No Such Thing As True Love Read Online Free PDF Page A

been before. She clenched her hands so tightly that her manicured nails were making indentations on her skin. Markus sat back in his chair, hoping to diffuse the situation.
     
                “Christina, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. I was just enjoying your conversation so much that I even forgot to eat at times myself…” he stammered and trailed off. Christina was doing her best to control herself, but she was dripping with anger. Without warning, she threw the napkin at Markus and stood up. She teetered, and almost lost her balance. Markus rose to catch her elbow.
     
                She steadied herself, and glared into his eyes. “Thank you for dinner,” she said. Then, she turned and left. Markus sat back down in disbelief. He felt guilty, offended, but most of all he was angry at Maritess. Sure, Christina was beautiful and successful. She liked to travel, and had more than enough of the other qualities Markus was searching for in a woman, but he just couldn’t wrap his mind around her behavior. He liked to drink, but he didn’t drink like she did. He looked again at her plate. It was, except for the broccoli, completely untouched. He thought that the darned woman would have done her body better had she eaten the steak instead of the bottle or so of wine. Markus shrugged his shoulders, and asked the server for two boxes; one for his leftovers, and one for hers. He paid the tab, and caught the next bus home.
     
    …
     
     
     

CHAPTER 7
     
                Markus was fuming by the time he walked into the gym for his next session with Maritess. The date with Christina hadn’t worked out any better than any other dates he’d been on, and he had a mouthful to say when he saw his trainer. She tossed a towel at him, and spoke before he could get any words out himself.
     
                “So, you told Christina that she should eat more?” Maritess asked accusingly. Markus let his jaw hang open, and shook his head.
     
                “No, that is not what happened. Maritess, your friend may be a little nuts,” he said. Maritess huffed at him in disgust.
     
                “She is not nuts, she is ultra-conscious about her body image. I thought you wanted someone who could climb mountains with you. She would have been perfect for that,” Maritess said as she defended her friend.
     
                “Yea, well she wouldn’t make it too far up the mountain if all she ate was half a cup of broccoli for dinner the night before,” Markus complained to her as they mounted their treadmills to warm up. “Not to mention, she killed more than a bottle of wine. And, you know, maybe I want someone who is, I don’t know, a little…,” he held his hand up to his shoulder, “shorter, maybe.”
     
                Maritess looked at him as if he were an alien walking next to her. “Her height? You have a problem with how tall she is? Are you kidding me?” she asked.
     
                “No! Well, yes, but no. Maybe just someone who would punch me in the stomach when she gets angry drunk instead of in the face…” he answered. His expression was desperate, and Maritess couldn’t help but laugh.
     
                When they finished their warm up and entered the weight room, Markus habitually went over the rack of small hand weights by the mirror. “Not this time, skinny man,” Maritess mocked. He hated it when she called him that, especially after he had respectfully asked her to stop. She stood at a bench press, and was putting weights on either end. “Let’s see how you do with these.”
     
                Markus was all too excited to start. This is what he had envisioned when he fantasized about succeeding at the gym; pumping some real iron. He thought he might impress Maritess, but as usual, she made things as difficult for him as possible. She made him go slowly, excruciatingly slowly. She