When Eadan surprised her by calling the next afternoon, Remi wasn’t the same cheerful friend he’d come to know. This time, she seemed worried and distracted, even sad.
“Remi, something’s bothering you. Is there anything I can do? Are you having troubles with the renovations? I know you have the various contractors in the place now. Hopefully, they’re not giving you any trouble.”
“No… no, the work is coming along really well. I’ve dealt with these same businesses many times and the staff are very professional and excellent at what they do.”
“Is it your young friend who came for help the other day? I didn’t want to be nosy or question you further about her problems after you said it had all worked out, but maybe I can help.”
Remi heard the sincerity in Eadan’s tone and it soothed the uneasiness she hadn’t been able to hide. All yesterday and today, she’d prayed that Greta would come back, but she hadn’t seen any sign of the girl. If she’d gone to school, she hadn’t come for her ride. Not being able to stand the suspense, this morning, Remi had driven past the front entrance, but there had been no sign of Greta. That worried her all the more. The girl hated to miss her classes. She took pleasure in her high marks. It was a pride thing that Remi understood, since she’d acted the same when Greta’s age. Needing to have something to be good at, top grades had become huge to her self-esteem.
A cough brought her back to the ongoing telephone conversation. His smile lit up her heart and the want to share became too hard to ignore. “Sorry, I was trying to figure out how I could tell you about Greta. I want to. I really do. But it isn’t my tale to share. There’s a confidence issue. But I can tell you about my own story. It’s similar and you might be able to relate.”
“I’m listening, sweetheart.” Elbows on the desk, he framed his wonderful strong jaw with his hands and supported his chin. “Thankfully, everything is quiet right now, so I’m all yours.”
If only! Mine! Sweetheart! Nothing could have persuaded her more than his endearments at the very time when she felt so raw.
Remi gathered her thoughts and then started. “First, you need to know that I love my parents very much. But… they were adults with careers that they cared about to the extent that our home life came in a distant second. My father is a publicist with a large publishing company, and Mother is the senior partner for an accounting firm that’s growing every year.
I’m not sure why they had children, but I know I never felt very important in that busy world they’d created. As a youngster, and later a teenager, I took to filling the loneliness with food. Treats, mostly sweet ones, and I became quite a pudge. Of course, this didn’t help me in the outside world. All it got me was bullied and disparaged by my peers. And it was a vicious cycle: the more they made fun, the more I ached and the more I needed the sweets. By now I was a teenager and very unhappy.”
“You’re breaking my heart here, Remi. I wished I had known that sad little girl.”
“She was a loser. You wouldn’t have liked her. She didn’t take control of her choices. Instead she played the martyr and used all the goading and hurtful jeers to give herself permission to eat even more.”
Eadan shook his head, concern etched on every feature. “Aren’t you being too hard on yourself?”
“No! Like any path one chooses, the decisions all come back to the traveller. No one forced those chocolate bars into my mouth. No one made me eat chips rather than vegetables. Once I grew older, I knew what I did every time I reached for the wrong foods. My parents bought healthy stuff, but they also gave me an allowance and the solitude to eat what I wanted. I bought the rubbish, and I stuffed it in.”
“Poor baby. So, what happened?”
“One of my teachers made me see the truth. My nemesis, the one who liked to bully, cornered me by the lockers in secondary school and was singing her typical song of disgust at my size and laughing at my predictable tears. Only this time, my P.E. teacher had been listening. She put the run on the culprit and called me into her office. There, in a way I thought of as cruel, she dealt me what she saw as a necessary rebuke.”
Totally enthralled, his soft brown eyes acting like balm to her bruised spirit, Eadan asked, “What could she have said that resonated so much to make you change?”
“You know how people talk about pivotal moments in life? This was a huge one for me. She told me to grow up.”
“That was it? She didn’t want you to give the girl back some of her own medicine?”
“Certainly not! There was a no-tolerance policy for any physical abuse and we were expected to act like ladies at all times.”
“Yet the other girl didn’t get in trouble for acting like a bitch?”
“Not that I ever saw.”
“I don’t get it? She just blamed you.”
“Not quite. She made me understand that I must be getting something from the behavior—either I enjoyed the insults because they gave me excuses to be a martyr or I needed the attention, however sick. If not, I’d have put a stop to the sick perversion. After all, I had the power to make the changes. It was all a matter of turning the switch in my head from fat and unhappy to healthy and slimmer.”
His left eyebrow rose and his expression became fascinated. “Those sentiments worked?”
“Like a neon sign. I guess I needed to hear them from someone who didn’t feel pity or disgust. She told it the way it was—a simple fact.”
“And left you to make the choice.”
“Yes. I started working on it that very day, but it’s a work in progress. Sometimes, I get busy and fall back on old patterns.”
“Is this why you were trying to help Greta? To change her habits? I’ve seen the girl and she’ll be a doctor’s problem at a very young age if she doesn’t mend her ways.”
“I know. And she’s been doing so well with her exercising, healthy foods and smaller portions.”
“Until?”
“Let’s just say smaller portions can be carried too far.”
Eadan didn’t say anything at first, just nodded his head like a doctor listening to a case. “Yes, I see. That must be nipped in the bud.”
“Exactly what I tried to do. Now I’ll have to give her the space she needs to figure it out. Will she understand? If she has the sense God gave a duck, she should.”
“Ah… we’re back to her choices again,”
“Yes.”
“Bless you, darling, she’ll be back. The girl won’t want to give up her time with you. Bloody hell, I know how hard it’s been for me. I hate being away.”
“You do?” Flames of happiness burst inside Remi and it was all she could do not to kiss the screen. But… could she believe he meant what she thought he did?
“Yes! If I could leave here for more than twelve hours at a time, I’d be home as often as possible.”
“Right…to see your flat.”
“Wrong, sweetheart, to see you.”