Just One Look (Women of Substance) Read Online Free PDF Page A

laughed.
    I smiled and tilted my head to study her.
    “What?” she brushed a hand across her face. “Food in my teeth?”
    “No. I’m just wondering about you and Rob.”
    She sighed. “So am I. He’s not okay with my gaining weight. He’s made that clear. It will need to be him or the weight. I can’t have it both ways.”
    “What are you going to do?”
    “What else? Lose weight.”
    Since I’d decided myself that I needed to lose weight to improve my chances of entering a serious relationship, I was in no position to suggest maybe it was time she looked for a relationship with a man who wouldn’t be so obsessed with a little weight gain.
    “And you’re okay with that?”
    She nodded and then shook her head. “I’m torn. I want to lose the weight for myself but I wish it wasn’t such a deal breaker for him. But it is and I’ll have to deal with it.” She smiled suddenly. “But that’s enough down talk. I’ll do what I need to do to keep him. Let’s talk about something more pleasant like your wardrobe.”
    We spent the rest of the evening discussing what I’d wear for a first date with Anderson in such detail, that I was more than a little disappointed when I arrived home to find that he still hadn’t responded to my email.
    “It was probably going to be a long night, girl.” I took a glass of wine into the bedroom and slowly drank it before getting into bed. Sleep eluded me for over an hour before I even started to feel drowsy.
    The bad mood I woke with the next morning worsened when I discovered there was no message from Anderson. Why didn’t you go out with him when you had the chance? Now you’ll have to either ask him out or forget him. Those are your only two options.
    Deciding I was not up to asking him out, I forced myself to work. Although difficult, I managed to get through the day.
     
     
    Anderson
     
    Four days after meeting Narena, I was on my second drink seated in a booth at the bar on the ground floor of my condo complex when my brother Manning slipped into the booth opposite me. “Hey squirt, why don’t you return your calls?”
    At 6’ 3” I was three inches taller and fifteen or so pounds heavier than Manning. I was also eighteen months younger so he insisted on calling me squirt. “Why the hell would I want to talk to you?”
    He laughed and reached across the table to slap my cheek. “Show some respect for your older brother and tell me what’s wrong.”
    “Nothing’s wrong.”
    “Then why didn’t you return my calls?”
    I shrugged. “You said it wasn’t important.”
    He stared at me. “Are you serious?”
    “Yes. I’m serious. What did you want, Manning?”
    “I’m opening up the beach house this weekend to take advantage of the good weather. Do you want me to save a bedroom for you and Caren?”
    Although we lived in the same complex and I generally considered him my best friend, we didn’t often party together. I had a cabin in the Poconos, which we both used. He had a house on the beach at the Jersey Shore that either one or both of us used from May through October each year.
    The thought of sleeping with Caren again held little appeal. “Thanks, but we’re not going to be a couple for much longer.”
    “No shit? Your choice or hers?”
    “Mine.”
    “Mom is not going to be pleased.”
    “Tell me about it,” I said.
    “When I talked to her last week, she was practically salivating at the idea of you and Caren giving her a couple of blue-eyed blond grandkids.”
    “I never said or did anything to make Mom think I wanted to marry Caren. She knew I was seeing other women.”
    “But you made the mistake of allowing them to meet and you apparently never mentioned any other woman by name. Hell, even I thought you two would end up engaged.”
    “Well you were both wrong. Weren’t you?” I snapped, annoyed.
    “What happened?”
    “What makes you think anything happened?”
    “What happened?” he asked again.
    I reluctantly told him about