Free Not My Type by Chrystal Vaughan Page A

told herself. Aloud, she said, "Is it vulgar?
Can you see all of my rolls?"
    Claire thought Elsa was being far
harder on herself than was warranted, but she took the questions
seriously, sensing it was important to her friend. The suit was a
black one piece and very flattering. Elsa had a great figure, all
things considered; she was overweight, true, but her waist was
narrow, her hips and thighs a nice curved swell that matched her
bosom, with shapely legs that rounded gently at the calves. She had
surprisingly slender ankles and wrists, and her throat was a smooth
column rising from delicate collarbones. Her face was heart shaped,
with high cheekbones and slanting blue eyes. The crowning glory,
her not-brown-not-blond-not-red hair tumbled in curls down her back
and framed her sculpted face perfectly.
    Claire gave her friend a reassuring
smile. "No fat rolls, and definitely not vulgar. I'd say Joe is
lucky you won't go to ToneUp; he'd have to fight the guys off of
you."
    "Yeah, right! Okay, let's go before I
lose my nerve. I'm going to grab some sweats and we can get to
swimming."
    The two ladies said goodbye to poor
Spike, left alone during the day for the first time in a long
while, and beat feet to Claire's red Toyota Camry. The cold ocean
air nipped at their ears and noses before they could get in the car
and turn on the heater, making them both voice aloud the wisdom of
swimming, even at an indoor pool, during the spring.
    "I've come too far to give up now. Do
you have any idea how difficult it was pouring all of this," Elsa
gestured to herself, "into this damn bathing suit?"
    Claire giggled; every woman, no matter
what size, has had to paint on some item of clothing at one point
in time or another. She herself could recall a favorite pair of
jeans and the pair of pliers required to pull up the zipper. She
eased the car out of Elsa and Joe's driveway and headed over to the
pool.
    After she registered with the bland
woman behind the counter, Elsa followed Claire to the locker room.
They were the only ones there at that hour of the morning, and Elsa
was grateful. Claire worked part time at the high school as a
teacher's aide, helping kids with reading or other academic issues.
She promised Elsa they could come a few times a week at around the
same time without it interfering with her work. Elsa worked at the
restaurant from two in the afternoon until eight during the week,
and until ten on the weekends, so it was no problem for
her.
    Once she entered the geothermally
heated water, all her worries about her body faded away along with
the pull of gravity. She felt graceful in the water, and hardly
noticed when an hour had passed. She noticed a lot more when she
got out of the water and dried off; every muscle in her body ached
and she was winded for a few minutes.
    Claire dropped her off at her house,
having to hustle to get ready to go to work. Elsa's hair was still
damp so she took Spike in the backyard instead of for a walk. She
was going to have to get a routine down for him, too. She realized
when she got back inside that she'd missed Joe for lunch. She
grabbed her cell phone out of her purse and saw a missed call from
him, but no voicemail. She dialed the gym, but Jordan said he was
with a client at the moment and couldn't come to the phone. "Want
me to have him call you back, Else?"
    "Sure Jordan, if you don't
mind."
    "No problem," he replied, and they
rang off.
    She worked on her recipe book for a
while, a nagging feeling pressing on her. She knew she was very
reliant on Joe for most everything, that she was terribly
co-dependent, but she couldn't help herself. She had few friends,
her parents, sister, and grandmother lived an hour away, and he
consumed her senses completely. Uneasy with the train of thought,
she waited for Joe to come home. It was her day off from the
restaurant, but never called her back, and he didn't come home
until after dark.
    When he entered the house, she felt
his fury before he manifested