Better All the Time by Carre Armstrong Gardner

Author:Carre Armstrong Gardner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Christian / General
ISBN: 9781496403797
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Published: 2015-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

After exams on Friday, Sephy waved her friends off to their own homes and families. She felt light and effervescent, buoyed up with excitement about the days ahead. She was most successful with eating well when she was busiest, in a routine that did not leave long stretches of time to reconsider and negotiate her fledgling self-discipline. For the next three days, she went to her job as a nurse’s aide at the nursing home, working double shifts on two of the days. She swam at the college pool in the mornings, attended her meeting in the church basement, and at her weekly weigh-in, was down another two pounds. On Tuesday morning, she packed a suitcase, locked her textbooks in the dorm room, and drove the four hours to Sharon DeMille’s house in Cleveland, ready to rest.

Aunt Sharon, as always, was down the steps and on the sidewalk with her arms outstretched before Sephy was out of the car. “Seraphina!” her surrogate aunt cried, pulling her into a bosomy hug. “It’s about time you got here. Your mother’s been on the phone every half hour since dawn, asking about you. Go right in now and give her a call before you do anything else. No, leave your bag in the kitchen, I’ll take it to your room while you’re on the phone.”

Sephy leaned against the kitchen counter and dialed her parents, glancing idly around as she waited for someone to answer. A chocolate layer cake stood under a cover on a glass stand, its glossy top encrusted with nuts. Candy dishes on every surface were heaped high with M&Ms, nuts, and mints. A box bearing the name of her favorite local bakery sat atop the refrigerator. Her heart did a slow spiral of dread. How could she have forgotten about the caloric pitfalls of a stay at Aunt Sharon’s? She searched for any signs of fruit or whole grain bread. A bowl of red apples in the middle of the table was the only thing she saw.

Nobody answered at 14 Ladyslipper Lane, and after leaving a message that she had arrived safely, Sephy hung up. Safely, she thought, had very little to do with it. The next four days loomed before her like a veritable minefield of nutritional disaster.

To Sephy’s relief, she had arrived just after lunchtime, and she shamelessly invented a story of having eaten something along the road. There was no getting around suppertime, though, when Sharon ordered two large pizzas from the mom-and-pop place down the street.

“Could one of them be just veggie?” Sephy ventured.

“Of course!” Aunt Sharon said, but when she was phoning in the order, Sephy overheard her say, “One large with everything and one large with veggies and extra cheese.”

While they waited for the pizza, Sephy decided it was time to broach the subject. They might as well get it out in the open, she thought. There was no sense in trying to be evasive all week, refusing the junk food she was sure

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