...And Beyond... | To Infinity... Book Two [ON HOLD]

Chapter 7: Making Progress

Monday May 18, 2021 - Richmond, Virginia

Lenni POV

9:15 PM

It's been exactly a month since Desi has returned to work and this whole caretaker arrangement has proven to be pretty beneficial for her, whether or not she admits to it. She's back to eating how she used to but she hasn't been feeling up to getting back in the gym; she still doesn't feel like herself completely, but she's missing the fact that getting active again is part of her finding herself again. So, after weeks of back and forth arguing with her, Joe and I have finally convinced her to go workout with him and he was currently tying up her sneakers while she put her hair up in a ponytail.

"I can tie my shoes myself, Joseph."
"Stop fighting with me, Desmin."
"You're being overbearing, Leati."
"If that's what it takes to get you healthy again, then so be it. Now, give me your other foot."

She rolls her eyes and I just laugh at them; they bicker like an old married couple which is both cute and annoying, everything considered, but I'm letting it all go, not holding any grudges against Joe for the part he played in this situation because Desi's well on her way to forgiving him and that's all that matters to me; Desi's happiness. I've seen her go through a verbally abusive relationship, seen her be cheated on every other weekend, seen her be used; one would say that she has bad taste in men but really she just has a big heart with lots of love to give and she always tries to see the good in people, give them the good old benefit-of-the-doubt, but they always fail her, even Joe, but he's different. She truly loves that man and you can see it in her eyes whenever she looks at him, but you can also see that she's trying to fight it.

Despite his failed attempt at having a relationship with her, I can honestly say that he's the only guy that she's been with that's worthy of a second chance. Super ironic, I know, but he goes above and beyond for her; this man catfished me to get my number just to text me every-damn-day about Desi and why she wasn't eating, how to get her to talk to him again, how she was doing after the breakup, and just try to get as informed about the situation as he could before making any moves. Everyday was a different Desi-related topic and I never thought I'd ever get tired of talking about my best friend but damn, that man wore me down; he really just doesn't know the definition of the word 'quit'.

"Alright. You all good, Des? Shoes feel good? Not too tight? You're not sore or anything from stretching earlier right?"
"Joseph, ohmygosh, I'm fine, we can go."

Disgustingly cute and they're not even together.

"Okay, okay. Just, lemme do somethin' first."

Joe stands in front of her, runs his fingers through her ponytail before splitting it in half, wrapping the sections around his hands, and pulling them away from each other to tighten it up a little bit so it doesn't come out so easily. Desi was still working on regaining her strength and her ponytails just weren't as tight as they used to be, so Joe would regularly tighten them up for her.

Like I said, stupidly adorable and disgustingly cute. Barf.

"Now we can go." He says and smiles at her as he picks up both of their gym bags.
"We'll be back Len, call if you need anything." Desi says to me.
"I'll be fine, don't worry 'bout me. Have fun, kick ass!"
"Always!"

She blew me a kiss and I blew one back and turned on the TV, now left to my own devices.

*~*~*~*
Desi POV

Since I was released from the hospital, I've gained nine pounds...only. I guess my body is trying to readjust to my different eating habits after getting used to barely eating for so long, so I was having kind of a hard time gaining weight back, but Joe's been really patient and supportive, reminding me that healing from an eating disorder takes time. So, I'm taking my time, getting back into working out and kickboxing, increasing my caloric intake every week until I get back to where I want to be. Joe told me that because I'm getting back to being active, I'm going to need to eat more so as to help rebuild muscle, make it lean, and hold onto the weight I gain, then decrease my caloric intake some to be able to maintain when I reach my one-sixty pound goal.