Page 103 of Bodybuilders for the BBW

I had a brief conversation with Sylvia, then let the patient know what was happening before joining Helen in the breakroom.

“So a girlfriend, huh?” She unpacked her thermos and poured the contents in two bowls. I’d given up protesting that she shouldn’t make me food. It was always important in my family, a way to bring people together, show affection, and Helen was the same. “Is this serious?” Helen shook her head. “No, you’ve only just started seeing her.”

“I think it is serious.” She pushed my bowl towards me and handed me a spoon, and for a second, I just breathed the savoury scent in, only to find Helen sitting opposite me, waiting expectantly. “I mean…” How the hell did I explain this? Usually I was wary, taking a while to warm up to people, deciding whether or not they were worth investing in, but Katie? “Sometimes you just know, y’know?”

Helen snorted at my clumsy wording, then shook her head, her spoon dropping into the soup.

“That right there is the dulcet sound of a man in love.” She had a mouthful, then considered what she was saying. “Or infatuated. How did you meet this girl?”

“At the dog shelter.”

I couldn’t help but smile, remembering the way Katie looked that first day.

“How am I only hearing about this now?” Helen nodded to my bowl. “Eat up and then spill the tea. That’s what kids say today, right?”

That had me laughing, but it was clear she would not be dissuaded.

“Right. So I went into the shelter wanting to adopt a cat…”

“Damn, how the hell does that work?” Helen was hung up on our unusual relationship dynamic. “Like, what’s in it for Katie? I mean, I get you three think access to your pee-pees is reward enough, but she’s signing herself up for a life of never having the toilet seat down.”

“Excuse me. My mother made sure all us boys learned to put the seat down. The lid as well.” I shook my head. “I’ll put electric dog collars on the other guys’ necks and zap them every time they leave it up, if that’s what it takes.”

“Shit, you do have it bad.” Helen seemed inordinately amused by this. “So what’s the plan? Woo her on Tuesday, have her moved in by Thursday? I mean, you adopted her favourite dog.”

“I didn’t adopt Bronson just to impress a girl,” I replied.

But that was at least part of it. Some part of me wanted to see Katie smile, and she did the minute I said I’d take him. The scars, the mistreatment, each was enough to tug at my heartstrings, but her… I shook my head and couldn’t keep the smile off my face, something that had Helen crowing.

“But you want to. Damn, I’ve never seen you this messed up over a girl. Well, not since that Natasha girl.” I frowned slightly, not really wanting to talk about her in the same sentence as Katie. “OK, so what’s your next move, loverboy?”

I looked down at my phone and saw a new message had popped up, and it felt like my breath seized in my chest when I saw it came from Katie.

“Meeting her parents.” I swallowed hard, my mind already racing, trying to work out the best way to deal with that situation. “Try not to fuck things up.”

“That’s a motto that will get you through most days,” Helen said, moving to collect up our bowls, but I got there first. “Every day you wake up, pledge to find a way to do that and you’ll be fine.”

I carried that piece of advice with me until the end of my shift, then thought upon it as I drove home. It got tossed aside when I pulled up out the front of our place and saw a familiar car. Not Rhett’s, not Rhys’, but hers.

Opening the door I was hit by the familiar scents. The sandalwood candles I set up in the lounge room, the faint stink of dog, and then something much more savoury greeted me as I walked down the hallway.

“Stop…”

Katie said that with a giggle, not really meaning it as Rhys crowded in. He was trying to ‘help,’ his arms around hers, his hands taking over cutting the vegetables on the chopping board. “I need to do this right. Garrett?—”

“Is here.”

Rhys looked up as Bronson came skittering down the hall. How the hell had I thought cat would suit us? I knew they could be affectionate, but would they whine happily while dancing around and around in circles, eyes shining with love?

“Hey, fella!”

I picked him up, the dog letting out a grunt and then licking the side of my face enthusiastically as I moved closer.

“You’re home early!” Katie protested. “We were trying to get dinner on the table before you got home.”

“You didn’t need to do that.”

And she didn’t. The fact she’d thought about me, planned something, and worked with Rhys to put it together was the exact way I wanted to end this day, so I gave Bronson a scratch and then set him down. The dog didn’t know who to look to as I leaned forward and kissed Katie. The way the knife clattered on the chopping board and she turned and fell into my arms was all I really wanted.

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