Page 28 of D.I.E.T. (Did I Eat That?)

“Where’s the Jeep?” she asked. “In the shop?”

“Sister, have I got a story for you…” I let us reach her car before launching in. “Sinjin,” I told her.

“The accountability partner—ooh, do tell.”

“Well, he’s sort of more than my accountability partner,” I replied.

“How much more?”

“My boyfriend more.”

“What?” she shrieked, whipping her head around to look at me. She whipped it so fast, I thought she might give herself whiplash.

“Eyes on the road,” I ordered in my big sister tone.

Lu clicked on her blinker to turn into the parking lot of this little bistro that we loved to lunch at on work days because of it being close.

“Brigeeta Diane, when did this happen?” She still shouted, but at least she shouted while paying attention to the other cars.

“I had sort of a bad day the other day. And by sort of, I meanreally. He was there, he took care of me, and I don’t know… He made me a bootcamp-approved picnic dinner and we sat in his truck out by the lake,” I said in my defense.

“A picnic dinner?” she whispered, like this was life-altering stuff I was sharing. I mean, kind of… yeah.

“It gets worse,” I said. “He told me he wanted me to stay at his place for a couple of nights and I agreed. That’s why my truck isn’t in the lot at work.”

My sister parked her death mobile and we climbed out, hurrying to get inside the bistro, out of the cold. Lunch time meant seat yourself. She and I wandered back to one of our favorite tables to sit. The young, cute waiter who kept giving my sistersexeyesfrom across the room joined us right away, taking our drink orders and leaving the menus along with a napkin he’d scribbled his number on for her. I rolled my eyes. This happened quite frequently with Lu. Since she stuffed the napkin in her pocketbook, I felt it safe to assume the stud was going to get his brains spectacularly screwed out within the next couple of days. I waited for him to be out of earshot before continuing.

“He cooked for me again and we had the best sex of my life up to that point and he just sort of laid it out for me.”

“Laid it out?” she asked.

“Yeah, he told me that he’d been waiting for me to clue in and basically because I hadn’t, he took it upon himself to clue me—and Lu, I totally knew that I was his.”

“Hetoldyou?” Leave it to her to get stuck on that one point.

“Yeah, and I’ve been feeling things.” I stopped to let the waiter drop off our drinks, quickly scanning the menu so we could order before he left.

Lu ordered a personal five cheese, mushroom, artichoke and spinach pizza with white sauce and a salad to go with. I ordered the large antipasto salad without any substitutions, deciding to indulge this one time with the feta cheese and the regular vinaigrette that came on it because I’d had what equaled out to several workouts today and only had a protein smoothie this morning for breakfast.

Once the server left, I sipped my lemon water and continued, needing to get this off my chest. “Lu, he showed up to work today as an appointment, but it… well…” This part was hard to get out. My sister leaned in, hanging on my every word. “It started as a massage, but we ended up naked on the table, and Lu, I’ve never felt anything like it. I didn’t know sex could be like that.”

Her mouth hung open.

I carried on. “The last time you and I talked, I said I liked him—we aresofar past like now.”

“You were past like before, Geet. I’m not stupid.”

“No, but apparently I am.”

“Why? Because you fell for a handsome man who sounds completely taken with you and treats you well? Yeah, sister, use your brain,” she deadpanned.

“I’m in love with him, Lu.”

“Did you tell him?”

Aghast, I shot my hand to my chest. “No. Are you crazy? Why would I tell him something as damaging as that?”

She reached over the table to clasp my hand. “Geet, sweetie, he’s not B—” At my gasp, she stopped to take in a breath and finished, “The numbnut-who-shall-not-be-named. I know he hurt you. I hate him for that. But you can’t let that a-hole determine how your relationship with Sinjin goes.”

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