Preg-Not

19

"Hi."

"Shanna mentioned you prepared a presentation about project differentiation and demographics. Since Derick is no longer with us, I've been looking for someone to do the introduction of the DC presentation. Do you mind if I take a look at your work and see if you're a good fit?"

"Me?" she squeaked.

"Yes. We will fly you out to DC with the team. We're having a practice run next week. Do you think you can have your stuff prepared and memorized by then?"

"Yes. Of course!"

"Good. Send me your work."

Raelynn sent the email immediately. Her sudden surge of excitement upset her belly. She clapped a hand over her mouth and ran to the bathroom.

A few stalls away, a woman said, "maybe you should stop gobbling down so much, pig." The door closed as they left, so she couldn't find out who it was.

Her vomit came more violently, and tears prickled her eyes. She wasn't crying, but her eyes got teary with frustration. It wasn't fair that she was being treated as public enemy number one.

She rose to shaky knees and rinsed her mouth and face. After pulling some mints from her purse, she composed herself and walked out of the bathroom.

She bumped into someone, and the purse fell. When she heard the clattering of pills, she dropped to her knees to snatch the pink bottle of prenatal vitamins.

"Are you alright?" a man asked.

"Fine. Thanks." She zipped her purse and nearly cried when she couldn't get up by herself.

Seeing her struggle, the man offered her a heavily ringed hand. She accepted it. Embarrassingly, he had to support most of her weight.

"Thank... you."

The man was an older Maksim. He was handsome beside the grey hair, and his eyes were hard from the years of violence they must have witnessed.

The man looked away from her to face Maksim. The urge to throw up surged back.

Did he see the prenatal pills?

"Let's go." Maksim left, still ignorant.

Raelynn exhaled and returned to work. Half an hour later, she got an email that assigned her the introduction role. She dropped everything she was doing and got started. She wanted to do this right. The practice run was in a few days, so she had little time to master the introduction.

She practiced with Tiffany, and even Daniel, who made silly train-related comments like "you're going to blow them away," and her personal favorite, "calm down. You look like a train wreck."

She only saw him once that week, but they exchanged numbers and he sent her encouraging messages here and there.

"You and the boys got this," Tiffany said.

"I got this," Raelynn corrected. "The boys are bums who feed off my energy and food."

She checked her outfit for the tenth time. She wore an oversized jacket, her typical subtly tucked shirt, and two scarves.

"Alright. Let's rock-and-roll!"

And show those assholes what they're dealing with.

The second she entered the building, she was hit in the face with a hellish heat. Repairmen were walking around the lobby as they worked on the heating problem. Most employees didn't seem too bothered. They took off a layer of clothing and went about their day.

Raelynn didn't have that comfort. Her clothes had to stay on, so she fanned herself with a hand and stopped by the cafe to grab a water bottle.

She was burning so hot that her brain was cooking, and her presentation fell apart. Although this was just a practice run, she still didn't want to mess up. She practiced too many times and did too much research. Embarrassing herself in front of people that already thought low of her wasn't an option.

The team met in a large meeting room, and a few executives joined. She didn't dare to check if Maksim was among them, because seeing him would make her burn hotter.

"Let's go through this, everyone. I'll have you out of here in an hour. Raelynn, are you ready?"

She nodded, her throat too dry to produce any words. She walked to the podium and hid behind it. As she logged into the computer, she felt a little shift in her belly.

Not now, guys. Please, not now.

Their kicking would distract her from the presentation. Although she was hiding behind a podium, she would be paranoid that someone would notice the movements under her scarves.

She cleared her throat. While the presentation loaded, she made the error of scanning the crowd. Maksim was certainly in it.

He glared at her, unaware that his sons were waving at him with their little feet.

"Welcome, everyone. I'm Raelynn, and I'm going to dive into the trends... um..." She shook her head. A bead of sweat trailed down her neck, the haziness in her head spread to her eyes, and the words she memorized seemed to be in a different language.

"Raelynn?"

"Yes... I just..." she inhaled and exhaled.

Focus. You've got this. You worked too hard only to fail at this, too.

"...the trends in certain groups that statistically stray from our product differentiation, which is..."

People were staring and judging, the boys were kicking up a storm, and it was so hot in there.

Her overwhelmed body gave up. She dropped. When the world tilted, her last coherent thought was reaching for her belly to protect it.