Lonely Hearts Club

"Man, she is...fine!" Don said with emphasis on the word 'fine.'

"So what's this meeting about?"

"She didn't say. She only told me she had something she wanted to show me."

They both rinsed off, but Don didn't get undressed. He just wrung out his shorts the best he could and let them drip dry before kind of toweling off and pulling on a pair of dry shorts.

Nicole wasn't there when they got to the lobby, but they knew women took longer for well, pretty much everything, so they hung out until she showed up.

"Hey!" she called out as soon as she saw them.

She'd pulled a white tee-shirt over her bathing suit, and her shoulder-length hair was still wet and tousled. It was a look many men loved, but Doug care for it at all. But even that couldn't keep him from thinking she was extremely attractive.

"You did great in there today!" she said to Don as she walked up to them.

"Oh. Thanks," Don said quietly and a little sheepishly as he felt the earlier problem returning.

"I just want you to know how awesome it is to see you two here working out like this."

Before either of them could say anything she had her phone out and was opening up her photos.

"I wanted to pinch that guy's head off for what he said," she began as she started scrolling. "He made me so mad I could have just socked him."

Doug knew Don had no idea what she was talking about and only shrugged when Don looked at him.

"Here we are," she said as she found what she was looking for.

"I wanted to show you that I was, you know...heavy...before."

She showed the photo first to Doug whose eyes got big before handing the phone to Don.

"That's you?" he asked as he looked at her then the pic several times.

"Yes. I was 120 pounds heavier than I am now, and I wanted you to know that I was where you are, and to let you know that no matter what some...jerk...says, don't pay any attention."

"What jerk?" Don asked as he took one last look at the enormous woman in the photo.

"He didn't hear. Any of it," Doug said almost too quietly to be heard.

"Oh my...word," Nicole said. "Don. I...I just assumed...."

She lowered her head for a moment then said, "I am SO sorry. My dad taught me not to assume anything because it...."

"Makes an ass out of you and me?" Doug offered, having heard that many, many times himself.

"Precisely," she replied, a little smile appearing on her pretty face.

"What did he say?" Don asked as feelings of guilt, sadness, and self pity welled up inside of him.

"The same kinds of things I heard all my life before I got so angry I turned my life around."

Her words caused Don to forget what he was feeling as he asked her how she did it.

"Just before I graduated from high school, we got our senior yearbooks. It took me three days to work up the nerve to ask this really cute guy I'd had a crush on for two years to sign mine."

"Did you ask him?" Don wanted to know.

"Yes. And after he signed it he snapped it shut and handed it back to me. His buddies were there, and as they walked away, one of them started calling out, "SUE-EE!"

"I'd heard that a hundred times before, but when I read what he wrote, it...it broke me."

"What did he write?"

She held her head high as she said, "Nicole. You'd be so pretty if you'd lose some weight. Maybe try putting the fork down every now and then. You'll thank me for it later."

"What a dick!" Doug said.

"Been there," Don replied sympathetically.

"I cried," Nicole admitted. "I'd been heavy all my life and heard it all, but that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back for me."

"What...what did you do?" Don asked, now eager to find out.

"Tell you what. I have to go so I can get to work on time, but I'd be happy to meet you both later on."

"Sure," Don said immediately.

"Just say when," Doug chimed in.

"How about letting me make dinner for the two of you tonight and we'll discuss it then?" Nicole suggested.

"Absolutely!" Don blurted out without so much as looking at his brother.

He then saw Doug's hesitation but didn't understand.

"What?" he asked his big brother.

"Is um, is your...."

He looked down at her left hand then continued.

"Is your husband gonna be okay with us showing up like that?"

The smile on her face waned. Doug could tell she wasn't angry, and he wasn't about to ask what caused the change in her expression.

"My husband passed away a little over two years ago."

He tone was matter of fact-like, and there was no hint of self pity in it.

Both brothers said, "I'm sorry," at the same time to which Nicole said, "Thank you."

"He'd just turned 40 when he started complaining of back pain. It got so bad a week or so later that he went in to find out what was going on."

She paused for a moment then continued explaining.

"He had pancreatic cancer. Stage 4."

"Oh, my goodness," Doug said, remembering what it was like to lose his mom.

"Two months later...he was gone."

"That's terrible," Don told her. "We uh, we lost our mom when we were...."

Don realized he should have just stopped with 'that's terrible' and went quiet.

"You poor boys!" she said, as though she were old enough to be their mother.

"That was a long time ago," Doug said politely with a smile on his face. "Your loss wasn't all that long ago."

"I guess that in some way we're all members of the 'Lonely Hearts Club', aren't we?"

This time she smiled widely, and Don was worried that his problem would soon become visible.

Just in the nick of time Nicole said, "Let's exchange numbers so I can text you the address."

She and Doug did so, and she promised to text them soon.

"Listen. It was really wonderful meeting both of you," she told them sincerely, that amazing smile now affecting Doug in the same way it had been working on his younger brother.

"Same here," Doug told her as Don said the same thing.

Just as she was walking away, the younger 'hottie' came out of the women's locker room. Don's problem went full speed ahead as he nudged his brother.

"Well, well. Look who it is," Doug said as they watched her walk toward them.

As she approached she only looked at Doug as she said, "Hi there!" in a very coy way.

It irked him that she wouldn't even look at Don, so he only said, "Hey," in response.

"I've seen you here before," she said as she stopped a couple of feet away.

"Yeah. My brother and I come here pretty often."

She begrudgingly glance at Don and muttered a little, "Oh, hey," before turning her attention back to his older brother.

"You uh, you wanna maybe...hook up sometime?" she asked Doug directly.

Had Don not been with him he'd have told her 'yes' immediately. But because he was still a little pissed off at the asshat who was still swimming he didn't want to get angry again. He told a little white lie saying he already a date. Then again, he sort of did have a date. It just wasn't the romantic type.

"Bring her, too," the very attractive girl suggested.

Don had to turn away due to his growing problem, and the thought of those two women together sent him into orbit.

"I uh, I don't...I'm not really into that," Doug said, not sure what else to say.

"That's a shame. You're really cute. For an old guy."

With that she turned and headed toward the exit.

"Holy shit, dude!" Don said as he watched her tight little ass packed into a bikini bottom sway back and forth on their way out.

"She's not all that great, Don," his brother said without explaining why.

"Are you kiddin' me? She's so smokin' hot I got sunburned!"

"Yeah, yeah. I know. You just got all revved up about a threesome," his brother said with a laugh and a slap on his wet shoulder.

"Oh, man. Can you imagine?" Don asked, suddenly very animated.

Doug didn't tell him he'd done that several times in college. Nor did he mention that for some reason the thought of being with a third person did nothing for him now. Contrary to what Hottie #2 had just said, Doug knew he wasn't old. What he was beginning to realize, however, was that he found himself wishing he had someone in his life, and that made him feel old.

He laughed when he thought to himself about this unnamed someone, "Who isn't my brother."

"It's a little too kinky for me, bro," Doug said, hoping to end the discussion before it got going.

"I'd settle for being able to kiss a girl like that. Just once."

"You will, Don. Just keep doing the work in the pool. Oh, and let's see what Nicole has to say tonight."

"Yeah. Nicole. She's hot, too, huh?"

As they started walking out, Don asked him how old he thought Nicole was.

"Wow. I don't know. I'm thinking she's gotta be 32 or 33. She takes good care of herself so even 35 or 36 wouldn't surprise me."

"So...would you hit that? I mean, even if she's that old?" Don asked, a whole new side of him opening up.

"The short answer is 'yes'."

"And the long answer?"

"I'm not sure, but Nicole seems different than most women."

He looked at Don then smiled as he said, "Even older women."

"It's not like you gotta marry her, man. You could just, you know, then...."

"Yeah. I uh, I suppose I could."

As they got to the car Doug said, "But I don't really see her like that."

"No? So how do you see her?"

Doug looked down at his feet for a moment then looked at his brother.

"It's not like she's in her 40s, so if she and I got to know each other, I could see us, you know...."

"Dude! Seriously? Doug Hoffman, ladies man extraordinaire, is thinking about wedding bells?"

The smile on Don's face was incredible, and it made him forget about the question itself. But if he'd given it any thought, he'd have answered that something along the line of wedding bells was very close to what he was thinking.

As they drove home, Don was even more animated. More so than Doug had seen since their mom was alive. He joined in and had a thoroughly good time doing it, but his mind was elsewhere.

In between the brotherly banter, he realized he not only thought Nicole was 'hot' but that she was a woman with class. Not snobbish vanity but...class...and that was something he found very sexy in a woman. It just so happened that this particular woman was also extremely...appealing...a word he couldn't ever remember using about any female he'd ever been interested in.

What he'd said and thought earlier kept coming back to him. There was just something...different...about Nicole, and he couldn't wait to see her again.

That evening, Doug didn't do much talking. It wasn't that he didn't want to, it was more that it was as though his 'missing' brother from so long ago had been resurrected from the dead. Don carried nearly all of the conversation, much of it revolving around healthy eating and exercise. As a sort of "expert layman" on the subject, Doug chimed in every now and then with his own personal experience, especially how good eating right and working out made him feel.

Nicole's emphasis was on foods she considered taboo. She spent some time talking about things she knew were healthy, but she had a death wish for sugar and trans fat.

"Sugar is more dangerous than anything legal you can put in your body," she said at least twice. "Doctors used to think that eating too much saturated fat caused heart disease, and while I'm not saying it's good to eat that stuff, the real enemy is sugar."

Doug had known for years that sugar caused inflammation of the blood vessels. That inflammation caused little nicks in them, and those nicks were filled in with the body's only defense mechanism--cholesterol. When too much cholesterol built up it could either block the flow of blood or a chunk could break off. In either case the result would be a heart attack. It wasn't the cholesterol itself, it was the irritants that caused the body to send cholesterol to the rescue. Which often later sent that person to the morgue.

Don was especially happy when Nicole explained he didn't have to be a vegan to be healthy.

"I don't eat red meat personally, but I love salmon and shrimp," she shared. "Salmon has lots of Omega-3 fatty acids which are very good for you. Shrimp has iodine, and that's something we need in tiny amounts. Both are excellent sources of protein, and you need a lot of it to build muscle."

She looked at Doug when she said that, and the way she looked at him caused him to have a similar reaction to his brother's at the 'Y'.

She had her hair pulled back into a flat ponytail, and while the only makeup he could see appeared to be a little foundation and some mascara, she still looked incredible. He skin was soft and fair, and while he did his best not to stare, he was trying to find any trace of wrinkles which he couldn't. That told him he had to be in the ballpark where her age was concerned, but he wasn't about to ask.

She was wearing a light green knit top with a pair of khaki colored shorts and some white sandals, and what Doug could also see were two very shapely legs, a very tight waist and um...bottom...and thanks to the form-fitting top, two perfectly shaped round mounds that only made the problem worse.

"Do you do that, Doug?" his brain heard, snapping him back to reality.

He knew he'd been caught looking where he shouldn't, and worst of all, he hadn't heard anything she'd said.

"Sorry. I uh, I was kind of lost in thought."

In an attempt to recover he smiled and said, "I get lost deep in thought easily."

He paused for effect then said, "That's what happens when you have a mind as shallow as mine."

Nicole made a 'that was bad' face but laughed anyway and told him she liked his sense of humor.

"It's like some fine wines," he replied with another smile. "Very, very dry."

"My husband had a dry sense of humor. I loved that about him."

Her voice turned wistful as she said, "That's just one of many things I loved about him."

"Again, I'm so sorry," Doug offered as Don did, too.

"Life goes on, right?" she replied, trying to be more cheerful. "And I wanted to tell you both again how sorry am I that you lost your mother."

They thanked her before she said, "We wanted children, and were getting serious about having a baby when he was diagnosed. I suppose that's the only upside to his passing. I can't imagine my son or daughter going through what you boys did."

Doug realized she wasn't calling them boys, but it made him wonder how she viewed them, and for the first time, he found himself really wanting to know how old she was.

"You said your husband was 40, right?" Don asked as though he was reading his brother's mind.

"Yes. Just turned. And it all happened so fast. It was surreal going from 'all is well' to attending his funeral in such a short amount of time."

"I know 40 isn't old, but we all have some time before that dreaded milestone, right?" Doug said, confident he was making a valid point.

Nicole lowered her head a bit, raised on eyebrow, then said, "I reached that...milestone...some time ago."

Don later told his brother that the look on his face was classic.

"Dude. You looked like a stunned Mullet."

He shows Doug by opening his eyes wide and letting his jaw go slack, exaggerating both for effect.

At the time it happened, Doug only knew he was surprised.

"No way," he replied.

"Oh, yes. Way," Nicole told him with a laugh. "Two years ago...way."

"You...you're...you can't be...."

"Forty-two? I most definitely can be, but thank you for making me feel good."

Doug was staring again, but this time he was just looking at her face which was screaming, "That's not true!"

"Wow. I'm...shocked."

"We thought you were like maybe...32 or even 35 or so," Don added.

"Then I love you both!" Nicole said with another little laugh.

They spent an hour or so before dinner and another hour after just talking. Much of it was fitness related, but Doug was also able to glean some information about her, and everything he learned made him even more interested in getting to know her. In spite of her...advanced age.

Before leaving they both thanked Nicole, whose last name they learned was Shuster, and she, in turn, thanked them for their company and a very pleasant evening.

On the drive home Don said he wanted to stop by the grocery store.

"You gonna make a few changes?" his brother asked hopefully.

"Nope. I'm all in," Don said with a resolve Doug had never heard before.

When they got home and put the food away, Don began going through everything in the pantry and the refrigerator. Out went several boxes of frosted Pop Tarts, a large, uneaten box of Hostess cupcakes, an entire jar of Slim Jims, several bags of chips, and enough other stuff to fill the kitchen trashcan to overflowing.

It was around midnight when the brothers got ready to call it a day.

"I'm proud of you, Donny," Doug said, using the name he hadn't since their mom died.

"Thanks. But if you hadn't kept encouraging me I'd have never done this."

"It wasn't just me, you know," Doug told him, his eyebrows raised high.

Don smiled because he knew what that meant.

"Yeah. Meeting Nicole was the most awesome thing ever."

"You got a thing for her?" Doug asked with a little chuckle while secretly hoping he didn't.

"Nah. She's too old for me, but just knowing a woman that beautiful would talk to me and be so nice makes me think that maybe I could be someone a women like her could actually, you know, fall in love with someday."

"You can. And you will," his big brother assured him. "Just stay on the straight and narrow, and you will get there."

"I know. That photo she showed us of when she was, you know...."

"Heavy?"

Don, who was ultra sensitive about his weight said, "Fat," a word he hated and never used. "If she can go from that to the way she looks now, I can, too."

As Don stood up, Doug walked over to him and have him a high five before saying, "Bring it in, little bro!"

Don hugged his brother and said, "One day 'little' will mean my age and my size."

Doug hugged him back and said, "Yes, it will, and I promise you there will be all kinds of women out there ready, willing, and able to date a hot guy like you."

When Doug pulled back, he saw tears in brother's eyes.

"You know what?" Don said. "I believe you."

Don woke up the next morning with his newfound resolve in tact. It was new. It was something he'd never felt before, and he vowed to hold onto it until he reached his ideal bodyweight.

He started with a small, healthy breakfast then went to the pool with his brother. He repeatedly pushed himself to exhaustion, reminding himself of the goal--a body like Doug's--and the prize which was a beautiful, loving wife like Nicole. Only younger.

Doug felt a renewed sense of purpose in his workouts, too. Much of it was due to the feeling of unity he had with his brother. Some of it, however, was due to his inability to get Nicole Shuster out of his thoughts. He woke up thinking of her and thought of her off and on during the day. He'd even taken to fantasizing about her at night.

So when three days passed without her showing up at the 'Y' Doug made it a point to stop by that evening after work. By the time he got to her door he felt a little silly and almost turned around, but his need to see her again drove him to knock on it.

When an attractive man of about Nicole's age opened the door his heart sank.

"Hi. May I help you?" the man asked.

"Oh. I uh, I'm Doug. Hoffman. I was just checking in on Nicole. I haven't seen her for a few days, and...."

As he was speaking, he heard her call out, "Jeff? It's okay. I know him. Can you show him in please?"

"Sure thing!" the man called out.

As he let Doug in he asked how he knew his sister.

"Nicole is your sister?" a very relieved younger man asked.

"All my life," he said with a laugh. "I'm Jeff. Her older brother. By two years."