He Loves Lucy (26 page)

Under normal circumstances, Lucy would have laughed at that comment. But these weren’t normal circumstances, because it seemed that with each new day, things got more twisted up between Theo and herself, and the truth was that without him, she didn’t want to face this fifteen-minute warm-up, let alone the next few months. Lucy had come to rely on Theo’s calm conviction, his steady presence, and his smile, and now that she no longer had them, she missed them so much it hurt.

She loved Theo
and
she needed him-like she’d never needed anyone in her life. Lucy pedaled and took a deep breath, wondering how she could have let things get so out of hand.

When Tyson entered the room and cleared his throat, Theo could already hear the apology coming. So he stopped his friend before he could start.

“It’s cool, Tyson.” He kept his back to him. “Thanks for being good to Lucy and picking up where I left off with training-just watch her form on the bench press, because she has a tendency to torque her elbows, and don’t let her in the same room with a pecan pie.”

Theo heard Tyson collapse into a chair.

“Well, it ain’t cool. You two need to talk to each other. That woman loves your sorry white ass, Theo, and for the life of me, I don’t know what the holdup is. Why can’t you tell her you love her, too? Because it’s plain to everyone that you do.”

Theo turned around and studied all six-feet-five of Tyson Williams, sprawled out on one of the small metal chairs. He was wearing a half smile, clasping his hands behind his bald head. “It’s all your fault,” Theo told him.

Tyson gave his head an exaggerated shake, then focused in on Theo. “What the
hell
did I do now?”

“That night at the Mandarin you said she deserved to be savored. Spoiled!
Enjoyed
!”

“All right. I said that. So what?”

“I was on my way over to tell her I loved her-and you fucked with my head!”

Tyson sat up in the chair and leaned forward, elbows to knees. “How you figure that, Redmond?”

“After you said all that, I figured I don’t have the time to do any of those things now, let alone when I get back into school and then into my residency.” Theo smacked a pile of mail onto the conference table. “I wondered how I was going to savor Lucy on two hours of sleep a night. How I was going to spoil her if I hardly ever saw her. How I would find a way to enjoy her when my life is going to be reduced to studying, working, wolfing down hospital cafeteria food, and fantasizing about what it’s like to sleep in my own bed.”

Tyson shifted uncomfortably.

“I’ve
seen
what medical school and residency do to relationships, Tyson, and it sucks. I don’t know if it’s fair to ask Lucy to start something right when my life’s about to get even more fucked up than it is.”

“I know you want to be a doctor.”

“I do. It’s what I’m supposed to do with my life. Simple as that.”

Tyson studied his hands and said softly, “Is this about Jenna?”

“
What
?” All the jagged energy rushing through Theo’s body slammed to a halt at the sound of her name. “Jenna has nothing to do with Lucy.”

Tyson looked up and smiled. “C’mon, man. I was with you through the Jenna shit, remember? She betrayed your ass, and I saw how you took it.” Tyson got up from the chair and moved closer to Theo, then sat on the edge of the table. “You swore you’d never let a woman in as far as you’d let Jenna, remember? You told me you’d never let a female become that important to you again.”

Theo let out a startled laugh.

“And listen, Theo, I think losing your parents and Jenna like that made you kind of crawl up inside yourself and hide behind all your surface business. I remember you said-”

“What are you, my therapist?” Theo laughed in earnest now.

“I’m your friend, Theo. I’m making sure you’re not walking around thinking that Lucy is another Jenna.”

Theo stopped laughing. “Lucy isn’t Jenna.”

“See? I’m damn good at this.” Tyson smiled.

“I just don’t want to hurt her.”

“And you don’t want to leave yourself open to being hurt.” Tyson shrugged. “It makes perfect sense. All I’m saying is you can’t blame this mess you’re making with Lucy on your med school shit alone.”

Theo collapsed into a chair and rubbed his forehead, because Tyson’s words were making more sense than he cared to admit.

“Have you talked with her about this? Have you really told her about how Jenna fucked you up? How it felt to lose your parents? How scared you are about going back to school?”

Theo raised his head and blinked at Tyson. “Maybe not everything.”

“Then do it, Redmond. I think Lucy is the kind of woman who can handle most anything if it’s given to her straight.”

Theo walked over to the large tinted window of the trainer room and watched Lucy bounce up and down on the elliptical trainer in her pink sweatpants, ponytail swirling.

Lucy is not Jenna
. Theo smiled to himself, sensing Tyson coming up behind him.

“Lucy’s cool.”

“She is.”

“If you really love her-even if you’re in med school or law school or in training to be the king of the fucking world-you gotta be straight with her and give her whatever you can.”

“Even if it’s an hour a day?”

“Hey, if
you
know and
she
knows that you got one hour a day for her, then that’s what you give her. But you give her your full attention for that one hour. You see what I’m saying, Theo? You make the most of that hour. Then you give her another hour the next day.”

Theo turned his head and smiled at Tyson. “You’re on a roll, aren’t you?”

“And if you ever find yourself with a whole day, you give her that whole day. And you tell her that you can’t wait for the next whole day you get to spend with her.”

That’s when Theo began to laugh. He laughed loud, and Tyson joined in. Then Tyson said, “What’s so damn funny?”

“You. You’re funny. Since when did you get to be an expert on how the female species thinks?”

Tyson smiled so big he obviously enjoyed having the opportunity to answer that question. “We all have our fields of expertise, Theo. Your life’s work is going to be medicine. My life’s work is women.”

Theo studied Lucy again, now trudging along in earnest, the pink sweatpants a blur. “I think I’ll just concentrate on this one woman.”

“She’s a good one.”

“But those sweatpants have got to go.”

“No shit.”

The two of them watched Lucy without comment for a moment, and then Tyson asked, “So what’s your plan?”

Theo smiled at him. “I’m going to get her back.”

Tyson nodded, then raised his eyebrows hopefully. “If you fuck up, feel free to delegate my way again.”

Theo laughed and smacked Tyson on the shoulder. “Not going to happen.”

Office of Doris Lehman, MSW, PhD

“It concerns me that you missed several appointments and didn’t return my calls. What’s going on, Lucy?”

“Well, let’s see.” Lucy got comfortable in the peach damask and refused-absolutely refused-to look at the annoying geisha girls. They’d have to wait for the next patient to harass, because she wasn’t giving them the satisfaction today.

“I’ve been following a very hectic schedule, Dr. Lehman, doing things like telling Theo I love him and getting rejected, eating, working, worrying, crying, eating, obsessing about Theo rejecting me, eating, trying to figure out my whacked-out boss, eating, thinking about Theo, lounging around, taking phone calls from crazed family members, eating. Other than that, not much.”

Doris finished taking notes, and Lucy would have given anything to see what she’d just written. She guessed it would be along the lines of,
Patient sarcastic; in relapse with food; rejection issues have surfaced
.

“What happened with Theo?”

“Banner City, I’m afraid.”

Doris cleared her throat. “I have a very hard time believing he unrolled a bedsheet painted with derogatory statements about you. Where did you choose to tell him how you felt? What were the circumstances?”

“The party three weeks ago.”

“Ah, yes. I saw photos in the
Herald
.”

“I made an error in judgment-I really expected him to tell me he loved me, too. Isn’t that rich? Instead, he said something about his life not being what I needed or deserved-some crap like that.”

Doris recrossed her legs and blinked at Lucy a few times. “That might have been a sincere response. Maybe he fears he’s not good enough for you.”

Lucy’s mouth hung open.

“I’m merely suggesting that Theo might believe you’d find something about him or his lifestyle unacceptable.”

Lucy shut her mouth and took a deep breath. “Uh-huh. Like the fact that he’s smart, witty, gorgeous, and fun to be with? You mean those annoying traits?”

“Perhaps he’s concerned about how you would handle him being in medical school. Did that cross your mind?”

Lucy frowned. “You mean he’s worried he won’t have enough time for me?”

“Exactly, Lucy. Maybe it wasn’t a rejection at all but his attempt, albeit an awkward one, to tell you he wasn’t sure he could give you everything you need.”

“But all I need is him.”

Doris smiled. She put her clipboard down on the floor near her feet and leaned in, lacing her fingers together as she, Lucy hoped, came up with a plan to fix everything. It was times like these that Lucy didn’t mind the copays.

Doris shook her head and laughed. “I’d love to lock the two of you in a room for a few days without diets or scales and certainly with no family or TV cameras. Just the two of you, free to be yourselves. I wonder what would come to the surface?”

Then Doris made a preposterous suggestion.

“Have you considered inviting Theo to go with you to Jamaica when this is all over?”

Lucy swallowed hard. Alone with Theo? In paradise? With nothing to do but enjoy each other’s company?

“I’ve already asked Fran. She can’t wait to go.”

Doris nodded. “I think she’d understand if you made other arrangements.”

“What really happened between the two of you?” Carolina Buendia flapped her eyelashes and glanced at the camera, as if to warn viewers that now was not the time to go for a coffee refill.

“Oh, crap,” Theo said. He leaned back in his kitchen chair and clasped his hands behind his head, sprawling his legs out in front of him.

“We’ve all seen the newspaper and the Web site- everyone is talking about it,” Carolina continued. “Was there a relationship between the two of you outside the gym that went sour?”

The look on Lucy’s face made Theo queasy. He wasn’t sure if she was going to break into tears, laugh, or rip poor Carolina to shreds with her sharp tongue. As Theo watched Lucy’s eyes go wider and wider still, he contemplated rushing downtown and busting through the studio doors to save her.

“That’s quite flattering,” Lucy eventually said. She looked at Carolina without flinching. “The truth is that Theo and I have a wonderful working relationship, but nothing more.”

Groans of disappointment rose from the audience. Theo sat up straight in the chair.

“Then why has he suddenly disappeared? Why is Tyson here?” John Weaver asked. “Not that we don’t love you, Tyson.”

Theo’s friend shrugged and laughed nervously.

‘This is really Theo’s business and not my story to tell, but I will say this…“ Lucy looked right into the camera and smiled. ”Theo has a lot going on in his life. He’s hoping to return to medical school, and he recently took the entrance exam. He studied for months and months.“

“Oh, crap,” Theo said again. It’s not that he was hiding it, but he wasn’t exactly advertising it, either. What if he didn’t get accepted? Now the whole Miami-Dade TV market could share in his humiliation!

“Whatcha watching, Theo?” Buddy shuffled into the kitchen in his briefs and a white T-shirt, his glasses askew. Mornings had been far more leisurely since the predawn workouts with Lucy had come to an end.

“Never mind. I see.” Buddy plopped into a chair. “Her hair looks pretty today. Her earrings are nice.”

Theo returned his gaze to the television and tried not to listen to the ongoing discussion of his personal life. Buddy was right-Lucy’s hair looked pretty. The way it seemed to swing right along her shoulders made Theo think she might have gotten it trimmed. And the dangly earrings were new. She was wearing a cute skirt and a top he’d never seen before. Same with the sandals. All of a sudden, it really bothered him that he’d missed out on so many of the details of Lucy’s life.

Once Carolina and John seemed placated as to why Theo had been a no-show, it was time for Lucy’s weighing and measuring. She walked toward the scale tentatively. She was frowning and her head was bowed. Tyson whispered something in her ear that earned a sweet little smile, but Theo could tell she was thoroughly panicked.

Tyson tapped the scale and stopped. Then he began tapping the other way-not the way anyone wanted it to go. The studio audience gasped and went silent.

Theo wished he were there with her. He should be right there with her! Because Lucy’s lips were starting to tremble and her cheeks got splotchy and Tyson said softly, “Looks like we’ve had a setback this month-a gain of six pounds.”

Lucy took a deep breath. Then, right there on live television, she mumbled, “
Fuck this
?‘

She stormed off the set, leaving Tyson and the

WakeUp Miami
hosts speechless. Someone in the control room made an executive decision to cut to a commercial.

“I don’t think girls are supposed to use those words on TV,” Buddy noted, pouring himself a glass of orange juice.

September

By eight that evening, Mary Fran was once again crying in the bedroom, having made Lucy swear she would not leave the apartment for any reason, not for a second.