“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.

Yes, this was a fitting end to one shitty day, and as Lucy rummaged through her pitifully stocked kitchen cabinets, she wanted to crawl in behind the brown rice and garbanzo beans and hide.

This day alone, she’d turned down fourteen requests for print or broadcast interviews, including two from major national magazines. Her weight gain was the subject of newspaper columns, radio call-ins, conversations at bus stops. She knew it would be just hours or minutes before some halfway-bright reporter somewhere put two and two together and figured out she was the Lucy Cunningham of Pitt State Slump Buster fame.

Plus, her boss had gone missing. Not that this was a tragedy, but it was inconvenient, because Friday was payday.

And she hadn’t had anything to eat since her breakfast of yogurt and a banana.

All these things conspired to make Lucy cranky and fidgety, and she moved to the refrigerator, where she stood in front of the open door, tapping her foot.

She gave up. There was only one thing she truly wanted, one thing that could save her. It was hot and filling, and in all the time she’d been in Miami, it had never failed to relax her, soothe her.

She would call Luigi. A twelve incher would be just right tonight.

But as Lucy picked up the phone she had to laugh at herself-she couldn’t remember the number for Luigi’s Pizza! It had once been No. 1 on her speed dial, but she’d deleted the number last November, and at the time it felt like getting closure on a soured relationship. And now, nine months later, she was crawling back to him and even had to stoop so low as to look up his number in the book.

Her fingers trembled but managed to hit all the right buttons on the keypad. Luigi answered. Lucy froze.

“Hello? Anybody there?”

Lucy eventually spit out her order-a large stuffed crust sausage with extra cheese-and it sounded like the lyrics to a bittersweet love song from her past.

“Lucy? Is that you?”

Good God! She couldn’t even order a pizza with impunity. “Hey, Luigi, how have you been?”

“Great, great, but you shouldn’t be eating pizza no more, Lucy, especially with the weight gain. I hate to turn down a sale, but you’re lookin‘ too good to eat my pie.”

Though Lucy stood at her kitchen counter, she knew she was really standing at a crossroads. She could agree with Luigi, open a can of garbanzo beans, and feel good about herself, or she could lie.

“It’s for my sister,” she said.

“She likes the sausage and extra cheese just like you, eh?” Luigi didn’t even try to hide his amusement.

“Yes, she does.”

“You need anything to drink with that?”

“Do you still carry ice cream?”

It was Luigi’s turn for silence. After a couple of seconds he asked, “Your sister like butter brickle same as you?”

“Yes. As a matter of fact, she can’t get enough of the stuff.”

“It comes to eighteen ninety-five. Twenty minutes. And you’re breakin‘ my heart, Lucy.” He hung up.

It was done.

Lucy poked her head into the bedroom to check on Mary Fran, who was now sleeping, thank God. The twins and Holden were with Mom and Dad for the night. This time, it seemed Mary Fran had finally followed through on her threat to leave Keith for good. She and Lucy had talked most of the evening, and as far as Lucy could see, the problem with Fran and Keith was a continuing failure to communicate.

Mary Fran said they’d tried counseling, but after Keith missed one appointment because of a last-minute business trip, they never got back on track. Mary Fran said she’d hired a nanny for two half days a week to give her some alone time but found it only made her lonelier. So two days ago, when Keith called to say he’d be another week in Houston, she hit the wall. Mary Fran left him. And she ran to Miami, the city where she’d come so many times to sleep or dance away her heartache.

Lucy left the bedroom and shook her head, realizing this was a far cry from the wild single-girl lifestyle Mary Fran had once pined for. She flopped down on the couch and surfed aimlessly through the channels, allowing her mind to rehash all the latest weirdness in her life.

Stephan had been missing for four days now-just gone. Though he sometimes left town for weeks on end, he always gave them a heads-up. But this time, nothing. No one could track him down, and Lucy had the misfortune of pulling the short straw to call his ex-wife. Upon hearing Stephan was nowhere to be found, she’d laughed. Everyone at the office agreed that if he didn’t show up tomorrow, they’d have to bring in the authorities.

Also that day, Tyson called to inform her that Lola DiPaolo had been canned. Apparently, Ramona had warned Lola to keep her mouth shut after she made those mean-spirited comments to the Herald, but just that morning she’d phoned into a morning radio show to repeat the same drivel-that Lucy was no longer even trying. Ramona canned Lola the minute she showed up for work. Good riddance to her.