Chapter 8
"You lying bitch!" Trevor hissed as he stormed into her kitchen.
Zoe fought back a smile, knowing exactly what he was pissed about. "Good morning to you, too," she said, focusing her attention on making his lunch and barely biting back a snort of laughter.
"Don't give me that 'good morning' bullshit, Zoe. You know exactly what you did!" he accused, trying to look stern as he pointed a finger at her. His eyes darted down at the food spread out on her counter several times completely wrecking the effect, especially when he went ahead and licked his lips in anticipation.
"Can I have double cheese?" he asked, momentarily forgetting why he was pissed at her, which she noticed happened quite a bit when food was around.
Sighing heavily as if it somehow pained her to do as he asked, she put down the jar of mayonnaise and added extra cheese to his sandwiches.
"Only three sandwiches? Are you trying to starve me?" he asked with a pout that she shouldn't find adorable, but did. "You know we're not all on diets like you, don't you?" he asked as he reached out and pushed the loaf of potato bread towards her in silent demand.
With an eye roll she pulled out two more slices of bread, wondering how she let him talk her into this particular chore. Oh, that's right. Two months ago he pouted and kept on pouting for a week until she finally had enough and agreed to make his damn lunches for him. She hadn't missed the triumphant smile he tried hiding from her, but she let it slide since it meant more hours for her and because he was just so damn cute when he thought he was pulling one over on her.
"Oh god! What the hell have you poisoned me with now?" he demanded, drawing her attention.
"Hey! Stop eating my food!" she snapped, reaching over and taking her bowl of high fiber cereal away from him. He practically shoved it in her hands. "You keep screwing with my calorie count, you jerk."
A woman on a diet who was only allowing herself twelve hundred calories a day was not someone to mess with as Trevor should have already learned, but the man couldn't seem to stop himself from stealing whatever food she was eating. Most of the food she bought was admittedly gross, but it worked. If she hadn't already lost a lot of weight and actually felt good about herself she would have given up a long time ago.
"You owe me an apology!" he demanded. She'd wondered how long it would take him to get back to that. He really had a problem with his focus when food was around, actually now that she thought about it, all the Bradfords she'd come across had that same problem.
"For what?" she asked, trying to appear innocent, but her lips twitching as she fought back a smile kind of killed it.
"For what?" he asked dumbfounded. "For lying to me! You said that book had sex in it! You lied, again!" He folded his arms over his chest as he glared down at her.
"Are you sure? I don't remember saying that," she of course lied. It really did entertain her every night when he would ask if they were getting to the sex part yet. She of course assured him that they were while she did her damndest not to laugh. She lost that battle several times, but thankfully he couldn't see her burying her face in her pillow and laughing her ass off at him.
"Yes, I'm sure, woman! That's two books you lied to me about," he said, still glaring.
"Hmm, you know what, it's been a while so I guess I just confused the books," she said, scrunching her face up in thought. "It's definitely in the third book."
He narrowed his eyes on her. "Are you sure this time?"
"Mmmhmm," she answered, looking back down as she fought not to laugh.
"Fine, I guess we can start the third book tonight," he said in that tone that he used when he tried to make her think that he was somehow doing her a favor. She wasn't fooled, but she didn't care enough to argue.
Over the past two and a half months she'd come to enjoy their nightly ritual. It was nice to have something to look forward to instead of the all consuming loneliness she used to feel. Her days were no longer filled with dread and boredom. Now she woke up looking forward to work, although she missed having Haley to talk to it was still a thousand times better than her old job.
Zoe hadn't really made many friends, but the guys were really nice to her and every now and then Haley called up to say hello. She'd even been invited to Haley's baby shower. Everyone had been so nice and she'd really been enjoying herself that is until Haley's water broke. It got a little crazy after that.
But she did meet some very nice EMT's and even got to help put a splint on Jason's fingers after Haley broke two or three of them during the last contraction. Not that he seemed to care or notice. The man had been a nervous wreck the entire time. The only thing that seemed to calm him down somewhat was when the EMT placed the cutest little baby girl she'd ever seen in his arms.
Little by little, things were improving for her and she couldn't be happier. Even her relationship with Trevor was better. She wouldn't exactly call them friends since they never socialized and he never really went out of his way to acknowledge her at work, but he did provide her with entertainment in the morning and at night so he was a much welcomed part of her day.
She grabbed his lunch box and gestured to the clock. "You're going to be late." She started the five minute process of fitting all his food into the small cooler.
"Shit," he said, reaching into his back pocket. "Let me pay you before I forget."
Ah, payday, her new favorite day of the week. It was nice not to cringe anymore when she got paid. Granted her full-time job paid her more than enough so she had plenty of money to pay all of her bills and put some away, but the money she earned from Trevor was her favorite, probably because she actually had fun plans for this money. If things kept going the way they were she would be taking her first real vacation, ever, in a very short time.
"Gimme," she said, grinning as she held out her hand.
Chuckling, Trevor handed her the money that brought her that much closer to her dream vacation.
"You better get going," she said, gesturing with a banana for him to move his butt.
"Yes, boss," he said teasingly as he swiped her banana.
"Hey! That's a hundred and ten calories, buddy!" she said, hurrying around the kitchen island to rescue her banana, but Trevor was already out the door by the time she made it to the living room.
"There had better be sex in that book tonight, Zoe!" he yelled from the hallway.
Definitely entertaining, she decided as she went back to the kitchen to look for something to replace her banana.
**********
"Hey, does anyone know where that girl is?" David, one of the supervisors and a complete a*shole, demanded as he stormed out of the office.
Trevor ignored the prick as he relaxed and ate his lunch. Zoe couldn't cook to save her life but she could make a damn good sandwich. He was having some of the guys over after work to watch the game. He'd planned on having her order pizza for him, but maybe instead he'd have her run out and buy deli meat so she could make them a platter of sandwiches. Then again he might just have her do both, he thought with a smile. It was damn nice to have someone at his beck and call, he thought with a content sigh.
"Hey, David, I think that's her now!" one of the guys announced.
He watched with bored interest as Zoe hurried past the large dumpsters while hugging a large stack of folders in her arms. She headed towards the office, but was cut off by David.
"Where the hell have you been?" he demanded, getting in her face.
Since it had nothing to do with him he blocked out their conversation and focused his attention back to the problem at hand. Should he just go ahead and eat the cake snacks Zoe packed now or wait for his afternoon break? Such a tough choice, he decided as he ripped open a chocolate cake package and devoured the tasty treat. As he ripped into another treat he resigned himself to sneaking into the office later and stealing some of the fruit that Zoe kept as backup.
He really didn't know how she did it. Two months without decent food was bad enough, but the shit she ate was downright torture. The diet was working. It was hard not to notice that, he thought as he looked up from ripping open another cake snack open to run his eyes over Zoe.
There was no arguing that she looked better than she had two months ago. She'd lost about thirty pounds, but she was still pleasantly rounded, but in a sexy way now. Her hair was shorter, shoulder length now, making her look less plain. Actually, with the light tan she was now sporting she actually looked cute and adorable, not in the cute and adorable sexy way Haley did, but still cute.
Just then she turned, giving him her back as she spoke quietly with the a*shole and Trevor found his eyes dropping to that generous ass that even he had to admit was drool worthy. There was definitely no arguing with the results, but that didn't change the fact that he was actually getting a little worried about her.
He wasn't a doctor, but he didn't think the twelve hundred calories she was restricting herself to daily was healthy, especially since most of the time she didn't even come close to that limit. It wasn't as if he was counting her calories, he wasn't, but she kept her diet journal on the kitchen counter and he made it a point to sneak a peek at it every morning and what he saw had him seeing red.
Zoe was starving herself.
A few times he opened his mouth to talk to her about it only to end up shutting his mouth. It was none of his business what she did. If she wanted to survive on twigs and water that was her business. He had his own shit to deal with and didn't need to add the problems of his tenant onto the list.
"Damn, I was hoping she'd bitch slap him," one of the men muttered as David stormed away and Zoe walked into the office.
"There's always tomorrow," someone else said wistfully. Trevor didn't care enough to look up from packing his lunch back up to add to the conversation. It was a moot point since he really didn't think Zoe would ever have to raise her hand. With her quick tongue she'd never have to. She'd put any guy that f*cked with her in his place and probably smile while she did it.
"Maybe she'll sit on him," Hank mused.
"Or eat him," Craig said, chuckling.
Now that had his attention. He looked up in time to see several of the guys butting fists and grinning like idiots over the pretty stupid comments.
"Real nice, guys," Trevor drawled, grabbing his empty water bottle.
"Uh oh, I think we just insulted Trevor's woman," Hank said, laughing.
"Knock it off, a*shole. You know it's not like that," Trevor ground out. For the past couple of weeks the guys had been busting his balls with this bullshit. It had gotten old real f*cking fast.
"Come on, man. It's okay. We all understand that fat chicks need love too," Craig said in mock sympathy, earning more chuckles and murmurs of agreement from the rest of the guys.
"Uh huh," Trevor said, grabbing his shit and walking away. Their bullshit annoyed him, but not enough to really care.
"Hey, Trevor, hold up!" Hank said, forcing Trevor to bite back a few choice words as he reluctantly stopped.
"What?" he snapped, not really caring that he was an a*shole since he knew what was coming.
Hank stopped a few feet away from him, looking a little anxious. "I was just wondering if you were going to join the guys tomorrow night for a beer," he grumbled, but they both knew that wasn't the real reason he wanted to know.
He wanted Trevor to hang out with him so that he'd have a chance at a higher class of women. If he found out the jerk used his name one more time to pick up a woman he was going to throttle the bastard.
"I'm not sure yet," he said even though he'd already planned on going. He just didn't want to get this a*shole's hopes up and have him hounding him all night and day about it.
"You should come out," Hank said, running a hand over his over-gelled hair to smooth it down as he gave the girl working the coffee truck, who couldn't be more than seventeen years old, a leering look.
With a snort of disgust he walked off, amazed that someone hadn't beaten the shit out of the bastard yet.
"Think about it!" Hank called after him. "It will do you a world of good to be around some women that don't outweigh you!" he said, laughing and making Trevor force himself to keep moving before he did something that would land his ass in jail.
**********
"Zoe?"
"Yeah?" she said, pulling her attention away from the computer. Not that she'd been working. Nope. She'd been too busy trying not to die of embarrassment to get much of anything done.
Although it was already the first week of October it was still hot, but not hot enough to run the air conditioner so she'd foolishly opened all of the windows to let in cool air and unfortunately heard more than she wanted to.
"Zoe?" Jared said, drawing her attention. She looked up at her boss, hoping against hope that he hadn't heard.
"Yes?" she asked, hoping he wasn't going to try and comfort her. She hated pity more than anything.
"Are you going to eat that?" he asked, looking down at her salad with diced up chicken and licking his lips as if he were staring at fillet mignon.
Relieved that he hadn't heard, Zoe sighed as she looked down at her salad. She was pretty hungry, but maybe she shouldn't overdo it, she thought even as her stomach protested.
"No. Do you want it?" she asked. She'd barely finished asking when Jared reached out and snatched up her bowl. Well, at least she cut out two hundred and fifty calories off her diet, she thought with an inward sigh.
"Thanks," he said, already picking at her salad and snacking on a cucumber slice as he made his way over to the refrigerator. "I need you to run an errand," he said, grabbing a bottle of creamy French dressing from the fridge and smothering the salad in it.
She licked her lips hungrily as she imagined how good that would taste. For the past two and a half months she'd forgone any type of condiment on her food, telling herself that she didn't any extra calories. After what she'd just heard she had to agree.
"Sure. What do you need?" she asked, grabbing her purse, glad to have a distraction from what she'd heard.
"Could you run some contracts down to the animal shelter? They need us to build some new kennels and fix one of the buildings," he said around a huge bite of salad.
"No problem," she said, getting to her feet.
"After that you can take the rest of the day off," Jared said, surprising her.
"A-are you sure?" Zoe asked nervously, even though by this point she should be used to Jared's kindness and generosity. It seemed that nearly three months of kindness wasn't enough to make up for three years in hell, but she was working on it.
Jared simply chuckled. "Yes, I'm sure. Get the hell out of here and enjoy your weekend," he said as he made his way to the office to get the contracts, but not before he snatched her ice water up on the way almost as if he couldn't help himself.
As Zoe followed after him she couldn't help but wonder if there was a name for this little food obsession all the Bradford males seemed to suffer from. Although, she wasn't going to complain about it since it was helping her lose weight.