#67: Odds

She braced herself once she'd placed the plate in front of Peter.

"Thanks, love," he said without looking up from his phone.

Grace sat herself down, a little out of sorts. On the one hand, he wasn't acknowledging the effort she put into dinner. But he hadn't noticed the rice was cauliflower. She'd seen something on TikTok about cauliflower rice and how healthy it was. She immediately thought of Peter and the wad of fat now encircling him.

When they first met, it had been on a beach in Thailand and she marveled at his stomach muscles. They weren't chiselled, but just there.

Three years into their relationship, she now watches the seismic shifts in his belly fat as he gets out of the shower.

Grace bought cauliflower from the greengrocer, looked up tutorials on YouTube, and now watched as he tucked into her stir-fry. One youtuber suggested adding more chicken to ensure the kids didn't notice.

She brought her fork up for her first mouthful.

Not bad, she thought.

Grace stole a look at Peter, the blue light of the screen highlighting his distraction. As she put down the plate, she had seen the screen full of betting odds for races on the other side of the globe.

Peter shovelled in the food without noticing her subtle change.

Grace liked her odds of slowing changing him back to the man she fell in love with on that beach.