Shadow Ridge Read Online Free Page B

“Well fat is relative. I’m a Hollywood person and if you’re skinny that’s great. I fit, but when I’m around some of the actresses they’re skinny and I’m fat. Fortunately I don’t get any flack on that part. But whenever I come back this way or people decide to blog about a movie that I had to be at a premier for they always pick on me because I’m not fat. They always make assumptions. Just because they choose not to lose weight does not mean I’m anorexic. It doesn’t mean I’ve had liposuction and tummy tucks or that I pay somebody to cook for me and train me to workout. It just means I eat healthy and workout. I don’t pay a chef or a personal trainer. Even if I did they can’t lose the weight for me. I have to do the work. So no, it’s not some magic pill, some eating disorder, or a boat load of money. I just workout and eat right. I have always loved to workout. I was that kid,” she laughed, “who saved up her allowance and then bought workout products from infomercials.”
    He laughed on this one too. “Don’t you need a credit card for that?” He was fairly sure she needed a credit card and as a kid that wasn’t possible.
    “There was a mail order store that gave me a credit account at nine years old.” He looked at her suspiciously. “I’m not kidding. My mother couldn’t believe it. She didn’t think they would send me the ring I ordered, but they did. I got two rings from there and I paid for them. My mom had to write the check though. I was nine. I couldn’t get a checking account.” She laughed again. “But with the infomercials I usually just had my mom pay when it was delivered. Back then they still had C.O.D.” She shrugged. “Anyway, this is me. This is my body and I’m proud of it. I work hard to maintain it. I’ve never been overweight, but I was about twenty pounds heavier before I moved to Hollywood.”
    “Did you lose weight because you were there?” He couldn’t imagine her twenty pounds heavier but even if he could he knew those twenty pounds wouldn’t put her overweight. She would probably be about four dress sizes higher, but she would still have a great body.
    She shook her head no. “I was broke. I couldn’t afford food. And then I ended up homeless for a few months. Sleeping in my car did not allow for cooked meals or fast food. But I snagged a job at the studio and my first check went toward a security deposit and first month rent on an apartment and a little food. So I would say I lost about ten pounds while homeless and the rest was just an afterthought. I love my body.”
    “I love it too,” he chuckled. “I guess I shouldn’t have said that.”
    She laughed hard. “I don’t mind.”
    One thing that bothered him now was why was she homel ess in California? Didn’t she have friends or family who could help her? “Why didn’t you go home? A lot of bad could have happened to you out there.”
    Her eyebrows raised briefly in one of those good question looks. “I was stubborn. I guess I just wanted to make it on my own. I didn’t want to be a burden. My parents were still together back then and they were great, but telling them their baby girl had moved out to their idea of the city of sin and was sleeping in her car because she couldn’t make it on her own just wasn’t something I was willing to do.”
    He didn’t think that was a good idea at all. She should have asked for help. Forget the issues that could have arisen regarding porn producers looking for fresh flesh to market, but what about human trafficking, serial killers, gangs and the other sordid types found in big cities?
    “Anyway , I guess that answers your question. I hate bullies. I hate insecure people who feel the need to talk about other people just to make themselves feel better. If you don’t like your body then change it. Don’t sit back and be a total jerk about somebody else’s weight.”
    “I think cowboy from last night likes his weight just