THE NIGHTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS Vicki Lewis ThompsonContents: 12345678910111213141516EpilogueChapter 1^»"Suzanne, you need a rebound guy." Terri Edwards took a swig from her waterbottle without breaking stride on the treadmill next to Suzanne's. She was infabulous shape, which allowed her to converse normally.Suzanne definitely could not converse normally, and holding her water bottle wasout of the question. She could barely stay upright on the relentless monster, letalone form sentences. "A … rebound … guy?" She'd never have guessed a treadmillcould be such a challenge, or that weight-lifting machines could be so … heavy.The gym had looked impressive when she walked in, with its bright lights, cheerycolors and the aroma of good honest sweat coming from dedicated folks wearingspandex and headbands. Besides, they'd had the cutest Christmas tree sitting onthe sign-in desk. Suzanne had no idea where they'd found miniature barbells andjogging shoes for the decorations, but she'd been captivated. To top it off, herfavorite Christmas song, "Carol of the Bells," had poured from the sound system,right on cue.She'd taken it as a sign, and with Terri's encouragement, she'd put her name andher Visa card on the dotted line. Joining a health club had seemed like a goodidea an hour ago. Exercise lifted the spirits, or so she'd heard."A rebound guy," Terri repeated. "Great body, not into commitment, somebody youwouldn't think of dating under normal circumstances. With a guy like that in yourlife for a few weeks, you'll soon be over Jared."
"I am … over Jared." She tripped and grabbed onto the rail for dear life. "I just… have … too much … free time."Terri glanced at her. "You're walking on a slant there, babe. Pretty soon you'llbe horizontal. Better get your feet under you.""Right." She gritted her teeth and scrambled to catch up with the moving belt.Then she went too far and had to backpedal so she wouldn't fall on her butt."Let's take five." Terri leaned over and turned off Suzanne's treadmill."Thank you." Suzanne hung on the rail and panted as the sound system belted out"Jingle Bell Rock." The unrelenting cheer was getting on her nerves. "Thank youfor saving my life." She gazed over at Terri. "Did I ever tell you I hateescalators, too? And those moving sidewalks at O'Hare give me hives. I'm not cutout for the gym. Terri. Nice thought, but I'm ready to retire my spandex and takeup stamp collecting.""Nonsense. It's your first day. Besides, you're already paid up for a year. Comeon, we'll get something at the juice bar and then take a turn on the stair-climbers."The juice bar sounded excellent. A real honest-to-goodness bar sounded evenbetter. Hot coffee laced with Baileys and she'd be a happy woman. She stepped offthe treadmill with caution, but even so, the ground seemed to be moving when shetried to walk."You forgot your water bottle and your towel." Terri draped the towel aroundSuzanne's neck and put the water bottle in her hand before guiding her over to astool at the juice bar. "I guess you weren't kidding when you said you'd neverbeen in a gym before."Suzanne shook her head. "Nope, wasn't kidding.""How do you keep from getting fat? No, don't answer that. You're one of thosehigh-metabolism types I love to hate, and I don't even want to hear about it.""I guess." Suzanne eased onto the stool. Her whole body still vibrated."I ate two rum balls at the office Christmas party last night, and if I don't putin an extra ten minutes on the stair-climbers, those rum balls will go straight tomy hips." Terri hopped on the stool next to Suzanne's. "Get the mango-strawberrymadness. It's terrific."Suzanne ordered the mango-strawberry madness, and discovered it wasn't bad, but aBaileys and coffee would have been ten times better. She tried not to think of themoney she'd shelled out for a year's membership at this torture club. She plannedto spend two days downstate with her mother over Christmas, which was three weeksaway. She hadn't been looking forward to the visit, but now it gave her alegitimate excuse to skip an evening at the gym.Terri patted her arm. "Don't worry. You'll get into the swing of it. And even ifyou don't need the exercise to lose weight, you'll feel tons better once you'reused to moving your body more. Deep breathing does so much for stress and anxiety,believe me. Desk jobs are not good for our health.""Being in this gym with all these machinesproduces stress and anxiety in me,"Suzanne said. "Maybe I'll get back into coin collecting. I used to love that as a
kid. Somewhere in my storage unit I should still have the—"Terri groaned and dropped her head to the counter."What? I'm talking about a perfectly acceptable hobby here. Lots of people areinto it these days, with the new quarters coming out In fact, I've even startedsaving them."Raising her head, Terri gazed at Suzanne. "You do not need a hobby. You need aman."Sure enough, the concept made her stomach tighten, as it had ever since Jared'sdeparture. "I'll get one of those, too, sooner or later. Right now I'd rather lookfor quarters.""How will you ever get a man at the rate you're going? It's been six months, andyou refuse to let anybody fix you up. More than that, you walk around with thisdo-not-touch attitude that would warn off any guy but the terminally obtuse. I sayyou're gun-shy."Suzanne opened her mouth to object."I don't blame you," Terri continued. "Jared wasn't very sensitive about thebreakup.""If you're referring to his comment that I'm an anal-retentive ice queen, I guessyou could say that." Suzanne had taught herself to repeat the phrase with a smileto show that she wasn't bothered by it anymore. Which, of course, she was."That comment only reveals Jared's insecurities," Terri said."Absolutely." And hers, she thought. In the year she was with Jared she'd neverbeen able to get into his rhythm. Her struggle to keep up with Jared'sexpectations had been a lot like trying to keep up with the treadmill tonightJared belonged to a gym like this one. He liked loud parties, action-adventuremovies and marathon sex.They'd never been right for each other, but he'd convinced her that they would beonce she learned to loosen up. She'd never learned. Having him gone was a relief,which told her that she'd never really loved him, just the idea of being in love.But she missed little things, like the scent of his aftershave in the bathroom,the rumble of male laughter, the comfort of cuddling on the couch. Jared hadn'tbeen much for that, but he'd managed it on a few rainy afternoons.Terri stirred her rosy drink with a straw. When she spoke, her tone was careful."Have you ever heard anybody in our apartment building mention Greg?""The handyman? What kind of mention?""I mean, like,mention .""Uh, no." Whenever she thought of the handyman, she always felt a thrill offorbidden pleasure. Her first glimpse of him shortly after moving in had sent ajolt of sexual awareness through her. She'd never had that kind of reaction to aman before.Since then she indulged in a secret fantasy life with Greg, and that was so
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Chapter 16 for The night before xmas
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