Chapter 16: ONE DAY HAS ARRIVED

Ashleigh was looking at her roots in her mirror. She hadn't been to the hair salon in weeks and her nails had long since lost their overlay. She quickly pulled on jeans, but they were too loose and even with a belt they sagged. She pulled out a box of clothes that she'd packed away. She tried on three pairs before she found one that fit her snuggly. On a hunch she pulled the jeans off and looked at the tag in back.

Size 16.

She gasped and nearly choked. Size 16?! She'd lost three dress sizes! How long has it been since she first stepped into the gym? Three months. She couldn't wait to tell Christopher! Things were happening faster because of him. She had to do something nice for him!

She paced while she thought about what she could do to show her appreciation. She would invite him to lunch with her, Lance and Kendra. He was her friend and she wanted her other friends to know just how cool Christopher was.

Ashleigh ran to her closet and began ripping down her clothes. They were getting packed up. She forgot all about going to the hair salon and about getting her nails done. She didn't even want to buy new clothes. No, Ashleigh wanted to dig out her OLD clothes! The ones that she hoped to one day fit into again. Now 'one day' had arrived!

~*~

"Christopher, guess what?"

He looked up from where he had adjusted the mats. "What?"

"I'm down three dress sizes!"

He smiled crookedly at her, his eyes twinkling. "Now do you believe me? I told you that you're getting smaller."

She clapped her hands and jumped up and down. "I believe you. I believe you Christopher! Now are you going to help me celebrate, or what?"

He paused. "Celebrate?" His smile faltered.

"I want you to meet my two best friends. We go out for lunch together at least once a week. Will you go with us?"

"With…your friends?"

"Yes."

"I'm not much of a people person."

She swallowed. "Because…of your scars?"

He nodded.

She inhaled and decided to plow forward. "Those aren't just from your cleft palate, are they?" She held her breath, hoping that her question hadn't embarrassed him.

He reached up and touched his upper lip. "I have a bilateral cleft. It's a lot tougher to correct surgically. But I also had some problems with the way my skull came together…or didn't. They tried to fix that…badly. I look like Frankenstein's monster." He smiled slightly.

"Can…cosmetic surgery help?"

"Yes."

"Why-?"

"How much good is that going to do, honestly? I'll never be an Adonis. And I'm a jarhead. The time it would take for me to get surgery just so that I'll still be ugly seems hardly worth it."

He turned away and sat down and proceeded to go through his stretching. She'd upset him and it crushed her. It made her sound as if she thought he should get surgery and that's not what she had meant at all. After nearly six weeks of knowing this man his scars were just an after-thought to her anymore. Most times she forgot about them…or they seemed so much a part of the kind man that she knew that they were no longer ugly to her. It was just Christopher's face.

She sat down opposite him.

"Christopher. I apologize." She thought about the way it always made her feel when people with good intentions told her that she needed to lose weight in order to be truly pretty. "I didn't mean to insinuate that you should change anything about yourself. You are a wonderful man just the way you are."

He met her eyes. His brow knit and he steeled his resolve. Maybe…maybe it wasn't like Debbie Roberts.

"Christopher, please come to lunch with us. Will you say yes?"

He warmed and then slowly nodded. "Yes."

She smiled in relief and then leaned forward and gave him a quick hug. Christopher's hands came up to lightly touch her back. "I realize it's hard for you to meet people. But you don't have to be nervous about meeting my friends. They are good people. And I…took the liberty of explaining about your scars. So you see, you don't have to worry. You don't have to be lonely, Christopher. You got me, okay?"

Something in his body relaxed, a bit of the wall he had constructed around himself began to crumble. He nodded.

"You gotta meet my friend Kendra! She is freaking awesome. She is the matchmaker of the gods. So I'm going to give you fair warning, she will probably try to find you a girlfriend. Let her work her magic on you. I know blind dates are hard. I hate 'em too. But believe me when I tell you that if she tells you she'll find you a love interest she will do it."

Christopher's soul sank to his feet. He looked at Ashleigh and tried to hide the pain in his heart. "So if she's such a good matchmaker why didn't she find you a match?" He knew that she was single, knew that she'd just broken up with the guy named DeAngelo.

She looked down at her hands. "I guess…" Then she looked at Christopher. "I guess because I'm still in love with my ex." His eyes became guarded and he cleared his throat as he built the wall back up around his feelings.

"We better get started with the workout."

She smiled again. "Right."

~*~

The look on The Beasts face left no doubt to his mood as he stalked towards the locker room. No one met his eyes but he wasn't fooled! He was pissed that this part of his life was broadcast for their enjoyment. Now maybe they would understand and leave him the hell alone!

He pushed the door of the locker room open and it almost tore from the hinges. He stalked to his locker and the guys present glanced at him; all conversation stopped. He stripped out of his clothes and walked nude into the showers. His massive toned body rippled with unspent adrenalin. He scrubbed his body and hair and then silently re-dressed in fatigues.

He jammed his dirty clothes into his bag and then pulled his cap low over his head and went to the security room. Roddy looked up quickly from the report he was running.

"Hey, Beast," he said politely.

Christopher looked at him. "I want to punch something."

Roddy looked away quickly. "I'll leave you alone then…"