5th Street: Noah

Chapter 3

The waiting room was quiet now, but just hours earlier, it had been pure chaos. Veronica called Courtney to notify her of her sister’s asthma attack. Courtney notified the rest of the family, and they were all there within minutes. They were already upset about Nellie’s attack, but it was when Rick arrived that things got ugly.

Courtney had to be held back. She refused to let Rick in to see Nellie. She blamed him for Nellie’s being in the hospital in the first place. Then Nellie’s brother, Raymond, arrived, and when he realized why Courtney was so upset, he went on the attack himself. Eventually, Rick left and things began to calm. During the hours that passed, Courtney filled Veronica in on what Nellie had suspected for months. Months. And not once had she mentioned it to Veronica. She couldn’t be sure why, but Veronica had a feeling.

Since her mother’s death, Nellie had been doing everything she could to try to cheer Veronica up. Veronica was too caught up in her own depression to even notice Nellie might be having marital issues. Nellie had never even let on. The guilt was more than Veronica could bear.

Nellie’s parents finally came out of her hospital room, allowing Veronica to enter. Nellie was doing better from what the doctors had told them, but she’d be in the hospital for at least a few days. They wanted to run a few more tests and have a specialist see her before she was released.

When Veronica walked in, Nellie smiled. The oxygen mask on her face and the tubes in her arm made her look so incredibly helpless. Veronica felt the lump begin to form in her throat again. She walked over to the side of the bed and took Nellie’s hand in hers. “How are you feeling?” she whispered.

Nellie nodded and smiled. “I should know better than to let myself get so low on my Albuterol.”

Veronica had to wonder if maybe Nellie had been using it more than usual lately because of Rick. She squeezed her hand. “Why didn’t you tell me, Nel?”

Nellie squeezed back. “Oh, honey, how could I? You were going through enough.”

Veronica felt a tear slip down her cheek. “But I should’ve been there for you.”

“I had Courtney. She was the only one that knew of my suspicions.” Nellie attempted a weak smile. “And she’s quite the sleuth, that girl.” Then she chuckled. “I heard she almost kicked his ass in the waiting room.”

Veronica laughed softly, wiping her tears away. “Yeah, she had to be held back.”

One thing about Nellie and Courtney’s relationship was that it had always been strained. Growing up, Courtney was Nellie’s pretty, outgoing, popular, younger sister while Nellie had always been the bookish, less than exciting sister on the outside. Even though Nellie never admitted it because her heart was too big, being the popular pretty one wasn’t enough for Courtney. She was still jealous of Nellie’s close relationship with their father. Nellie was obviously the favorite.

Of course, their father never declared it, but Nellie never got into trouble. She had great grades all through grade school and high school and was never promiscuous. Courtney, on the other hand, was the opposite, but it was more than that. Just as Nellie fawned over Veronica—going out of her way for her and genuinely worrying about her—Nellie had always been the same for anyone she loved in her life. Her father saw this. Courtney was never like that, which was why it surprised Veronica that she’d reacted the way she had to Rick’s betrayal of Nellie.

Still, Veronica knew she should’ve been there for Nellie. “Well, I know now.” She squeezed Nellie’s hand. “So I expect you to come to me no matter what happens. I owe you, Nel. It’s not fair that I wasn’t there for you.”

Nellie nodded, agreeing, and began telling her about Rick’s affair. She suspected things had been changing between the two of them for over a year now. When she confided in Courtney, her sister had taken it upon herself to investigate. At first, there were nothing more than dead ends, but there were many things that didn’t add up. She admitted to not telling Courtney every detail, because deep inside she was hoping she was wrong.

There were his late nights at work happening far more often. And she’d caught him in a few lies that eventually seemed to check out, but in hindsight, she knew now that Rick was just very good about covering up his tracks—that and the fact that she didn’t want to see things for what they really were.

“Now that you know, what are you gonna do?”

The tears had come halfway through their conversation, and Veronica wept with her friend, holding her hand the entire time.

“I still love him.”

Veronica nodded, fully understanding. She thought of the only serious relationship she’d ever had—with Derek. They had even begun to speak of her moving in with him. Then her mom got the news of her cancer. In the beginning, he’d been patient, but as her mom’s illness got worse and she began to have less and less time or energy for him or their relationship, they began to drift apart. Unlike Rick, he at least had the decency to tell her he’d met someone else. He even suggested they take a break and maybe try again later when she had the time—in other words, when her mother died. She was so hurt and angry, and, at the time, told him she wanted nothing to do with him.

Even though she thought what Rick had done to Nellie was despicable, she understood completely what Nellie was feeling. There had been times since her mother had died that she’d been tempted to call Derek. And her relationship with him didn’t even compare to Nellie’s marriage. Nellie and Rick had been married for four years, and he’d been her first real love.

Although her feelings for Derek had died almost the moment he admitted to meeting someone else, she’d never loved him like Nellie loved Rick. In fact, she questioned now whether she’d ever loved Derek at all.

Nellie took a deep breath and wiped her tears away. “I can’t stay married to him now. I don’t even know that he’d want to. I know Rick. He would’ve never done something like this unless he was in love with her. I just wish I had confronted him the moment I noticed the change in him. Maybe he wasn’t in love yet.” She lifted a shoulder. “I’ll live. You’ve been through worse and look at you.”

“Please don’t look at me as inspiration on how to handle depression. God, I’ve been a mess.”

“But you’re doing something about it now. Remember?”

Veronica stared at her, not sure if now was a good time to tell her she wasn’t going back to the gym, but she didn’t have to. Her friend knew her too well. Immediately, she lifted an eyebrow. “You’re going back tomorrow, Veronica.”

“I can’t,” she whispered, knowing she sounded like such a wimp.

“You have to,” Nellie said then dropped the guilt bomb. “It would be one less thing I’d have to worry about, honey. You have no idea how worried I’ve been about you. I promise you, as soon as I can, I’ll join you again.”

Suddenly, Veronica felt like the most pathetic crybaby in the world. Nellie had to deal with her marriage falling apart, had been dealing with it all on her own, and all Veronica had to do and for her own good was workout. Nothing bad could come of it except maybe some achy muscles, but she’d get started on shedding those forty plus pounds she’d packed on and maybe start feeling like a human being again.

“You don’t have to join me, Nellie. I know how much you hate working out, and we both know you do not need to lose weight.” Veronica wouldn’t say it because she didn’t want to make her feel worse, but Nellie had always dropped weight when she was stressing. Nellie had already been surprised tonight to find out she’d lost weight. Veronica knew why now and something told her Nellie’s weight would surely plummet further after this. “I’ll go back, and I promise I’ll try my hardest to lose weight as fast as I can. I need to snap out of this already, because now it’s my turn to be there for you.”

They talked some more before Veronica went home, took a much needed shower, and had a glass of wine that, despite her eventful evening, helped her sleep like a baby.

~*~

Admittedly, Noah had been surprised to see that, not only had Veronica returned alone the next day, but that two weeks later, she was still as committed to her workouts.

She even got on the scale at the end of the first week and confessed she’d weighed herself that first day and told him what her real weight had been. She also explained why Nellie hadn’t come back, but most importantly, he saw a renewed energy in her now. She asked him to work her out as hard as he could. Then she’d turned blood red when he smirked while telling her he’d never had a female put so much pressure on him. That had finally gotten a smile out of her—a really sweet smile at that.

At the end of week two when it came time to weigh in, she was nervous. She’d lost five pounds the first week, and she’d been ecstatic. “Ready?” he asked. He already saw the difference in her face. Her cheekbones were becoming more defined, and her sweatpants were looking even looser than when he’d first laid eyes on her.

She took a deep breath before stepping up on the scale. Her head fell back, and she stayed in that position, obviously not wanting to see what her weight was. Noah moved the weights on the scale, adjusting them until the bar was balanced.

Veronica still didn’t look down. “How much?” she asked.

Even after two weeks, he still hadn’t gotten used to her husky voice. He’d only heard voices like that in the movies and on television. It was all kinds of sexy, and at times, he struggled to stay focused when she spoke to him. They’d started talking a little more now—becoming more comfortable around each other.

When he saw how much she’d lost, he smiled. “How much do you think?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “But I’m gonna be so mad if it’s zero. I’ve heard that could happen.”

“Six pounds, baby!”

Her face jerked back down, her jaw dropped, and then she turned to him, her eyes wide open. She threw her arms around his neck, catching him completely off guard. Before he could react or even get a chance to get an arm around her, she pulled her arms back. “I’m sorry.” Her hands flew to her mouth, but she couldn’t hide her smile.

“Don’t be.” He smiled, a little irked with himself that he didn’t think fast enough. He would’ve loved to have felt what was under all those loose sweatshirts she always wore.

“I can’t believe it! Eleven pounds in two weeks. I thought for sure I’d lose less this week than the first.”

“Why? You worked just as hard if not harder.”

“I know. I know. But I was still scared I wouldn’t.”

Her bright smile made him smile even bigger too. “You’re doing it, Veronica. I’m gonna go ahead and admit something. That first night you were here, I was a little nervous you weren’t coming back.”

She bit her bottom lip, and he hated how something that small could distract him. “I almost didn’t,” she admitted sheepishly. “In fact”—her smile suddenly dissolved—“if Nellie hadn’t had that asthma attack, I might not have. She’s the one that pushed me to come back, and I couldn’t say no.”

Noah felt guilty about being thankful for Nellie’s attack. Not only was he a full-time trainer now, training a few other boxers besides Veronica, who paid real well for his services, he was really beginning to enjoy his training sessions with her. She actually listened when he talked about the work he’d done on his bike and his plans to try to make it as a light-heavyweight boxer, once he recovered from his shoulder injury. Most girls’ eyes glazed over after a few minutes of either subject, but Veronica listened intently—even asked a lot of questions.

“How is Nellie doing?”

“Oh, much better.” That smile was back. “But she’s always hated working out. I knew the day we started she was really only doing this for me.”

“And you?” He smirked. “You didn’t hate working out? That first day you sure looked like you did.”

She laughed. “Well, I hadn’t worked out in years. You almost killed me.” She picked up her gym bag and smiled at him. “But I’m glad you did. I needed that.”

“I’m just glad you came back. Even though I’m sorry Nellie had to have an asthma attack to get you back in here.”

She flung the gym bag over her shoulder. “Well, like they say, God works in mysterious ways. It took her attack to get me to do what I absolutely had to do. You don’t even know the half of it.”

“So tell me about it.” The smile dissolved again, and he ground his teeth in regret. “Only if you want. I know it’s none of my business.”

She shook her head. “It’s just a bunch of depressing crap. You wouldn’t want to hear about it. Trust me.”

“I trust you. If it’s personal and you’d rather not, I understand, but if you ever do, I don’t mind hearing about it.”

She tilted her head. “I’d rather not now, but I wouldn’t mind going out for a celebratory drink if you’re up for it.”

“I don’t—”

“Okay, stop the lecture.” She held her hand up, smiling. “Alcohol is not a part of my diet, but I’ve been really good about keeping it to only one or two glasses of wine a week since I started working out. And tonight would be the night. I haven’t had any all week.”

Had she really asked him to go for a drink with her? She’d grown on him in two weeks, and he’d never seen her out of her sweats, ponytail, and no makeup. He knew so little about her except she was more determined than most girls her size to try and whip back into shape. And she was smart. That he definitely picked up on. “I’m not twenty-one.”

For the second time that night, her jaw fell open, only this time it didn’t feel good. “You’re not?”

“It’s not like I’ve never drank.” Hell, he and the guys had been drinking for years. “I just can’t go into a bar and drink . . . yet.”

Her eyes were still big and overly concerned. “How old are you?”

He knew she couldn’t be more than twenty-one or twenty-two. He towered over her, and at times, she seemed so small and delicate next to his six-foot-two stature. “I’ll be twenty soon,” he said with confidence.

“Oh my God.” Her absolutely horrified reaction was not what he was expecting. “I’m so sorry. I had no—”

He had to laugh. “What? I’m legal!”

“I know,” she said, hurrying her step toward the exit of the gym. “I had no idea. I apologize.”

“Again, for what?”

“I just didn’t know.”

“So I’m not twenty-one. How old are you? Twenty-one, twenty-two?”

She glanced at him, her eyes still lit with bewilderment. Since she wasn’t slowing down, he took a step in front of her to make her stop. “How old are you?”

She turned away and hesitated for a moment before answering. Finally, she looked back at him, lifting an eyebrow. “I’m twenty-eight, Noah.”

It came as a surprise. She didn’t look it, but the way she was acting you’d think she was forty. “All right, so you’re twenty-eight. You don’t look it.” She didn’t, not at all, especially now that she’d lost a few pounds. She tried to walk around him, but he moved with her. “Don’t get all weird on me, Veronica. If there’s one thing I’ve learned my whole life, time and age are but an illusion.” The crease that suddenly made an appearance between her eyes again made him smile. “I’ll be twenty in a week by the way. You lost eleven pounds in two weeks because of me—your nineteen-year-old trainer.”

She stared at him for a moment; then the crease disappeared with her forced smile. “I know. And you’ll never know how much I appreciate it. I’ll see you Monday, okay?”

She walked around him and was almost out the door, but he had to ask, “Why never?”

Glancing back, she took a moment to answer. “I mean I’ll just never be able to thank you enough.” She shrugged before waving at him and walked out the door.

Noah showered at the gym before leaving, thinking about Veronica the entire time—twenty-eight. She’d never mentioned a husband or boyfriend for that matter. But then their conversations had never gotten that personal. Now that she knew just how old he really was, he got the feeling they never would. In a weird way, that bothered him. Maybe he’d just make sure things didn’t change. After all, he’d meant what he said. Age was just an illusion.