Sweet Temptation by Lucy Diamond Read Free Book Online Page B

diet. Have you all clocked the flattering picture of me over there?’
    She pointed to the cardboard cut-out and I couldn’t help gasping out loud. That was Alison? No! Surely not . . . But as I stared, I recognized the blue eyes and the smile buried deep in the chubby round face. It really was her. And clearly, therefore, she really did know what it was like to be on a diet.
    She’d caught my reaction and was grinning in delight. ‘Ahhh, I love it when people do that,’ she said, mimicking my double-take. ‘Now then . . . Down to business. For the newbies, this is how it goes: I chat to you, you chat to me, then we get out the scales of doom and see how we’ve all got along. Everything that gets said in here is confidential, so try not to be scared – you’re among friends and allies. You can tell the group how your week’s been, and how you’re finding the diet, or you can have a private chat with me when we do the weigh-in. Okay? Let’s get started, and see who’s here tonight, and then our new girls can introduce themselves.’
    She opened a ringbinder folder and ran her finger down a register. She reminded me a bit of Julie Walters – warm and funny, with a wicked laugh and a twinkle in her eye.
    ‘Brenda . . . Have we got Brenda? Ah yes. Hello, Brenda! Clare . . . Yes, there’s our Clare, with a rather gorgeous new pair of shoes, I see . . . I’ll be asking you about those later, Clare, they’re just what I’ve been looking for. Derek – there you are, excellent. You know, Derek, I’m sure you’re looking slimmer around the face these days. Well done, love. Helena . . . do we have Helena tonight? No? Okay . . .’
    So it went on, with a word and smile for everyone. ‘Well, that’s not a bad showing,’ she said when she got to the end of the list. ‘And we’ve got . . . let’s see . . . one, two, three new faces here tonight. Ladies, would you like to introduce yourselves?’ She turned to a woman across the circle from me. ‘Perhaps you could go first, hon?’
    The woman in question had brown shoulder-length hair in a neat bob, and a round face. She didn’t look hugely overweight to me, just a bit plump. The kind of body I could only dream about, sadly. She seemed vaguely familiar . . . then, as she opened her mouth, I recognized her. I’d seen her in the coffee bar at the fitness centre on Saturday – she’d been kind to me, given me a tissue when I’d been blubbing there like an idiot. I felt my cheeks turn pink. Oh no. I hoped she didn’t recognize me.
    ‘My name’s Jess,’ she said in a low voice. She twisted her hands in her lap, not making eye contact with anyone. ‘Um . . . I work as a beauty therapist but I don’t feel very beautiful myself.’ She bit her lip. ‘I’m getting married at Christmas and want to look amazing for my fiancé, but diets never seem to work on me. I always give up after a few days.’
    There was a murmur from the rest of the group – yes, they knew where she was coming from.
    ‘Well, you’re in the right place now, Jess,’ Alison told her. ‘We’ll all help you reach your goal. And to be quite honest with you, I must have tried every diet under the sun and not been able to stick to it before I lost my weight the FatBusters way – so take heart.’ She paused. ‘But remember, love – you say you want to look amazing for your future husband at the wedding, but you’ve got to want it for yourself too. That’s crucial.’
    Jess nodded, looking up at Alison for the first time. ‘Okay,’ she said.
    ‘Great. Because it really winds me up, the way some people expect us all to have perfect figures,’ Alison said, talking to everyone now. ‘It’s wrong. I don’t want anyone here to feel they ought to lose weight just because they don’t look like the matchstick celebrities you see in magazines, or because they think that having a size ten figure will bring them eternal happiness. Or because they feel under pressure from another person to