“Another ga-ga wannabe chef? I should have known.”
His defiant eyes went cold as limestone.
“So, she’s a lousy mom,” he said. “I grant you that. She shouldn’t have had kids.”
Tania Marie didn’t know how to respond to that. People either adored Virginia or they didn’t. This was the first time anyone had spoken the truth without judgment.
Before she could respond, Rossi said, “She’s a hell of a chef, though, and I intend to learn everything I can from her.”
“Even if you have to baby-sit her errant daughter?”
He moved closer to her, and maybe because she wasn’t used to being this close to anyone but Marshall, she was startled byhis lack of scent. No cologne. No hairspray, no mousse, no gel. What man on earth had the guts to wear no cologne, use no hair products? To just smell like himself?
“Get this straight. I’m doing it for Virginia because she’s giving me a chance. If it were up to my dad, I’d get an MBA. I already got the bachelor’s degree for him. But Virginia knows I can be a chef, and whether you know it or not, she’s worried about you.”
“As much as she can be.” Tania Marie met his eyes, wondering if he would opt for the truth or the easy answer.
“As much as that,” he said.
Another point for the short man with the arresting eyes. “What’d she tell you to do?”
“Just be here. Hang out with you.”
“And report to her?”
He gave her a steady gaze and picked up his keys from the green table. The man wasn’t a liar, but he wasn’t coughing up the truth, either.
“She wants you to report to her, doesn’t she? She can’t be bothered to check up on me, so she wants you to.”
“Can you hold it down?” He walked along the sidewalk, his jacket flapping in the breeze. “People are going to think I’m hurting you.”
“You might as well be.” The familiar rage coursed through her again, leveling her senses. “Get out of here, or I’ll scream.”
“No reason for that.” A mirthless smile crossed his face, and he leaned toward her. “I can’t wait to get away from you.”
That parting shot had made her feel stupid, like the foul-mouthed fat girl nobody could stand. But at least she’d managed to get rid of Jay Rossi and spend the rest of the day in semi-peace. Now she was safe. No one would recognize her here, the one place she could blend in. She’d tied back her hair, anyway.These women had seen it all. Theywereit all. The arms that dripped fat by the buckets, the thighs puckered with cellulite. Hell, she was skinny by comparison, especially to the ones in the heated pool, the only place to hide at all.
This was the fourth night she’d come to the gym and the first she’d ventured into the separate room and its large pool of warm water and thrashing mountains of flesh. At least she’d work off some hunger, and when she finished, she could sweat off her past sins in the sauna. She’d brought six of the Killer Body bars, lemon meringue flavor, and chewed through a couple in the car. Nothing at home but Virginia’s care packages, neatly labeled and dated. And the secret stash of Milanos, of course. She couldn’t think about them, though, or she would be lost. One night, she’d actually dipped a whole bag, cookie after cookie, in tomato soup because Virginia had made her promise to eat something nutritious for dinner.
“Your name?” The instructor had entered the pool area through the back door and stood with her clipboard, looking at Tania Marie.
“Mary.” Damn, what was the last name she’d made up when she’d registered, paying for a whole year in cash? Oh, that’s right, a private little joke with herself, using the old man’s last name for luck. “Mary Warren.” She felt exposed. The other heads bobbing in the water turned to look at her.
“Is this your first time?” the instructor asked.
She nodded.
“Cool. I’m Betty. If you need anything, just ask, okay?” She smiled at Tania Marie and stepped down into the water. Even she was chunky, not one of those tushless anorexics they had at the clubs in New York.
“Okay,” Betty called out. “Let’s start with an easy little jog”
Water splashed around them as on the CD player, a male voice, the only one in the place, sang “Kansas City.”
Tania Marie sloshed, almost happily, right through the warm-up, nodding to the others, all of them older than she, all but one far larger. If she weren’t so desperate, they’d be kind of cute. An extremely overweight woman had tucked her hair into one of those plastic shower caps, the kind some hotels still had in their bathrooms. Another slipped and slid in purple plastic shoes. And when they looked at her, it wasn’t to gawk but to grin, as if they were all in this together.
All were squeezed into one-piecers, like hers, maillots, as Virginia called them, in a voice that made it clear they ranked right down there with falsies in her estimation. Tania Marie jogged harder, trying to eliminate that voice and the expression that accompanied it. For a moment, she was free, flying to the surface of the water with little effort.
“Now, Cross-Country.”
