Chapter 133: Not The Same
Bryce’s POV
"Just make sure to stay away from carbs. Watch your sugar intake, and we will be having those abs that you want in a few weeks," A big smile on his face Bryce saw his client to the door before returning to clean up. Doing so was routine so he was not even paying too much attention to what he was doing, simply just wiping and putting equipment away.
Completing the familiar tasks allowed Bryce to focus his mind on some deeper thoughts. The main one being the return of Vivian Rose into his life. For a while there she had actually had him worried. Bryce had really thought that this time around she was gone for good. He had not liked that one bit. Just the thought of going about his life without having her as his safety net had not set well with him. But he was lucky that she had finally come to her senses. If she had not started responding to his advances, Bryce would have ended up doing something that both of them would regret.
After their first in-depth conversation in months Bryce had been so relieved that he had immediately gone out and had slept with three different women in the same night. But after waking up with them the following morning he had realized that he needed to change.
If there was one thing that he had learned from Vivian keeping away from him for so long, it was that he had gotten too comfortable. He had come to take her for granted. Being so secure in the way things were between them that he had even stopped bothering with keeping up the pretence of at least being nice. Now that he had her back, Bryce was doing his absolute best to not just rush in and start hammering away at her self confidence.
He was being slow and gentle with it, not pushy at all.
The last few times that they had met he had slowly been pulling her back towards how he normally acted around her. He had been throwing his usual barbs at her here and there. Then he’d mask the acerbic words by sugarcoating them with jokes and a bit of laughter so that she did not immediately clam up.
It was tiring.
If he wanted to call her a fat pig, he should be free to just call her that because that was exactly what she was. But if he did that the annoying standards that she had proven herself to possess might just rear their ugly head and he did not want that. So Bryce was playing the long game.
But now things were becoming a bit more interesting. He had been saying a few mean spirited things to Vivian every time they talked for the past few days, and she was yet to run away. It was a good development.
It meant that he was really wearing her down. Speaking of which, Bryce put away a dumbbell and went to fetch his phone from where he had left it on one of the benches. Sitting down he typed out a quick text to Vivian.
[Good morning Viv. Have you had breakfast yet?] There, the question sounded like he was actually worried about her being hungry. After counting from one to thirty, enough time for Vivian to have read his initial text. Bryce sent another one. This one was far less friendly.
[If you already have I hope that it was not anything unhealthy. You do not want to get so big you can’t fit through doors, right piggy? But if you have not that’s good. Pick something healthy okay?] He ended with three laughing emojis and sent the message.
There, that should do the trick. Knowing how she would be agonizing as to whether Bryce had been insulting her, or if he was genuinely worried he could not help but smile. Keeping her on her toes had always been one of his favorite pastimes.
Whistling as he carried on with his work. Bryce fondly remembered a time when he had shown up at her place and taken her out in his car. He’d needled her into eating small portions. Then he had gotten into his car and driven off. Leaving her behind so that she could walk off what she had eaten. She had probably been both tired, and hungry by the time she had gotten home. That had been a fun time.
Once they were on more solid footing he wanted to repeat the prank. Maybe this time he’d take her out on a canoe, push her out and force her to swim to land. It was fun to think about, but even as he had the idea Bryce knew that he would not be carrying it out any time soon. He was still trying to get Vivian to completely let her guard down around him again. Even though they were hanging out he could tell that she was now shielding herself from him. She barely ever reacted to anything he did or said. He had to get past that tough exterior and find the soft sweet soul beneath so that he could crush it.
***
By the time that Bryce finished cleaning up all of the happiness that he had gotten from sending Vivian the text had evaporated. As had become the case since he’d managed to weasel his way back into her life. Vivian was not reacting the way that she was supposed to.
In the past she would have already replied to his text. Thanking him for giving her constructive criticism but now Bryce did not even know if she’d seen the message and was ignoring him, or if she had not yet read it.
It was awful.
How was he supposed to take joy from bullying her if she did not show him the results of his hard work? Going over to his treadmill, Bryce switched on the machine and began to run. As he did so he tried to get his thoughts in order. Vivian Rose was back in his life, that was good. But she just was not playing ball. It was as though while Bryce had been busy trying to get back to her. She’d found somebody else who now occupied all of the space that used to belong to Bryce.
He was the only one who was allowed to use and hurt her. But Vivian was behaving as though everything that Bryce did now was child’s play. Like someone else had broken her in ways that he never could.
He did not like that.
Bryce had no idea what she had been doing during those months that she had been refusing to get back together with him, and quite frankly he did not care. He just wanted her back to her old self. But it was hard to do especially since even though they were back to talking she was still refusing to let them become more.
Why was she so against becoming his girlfriend again? Whatever the reason was, it also did not matter.
The moment that Bryce got her to cave he would not be wasting any time. He would be putting a ring on that and that ring would shackle Vivian to him for life. There would be no escape this time. He was not the type that believed in divorce.
