Page 208 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
“I was surprised that you called,” I admitted to him. He shrugged.
“I finally decided to call you,” he said. “I have been in town for a couple of weeks, but I wasn’t sure how you would react to a phone call from me. I thought about stopping by your work. I was actually near there this morning, but I didn’t want to cause a scene.”
“Thanks,” I said. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure how I would have reacted to seeing you in person. I’m not sure how I feel right now.”
Brad looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“You should be happy,” he said. “I’m back.”
The way he spoke irritated me. While I had missed him and had taken our breakup extremely hard, he acted as if he was doing me a favor by coming back to me. Maybe I was taking things the wrong way. Even if I was angry, I needed to give him a fair chance, right? Everyone deserved a second chance.
“I am happy,” I said. “It’s just…”
“You’re going to love my gym,” Brad interrupted me. “It’s seriously going to be the best gym in Miami. It’s only the beginning, Tiffany. I’m going to have a bunch of Brad’s Gyms worldwide.”
“Brad’s Gym?” I questioned. The name was tacky. I shouldn’t have been surprised that he included his own name in the gym’s name. It was a very Brad thing to do.
“Do you like the name?” he asked. “Jessica wasn’t a fan of it but screw her. She doesn’t realize greatness. Little bitch.”
His demeanor suddenly changed. He was no longer happy and carefree. He was bitter and hurt.
“What happened between you two?” I asked. He rolled his eyes.
“I’m not talking about her, Tiffany,” he said. “She doesn’t matter. She was a mistake.”
I wrinkled my nose. For someone who was a mistake, he sure seemed to care a lot about her. I began to wonder who broke up with who. Before I could ask any further questions, the waiter arrived with two drinks. He placed an iced water in front of me and a beer in front of Brad.
“Is iced water okay for you, ma’am?” he asked. I opened my mouth to tell him that I wanted a glass of wine, but Brad stopped me.
“She is good with iced water,” Brad said. “And, remember, we don’t want that free bread.”
No bread? I wanted to protest. The bread was one of the only reasons that I had agreed to come to dinner. And was he really not allowing me to have a glass of wine when he was drinking beer?
“Yes, sir,” the waiter responded. “Are you two ready to order?”
Brad nodded.
“I’ll have the steak, medium, with roasted red potatoes and she will have a side salad with dressing on the side,” Brad told the waiter. He picked up the menus and gave them to the waiter. The waiter looked at me. I could tell that he was questioning Brad’s decision on my meal.
“Actually, I’m not in the mood for salad,” I told the waiter. “I’ll have the shrimp scampi and you can bring bread for me.”
I watched as a smirk formed on the waiter’s face. He was already visibly irked by Brad’s attitude.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “Steak, medium, with potatoes, shrimp scampi, and bread. I’ll put the order in right away.”
The waiter walked away, and Brad looked at me.
“Babe,” he said, “You have been doing so well lately with your weight loss. You have to continue to make healthy choices. If we’re going to be together, I need you to look good. I can’t own a chain of gyms and have a fat girlfriend. It would look bad for my business.”
I felt my mood suddenly shift. Brad hadn’t changed a bit. He was still egotistical and only cared about appearances, especially my appearance.
“I am not fat,” I said quietly. I did not want to make a scene, but I also did not want him to think that it was okay to use that word to describe me. It was offensive. I knew that I wasn’t stick thin, but I didn’t completely let myself go. I was healthy.
“I know that you aren’t anymore,” Brad said. “But it’s so easy to relax, especially around the holidays. I just don’t want you to lose any of this progress. It would be shame for you to come this far and then gain your weight back, plus some.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to him. I used to just let him say whatever he wanted to, but I didn’t want to let him get away this easily.
“You can’t dictate what I eat or when,” I told him. “I’m a grown up. I know how to take care of my body.”
