The Loser

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"The body achieves what the mind believes!"

Jacob began to do his little wiggling butt dance around me and I can't run on the treadmill any longer. I jump off unable to control my laughter.

"You must stop, Jacob. I can't concentrate when you start dancing like that," I giggled.

Jacob walked over and reached for a towel and tossed it at me.

"Hey, I have to make it fun, or else it will feel like you are putting the work in workout, and then you might want to quit on me and I can't have that because Bella, you are lookin' good."

I feel my face flush and once again I am thankful that I was just sweating and red from the small jog I just did on that bloody contraption for sparing me the embarrassment of Jacob knowing my true feelings.

I had thought a lot about it since Edward gave me his blessing. I was not going to approach Jacob just yet. For one, I wanted to wait until I was no longer a virgin, and two, I was scared of what he would say. His outright rejection could hurt me even if I was expecting it. I thought that if I lost a certain amount of weight, my offer might be more tempting. I had a number in my head that I wanted to reach so that was my deadline. Every weigh-in would feel like a push to get me down to that goal weight.

"Why don't we measure and see where you are. Remember it's not just pounds we want to lose but inches are important too," Jacob said pulling out his measuring tape.

My insecure nature hated seeing that damn measuring tape. I wish someone else could do this part. I hated that Jacob knew just how gross I was while he wrapped the tape around my fat.

I stood holding out my arms and attempting to suck it in without him knowing. He would sometimes poke my stomach to see if I was doing it to make me exhale. He didn't want fake numbers, but I didn't want him seeing what number I was really at. So, inches counted as much as pounds did. I wonder what an acceptable number of inches would be to lose before he would deem me worthy.

He began at my hips. Of course, the meatiest part first. Then stomach and finally my chest which I usually didn't have a problem with since the only upside to being this big was a big chest. The back fat might need to go, however.

"Jacob, what do you think I should aim for when it comes to inches?" I asked.

He moved the tape to flatten it out against my backside and brought it around to the front. He was crouching down to take the number but when he heard my question he stopped and stood back up.

"Well, I guess that would depend on you. What number do you want to get down to? To be honest, you could be a size zero and still not feel comfortable with how you look. Unfortunately, the side effect of losing weight is sometimes feeling like you need to lose more. The best advice I can give you is that no matter how much weight you lose, don't let it change you. Keep this the same because if you lose it, that would be the real loss," Jacobs said tapping on my chest where my heart was.

I think I fell even more. Our eyes continued to stare into one another's for how long? I don't know but it was a cough from the corner of the studio that broke up our gaze.

We both turn to see Edward standing there looking...I don't even know how to gauge his face because I immediately look away from him nervous about how Jacob and I must have appeared to him.

"Apologies. Are you almost done, Bella? I have something I need to speak with you about."

Jacob took a step back and let the tape fall to release me.

"Yeah, we are all done for today. Good work as always Bella. You're my star," Jacob said grabbing his towel from off the ground and throwing it over his shoulder before giving me a thumbs up.