The Fourth Side of the Triangle

Chapter 12

12.

“What have you got there Ollie?” Amy asks, dumping a bag of groceries on the kitchen table.

“Just... Becca’s friend gave me a notebook to write in. It’s a load of rubbish, it won’t help. Nothing we’ve done has helped yet and it has been months.”

“Oh...?” Amy asks in an intrigued manner, looking over Oliver’s shoulder, “What do you have to write in it?”

“Anything and everything that I eat or drink... and she made me give her a copy of my schedule so she can draw up meal plans. She says that it’ll be really hard for me to get all the nutrients my body requires because I’m allergic to everything but she said that she’ll try her best. They should be done sometime next week. Which is really pointless because I’m in France next week.”

Amy looks down at the book and sees that Oliver has written ‘apple with diet lemonade- no sugar’ and ‘tea, no milk, 1 sugar’ in his round print. She nods, before tossing him a box of raspberries that she has just bought and says,

“Well, I’ll fax them over to you. Or I’ll bring them down on the train for you.”

Oliver nods and takes pops two raspberries into his mouth at once before screwing his face up.

“That one was really sour!” he exclaims and Amy laughs before walking over and planting a kiss in his ruffled hair.

“Oliver, James and Becca are coming over tonight. Is that okay? It’s going to be an alcohol free evening because I think that it’s really unfair if you guys are all drinking yourself into a stupor.”

“You hardly drink anyway!” Oliver shoots back, “and neither do I... see? We make a good couple!”

Amy sticks her tongue out.

“Alright. Anyway, I feel fat and disgusting so I’m gonna go and take a shower. Coming?”

Oliver nods, takes her outstretched hand and allows himself to be lead out the room.

They have showered together since the very start of their relationship; there is nothing sexual about it, something that they are afraid that their friends would think if they knew. It is simply an act of intimacy that enables them to grow even closer together. Amy has become even more paranoid about her figure since she discovered that she is pregnant and rarely shows off her slender body in tight fitting or revealing clothes anymore. By showering together, Oliver can marvel as her body changes in shape as their child grows inside her; something that he finds beautiful, even if his reluctant lover doesn’t.

As they stand together, the water dripping in rivulets down their bodies, they are complete opposites. Dark and light, tall and short. Certain parts of Oliver’s body still jut out unpleasantly, but he is, despite what he says, most definitely on the mend. He runs his hand over the swell of his girlfriend’s stomach, ignoring that fact that she almost recoils from his touch.

“I look disgusting,” she murmurs, “but look at you...” she swipes a finger right down the centre of his body, before she goes over his ribs which are now only faintly showing. Oliver laughs.

“I put on weight really fast according to the dietician... she says it’s weird. I’ve already put on more weight than she expected...” he trails off and Amy catches his chin, tilting his head down to look at her. The water has plastered his hair to his head and the water drops down his pointy features.

“Hey,” she says, “why do you look so uncertain? Surely that’s a good thing?”

Oliver nods in earnest.