Page 31 of D.I.E.T. (Did I Eat That?)

“Okay, I’ll make it happen. But first I need a wedding jumpsuit thingy.”

Sinjin and I walked to the garage where he kept his truck. Yesterday, he surprised me by moving my Jeep into the spot where his convertible had sat. Sinjin had his convertible taken to a storage site. He paid for a garage there to keep it in so that I could have my Jeep inside the garage here. I told him it was too much, that he didn’t need to pay to park his car when he owned a perfectly fine garage, but he just kissed me instead of responding. And I couldn’t lie; I could get used to having a garage to park in.

He drove us to the bridal shop off Monroe. There, I showed the consultant the photo that Kami had printed out and sent along with the itinerary. We could get whatever color we wanted, so long as it was the style. But Meredith had already bought navy blue. This particular garment came in navy blue, black, red, yellow and hunter green.

“What color should I choose?” I asked both the consultant and Sinjin. “I don’t want to be matchers with Meredith.”

“Well, it is on Valentine’s Day. Maybe you should try the red,” Sinjin replied.

“The red, yes,” the consultant said. “You have a very good eye for color. It will look fabulous with her hair and skin tone.” She continued to gush, and okay, enough, lady. We needed it. Sale guaranteed.

I had her start me with a twelve. But when I put it on, I swam in it. “How is this possible?” I asked Sinjin. “I ordered a size down from what I would’ve normally worn.”

“Geet, baby, bootcamp. You’ve lost more and toned more than you thought you did.” I couldn’t have lost that much. I looked in the mirror and all I saw was the same old Geet.

Well, it turned out I saw myself through dysmorphic eyes. I didn’t buy a twelve, or even a ten, for this wedding only, I left with a jumpsuit for the low, low size of eight. Yeah. As unbelievable as that sounded, I bought an eight. I didn’t remember ever buying an eight in anything, aside from my shoes. Speaking of shoes, Sinjin helped me pick out a sexy pair of red stilettos to go with the jumpsuit because he said if I was going to wear that ‘sexy little number,’ as he called it, that I had to have the sexiest pair of shoes in the store to go with it.

“Plus,” he said. “The heels are long enough for me to be able to hold them in one hand when they’re just too uncomfortable for you to keep them on your feet any longer.”

“Honey,” the consultant said to me. “This guy’s a keeper. Don’t forget about us when you’re planning your own wedding.” On that note, I grabbed my bags, which Sinjin plucked from my hands to carry for me, and we walked back to his truck. I couldn’t even look at him. We’d been together for like two seconds and she was trying to marry us off? I knew the hard sell came with the job description, but Sinjin had to be mortified. What man wanted weddings and marriage thrown in his face? I could see it in my mind right now, him starting to pull away, thinking that I wanted to tie him down, when I had nothing to do with it. It didn’t matter if I’d brought it up or not. I knew from experience that I’d get the blame because that exact scenario happened when Rob had proposed to my sister before breaking her heart.

The numbnut-who-shall-not-be-named went off the rails on a crazy train. “I suppose you want a ring now, too?” He’d sort of snarled at me at my sister and Rob’s engagement backyard picnic that Grams had thrown for them. “Well, you can forget it. I’m not getting tied to your fat ass.” Then a week later, he’d dumped me for his non-fat ass.

While he drove, I called my grandmother. “Hey, Grams,” I said into the line.

“Brigeeta, my darling middle grandchild, I miss you.” This was what she said instead ofhello.

“I know. I’m sorry, Grams. We’ve been really busy at work and I started this exercise bootcamp at the gym because Kami is getting married.”

She cut me off. “I know. I got the invitation for the reception in the mail the other day. Lu says you’re going to Antarctica to see her get married. Is that true?”

“Oh, it’s absolutely true.”

“Are you going with Dion and Henri?” she asked.

“I don’t know. They might still be on my flight, but I’m not traveling with them.”

“Brigeeta, do you think that safe? You’ve never traveled out of the country before. I don’t think it’s smart to go by yourself.”

“For Kami, Grams, if I had to go by myself, I would go by myself. But I’m not actually going by myself.”

“Who’s going with you? Lu never said she was going.”

“That’s because Lu isn’t going with me.Sinjin’s going with me.” I smiled saying his name. I couldn’t help myself. And I was sure she heard the smile in my voice, too.

“Sinjin?” she asked quizzically. “Very handsome name.”

“Well, Grams, he’s a very handsome man. And I—”

She cut me off again. “You must bring him this weekend. Sunday. I won’t takenofor an answer, Brigeeta.”

“Well, that’s why I was calling because I wanted to bring him to meet you, Grams. But I’ll have to ask him if Sunday works for him.”

And before I could control the situation, Sinjin plucked the phone from my hand and put it up to his ear to begin speaking with my grandmother. “Hi, Grams, this is Sinjin.” As it was a one-sided conversation now, I couldn’t hear her response, except for her squeal of joy. “Sunday would be perfect,” he said. “Geet and I don’t have any plans that I know of, and since she or I or both of us are always on top of that, I’m going to say we’re free.” There was a pause, then, “She’s been staying with me.” I coughed, choking, and I thought I might’ve been having a heart attack.

I seethed at him, gritting my teeth. “You can’t tell her that. She’s mygrandmother.”

“Yes,” he said into the phone. “That was Geet freaking out on me.” At that, he threw his head back and laughed. “Geet, sunshine, your grandmother says you’ve always been too uptight. She also wanted me to remind you that she was young once too.” On the line back to Grams, he said, “Oh, the sixties. Yes, I’ve heard about the age of free love.”

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