“Oh, absolutely. I do this all the time,” she said breathlessly. “Care to join me? It’s invigorating!”
He shook his head. “No, thank you. I’m not psycho. I get my exercise in normal ways.”
“How, by dancing on tour? Is that really considered normal?” she asked, looking away from the screen.
“Well, I guess not, but I do a lot of swimming, too, and that counts as exercise.” He paused. “Besides, at least I don’t have to work out with Richard Simmons.”
“Hey, this isn’t Richard Simmons! It’s some other guy, somebody I’ve never heard of outside of this, Robert Smith.” She started doing jumping jacks with the people on the television. “He’s pretty good. I’ve lost ten pounds since I started this routine two months ago.”
“Ha, like you need to lose weight,” he said.
“I do. Look at all this flab,” she said, lifting her shirt and exposing her flat, tan stomach. She pinched a bit of loose skin.
“You’re crazy. That’s not fat. If you want fat, look at this.” He pinched his stomach.
“Whatever. I think that’s a healthy level. It looks good on a guy. Very attractive,” she said, kicking into the air.
He smiled. Did she even realize she called something about him attractive? “Fine, but you have a lot less than I do.”
“I’m a girl. Of course I’m gonna think I’m fat. It’s pointless to try to talk me out of it,” she stated. She looked back at the screen, indicating that the conversation was over.
He smiled and shook his head, then went back into the kitchen so he could put away the groceries. He couldn’t believe they’d had an encounter without a fight. She’d even given him a compliment…sort of. For a moment, he thought maybe living with her wouldn’t be so bad, but surely she’d get hostile again, and then he’d hate himself for not kicking her out earlier. He had to stick to his decision and not second guess himself.
Since Michelle’s date with Brad where he had learned Brad was seeing other people, Nick had been wondering what to do. Should he tell her? She deserved to know. He was afraid, though, that she’d get mad at him or something, or maybe she’d think he was lying. Anyway, he didn’t like her all that much, and personally, he didn’t care all that much if she got hurt by a guy.
He stepped back into the living room and called her name. “Do you want something for lunch?”
“What are you making?” she asked.
“Grilled cheese sandwiches.”
“Man, of course you would have to make something nice and greasy like that. A grilled cheese sandwich would give me back all the weight I’m losing, thus defeating the purpose of all this exercise,” she grumbled. “But I can’t turn it down.”
“Gosh, you say it like you actually have fat to get rid of,” he groaned. “You don’t need to lose weight.”
“Sure I don’t. Anyway, I guess I’ll take a sandwich,” she said.
“Okay, one or two?”
She shot him a horrific glance. “One, of course!”
He sighed and went back into the kitchen, giving up all hope of convincing her that she had a perfectly fine body.