So Violet took a small bite out of the classic bruschetta. And her taste buds exploded. There were basil and tomatoes and perhaps a touch of garlic. It was like an release of summer into her mouth. It was spectacular.
She glanced up at Mark.
‘Good, eh?’ he said, tucking into his lunch.
Violet nodded and tried the olive bruschetta. It was just as good but completely different. Less grassy, more salty. But she couldn’t work out what the taste was.
‘It’s the capers,’ Mark told her.
Violet didn’t care what it was. It was fantastic. She found herself trying to slow down but she couldn’t help but wolf down the food until the plate was empty. Even the lettuce leaves tasted different – peppery. It was all wonderful.
Then she sat back and stared at the empty plate. The guilt had begun. Nothing that tasty could be healthy. No way. She’d just wrecked her diet.
‘What’s the matter?’ asked Mark. ‘Didn’t you like it?’
‘It was fantastic,’ she told him.
‘So why do you look like you’re going to cry?’
She hesitated and then remembered he’d seen her crying and snatching chocolate cake out of his hands. What the hell, she thought.
‘Because I’ve just ruined my diet,’ she told him.
‘Haven’t you been listening?’ he said. ‘This is good stuff. Fresh and full of vitamins and nutritional stuff. It’s healthy. Trust me. How do you think I stay so trim when I eat here all the time?’
She stole a glance at his flat stomach before looking away.
‘Look, I didn’t bring you back here to wreck your diet,’ he told her. ‘Just to show you that food can be delicious. And enjoyable. Italian food isn’t all heavy cheese and pizza, you know.’
Violet didn’t reply. Her mind was racing with thoughts of the new Mark. And with the concept of the healthy but tasty food.
‘What area do your family come from?’ Violet asked, desperate to change the subject.
‘A small village in the hills near Sorrento.’
She couldn’t stop a sigh from escaping her lips. ‘I was hoping to go to Sorrento for my honeymoon. But it’s the wrong time of year.’
‘When do you get married?’
‘New Year’s Eve.’
‘You’re right. You want to go now or in early autumn.’ He smiled. ‘I’m going there in August to stay with the family. There’s always a big crowd during the summer holidays.’
Italy had always been a dream. But they couldn’t go in January. And Sebastian had already decided on the Caribbean. He had booked for them to stay in a bland, massive complex which had everything from watersports to ten restaurants. Sebastian assured her that they didn’t need to leave the resort and see any more of the island, even though Violet would have quite liked to visit the local villages.
‘Couldn’t you change the wedding date to keep your honeymoon?’
Violet shook her head.
‘Shame.’ Mark looked at her. ‘Nonna was right. You do have the saddest eyes I’ve ever seen.’
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Maybe I’m just not happy with myself.’
‘You’re in love. You’re getting married. Doesn’t that make you happy?’
Violet nodded, trying to convince herself. ‘I will be once I’ve lost weight.’
He frowned. ‘So you think that once you’re thin, your life will be perfect?’
‘Of course.’
‘I see.’ His eyes devoured her face once more. ‘But remember, your eyes will be just as blue whether you’re big or small. I just hope they’re not as sad.’
Violet didn’t know what to reply to that so she stayed silent.
They left to go back to the office soon after. Mark wouldn’t accept any money for the food. Nonna chatted away in Italian as they left. Violet smiled and nodded but didn’t understand a word. Except ‘bella’. But she thought that meant beautiful so that couldn’t be right.
Back at the office, Violet sat down at her desk, watching Marco head back into his office. Mark, not Marco, she quickly reminded herself. It must have been the hot sun muddling her.
Once she was home that evening, she went straight for Isabella’s book. Her unexpected lunch with Mark had got her mind churning with all things Italian.
Violet had never finished the first chapter which was all about food. So she let Isabella enlighten her.
‘Food should be healthy and delicious,’ Isabella said. ‘Food should fit into your life. Not be a chore. But it should also give you pizzazz. Energy. Italians love their food and they look marvellous because of it.’
Talk about bigging yourself up. Her mind briefly flitted to Mark’s smooth skin before tearing itself away again.
‘If you get hungry between meals, eat fruit. If you eat fatty rubbish, you will look terrible.’
Violet didn’t need to look at her skin to know how bad she looked.
‘Start with simple fresh foods and you cannot go wrong. Stock your pantry with good quality pasta, olive oil, tomatoes, onions, garlic, lean meat, fish and seafood, and herbs like oregano, basil and parsley. Allow yourself a little parmesan but avoid the mozzarella.’
It all sounded a bit of a hassle. But it might be worth a try. After all, Italian food was fantastic. That smell in the delicatessen at lunchtime had been wondrous.
She got on the internet and downloaded a couple of pasta recipes for future dinners before stumbling across pasta salads as well as rice salads. That would liven up her lunchtime menus.
But Violet realised she had to be careful with portion sizes. She measured out the specified amount of pasta for a typical dinner of 450 calories. And it wasn’t much. The portion sizes she had been giving herself before she had started losing weight would have fed a whole family.
The following day, Violet stocked up at the supermarket once more. But this time, her trolley was stuffed with fruit and vegetables and not so much ready-made stuff. Plus lots of different ingredients for a bit of home cooking.
Once home, she started on a pasta recipe for dinner. It was quite simple, with just a tomato-based sauce but lots of garlic and basil to bring out the flavours. She had forgotten the parmesan cheese for a quick covering but it was still tasty. Violet even felt quite impressed with herself.
The next evening, she cooked Sebastian a recipe for stuffed chicken breast.
‘What’s this?’ he said, swallowing hard.
It was a little dry, admittedly. But Violet didn’t think it was that bad.
‘Chicken stuffed with porcini mushrooms,’ she told him.
‘Where’s the sauce?’
‘The recipe didn’t come with it.’
He made a face and pushed the food around on his plate.
‘Do you want some gravy?’ asked Violet.
‘Only to drown myself in.’
‘I’m trying to be healthy,’ she told him.
‘We’ve got to eat,’ he snapped back. ‘What’s the harm in a chicken kiev? Or a pizza?’
‘They’re both high in calories,’ she said. And fat. And everything else.’
‘I keep telling you to stay the way you are. Just stop all this healthy-eating crap. It’s driving me mad.’
Sebastian loved her as she was. But Violet didn’t. It was a shock to realise that and even admit it to herself but it was true. She wanted to be thin. For herself.
For me, she told herself. Me. It wasn’t a word Violet used very often. But perhaps she should try to get used to it.
Chapter Twenty-six
‘WOW,’ SAID VIOLET to Edward as he sat down. ‘You’ve lost a stone in two weeks.’
They had just experienced another positive Tuesday night weigh-in. Trudie’s lip had curled into a self-satisfied smile, thinking it was all down to her dreadful bars and shakes. Nobody was willing to put her right.
Edward went a bit pink as he reached forward for his cup of tea but he was smiling. ‘Only seven more stone to go,’ he said.
‘Tell us your
magic secret for losing seven pounds a week,’ said Maggie. ‘I only lost three.’
‘What do you mean you only lost three pounds?’ said Lucy, smiling at her mum. ‘I’m really proud of you. You’ve turned it round.’
‘Thanks, love.’
Maggie was secretly overjoyed. The food hadn’t tasted great but it had kept her going longer than the other faddy foods she had tried.
But her biggest challenge wasn’t food. It was the fitness DVD she had bought. It ignited something deep in her. A passion to move her body. It was so hard that Maggie could still barely move to the music but she found she loved it. The music, the energy. She got a little further through the DVD each day. Next week, she was determined to get all the way through it without needing a sit down.
Maggie thought that perhaps she wasn’t getting quite so out of breath when she walked up the stairs. It was a start.
‘Plus I’ve tidied the whole house,’ said Maggie, smiling.
‘It shut that witch Trudie up, didn’t it?’ said Lucy with an evil grin.
‘Yes,’ said Maggie. ‘But I need Edward to tell me his secret so I can figure out what to do next.’
‘First of all, I have the most to lose out of all of us,’ said Edward. ‘So it’s going to come off the quickest. Second, I’ve joined the gym. I’ve been cycling and power walking every day for an hour and a half. I’m knackered but I tell you, I’ve never slept so well as this past week.’
‘Right,’ said Maggie. ‘I need to up my exercise once I’ve finished the spring cleaning.’
She glanced at Kathy but she had been ever so quiet that evening. Even more so than Violet. Unfortunately she was the only one not to lose any weight and had endured another humiliating ticking off from Trudie.
Edward carried on. ‘So I’m just going to keep eating the same stuff and exercising and hopefully it will keep working.’
‘You can tell you’ve already lost weight,’ said Lucy, who was feeling very generous as she had lost another three pounds. That was half a stone already. She was thrilled. Already her skirts and jeans were a little looser around the waist.
‘Thanks,’ said Edward, but he knew it was true. One of the jowls under his chin had begun to recede. But it wasn’t the real difference. That was inside. He could sense his body begin to feel better now that the strain was easing from his vital organs. His pulse wasn’t racing so much.
He also knew that he had a long way to go. But he would get there. He had to.
Kathy noticed how much more Edward was smiling. Plus he’d lost the grey colour he had had a few weeks previously. He was a nice guy and would look really good once he’d lost a few more stones.
Kathy wished she could borrow some of Edward’s drive and determination. She was drawing blanks with her motivation, despite Violet’s positive texts and emails. It was no good. She’d eaten like a pig and the scales had shown it.
‘Are you all right, love?’ asked Maggie. ‘You seem a bit blue.’
‘I’m fine,’ said Kathy, putting on a bright smile.
But her face couldn’t maintain it. Everyone watched in dismay as her smile faded.
‘What is it?’ said Maggie, putting her arm around Kathy.
It was the touch that did it. Kathy was so desperate for any kind of human contact that she burst into tears.
Everyone else exchanged worried glances. Kathy was always so jolly and funny; something dreadful must have happened. Violet went and made a strong cup of tea. Lucy knelt down in front of Kathy and put her hand on her knee. Edward leant forward in his chair but said nothing.
Violet returned with the tea and sat down. Then they waited and listened until Kathy’s sobs gradually subsided.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, eventually.
‘Don’t be stupid,’ said Lucy.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Violet.
‘Tell us, pet,’ said Maggie.
‘You can trust us,’ said Edward.
Kathy took a deep breath to try and steady herself. ‘It’s so hard to admit,’ she started, wringing her hands together. ‘But I’m lonely. My life is so empty.’ And then she had to suppress sobs that threatened to rise up once more.
‘You’ve just moved to the area, is that right?’ asked Maggie.
Kathy nodded.
‘It’s hard when you don’t know many people,’ said Lucy. ‘I’m scared stiff about going to university and trying to make friends all over again.’
‘Trouble was,’ said Kathy. ‘I was lonely before I moved here. My mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s about ten years ago. Dad tried to cope but it was all too much and his heart couldn’t take it. I had to move in with Mum because her mind had deteriorated so much she wouldn’t have been safe by herself.’
‘Better that she didn’t hurt herself,’ said Maggie.
Kathy nodded. ‘But it was so hard, just watching her deteriorate day by day, year on year. She didn’t know who I was by the end. I celebrated Christmas with her but she didn’t have a clue, bless her.’
Kathy wiped away another couple of tears.
‘In the meantime, my social life went down to nothing. I only saw Mum and the doctor. Nobody else. I was so lost when she died that I felt I had to get away. Start afresh. But you’re the only people I’ve met, apart from Mavis in the shop. And she’s old and batty.’
‘Well, you’ve got us now,’ said Maggie, with a firm note in her voice.
‘Yeah,’ said Lucy. ‘Just when you thought your life couldn’t get any more shit!’
Everyone giggled and the tense atmosphere eased.
‘Lucy’s right,’ said Violet. ‘It is hard to make new friends. Look at me, I’ve lived in this town for years and I still hardly know anyone. My size didn’t help. I wasn’t exactly wanting a hectic social life looking like this.’
‘But you’ve already lost a stone,’ Kathy told her.
And it was true. Violet had lost a further four pounds.
‘I know,’ Violet told Kathy. ‘But it doesn’t help all those years I wasted before.’
‘I agree,’ said Edward. ‘I play cricket every weekend during the summer but it’s not as if I can hoof it round a football pitch in the winter. So I used to stay in with a lot of takeaways.’
‘I’m sorry about your mum,’ said Maggie to Kathy.
‘It must have been like being orphaned,’ said Violet, knowing how Kathy would be feeling.
Kathy nodded. ‘It would have been Mum’s birthday a month ago and I just hit a bad patch that I can’t seem to climb out of.’
‘Of course you did,’ said Maggie. ‘You can’t think about dieting and all that when you’re feeling so low. You’re still grieving for your mum. Give yourself a chance, love.’
‘But I do want to lose weight,’ said Kathy.
‘And you will,’ said Violet. ‘After all, if we can do it, so can you. We’re no different. Just try not to worry about it at the minute.’
‘Keeping busy is good,’ said Edward. ‘After my mum lost my father, she never stopped. Joined that many classes, just so she didn’t have time to be lonely. She’s always off to play bridge or learn how to embroider or whatever.’
Kathy nodded. ‘That’s why I joined New You!’ she said. ‘To try and meet people.’
‘And you have,’ said Maggie.
‘If you don’t include Trudie,’ said Lucy with a small giggle. ‘Because she’s not people, she’s an alien from the planet bitch.’
‘Tell you what,’ said Edward. ‘Why don’t you come and watch us play cricket when we’re next at home? We’re rubbish but at least it’ll get you out of the flat.’
‘And I was thinking about doing that ridiculous army fitness thing at the park later this week,’ said Maggie. ‘There was an advert in the local paper. I’ve got to do something to keep busy once I’ve finished tidying the house. Why don’t you join me and stop me looking a total wally all by myself?’
Kathy smiled at them. ‘Thanks, everyone.’ Her mouth trembled as she fou
ght back the tears. ‘You’ve all been so kind.’
‘I think it must be because we’re friends now,’ said Maggie, giving Kathy a quick hug.
And everyone realised it was true.
Chapter Twenty-seven
WORK HAD BECOME manic and Violet had no time to spare. Not that she missed the endless boredom. But now she was almost constantly on the phone.
Deciding she needed a mid-morning coffee to keep her going, Violet offered to get everyone a drink from the machine. It also meant that she could nip to the ladies briefly. She had now decided that the fat wasn’t melting off her. It was pure water. She was needing a toilet break every hour.
While she was standing in front of the vending machine, Violet’s phone rang. She saw who it was and rolled her eyes.
‘Violet? It’s Miriam,’ said Sebastian’s mother.
‘Hello,’ said Violet, her heart thumping. She hoped it wasn’t bad news about Sebastian.
‘Hope you don’t mind me calling you at work but I’ve had the most marvellous idea. Wendy from church had doves when her daughter got married. What do you think?’
‘Doves?’ stammered Violet.
‘When you exit the church, you can have ten doves released into the air. Someone at my Pilates club had the same thing for her daughter and said it was wonderful.’
‘Ten doves,’ repeated Violet in a stunned tone. Good grief.
‘Well, they actually release double that amount but apparently you lose quite a few in the trees and power lines. But it will look super. Everyone will be very impressed.’
Violet was speechless which Miriam unfortunately took as positive.
‘Wonderful! I’ll get it organised. Toodle-oo!’
Violet stared at the phone for a beat before ringing Sebastian. She explained the dove idea to him, whereupon he snorted a laugh.
‘It’s not funny,’ Violet told him. ‘I thought we wanted a nice, simple day. Can’t you have a word with her?’
‘It’s not worth the hassle,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t matter, does it?’
No. It was only their wedding. But who would end up paying for all this rubbish? Violet knew the answer to that question as well.
The Desperate Bride’s Diet Club Page 16
