“I want all of you.”
“You can have all of me. I’m just not ready for you to see it all, not all at once.”
“I adore you. I want to see every inch of you.”
“Someday soon. I promise.”
“Maybe that could be my reward at the end of all this, Lucy,” he joked. “We reach our goal and you get Jamaica and I get your totally naked body to look at as I please.”
She turned in his arms, a thoughtful look on her face. “Maybe we really should use this as our motivator. No sex until we’ve reached our goal. I would be positively driven to succeed.”
She placed her hand on his shorts and slipped the belt free, unzipped the zipper, and reached inside his boxers. “Think about it,” she whispered, stroking him until dark splotches danced in his vision. “You’re the expert on motivation, aren’t you? Didn’t you say I needed a reward that was decadent, luxurious, something waiting for me that I wanted more than anything?”
“Forget it.”
“It’s just twelve weeks.”
“No way.” Theo slammed his lips down on hers, stroked the bare flesh of her bottom and her thighs, reached around between her legs, touched the hard little button between her pussy lips.
“I’d be ready to explode by then,” Lucy gasped.
“I’m ready to explode now,” he said, pushing her down onto the bed.
“Let’s flip a coin,” she suggested.
Theo couldn’t believe they were having this conversation. Lucy was on her back, her legs open, her sex exposed, and she was suggesting they flip a coin to determine if they’d proceed.
As Theo ripped off his shorts, he rooted around in his pocket for a quarter. Lucy sat up on the edge of the bed, holding the coin and staring at his hard cock.
“I’ve missed you,” she said, momentarily distracted. “OK. Heads or tails?”
“I want head and tail,” he said.
Lucy laughed. Theo didn’t.
“All right,” she said with a sigh. “Heads, we hose like rabbits for the next twelve weeks. Tails, we torture each other for motivation and after the last weigh-in you get me naked, no delaying on my part, no more excuses. Ready?”
This was insane. “No.”
Lucy flipped the coin and smacked it down on the back of her hand. She peeled her top hand away. ‘Tails.“
“Fuck that.” Theo rolled with her on the bed and they laughed and in between kisses and guffaws they agreed that it would be just this once… then they’d go on the clock.
They did everything they could think of in the next five hours, and Theo got his head and his tail, and at four in the morning Lucy walked Theo to the door.
“I’ll see you at the gym in an hour, Cunningham. Don’t be late.”
She snickered, straightening the camisole. “Be nice to me today. I can hardly move.”
Theo stared at her. “I can’t go twelve weeks without you, you know. The coin flipping was amusing, but you can’t really be serious about this no-sex policy.”
Lucy shifted her weight and leaned against the hall table. She brought her eyes to his and said thoughtfully, “Theo? What if I said the sacrifice would keep me focused?”
“You’re serious.”
“Think about it. I love you and want you and need you, and I have millions of people watching me make this last push toward my goal. What if sexual tension spurs me on? Think of what I would do to get my hands on you again.”
Theo felt his eyebrows rise high. “Spinning classes?”
“You’re not that good.”
Theo laughed. “My goodness, Miss Cunningham. You’re a shark.”
Lucy gave him one of her sweet, wonderful smiles. “No. I’m just a practical woman. You’ll be my carrot on a stick. You’ll be my Miller time.”
“I won’t last four days.”
“I’ll wear my pink sweatpants a lot.”
“That’ll help.”
“Be brave. Be strong.”
“I’ll see you in less than an hour now, Cunningham.”
Theo kissed her cheek, and as he turned to leave he picked up a small slip of paper from the foyer table. He turned and frowned at her.
“What?” she asked.
“Did you order pizza last night?”
Lucy’s jaw fell open and her eyes got huge. “How the hell did you know? Did you taste it on my breath?”
Theo smiled and shook his head. “The only thing I tasted on your breath was paradise, babe. But here’s your receipt.”
“She’s not fat enough! She needs to be fat! You promised she’d stay fat!”
Stephan winced at the sound of Murray Goldstein’s New York bellow, wondering how he could gently point out that technically, he’d promised no such thing. He’d only promised that Lucy would fail to meet her goal, making the Palm Club look bad, and that would, in turn, stop Murray from losing customers to Ramona Cortez.
That’s all he’d ever promised. Not that that wasn’t bad enough.
“She’s attractive now! You’re ruining me!”
Stephan felt the sweat break out on his upper lip and wiped it off with a shaking hand.
“I’m done with you. You put a stop to this right now or you have seaweed growing out of your eye sockets. Your choice.”
He supposed it was a blessing to know the truth about his fate instead of worrying about it. At least Murray had not used the expression “sleeping with the fishes.”
It’s a good thing he’d taken the time off to prepare for his escape. He’d acquired a fake Canadian passport. He’d rented a house in the Caymans. He was ready to go at a moment’s notice.
Stephan reached for his ibuprofen but found a Snickers bar instead and unwrapped it. He finished it in three bites and added the latest wrapper to the pile in the trash can. He really should cool it on the carbs. Maybe Lola had been right.
“Are you listening to me, Sherrod? Your time is up.”
Stephan hung up on him and had begun to root around for another Snickers when he felt someone’s presence in his doorway. He looked up to see Lola Di-Paolo, which shocked him for two reasons-she’d never come to his office before, and he wasn’t used to seeing her with clothes on.
She frowned at him. “Have you been eating candy bars?”
“Huh?” He looked down at his hand and shoved the Snickers back in the desk drawer. “Of course not. What are you doing here?”
Lola closed the door behind her and made herself comfortable in one of the chairs facing his desk. “That fat bitch got me fired.”
Stephan smiled. “So I heard. But I think you helped yourself out a little, there.”
“It’s not fair!”
Stephan nodded. “Look, Lola, I have a meeting. Is there something I can do for you?”
She huffed, and looked quite hurt. “I want you to give me a job.”
Stephan nearly choked. “Uh. Doing what exactly?”
“I’ll help you with your Lucy problem, maybe see if I can find a way to pop her balloon. If I weren’t out of a job, I’d do it for free, of course.”
Stephan nodded. Maybe Lola really did understand how this game was played. “And your salary would be in platinum toe rings or cash?”
She smiled. “How about a little of both?”
Journal Entry Sept 16
Breakfast: 3/4 c oatmeal; 1/4 c raisins; 1 c skim milk; decaf
Lunch: 3 oz turkey breast; 1 oz light cheese; 2 c salad and raw veggies; 2 tbsp olive oil and red wine vinegar; 1/2 c brown rice
Dinner: 3 oz grilled red snapper; 1 c steamed broccoli; 3/4 c couscous
Snack: 1 c light yogurt; 1 c raspberries
Affirmation for Today:
Whoever penned the phrase “being thin feels better than anything tastes” should be forced to eat nothing but rice cakes for all of eternity.
Office of Doris Lehman, “MSW, PhD Lucy decided she’d lie down today. She kicked off her shoes, stretched out on the love seat, and propped her head on an armrest. She crossed her feet at the ankles.