Page 13 of Every Inch of You
Chapter Four
VIVIAN
Why wasI so attracted to men who hated refined sugarproducts?
After breakfast,before getting dressed for work, I sang the LeAnn RimesHow Do I Live (Without You)song to my croissants and Danishes as I packed them up to give them to my landlady/neighbor Mrs. Friar. I had to text her before going out to knock on her door, because she never hears when people are at her door. Hard of hearing. Hence, my wholehearted singing in therain.
When I received textual confirmation that she would open the door for me, I left my house. I walked slowly. Stiffly. I was sore. All over. I had tried to stretch in bed before getting up, but I hurt all over, Justin Timberlake kept climbing all over me, and honestly I just didn’t want to. The stiff muscles reminded me of Brad. Despite his cool reception of me, I was sure I could wear him down eventually. We had gotten along so well before everything went wrong. Surely he remembered that part of our historytoo.
Even if he didn’t currently look like every guy that I’d pinned to my secret Pinterest “Hot Guys” board, I would still have been so happy to reconnect with him. If he insisted on continuing to be a stubborn ass about what happened senior year, after all these years, then I would simply let him get it out of hissystem.
“Your rebound relationshipwith carbs is over already?” asked Mrs.Friar.
I had to laugh at that. She knew about my ex’s ban on bad carbs, and had criticized him about it relentlessly. She gave me contraband cookies whenever I went to visit her on myown.
“Yeah. We had a nice fling. I’m starting a workout regimen and eatinghealthier.”
“Oh yeah? You gonna start dating again?” she asked, eyeing my baggy sweats and Snoopysweatshirt.
“Eventually. Probably. Yes.Definitely.”
“Good. Not that no good ex-boyfriend again, Ihope.”
“Nope. This ship hassailed.”
“What shit’s forsale?”
“No, this ship—me—this ship has sailed,” Iyelled.
“Oh. Goodgirl.”
“How about you, Mrs. Friar? You got anyone special? Anyone not so special? Any prospects?” Mrs. Friar was a widow, approximately sixty (give or take five years) and had been single, as far as I knew, for as long as I’d knownher.
“I got two internet boyfriends rightnow.”
“Two?”
“One’s good at sexting and he makes me laugh, but he’s a bad speller. The other’s good at spelling and we both watch the same shows, but he’s veryserious.”
“Oh wow, that sounds…Where do theylive?”
“Funny sexter is in Alaska. Serious good speller is in Atlanta. I have no interest in meeting either of them in person, but you know. It’s nice to have someone to flirtwith.”
“Yeah. It is, isn’tit?”
“Especially when I don’t have to listen tothem.”
“I’ll bet. Sounds like you’ve got it all figuredout.”
“Huh?”
“Have a great day!” I yelled, as I walkedaway.
Mrs. Friar was right. It was good to have someone to flirt with. Now I could flirt with Brad “Mitch” Mitchell. Whether he liked it ornot.
Icould have workedfrom home that day, as I sometimes do, when I don’t have any meetings scheduled. Much of my job as a corporate paralegal involves filling out and updating company files, drafting contracts, creating annual reports, etc. It’s a lot of paperwork, which can be done on my laptop, and my bosses do not require me to put in a set amount of hours at the office. It’s one of the reasons I decided to become a corporate paralegal—good pay/decent hours. But I didn’t want to stay home alone all day, because I knew I would just obsess about Brad until it was time to return to the gym. I wanted to obsess about Brad with my work-friendFrankie.
Just as I was about to step into Frankie’s office, I got a call from my sister. I realized I hadn’t contacted her since my gym appointment, so I signaled to Frankie that I’d be right back and answered thephone.
