Meanwhile, back in Trenton...

Steph's POV

We walked into my apartment and dropped the stack of boxes and tape on the kitchen table. I looked around and said, "It's a bit early to eat so why don't we start with my closet. We should be able to make 3 piles in short order."

"Why three piles? I thought you said you'd pack what you wanted to take with you and donate the rest?"

"I will, but I'll let Mary Lou, Connie and Val have first dibs. I'll put things I know nobody will want into the donate pile. Anything that might be wanted by one of the girls will go in another pile. Anything that ends up on my bed will go with me to RangeMan."

With the system clearly understood, I went into the closet and started pulling things out. If I wasn't sure where to put an item, I'd ask Lula, but most of the things I was looking at tended to be put in the donate or pre-donate piles. I held up a particularly slutty outfit to show Lula and she said I should keep it. I looked at it and couldn't imagine a situation where I'd actually want to wear it. The only reason I had it was because it was a distraction outfit that didn't burn up on one of my apartment fires. I bet it's coated in some sort of toxic flame retardant chemicals so I tossed it on top of the donate pile.

"What are you getting rid of that for? It's a great dress for clubbing and picking up guys. Maybe I should just hold onto it and hope my new diet and exercise routine does some good."

"Knock yourself out Lula. Help yourself to anything in the non-keep piles."

Lula smiled and started to riffle through the piles. I watched as she pulled out a few things, but in general, she left most of it there. "I think most of this is more suited to my previous profession. Now that I'm a RangeMan, I can't be going around in those fancy and sexy outfits. I have to be respectable."

"Then why are you keeping that one dress?"

"I want to keep one or two things, and if I can ever wear that dress out clubbing, I'll know my donut sacrifice was worth it."

I laughed and said, "So it's some sort of measurement?"

"Yup, that's exactly it. I will keep it and if I ever fit into your skinny ass dress, I'll be a new woman. There just won't be as much to love."

"No matter what size, people will love you because you are you Lula. You're one of the strongest people I know. You should be proud of where you are today and what you've accomplished."

"Thanks Steph. You do realise that it's all because of you. If you hadn't been pushy and nosy and force me to tell you all them things back when I was working my corner, I'd not be here today."

I then did something that was pretty foreign to me when it came to women, even family. I walked over to Lula and wrapped my arms around her and gave her a hug.

"I'm so lucky that I did talk to you on that day. I gained a great friend."

"Ah man, now I'm all teary. We should probably have some lunch soon if we're going to get this all done today. You still have ½ your closet left and you haven't even started with your shoes."

I nodded in agreement and then looked at my watch. It was 12:15 so a lunch break was probably a good idea. We went out to the kitchen to get the food we brought with us from RangeMan. Lula looked at her sandwich with a sigh and said, "If all I eat for lunch is this sandwich, my stomach is going to rebel. This here diet is hard on a woman of my size."

"I know, but Bobby did say that you'd get used to it after a little while. You just have to be strong, and don't forget that I'm in this with you. We can help each other."

We each had a sandwich, an apple, a banana and two bottles of water. It didn't look like a lot of food, but both Lula and I were looking at it like we hadn't seen food for days. We were both used to a more substantial midday meal.

We sat on my sofa and Lula told me all about her morning when we were apart. Tank was really happy with her progress and he even let her shoot a huge gun of some sort. She wasn't sure what kind but apparently it packed a wallop of a kick. She was sure she'd have a bruise on her shoulder later as a result.

Lula and I then started discussing some of the security equipment we looked at that day. We discussed what we'd put in my old apartment if I ever returned. We turned it into a game of sorts. After we finished joking about my apartment, I ended the competition by saying, "No matter how much surveillance is added, there is still the problem of the door. Maybe I should just find a new place in 6 months.

Lula nodded and said, "That's my plan. Let's go tackle the rest of your stuff. We have to be back at RangeMan in a few hours for self-defence training."

We returned to my bedroom and finished sorting the clothes in my closet. I didn't have much work to do with my dresser because the clothes in there were mostly underwear. I knew I'd keep most of it so I had Lula put it into a suitcase. While she was doing that, I called Connie, Val and Mary Lou and arranged for them to come over tomorrow evening to look through my cast offs.

The only thing left to tackle where my shoes. Here, Lula and I put shoes that I wanted to keep in boxes and then left the rest in the closet. I'd clean them up and take them to the donation box after the girls had a chance to go through them.

Next, we bagged all the clothes for donation and packed those I wanted to keep in boxes or my empty suitcases. In the end, I had 2 large suitcases filled with clothes and lingerie. A smaller suitcase was filled with some clothes and shoes, and there were 3 medium sized boxes filled with shoes. One final box was filled with stuff from my bathroom.

Lula and I lugged the suitcases and boxes down to her car and then we lugged the bags to be donated down to my car. We were exhausted afterwards because we had to take several trips. We decided that the best plan was for me to stop and donate the clothes on my way back to Rangeman and Lula would ask some guys to help her get my stuff up to our apartment. Hopefully, by the time I return to RangeMan, all I'd have to do is unpack a few boxes of clothes.

I waved goodbye to Lula and headed downtown to the charity shop. I stopped to talk to the clerk because we had gone to high school together and it was nice to catch up. I left my big bag with her and she thanked me as I walked out of the shop.

I was just about to pull into traffic when a wave of some sort passed over me and my spidey sense went berserk again. I put the car back into park and dumped the contents of my handbag onto the passenger side seat looking for my phone. I dialled Tank, drumming my fingers on the dash, waiting for him to answer.

Oh no, now why were her spidey senses going berserk?