The Makeover Page 4

  Greg groaned and buried his head in his hands as she continued the list of foods he couldn’t eat.

  “Hey,” she said, “don’t give me attitude. Men lose weight faster than women. Before you know it, you’ll be beating the women off with a stick.”

  He somehow doubted that would ever happen. It’d never happened before, but it was a fun fantasy to indulge in for a moment. Oh, he knew he wasn’t a gargoyle. Daria had often told him that he had very pretty eyes.

  They finished breakfast and he helped Mykal clean her kitchen. Back at his house, she showed him a series of stretches. He wondered at her qualifications for helping him workout, but then he realized he didn’t have much choice in the matter. His funds were limited and she was helping for free. Dirk kept coming up with new excuses not send him his severance check. It would be stupid of him to join a second gym when he had a paid membership at Gary’s. No way was he going there. He would be anxious the entire time, wondering if someone there knew the story about how he lost his girlfriend to her trainer. Maybe it was paranoid of him to think that his love life was the gossip of every gym in Greenville, but it seemed it was fodder for the neighborhood gossips.

  Besides, Mykal was fit. And limber, he discovered as he watched her stretch her body into positions that had his muscles screaming. She had him warm up before having him do fifteen minutes on the elliptical and then switched him to the treadmill. While he used the elliptical, she got on the treadmill. When he switched, so did she. It seemed easy for the first five minutes. Mykal kept up a steady stream of encouragement, motivating him to stay on when he was huffing for air. By the time he was done, his legs were quivering noodles. But Mykal pushed him to stretch again. His clothing was soaked with sweat.

  “You did great today,” Mykal said with a smile. Her skin glistened and as she dabbed it with a towel he realized that she wasn’t wearing any makeup. He’d never seen Daria without at least one coat of war paint. She even wore lip gloss, mascara and a fine dusting of powder to bed. He’d never objected as she’d claimed she was doing it for him, but just once he’d liked to have kissed her without feeling sticky goop between them.

  He had the sudden urge to touch Mykal and see if she was as perfect as she appeared.

  “I’m going home to take a shower. I’m having dinner with my parents. I put my cell phone number at the bottom of that grocery list. If you need me, give me a call.”

  Though exhausted, he felt excited to have started on this process. “Thanks, Mykal.”

  “You’re welcome.” She pushed up on her toes and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “See you tomorrow.”

  As he entered Walmart, Greg pulled Mykal’s list out of his back pocket and stared at her neat penmanship. He hoped he could find even half of it. It had been a long time since he’d explored anything outside of the frozen food and chips aisle. He picked up a cart and started towards the middle of the store.

  He intended to hunt for the food section. A large game display featuring futuristic warriors caught his eye and he couldn’t turn away. Thirty minutes later, he was leaving the electronics section with an Xbox One and four games. He wheeled his purchases out to his car and locked them in the truck. He was anxious to get home and get started but he didn’t want to disappoint Mykal.

  This time he headed straight for the food section. Finding many of the items was easier than he thought it would be. Standing in line, he checked over his list a second time to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything.

  “Greg, is that you?” said a guy behind him.

  He turned to face his buddies Jeff, a short chubby blonde with a scruffy goatee, and Max, a really thin guy about his height with dark chocolate skin and close cut hair. Their cart was filled with frozen pizza, beer, and chips. He grinned at them. “Hey, guys!” They shook hands and patted each other on the back. He’d missed these guys and his other buddy Ben so much. Of all the things that Daria had made him give up, he missed his friends the most. They still talked occasionally, but it wasn’t the same. Gesturing at their cart, he asked, “Are you having a party?”

  “Yeah. We’d invite you, but we doubt you could convince Daria to come.” Jeff craned his neck and looked around. “Where is she? Don’t tell me she let you out of the house by yourself?”

  Greg sighed. The guys had never liked Daria. They told him he was whipped and warned him that she was a user. She had liked them even less, calling them nerds and worse epithets. He hadn’t meant to choose Daria over his friends. With Daria, there had been no peace unless she got her way. She’d complained endlessly every time he wanted to spend time with his friends. And in the beginning, she’d rewarded him handsomely in bed whenever he did what she wanted. The separation from them was inevitable. “Um, she left me.”

  “That bitch,” Jeff said.

  “You’re better off without her,” added Max.

  He held up a hand before they could disparage Daria any further. “I plan to win her back.”

  “Why would you want to do that?” Jeff had always been more vocal about his hatred than the others.

  “Dolt.” Max jabbed Jeff in the side with a pointy elbow. They whispered fiercely between themselves for several seconds. Finally, Max said, “Why don’t you come to the party? It’s at our place in at six.”

  Greg eyed their basket. “Um…” Beer and pizza. He wouldn’t be able to eat or drink anything. But he had nothing other than an evening of cleaning ahead of him. “Hey, why don’t you come to my place instead? You can help me try out my new Xbox One.”

  “Cool,” Jeff said, whipping out his phone. “I’ll text everyone the change in locations.”

  ***

  Mykal arrived at her parent’s home early enough to help prepare dinner. Every Sunday she shared dinner with her parents. It was their time to catch up and just enjoy each other’s company. Her dad liked to act as her mom’s sous chef. He’d worked long hours to build his business, but whenever he was home, he said he wanted to spend time with his family. So he didn’t allow himself to be relegated to a den or his home office.

  They worked as an assembly line. Mykal washed and scrubbed vegetables. Her father, Davis, cut them and handed them to her mother. Emma, her mother, hummed as she added them to the stew she had bubbling on the stove. Her mother was a talented singer and was a star in the church choir. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a talent she’d passed along. Mykal couldn’t carry a tune to save her life.

  Once the carrots, potatoes, and celery were in the pot, Emma turned her attention to making biscuits. Mykal and her dad were only allowed to fetch and measure for this procedure as her mother didn’t allow any interference in her biscuit making. “I saw that nice boy Mario’s mother at choir practice Thursday evening,” Emma said, her hands working to form dough.

  Mykal met her father’s gaze and she rolled her eyes. He chuckled. He’d never liked Mario. But then her dad had never liked any of the men she dated. However, her mother wanted her married and pregnant. Hopefully, in that order and the groom/father of said grandchildren didn’t matter so much. She hadn’t told her parents about walking in on Mario and some girl he’d picked up over the course of lunch. Mario had confessed everything after she’d confronted him with his infidelity. The girl was an attractive waitress who’d flirted with him. Unused to such attention, he hadn’t been able to resist taking her home and screwing her on the couch Mykal had helped him pick out only two weeks prior. Apparently, he’d forgotten that he’d invited her over for a dinner party that night and that she’d volunteered to come over early to assist with the food. His family and friends were coming.

  She would never forget the sight of Mario’s naked ass pumping furiously as he plunged his cock into another woman. Mykal took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Just recalling standing there on his porch, her mouth open in shock, her heart pounding with anger, threatened to make her boil over. He hadn’t even had the decency to close his blinds. Taking a deep breath,
she forced her fists to open.

  Forgiving him was never an option for her. The image of him with another woman had tumbled over and over in her head. She’d left without confronting him. There was nothing he could say that she wanted to hear. He’d called her that night when his guests arrived and she was a no show. As calmly as she could, she’d explained why she wasn’t coming and why she never wanted to see him again. Of course, he’d shown up at her house fifteen minutes later, crying and begging.

  “Mario’s taking the break up very badly. She begged me to ask you to give him another chance.”

  Hoping to avoid further discussion, she said, “Mom, Mario is a cheater.”

  “And you know this how? Gossip?”

  “No. I saw him with my own two eyes.”

  Her mom paused. “Maybe you misunderstood what you saw?”

  She shook her head. “There’s no mistake.”

  After cleaning the counter and dusting it with flour, Emma dumped her dough out of the bowl and grabbed her rolling pin. “Well, he seemed like such a good boy. And so handsome.” A beat of silence followed. “My friend Eloise has a son who’s a doctor. He’s older than you-”

  “No,” she interrupted before her mother could even get on a roll. “Daddy, will you help me out here?”

  “Emma, Mykal can pick her own dates.”

  “Then she should date. We’re not getting any younger. I want grandchildren while I’m still young enough to play with them.” Her mom had turned fifty earlier in the year. Her chin-length curly hair was barely touched with gray.

  “Mommy, you don’t want me to pick the wrong guy and end up divorced do you?” Their family had a record to maintain. There were no divorces in the immediate family. When the Coopers said “I do,” they meant forever.

  Her mother grumbled, but she didn’t bring up marriage for the rest of the evening. Mykal knew she hadn’t banished the subject permanently, but she appreciated the reprieve. After Mario, she needed a vacation from dating.

  ***

  Their party had consisted of Max, Jeff, Ben and a girl he’d invited. Once she realized that they intended to spend the majority of the evening gaming and discussing gaming, she’d called a friend to pick her up. He and Ben watched Max and Jeff play Halo. Ben had a beer bottle in his hand. Greg nursed a cold glass of water while wishing for a beer. Eating his meal of baked chicken with rice, broccoli, and spinach salad while his buddies ate pizza had been difficult. Difficult in the sense that they simply threw a frozen pie in the oven while he had to prepare his meal.

  Ben scratched his chin, his beard causing a rasping sound. “So, let me get this straight, you’ve got some woman ordering you around just so you can win back another bossy woman? Man, where are your balls?”

  “Daria, probably packed those too when she left,” Jeff called out.

  “Ha, ha. Mykal isn’t ordering me around. She’s…I guess you could call it mentoring me.”

  Ben shook his head. “You won’t catch me taking orders from a woman.” Ben was the only one of them who’d ever had any success with women. His black hair and dark eyes, that he’d heard Daria once describe as “dreamy,” attracted women in droves. In high school, he’d been on the football team. Though he no longer worked out, he remained in impressive shape. After school, instead of going to college, he’d gotten a job with his father’s construction company. He’d almost gotten married, but changed his mind at the last minute. He’d fallen into gaming and the four of them had become fast friends.

  The doorbell rang. Greg hurried over to the door and opened it. Mykal stood there in a cute yellow sundress. “Hi. I was wondering how you did with dinner?” She peeped over his shoulder and frowned. “You didn’t?”

  He knew what she saw. Beer bottles, pizza boxes, and his friends. “No,” he quickly denied. “Those guys had pizza. I cooked dinner. The chicken was a little dry and the rice a bit crunchy, but it was okay.” Cooking wasn’t that hard when he had clear instructions.

  She beamed at him. “That’s great. I’m proud of you. Tomorrow night, I’ll cook dinner for you.”

  He shook his head. “You don’t have to do that.”

  “Greg, quit being rude,” Ben growled and dropped a heavy hand on his shoulder. “Introduce us to your new friend.”

  Greg stepped back so that Mykal could enter. “I’m sorry, Mykal. That’s Max and Jeff on the Xbox. And this is Ben. Guys this is Mykal.” Max and Jeff glanced up briefly and then did a double take, their mouths dropping open. Greg stifled a laugh at their obvious admiration. Ben stuck out his hand, engulfing Mykal’s slender one in his large paw. He stared at her intensely and Greg realized Ben was giving her what he called “the stare.” Ben claimed that he could get any woman when he gave her a certain look. “Good grief,” Greg muttered.

  Mykal withdrew her hand and turned to Greg. “I was thinking we could work out and then fix dinner together. Is that okay with you?”

  “Sounds great.”

  She nodded. “I’ll be going then. It was great to meet all of you.”

  “It’s dark out. Let me walk you home.”

  “No. I couldn’t take you away from your guests.”

  “I’ll walk her home,” Ben volunteered.

  “Really, it’s not necessary.”

  “Nonsense,” Ben insisted, taking her elbow and leading her out. “I’ll be right back,” he called over his shoulder.

  “Man, she is hot,” Max said when they were gone. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

  Greg shrugged. He wasn’t blind. Mykal was very beautiful and she was kind. But he had a goal and Mykal was simply helping him achieve that goal. It didn’t matter that she had the unintentional habit of making him go hard when he least expected it. He sat down next to Jeff on the couch. A few minutes later, they were rejoined by Ben.

  “Dude, are you serious about this Daria shit?”

  He frowned up at Ben. “Of course.”

  “So you won’t mind if I ask Mykal out?”

  Actually he did mind, but he couldn’t come up with a legitimate reason for objecting. So he shrugged. “That’s fine.” But he sincerely hoped Mykal turned him down.

  “Great.” He slapped him on the shoulder. “So you’ll set that up for me, right?”

  Greg suppressed a groan. “Sure.” It was only after he agreed that he recalled the girl Ben had brought to his house. “What about Michelle?”

  “Who?” Ben asked.

  He rolled his eyes. “The girl you brought here tonight.”

  “Oh, that’s not serious. We hook up when the mood strikes.”

  “Mykal’s not that kind of girl.”

  “They’re all that kind of girl on occasion.”

  “Ben, she’s just coming off a bad breakup-”

  “I don’t need her history from you. I’ll learn all I need to know about her when you set us up, all right?”

  Greg sighed and then forced himself to drop the topic. If he kept pressing, it would only make Ben more obstinate. He turned to Max and gestured toward the television. “Mind if I take over?”

  ***

  After working out at Greg’s, Mykal returned to her house to shower. She bathed quickly since Greg would be over after showering at his place. She was just fastening her jeans when the doorbell rang. Tugging on her t-shirt, she jogged down the stairs and let him inside. They hadn’t talked much while they were working out since he was concentrating on his breathing, but she had told him a bit about her job. Greg was a good listener. He’d nodded as she rambled on about her day. Though he didn’t say much, she could tell from his eyes that he was really hearing her.

  She led him into her kitchen and she asked him about his game ideas. She could tell he was really passionate about gaming. His light blue eyes sparkled and he used lots of hand gestures. They’d cooked dinner and were sitting down at her dining table before he stopped. His cheeks colored. “Sorry. I didn’t mean
to go on for so long.”

  Admittedly, she wasn’t into gaming, but she’d enjoyed listening to him. “It’s fine. I can tell you really love it.”

  He sipped his water. “Daria never wanted to hear about it.”

  The more she heard about Daria, the more she wondered at his determination to win her back. The woman wasn’t good enough for him. Fearing that discussing her would lead to an argument, she asked, “Do you need help painting?”

  He shook his head and his too long hair swished back and forth. “I’ve done a couple of them already. And my friends volunteered to help me with the last two.” He put down his fork and cleared his throat. “Um, by the way, Ben really liked you. He was wondering if you’d like to go out.”

  Ben was a handsome enough guy in a burly sort of way. But he’d impressed her as the type of guy who was his own number one fan. She didn’t like cocky guys. She liked her men intelligent and sweet, almost shy. “As you know, I just got out of a relationship. I’m not ready to start dating again. Besides, since he’s a friend of yours, it’s not a good idea. If it blew up, because we’re neighbors, I’d still have to see him after.” Appearing relieved, Greg nodded eagerly. It made her suspect he’d never wanted her to accept in the first place.

  “Thank you for dinner. As you can tell, it was delicious.” He tilted up his empty plate for her to see. “You’re quite the cook.”

  She shrugged. “Cooking was always been a family affair in my house.”

  “My mom did all the cooking and cleaning. I didn’t even enter a kitchen until I got my own place.”

  “Oh, so you’re spoiled.”

  He shrugged. “I was an only child. My dad died when I was young. My mom was this amazing dynamo. All I had to do was keep my room decent and keep my grades up. That’s all she asked of me. She passed away a few months ago.”