by Kami Larke
Dropping her purse on the counter, she opened the fridge and almost grabbed a soda.
“No, I have to start this right. If I’m going to get the weight off, I have to start now.” Reluctantly, she closed the fridge door and got a glass down from the cabinet. Using the dispenser in the door, she fixed a glass of ice water and sat at the bar.
Pulling the stapled sheets Rob had given her out of her purse, she started reading over them. She was somewhat surprised to find most of the foods he wanted her to eat were things she liked anyway. Broccoli, asparagus, apples, carrots, cashews, almonds, chicken, and fish. The list went on, but she found very few foods she objected to. She gagged a little at the cottage cheese, making up her mind right then to never purchase the stuff. She knew it was healthy, but she could never get past the texture.
A delicate shudder passed over her, and she flipped the page. Menu plan. Hmm, this could be interesting, she thought as she sipped her water. Three meals a day and two to three snacks? How was eating that much food supposed to help her lose weight? Shaking her head, she kept reading. There wasn’t much more information there.
Deciding more research was needed, she made her way to her office. It was designed by the architects as a second bedroom, but as she had no children other than her dog, Peanut, she didn’t see the need for a second bedroom. No one in her family would ever need to stay the night, they all lived in the same city after all. If someone did visit from out of town, they normally stayed with her parents in their ranch-style home.
The cool and quiet of her office seemed to welcome her. She smiled as she spotted Peanut curled up on her desk chair.
“Peanut,” she called. The terrier mix’s head came up and with a small yip, she jumped off the chair into Abby’s arms. After a few moments of snuggles with the dog, Abby put her down, intent on doing more research on the meal plan Rob had given her.
An hour and neck cramp later, she had more than enough information to conclude the man actually did know what he was talking about. Sighing, she pushed away from the desk and headed back to the kitchen. Nothing she had met the requirements he had laid out for her. Interestingly, he didn’t want her to immediately cut down to 1200 calories a day. Instead, he wanted her to keep a food journal of what she ate in an average day and cut the calories by a third. Eventually, she would get to where she would know she had eaten enough without having to have a plan for it.
Reading about it had made it make more sense to her. If she immediately cut from 2500 calories to 1200, her body could think it was starving and would slow her metabolism, thinking food had become scarce. By slowly cutting back on calories and carbs, she could lose weight without feeling hungry and without her body switching to starvation mode.
Taking the note pad off the fridge, she flipped open the pamphlet to the approved food list and started making her shopping list. She stopped when she had filled the page.
“Well, girl, looks like momma’s going on a diet. Wish me luck!” Peanut whined at her, wagging her tail. Abby chuckled. “Do you gotta go out?” The dog’s answering bark was all Abby needed to hear. They went through their routine of snapping on the leash before Abby let them out of the apartment.
Abby looked at the dog and then at the elevator. She glanced to the side where the beautifully crafted circular staircase lay. Making up her mind quickly, she moved toward the stairs, tugging the leash when Peanut didn’t immediately follow.
“Come on, we’re taking the stairs.” Peanut cocked her head at her, then obediently started down the stairs with her. Abby figured if the going got too bad, she could always take the elevator from whatever floor to the ground floor.
Emerging into the dim sunlight, she strolled along the avenue with Peanut, waving to people she recognized. The doggie park was on the corner, and she intended to take Peanut there so she could be let off the leash to enjoy herself.
Deciding now was a prime time to call her doctor, Abby pulled her phone out and punched the number for his office. The nurse she was transferred to confirmed they had received paperwork from Crissy, and it was already on its way back to Rob. Thanking the woman, Abby hung up and pocketed her phone.
After about half an hour, Peanut had played herself out with the other dogs in the park and was standing at the gate, signaling to Abby she was ready to go home. The walk home was quick, as Abby tried to avoid the fat raindrops starting to splatter the sidewalk as they got close to the apartment building. Abby was laughing as Peanut shook herself in the lobby, sending droplets flying everywhere.
“I’m so sorry, Charles,” she apologized to the door man who hurried over with a towel.
“It’s all right, Miss Abby. I knew when I saw you leave you might get wet coming back. I had the towel all ready for her.”
“You’re too good, Charles, thank you.” Abby smiled at the man, making a note to tell the building supervisor how helpful and thoughtful the man was.
“Do you think the rain will last long?” she asked, looking out at the street that was now barely visible through the downpour.
“Oh, no. When it comes down hard like this, it rains itself out fast. You’ll see.” The older man nodded his head sagely.
“Wonderful. I need to go grocery shopping in a little bit and didn’t want to go out in the rain.”
Charles nodded his head at her as she made her way to the elevator bank. “You have a good afternoon, Miss Abby.” She waved as she stepped behind the doors.
The ding startled her as she reached her floor, and she stepped off the elevator, almost excited to get started on her shopping and this new phase in her life.
Standing in front of her fridge, she looked at the items she had bought and the ones to be thrown away. She hated to waste good food, but didn’t feel right giving open packages of food to a food bank. Her friends, however, were a different story.
Quickly, she dialed up Crissy and Jade, inviting them to come over and clean out her pantry so she could stock it and her fridge with the new, healthy foods she had been urged to buy.
“I’ll bring dinner, we can make a girls’ night of it,” Crissy offered.
“Well, just make sure it’s something healthy,” Abby said.
“No problem.”
“What about the food I need to get out of my fridge?” Abby asked.
“We can send that home with our menfolk,” Crissy said cheerily. Abby laughed and shook her head.
“It’s a plan then. See you in, say, half an hour?”
Crissy hung up and Abby repeated the conversation with Jade, only telling her that Crissy was bringing dinner. The other woman agreed it sounded like a great plan.
“Hear that, Peanut? We’re going to have company.” The dog cocked its head to the side, as if trying to understand what was being said. Abby laughed and started to put the cold goods into cooler bags for Crissy’s husband and Jade’s boyfriend. Once she had everything out of the fridge and pantry, she set about stocking the shelves with the new foods. She wasn’t sure about this new diet, but she was going to give it her all.
As she finished, the hall phone rang sharply. Charles was calling to let her know that both Crissy and Jade had arrived.
“Excellent. Have you picked up the cart yet?”
“No, miss. Do you need me to?”
She declined, explaining she was going to use it one more time that night. Abby opened her apartment door and brought the cart inside, loading it up with the outgoing food. By the time she was done, Crissy, Jade, and both their men were at the door.
Abby greeted them all with a wide smile. “Okay, guys, here ya go. Have fun divvying it all up between you.” She pushed the cart out into the hall, then addressed her friends.
“Come on in, ladies, you are just in time to help me put the new food away.” She waved bye to the men as she pulled the girls in to her.
Crissy moved past her to the kitchen island. “So, what sparked all this?”
“You did,” Abby reminded her. “You and your worrying that one guy
is more than just a random weird fan and that he posed an actual threat to me.”
“I think he does, Abby. I really do,” Crissy said as she started opening bags and setting food out.
Abby shook her head. “Okay, but I think you are overreacting. A lot.”
Jade shook her head. “I’m on Crissy’s side on this. I think you need to take some self-defense courses. And it wouldn’t hurt to lose weight. I know I’ve listened to you gripe about not being able to find a suitable dress for all those author events you go to because of your size. Now is the time. Do it.”
Abby barely listened as she looked at the food Crissy was laying out for them. None of it, except the grilled chicken, was on her new approved foods list. She moved to the cupboard and pulled out a bowl and started making a salad from the groceries she had brought home.
“What, is Italian suddenly not good enough for you?” Crissy asked, shocked that Abby was turning down her favorite food.
“Not good for me,” Abby corrected. She gestured with her knife to the list on the fridge. “There’s the list of what I can eat for the time being. About the only thing you brought that is on there, is the grilled chicken.”
Jade’s eyes grew comically large as the other two women turned to look at the grilled chicken, only to catch her in the act of downing a piece of it. “It tastes great!” she said brightly before the three of them started laughing.
“So, spill,” Crissy said, as soon as everyone had fixed a plate and moved to the living room to relax.
“Spill about what?” Abby asked as she sipped her wine.
“The guy at the gym. I’m dying to hear. Jade over there has been the cat that swallowed the canary about having seen the two of you together. I need details, woman.”
Abby glared at Jade who laughed at her. “He’s tall.”
“How tall?”
“Taller than me.”
Crissy’s eyes opened wide. “Well, that’s saying a lot. What else? Eye color? Hair? Does he have all his teeth? Is he married?”
“Jesus, Crissy, I went for an intake interview with a personal trainer, not to interview him for some matchmaker show.” Abby rolled her eyes as she stabbed another piece of cucumber with her fork.
Crissy looked at Jade. “Jade,” she pleaded.
Jade choked slightly on her pasta. After a hasty sip of wine, she looked at Abby and gave her a half grin. “You know if we don’t tell her, she will just keep pestering us all night, right?”
“Fine, tell her.” Abby groused. She wasn’t sure how much of her discontent was due to her food or her friends’ good-natured teasing her. She rarely ever showed any interest in a man, declaring that he would have to be taller than her and strong enough to carry her. Having yet to meet such a specimen of Greek God proportions, she was still single. Not that she didn’t date, she just didn’t see herself settling. She got quite enough companionship from her books.
“He’s a giant. At least 6’1”, blond hair, grey eyes, framed with laugh lines. I think he’s into her, if the way he was staring at her like she’s a steak and he’s a starving man is anything to go by. I think he may have a thing for tall lovers too.”
Crissy and Jade knew better than to laugh about this. They both were only 5’5”, and knew how sensitive Abby was about her height. She was a little taller than average at 5’8”, and kept insisting her ideal man would be tall enough she could wear 4-inch heels and not tower over him. At 6’1”, Rob just made the cut.
“So, when do you see him again?” Crissy asked.
“Tomorrow,” Abby groaned. “And you know how busy that is supposed to be.”
“Well, don’t stay up too late doing tonight what you are supposed to do tomorrow. I can probably get you some leeway on some of your deadlines.” Crissy assured her.
“I’d appreciate it,” Abby said warmly as she rose to put her plate in the kitchen. Crissy and Jade followed close on her heels.
“Do you want company tomorrow?” Jade asked.
“No, I’m a big girl. I can do this on my own. My doctor’s office said they would send over the release right away. Apparently, he’s more eager than I am to see me start exercising.” Abby made a rueful face.
“Do you know what you will be doing tomorrow?” Crissy asked.
“I think we are supposed to start the self-defense training. He’s got me coming in to a class he leads.”
They made short work of the dishes, and Abby bid her friends goodnight before she locked the door behind them and retreated to her office to work on her latest book.
Chapter 4 ~ abby
Deciding to change into more comfortable clothing, she detoured briefly to her bedroom to change out of her jeans. Selecting her favorite sleep pants and roomy T-shirt, she padded barefoot into the office, absently twisting her hair up into a bun as she went. Peanut hopped off the couch and followed her, only to curl up in the doggie bed she had in a corner of the room.
Flicking on her laptop, Abby rotated her head, stretching her neck as she focused on the book she was writing. Bron Tucker had been a best seller for her for four books now, and she was itching to see what the superspy was going to get up to in his latest book. Some of her fans would be stunned to find that most of the time, she didn’t know what was going to happen next and was just as surprised as they were at the plot twists he threw at her.
Maps of Morocco and Egypt flooded her writing program, as did diagrams of the subway for New York and DC. She found herself drawn into the history of each place, making notes of modern changes, political climate, and happenings in each place. She didn’t want to have someone read through her book and find she had the wrong person named as Prime Minister or spelled one of the tricky names in Arabic incorrectly.
Her fans were quite loyal to her. She never used her real name, choosing to write under K. L. Boyd, but still some people figured out what her name was. Crissy was concerned about one particular fan, Derek Hood, who had managed to find out her home address. Most of her fan mail was directed to either her agent or to a PO Box. How Derek had managed to find out this information was beyond Abby. He was the reason Abby was enrolled in self-defense now. He had been sending more aggressive and disturbingly possessive letters to her, escalating to hand delivering them to her apartment building.
Abby pushed him from her mind, refusing to give in to the paranoia that consumed Crissy. Her mind turned instead to the new, disturbing man in her life, Rob Edwards. Her fingers tapped at the keyboard, almost without her realizing it, looking him up on social media. Her eyes widened in shock at the search results. He was a champion MMA fighter, semiretired. He had more money than he could shake a stick at, and he had opened the gym in the part of town necessary to reach at risk youth and give them a positive outlet for their anger and fear. He had managed to get a couple of guys contracts as MMA prizefighters and had several more who were competing for either MMA or boxing titles.
She read further, interested in his background. There was no way a man that sexy was single. A search of a MMA site yielded what she was looking for. She felt her heart stop as she read the article. He had been in a fatal car accident three years ago, which had killed his wife of ten years and their unborn child. The driver of the other car was serving time now for vehicular manslaughter because he was driving under the influence.
Abby sat back in her chair. She hadn’t expected that. Talk about a plot twist. She blinked, thinking about what she had found out. He gave no indication he had suffered such a devastating loss. She clicked on a link on his profile, and opened a page dedicated to helping people beat addictions. Another link showed the kids he worked with and competitions he helped them train for. Many of them were winning or at least placing in their categories.
She started to feel a little better about having him for her personal trainer and as someone teaching her self-defense. She supposed Crissy was right, she really did need to learn it. Not every state would allow her to have her handgun, and even in the ones that did, not all of them
honored her concealed carry permit. Crissy argued it was better to be the weapon than have to carry one.
Glancing at the clock, Abby was shocked to see it was after midnight. Stretching her arms above her head, she let out a yawn as her back popped. Saving her work, she shut the computer down and headed to bed.
Chapter 5 ~ rob
Rob drummed his fingers impatiently on the desk. Not for the first time, Helen swatted at the offending digits, silently telling him he was getting on her nerves.
“She’ll be here,” Helen reassured him for the tenth time in less than twenty minutes.
“She isn’t all that sold on the idea of taking self-defense,” he answered absently. “Are you sure we got the form from the doctor saying she was cleared to exercise?”
Helen rolled her eyes. “Yes, for the fifty-millionth time. It’s in her file now. Geesh. You are worse than a girl waiting for her prom date to show up.”
Rob shot her a sarcastic look just as the door opened, the bell jingling. Quickly, he glanced over, his body relaxing as he realized it was Abby stepping into the gym. She removed her sunglasses before she headed to the desk where he waited for her.
“You’re late,” he said shortly. Abby’s brows rose at his sharp tone.
“Sorry, I would have called but I didn’t have your number,” she replied mildly.
Rob grunted, realizing he needed to chill out. “If you want to get changed, you can meet me back here.”
Abby nodded and headed to the locker room.
Helen started laughing as soon as the door closed behind Abby. “Way to play it cool, boss.”
“Shaddup,” he told her absently. A few minutes later, Abby emerged, dressed in a loose T-shirt and yoga pants.
“Will this do?” she asked, holding her arms out for his inspection.
