Diet Another Day

  DIET ANOTHER DAYBy Pamela Downs
  Summary:Jessica, a curvaceous New York City librarian travels to Miami Beach to attend a low carb boot camp with her soggy Scottish e-pal, Rosaleen. Inhaling the lingering aroma of lunch in an adjacent conference room, Jessica finds herself performing the Heimlich maneuver on Dr. Hunter Jones, a Navy physician. In gratitude, he invites her to his suite to soak her screaming muscles in a candlelit bubble bath. Jessica emerges, and Hunter introduces her to his colleague, Damien. They’ve been dabbling in their own weight loss research and feel she is the perfect specimen for their first trial. Skeptical Jessica is quickly persuaded to enroll in their eat what you like, exercise one hour a day and oh yeah, the exquisite romantic pleasure is required. Excerpt:
They survived the first day of boot camp. After a delicious dinner of parsley and kohlrabi slathered in mayonnaise, Jessica walked stiffly toward the ladies room. The aroma of pizza from the Panther ballroom caused her to stop at the door, close her eyes, and inhale. Oh, did she want just one slice. Just one whole pie. Just one cheesecake.
Hearing the approach of voices, Jessica opened her eyes, smoothed her wrinkled cotton capris, and smiled at the two men leaving the room. They looked right through her.
Just wait. By the end of the month, I'll be fifty pounds lighter with long, lean muscles, pert breasts and behind, no cellulite or wrinkles. Well, maybe I'll be ten pounds lighter, and maybe my panties will fully cover my rear again.
The last man from the room emerged, with wild eyes and pointing to his throat.
The universal sign of choking. Jessica asked, "Can you speak?"
He shook his head.
Jessica spun him around and hugged him from behind. Making one hand into a fist with the other clamped over it, she positioned it in the space between his ribs and sternum. By the second inward and upward thrust, he was spitting a long string of mozzarella cheese onto the floor. One last thrust and he said, "Thank you."
"Did I hurt you?"
"No."
Jessica stepped around the cheese and grabbed a hunk of napkins from the table. As she cleaned, a shudder overtook her. "You could have died!" she said, tears dripping down her cheeks. She threw the mess in a trash can.
"I'm prepared to die. Every day on duty, I know it might be my last shift. But I am not ready to let a pizza be my grim reaper."
Jessica didn't know whether to laugh or not.
He grabbed her hand and said, "I'm Hunter Jones."
He had a firm grip and Jessica immediately noticed his long fingers. Her thoughts turned to what they say about men with long fingers. She demurely looked him up and down. He was a good six inches taller. Khaki naval work uniform. A sailor. He smiled when she finally looked at his chiseled face. Clean shaven, long lashes framed sparkling brown eyes. Brown hair immaculately cut into a very short flat top.
Jessica realized he was still holding her hand. Her gaze shifted to his left hand. No ring. No tell-tale tan line. "I need to get going."
"Can't I buy you a drink or something?"
Oh yeah. I'll have a cosmopolitan, and you can dribble it over me naked. "No, I have to get back." She headed out the door. "It was nice meeting you."
"Wait. What's your name?"
"Jessica. Jessica Landry."
She hurried back to the conference room, worried she'd be scolded for being AWOL. She slipped in a side door just before the team leader dismissed them for the day.
The sailor was waiting for her when she emerged. "Hello, Jessica."
To say her heart went pitter-patter was right on target. "Rosaleen, go on ahead. I'll catch up."
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