Page 5 of Training Maisy

“Good, well I have to go back to work now. Call me if there is anything, okay? And I’ll see if I can come down there this weekend.”

“Okay, Brittany, talk to you later. Love you,” Maisy said, suddenly missing her friend so much.

“Love you, too, babe,” Brittany replied.

After the call, it took Maisy a while to fall asleep as she lay on her bed just thinking and now questioning her decision to move down to Ashborne. Then she remembered how difficult living in Chicago had been for her after the breakup. Even the smallest things were enough to evoke memories in her that sent her into another bout of depression. Like the time she heard a cab driver yelling in Spanish, and immediately remembered a ride she had with Eric where the cab driver spoke in Spanish nonstop, not caring that they both couldn’t understand a word he was saying. At the time, it had been hilarious. But reminded of it now, it made Maisy feel depressed. It was hard going over her relationship with Eric and attempting to pick out where things had gone wrong, and sometimes she had to wonder if his animosity hadn’t started from the first day. The more she tossed and turned on her bed, the hungrier she got, and soon, she realized that the plate of salad she put together wasn’t doing anything for her. She was about to go fix herself something to eat when she suddenly remembered a time when she had gone to have a midnight snack and found the door to the kitchen locked. Confused, she had jiggled the handle a few times to confirm that it was indeed locked, and after searching for a while and not seeing the key, she went to wake Eric, annoyed at his action.

“Why is the kitchen locked?” she asked him, not caring that she had disturbed his sleep.

“Locked?” he looked confused for a while, then realization dawned on him.

“Oh yeah, I locked it before coming to bed,” he said, as if that explained anything at all.

“Why?”

“Well, because of what’s happening right now,” he replied, sounding slightly miffed that she was disturbing his rest.

“What’s happening now?”

“You, wanting to go and stuff your face with food at two in the morning. I told you, your body metabolism slows down at night, and all the junk you eat just piles up on your hips.”

“I just wanted a small slice of cake,” Maisy said, suddenly feeling ashamed and embarrassed.

“That small slice is why the jeans I bought you just three months ago don’t fit anymore.”

“Those jeans were already tight when you gave them to me,” Maisy replied, in a voice so low it was almost a whisper. The fight had gone out of her as she couldn’t dismiss Eric’s words.

“Yeah, that was a hint. A hint you conveniently ignored. Come on, baby, come to bed. Tomorrow morning, you’ll get to eat breakfast,” Eric said in a surprisingly gentle and almost endearing tone. Maisy climbed into bed, ashamed of herself and her weight. Eric was right; she was indeed getting fat.

Now, remembering that incident, Maisy laid back down in bed and closed her eyes as she willed herself to sleep, ignoring the craving in her stomach that told her to go down to the kitchen and grab the box of chocolate Brittany had told her she had hidden in her bag. Tomorrow, I’ll check out that gym Jesse told me about.

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