“… An all-expenses-paid week for two at the exclusive Caves Resort and Spa in Jamaica!”

The room burst into applause and Theo elbowed Lucy so she knew to stand up. She said “thank you” over and over and acted suitably shocked and thrilled. Then sat back down.

She glanced around the table and locked eyes first with Mary Fran, who scowled at her, then with Gia, who raised her hands and her eyebrows as if to say, What’s your problem, chica girlie?

“Lucy, why don’t you come on up and say a few words?” Stephan glanced down on her with a fake smile frozen on his face. She had a bad feeling about this.

“This is a surprise!” She smiled, thinking that Stephan should have had the courtesy to warn her she would be speaking tonight. Not do to so was just plain vindictive.

Which was nothing new for him.

Lucy rose from her seat and began the walk to the microphone, feeling with precise discomfort how the dress clung to every nook and curvature of her body. She turned and faced at least 250 people, feeling a slight tremble rise from her toes to her lips. Her eyes darted to the video and still cameras trained on her and to the expectant looks of the faces of her family, friends, and Theo. The silence sliced through her brain and left her numb.

A voice called out from the back of the room, and Lucy recognized the reporter from the Herald. “So, Lucy? What’s the single most important lesson you’ve learned so far?”

Lucy wasn’t prepared to be ganged up on by reporters like this tonight. One-on-one was fine, but she’d done nothing to prepare for a press conference. She’d been set up, and she glanced down at Stephan, who sat comfortably in his chair, a vacant smile pasted on his flushed, rounded face. Lucy noticed with a shock that the buttons were nearly popping off his tuxedo shirt. When had Stephan gained so much weight? She hadn’t even noticed…

“What would you tell anyone out there trying to lose weight?” the Herald reporter tried rephrasing the question. “The single most important lesson.”

Lucy turned toward the crowd and laughed. Something about this whole evening was just so damn funny-she was prepared to tell Theo she loved him and he was acting like she had bubonic plague; it now appeared Stephan had gained a pound for every two she’d lost; and the woman who’d been so afraid of cameras and reporters and attention was now glorying in it. The woman who used to wear a size 22 now wore a size 10.

‘Take the risk,“ Lucy said. ”Instead of sitting around listing all the reasons why you’ll fail, take that first risky step.“ She smiled down at Theo and back at the cameras. ”And it wouldn’t hurt to step right into the Palm Club and sign up with one of their trainers.“

Stephan led Lucy away from the microphone after about fifteen minutes of questions and answers, which had apparently gone far too well for his taste. After coffee, the band began to play. Lucy danced an awkward salsa number with her father, who told her she looked cute as a button, and then accepted dances with Buddy, Dan, John Weaver, and Tyson. Theo burned up the dance floor with Lucy’s mother, then Mary Fran, Gia, Veronica, Carolina Buendia, his boss, Ramona, and every other breathing female at the event. Except for Lucy.

She didn’t understand why he was ignoring her. It was as if he was doing everything he could to avoid speaking to her or standing anywhere near her. Lucy headed over to the bar and ordered herself a margarita. Dan tagged along.

“You supposed to be drinking those things?”

“Mind your own beeswax, Danny.”

“Hey, I’m just looking out for you.” Dan put his arm around her. “Lucy, you look amazing. I mean it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so gorgeous. I am so proud of you.”

She accepted the compliment with a nod and the margarita with relief and began to snarf it down. When she came up for air she said, “A lot of good all this gor-geousness is doing me.”

Dan’s auburn eyebrows went askew and he whispered in her ear, “Well, Theo’s great. I like him.”

She sucked down some more candy-flavored tequila and felt good about it.

“I think he really digs you, Lucy.”

“Uh-huh.”

“He’s hanging back. I think he’s waiting for a sign from you. You might have to take the bull by the horns on this one.”

“Ha!” She looked up at her brother and laughed. “And then take a seat in the stands and wait for him to unfurl the banner?”

Dan scowled at her. “There is no banner here, Luce. This is not a college football stadium.”

“So you say.”

“Seriously. Talk to me. I thought you were completely over the Taco Bowl incident.”

“Nope.” More slurping. “A girl doesn’t just get over that, Dan. It destroyed me, OK? I went on like it didn’t, I think mostly to make it easier on Mom and Dad, but it nearly killed me.”

Dan’s eyes got huge.

“I may be thinner, but I fight every damn day not to walk around seeing myself as the Pitt State Slump Buster!”

She obviously said it a little too loudly, because Dan shushed her and pulled her to an alcove.

“I had no idea, Luce.”

“Yeah, well. I’ve been lying for about a decade now and I’m pretty sick of it. When they unfurled that banner I wanted to die-there you go. The truth is out!”

Dan hugged her and tried to take the margarita out of her hand. “Hey! Get your own,” she said. “Wait. While you’re getting your own, would you be a sweetheart and get me one, too?”

Stephan enjoyed Lola immensely. She was dull as a stump and talked about nothing but weight lifting and the line of protein supplements she was selling on the side. But she had two things going for her. All right, technically she had three things going for her-a nice set of tits and a deep dislike for Lucy Cunningham.

“She makes me sick,” Lola said while dancing in Stephan’s arms. He could not remember ever touching a woman who felt as solid as Lola. It was oddly exciting, almost taboo.

“I don’t know what it is about her, but she just rubs me the wrong way. And Theo is so gullible that he’s falling for her. I think it’s gross.”

Stephan mulled that for a moment and wondered if Lola was just plain jealous. This could be a real boon.

“Why do you think they’re doing so well?” he asked. “You’re the expert, so tell me-they’re pretty much accomplishing the impossible, aren’t they?”

“I really didn’t think she had a chance in hell. It must be the money.” She looked up at him from behind her heavily mascarared eyes. “Stephan, are you married?”

He placed his hand right on Lola’s rock-hard rump, and he smiled. “Haven’t been for three blissful years. You?”

“Never. But I’m only twenty-six.”

“Of course. Let me buy you a drink.” He began to steer her off the dance floor.

“But it’s an open bar.”

“Exactly.”

Lola giggled. Stephan looked down the front of her dress, wondering how he could use this dear girl to his advantage.

Is this the moment Dr. Lehman had referred to? Lucy wondered. Because it was ten o’clock, she’d had three margaritas, and Theo had pissed her off something fierce by not even speaking with her the entire night!

All these factors led Lucy to believe the timing couldn’t be better, so, after a quick stop in the ladies’ room to realign her body shaper and fix her lipstick, she stormed Theo’s way.

He and Buddy sat at a table, and Buddy broke out into a huge grin and waved when he saw her approaching. Lucy waved back and smiled big, just as Theo turned to see who was coming toward them. His eyes flashed.

“Hey, Cunningham.”

She asked Buddy to hold her purse and grabbed Theo’s hand. “C’mon, coach. We’re going to dance.”

This was precisely what Theo had wanted to avoid- Lucy’s luscious body in that come-fuck-me dress, pressed up against him, her tipsy breath on his cheek, the scent of Paradise Awaits pummeling his adrenal glands.