out of the danger zone, according to the last message he'd sent, and Audrey had breathed a sigh in relief when she realized Derek would be back in Florida sooner rather than later.

That relief had flown out through the window the day after that, when she'd gone to an unscheduled meeting with the head of her modeling agency. As much as she'd tried to keep her pregnancy under wraps, at least until Derek was back, the weekly weigh-in had given her away.

In the last four weeks, she'd gained ten and a half pounds, though she was pretty certain that was a result of her recent fast food binge. She hadn't been coping very well – whenever she thought about the prospect of her career, of her relationship, of telling Derek she was going to have his baby, especially when things were still so uncertain between them, the only thing that seemed to calm her down was junk food. She wasn't sure when it had become an addiction.

The models' assigned fitness watchdog was significantly less than pleased, and Audrey was angry with herself, angry that she'd caved in to her odd cravings despite her determination to avoid raising suspicion within the agency.

Now, Audrey sat across from a woman in the prim, artsy room that housed the private office of Delaney Richardson, the public face - and self-designated human resources manager, so to speak - of the agency.

Delaney was Audrey's official personal manager. A former model herself, the woman was in her forties now, seemingly having outlived her use on the runway.

Audrey had always thought it unfair, how ageist the industry could be. There was an inherent bias against older models, particularly women. And those with children? Practically unheard of.

And it scared Audrey to death.

"Are you listening to me?"

Delaney's agitated voice shook Audrey from her thoughts. She shook her head to clear it, forcing back the urge to run for the toilet as she met eyes with her manager.

"Sorry, I just..."

"You're ten pounds over the limit, Audrey. And you skipped your weigh-in last week. Now I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and chalk this up to pre-wedding binging, but you have to do something about it."