Just Breathe Read Online Free PDF Page B

interest when Health Life voted to give us the advertising contract last year.’ She reached over her shoulder to grasp her other hand behind her back. ‘He gets a say in the decision about you, though, and he seemed pretty impressed.’
    ‘That was impressed?’
    Lucy shrugged. ‘To be honest, I didn’t think he’d go for you. He tends to favour the straight-out-of-a-fashion-spread type. But if you can win Ethan over, it might sway the rest.’
    Dee swallowed hard. She didn’t come close to the fashion-spread type and she couldn’teven win her mother over. Maybe starving was still an option.

Chapter Four
    Dee hitched her carry-everything basket over her arm, ran down the hill, shoulder-tackled her way through the front door of the yoga school and ran up the stairs calling, ‘Arianne, I’m here!’ She sprinted into the studio, tossing her bag behind the sign-in desk and started stripping off clothes. ‘I’m so sorry I’m late. Are you okay?’
    ‘No problem. No one’s here yet and I’ve had a good day. Only puked five times.’ Arianne and her partner Howard owned the yoga school and lived in the apartment upstairs. She’d been laid low with morning sickness for weeks and Dee hated asking her to cover when the photo shoot ran over time.
    ‘Remind me never to have a baby.’ Dee ran a concerned eye over her friend from across the large, empty room. On better days, Arianne was the image of an Amazon – tall, athletic and incredibly strong in the upper body – and it was awful to see her so washed out and unwell.
    ‘What’s wrong with your face?’ Arianne asked as she pulled a shade over a window to block out the afternoon heat.
    ‘It’s make-up. I didn’t have time to take it off. It feels like a mask.’
    ‘Why is it so thick?’
    ‘Apparently, that’s how much you need to look natural,’ Dee said as she dragged on a pair of black leggings.
    ‘How did it go?’
    ‘They didn’t have a clue about yoga. They kept asking me to look at the camera and smile. Like you can do that with your leg wrapped around your head. Lucy wasn’t there. She just left me in the hands of Sam the Photographer and Sam the Assistant. The Assistant Sam put themake-up on then wanted me to leave my hair out so it would look long and swirly in the photos. I had to explain about a hundred times how hard it is to do twists and turns with your hair all over your face and getting tangled around your arms and legs.’ She rummaged in her bag, found the Polaroid she’d been given. ‘What do you think?’
    Arianne stood next to her and examined the photo. ‘Well, it’s … nice. Your posture’s not exactly correct, looking up at the camera like that, and it doesn’t really look like you with all that make-up. You’d think they’d want to see your freckles. But it’s nice. What’s wrong with your back? It’s all wrong.’
    Dee groaned. ‘I was so nervous, it locked up. I think the make-up makes me look weird. They’ll probably want a real model.’
    ‘When will you know?’
    ‘A couple of days, Lucy said.’ She pulled her ponytail out and shook her head upside down, trying to loosen the cap of hairspray. ‘I half hope they don’t want me. I felt like an idiot posing and smiling and pouting to have my lip gloss touched up. Maybe starving wouldn’t be so bad.’
    Downstairs a door banged and voices wafted up to the studio. Dee refastened her hair, closed her eyes a moment to slow the adrenalin and anxiety that’d been on overdrive all day and pulled out the attendance book. She waved – a farewell to Arianne and a welcome to the first two students as they walked through the door. She hated starting class rushed and stressed and over-coiffed. How was she going to talk them through a relaxation when she couldn’t unclench her teeth? ‘Hey, Vicki. How was Rome?’
    Vicki came to three of Dee’s classes a week. ‘Cold but the coffee was great.’ She lifted a paper bag from under her yoga mat. ‘I brought you