Page 35 of D.I.E.T. (Did I Eat That?)

“You don’t have to remember anything,” I told him.

He tweaked my nose. “You worry too much, Geet. I told you it’s okay.” And for the rest of the day, it actually was. They moved on from trying to marry Sinjin and me off to telling him embarrassing stories about my childhood and teen years. He talked sports and even some about his job with Gareth. They seemed to get along famously. Gareth couldn’t stand the numbnut, not that he hadn’t tried to get along with him. Just the numbnut wasn’t particularly open to making friends with my family.

But of anyone, my grams seemed the happiest at having Sinjin over. She worried about me being alone. I never bought into that. In my opinion, people could be very happy unattached. But as more and more of my friends started pairing off in relationships, the swinging singles scene, clubs and the like, became less and less appealing. Staying home or doing “couples” things, for which I wasn’t invited, won out. And yeah, that totally sucked. What could I do?

The evening came to an end when Grams broke out the photo albums, which I was okay with. They’d already told stories, so what did it matter if he saw pictures? I could one hundred percent pinpoint when it mattered. When Grams looked between me and Sinjin and said, “You two will make beautiful babies.”

Time to go.

Eleven:

Monday morning, we took separate cars because he had to go to the office after bootcamp and I had the day to myself. I walked into the gym feeling bloated and sluggish after consuming all the diet destructors the day before. Still, I did my best to put a smile on my face. With Sinjin on my arm, it wasn’t hard.

We walked in to our bootcamp room at the back of the gym and stood in line to step on the scale. Sinjin stepped up first. “How is that possible?” I mumbled to myself after seeing that he’d taken off five more pounds. I’d seen everything he’d put into his mouth yesterday. I’d seen the beers he’d consumed the past few days and the meals he’d ordered at restaurants. I promised myself I wouldn’t wig out this time, though. He lost what he’d lost. I had to remember I competed against myself, not Sinjin. Though I’d love to best him at least once.

My turn. I stepped onto the scale and waited for Trevor to balance out the bars. Down four and a half pounds. He still beat me, but not by much, and seriously, it was more than I’d lost the week before.

“Good job, sunshine,” Sinjin said, smiling and pulling me from the scale by wrapping me in a gigantic bear hug. He swung me around and looked first to Trevor and then to the front row of campers. “My woman is gorgeous, isn’t she?”

“She’s doing a great job,” Trevor replied. That wasn’t saying he thought I was gorgeous, but who really cared what Trevor thought? Sinjin thought I was gorgeous. No one else’s opinion mattered.

Empowered by four and a half pounds down, I dominated my workout. Burpees? Too easy. I blasted through one hundred of those puppies in twenty minutes. Lunges. Planking. Cardio with the jump ropes. I was a sweaty mess by the end of class, but I felt great. After showering, Sinjin stood outside the ladies’ locker room, per usual, today wearing a dark gray business suit with a lavender shirt and shade darker lavender tie.Wowee!

“Hey, baby, you need a date?” I asked, leaning in toward him to show off what little cleavage my blouse revealed. He reached out to pull me to him, biting his bottom lip.

“I actuallydoneed a date,” he whispered into my ear. “I hate that you have today off and I have to go in to the office, but how ’bout we get lunch?”

“Is lunch code for sex?” I asked, causing him to laugh.

“Unfortunately, lunch is code for lunch. I like your definition better, but with the final signing of the merger getting so close, I need to keep my head on merger-related activities, not Geet-related activities.”

“Would it help if I went back to my apartment for a while?”

He narrowed his eyes at me like I’d just said the stupidest thing he’d ever heard in his life.

“Okay,” I said to break the silence. “If I get to be too much of a distraction, just let me know. I’ll go back to my place. I know how important this merger is.”

“Meet me at Golden Dragon, say… eleven-thirty?”

“It’s a date.”

He walked me to my Jeep and kissed the crap out of me, pushing me up against the door before I hopped inside. I enjoyed kissing Sinjin. Not only because he knew how to kiss, but because of how kissing him made me feel—all sunshine and calm seas and warm, sandy beaches, if those things could be made into a feeling.

I stopped by my apartment to pick up my mail. My express passport came—yes.Instead of simply watering my plants, I decided to bring them with me today. Then I took on the disgusting task of cleaning out my refrigerator. There was a whole lot of grossness to get rid of, seeing how it had been a while since I’d been home other than to pick up mail, water my pretty succulents and grab more clothing. After several close calls of almost vomiting, I lugged the trash bag out to the dumpster, loaded my plants in the Jeep, and locked up.

Then I did the mundane running of errands until the clock struck close to eleven-thirty and I headed over to the Golden Dragon for my lunch date. I spotted Sinjin’s truck in the parking lot right away. He wasn’t sitting in it, which meant he had to have already gone inside. I parked next to him, hopped out into the cold, and walked inside.

The hostess gathered a menu when she saw me, but I spied Sinjin talking on his phone in a back booth and waved her away, then pointed out my man. She smiled and I returned it as I made my way over to the sexy business man.

“No, Vanessa,” he said to apparently Vanessa on the phone, as that clearly wasn’t my name and he’d yet to notice me. “Listen, I can’t talk right now. I’ve got a business lunch. I’ve got to go.”

Business lunch?

Since when was I a business lunch? Maybe so he could write it off?

“Hello,” I said, which seriously made him jump. He looked up at me, but he didn’t look happy as he hit theend callbutton on his phone. “Hey, um… If this is a bad time, you don’t have to eat lunch with me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Standing, he kissed my cheek like one might kiss a colleague, not a girlfriend. “Have a seat. I’m just busy.”

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