Being Me (BBW Romance) (6 page)

They turned to me with scowls on their mascara faces. Delilah was the more ingenious of the two, though that wasn't saying much, and recovered first. She nudged her friend and nodded at me. "Look who's got a crush on the boss. She's probably hoping to get on his good side and save her job."

"I-I didn't say that!" I sputtered out.

Stacy slipped a grin onto her pretty face. No matter how much I hated them I could never lie and call them ugly, at least not on the outside. "That's not what Alicia's telling everybody. She said you were with the boss a long time this morning."

I actually breathed a sigh of relief. If Alicia would have heard anything incriminating she would have told these two stooges about it. "So what? That only proves we can have an intelligent conversation longer than it takes you two to make a thought."

"You're right," Delilah agreed with me. I didn't think for a moment that she was being nice, and she wasn't. "He's not into fat people, and I heard he's got a girlfriend already."

That surprised Stacy and shocked me. "He does?" she asked her friend. Delilah frowned at Stacy, whose eyes widened. "Oh, right, I guess he does. Some model downstairs or somewhere."

Their acting fell flatter than tuba over a ten-story building, but I was flattered they considered me competition and played along. My big eyes filled with tears (of laughter) and my lips quivered (because I was trying hard not to burst out). "Oh, well, I guess that means everyone should stop trying to get at him. I mean, what chance does anyone have against a model?" I got up from my chair and stepped toward them as though to leave. My voice was a deep well of disappointment. God damn, but I should have been an actress. "Guess I'll go spread the word. Alicia should really hear about this, she's really been wanting to have a go at him."

That got them panicked about their lie spreading beyond our little friendly circle. Delilah blocked the entrance to my cubicle with her body. "You don't need to do that, we'll tell everybody," she assured me.

Stacy chimed in with her brilliant support. "Yeah, we'll go tell everybody right now."

I rubbed my chin with my hand and narrowed my eyes. I made sure to speak slowly, and with a note of suspicion in my voice. "If you guys think you can handle it."

"Yeah, we can handle it," Delilah replied. She grabbed Stacy's shoulders and whisked them both away.

I peeked my head over my cubicle walls and watched them leave. They made it to Stacy's hole in the wall and stumbled in. I plopped down into my chair and covered my mouth to stifle the laughter. Those two were just no contest for the biggest stooges on the floor. After that I got back to work, and the workday ended without any more problems. Those came when I got back to my apartment. I hadn't forgotten again about my 'date' that evening, but I realized I'd forgotten everything else about it; namely that I had no wine to go with dinner. I also didn't have any dinner.

As the only creature within hearing range, I asked Mr. Perkins for advice. "What in the world am I going to do? Should I go to the store and grab something or do I make it from scratch?" My running commentary happened while I was running around the kitchen searching for edible stuff in the cupboards. No luck, just cereal and grains. The doorbell rang, Mr. Perkins meowed, I yelped. I scampered my chubby butt over to the door and flung it open.

Dunner stood in the doorway with his hand raised for another knock. I gave him a big, wide, terrifying smile that hurt, and stepped aside. My hand swept toward the living room. "Come in," I grimaced through my smile. I think my face was stuck.

He looked at me like he agreed my face was stuck. "Um, thanks." Dunner stepped inside but jumped when I slammed the door behind him. Good thing I didn't lock it or he really would have been worried about me doing horrible things to him. Probably stemmed from a nervous nature, or maybe from my aspirations of becoming a serial killer.

I finally got the smile pulled off my face and ended up looking like a long-faced funeral director. "Got here just fine?" I asked him. I couldn't think of anything better to say.

"Well, I'm here in one piece, but with all the funny looks you're giving me I don't know if I'll leave here like that," he teased.

"Hardy-har-har," I replied. "For that little joke I guess I'll let you have starvation for dinner."

He glanced over to the kitchen. "I don't smell anything cooking."

"That's because I can predict the future and knew you were going to be an ass, so I didn't start anything," I countered.

Dunner laughed, and his bright smile changed him from that unconfident boss to the rascally lover with whom I was finding myself falling in love. "Maybe you want some help with it?"

I slumped over. "Only if you're a miracle worker. I couldn't find a thing except cereal and some macaroni."

"We'll just have to do what we can with what we've got." He glanced down at me as he said that and my face flushed.

"I wish you wouldn't do that, it makes me nervous," I scolded.

He leaned down and his grin had a mischievous look to it. "Do what?" he softly cooed.

I stepped back. "
That
. You're just so, I don't so, so sexy, and I'm just not anything but a piece of whale blubber." I gestured down at all of me. "See? Fat as far as the eye can see, maybe even farther. Just pudgy me and sexy you. This just can't work out. One day I'm going to accidentally sit on you and you'll be crushed to death."

Steven cupped his chin in one hand and leaned to one side. "You have a point there. That would be a pretty humiliating way to go."

"See? You wouldn't want me for-"

Steven didn't give me time to finish before he'd swooped down and caught my lips up in his earth-shattering kisses. My eyes closed and I reveled in the sensation of our mouths meshing together and fighting for dominance. His arms wrapped around my plentiful butt cheeks and gave them a nice squeeze. Those same hands also pressed my hips into his own, and ground us together. I moaned into the kiss and he chuckled. My eyes snapped open and I playfully pushed away from him. I didn't get very far because his hands still had a good grip on my ass.

I glanced over my shoulder at his hands, and he responded by giving me a squeeze that made me jump. I whipped my head back to his bright eyes and evil face. "Do you mind? I'm going to need that butt to sit on later."

"Sitting? Who said anything about sitting?" he teased in a low, husky tone.

Even though I rolled my eyes, I was still flattered. "Is that all you ever think about?"

"Mostly," he whispered, his lips edging toward mine again. "Do girls think about anything else?"

"Sometimes. I was just thinking about how some of the girls on the floor were trying to spread a rumor that you had a model girlfriend on a different floor." My womanly suspicions were excited when he froze and his mouth flopped open like a fish. I waited until he'd recovered before I started the inquisition; he expected it. "You don't have another girlfriend, do you?"

His voice was about two octaves too high. "Kind of?" he squeaked out.

My eyes lit up like Satan turned on all the burning lights of hell, even the night light in the bathroom. "What do you mean kind of?"

Dunner cowered beneath my epic scariness and edged over to the couch, where he sat down on the cushions. "I was secretly going out with another woman in the office, but I broke it off."

I was suspicious; he wouldn't have been so nervous if something else wasn't wrong. I stomped over to stand in front of him, and put my hands on my hips. "So what's the problem?" I asked him.

"Well, the problem was she didn't take it so well. She thought I was joking when I called the thing off, and didn't return her phones calls, and wouldn't answer the door when she came over."

I blinked. If what he was telling me was true then this woman was in serious denial. "You sure you made it clear you wanted out?"

He slumped lower in the couch. If he went any deeper I'd have to extract him with a crowbar. "As clear as I could." Uh-oh. Knowing how wimpy he could be that didn't sound good. I held out my hand. He looked at it and blinked. "What?"

"Fork over your phone and let me see the breakup text," I demanded.

He cringed. "How'd you know that's the way I did it?"

"Because you're just not the type to do it face-to-face, now fork over the phone."

Dunner rummaged through his pants pocket and handed it to me. I scrolled through the pages and found what I was looking for. It started with an I'm-sorry. I read the short text out loud. "I'm sorry, Victoria, but I just can't be with you any longer. Please forgive me. Signed, Steve." I glanced up at him with a raised eyebrow. "Kind of cold, don't you think?"

He sheepishly smiled and shrugged. "It was the best I could come up with. Is it that bad?"

"The only way you could make it worse was if you'd typed out skulls showing the death of your relationship," I quipped. I happened to glance up at the text name of the girl and my face froze.

Dunner noticed. "What? What is it? Did I send it to the wrong girl, is that why she's not leaving me alone?"

I shook my head. "No, you sent it to the right girl, but you picked the wrong girl to date." I turned the phone around and held up the screen to him. "You really tried to date Allison Stein?"

He nodded. "Yeah, why? Do you know her?"

"Not personally, but I know her sister. It's Alicia on our floor."

Dunner was confused. "Alicia Stein? Why would that be a problem?"

I sighed and slumped down on my pillow. "Because Alicia's a problem. She hates me and if her sister gabs about this to her Alicia could use it against you." The color drained out of Dunner's face. However, there was one ray of hope. "Did you send any other texts to her?" Dunner shook his head. "Well, that means the only hard thing they've got against you is this one text, and even I have a hard time believing it's a breakup text."

Dunner sheepishly shrugged. "Maybe that's why she didn't take the hint."

"I'd say this was less of a hint and more of a whisper across a busy freeway," I replied. I sighed and plopped myself down next to him. It was difficult to figure out whether the full picture was good or bad. Now I'd not only have Alicia breathing down my neck, but if her sister caught wind of this I'd be dealing with double the trouble. I rubbed my forehead, and cast a side glance at Dunner. "So why'd you have to go and pick this neurotic girl, anyway?"

"She had more beef on her than anyone else I saw in the building. Well, before I saw you, that is."

I raised an eyebrow. "Should I keep you out of the zoo? At the rate you're jumping up you could fall for a hippo."

He snorted at my joke; my esteem for him went back up a notch.

CHAPTER 6

With our cares thrown to the wind, it was a whirlwind courtship. He took me to dinners at my place, I cooked dinners at my place, and we smooched and snuggled in my bed. After a few weeks of this relationship I started to worry that maybe things weren't going to work out; I felt we were confined by societal norms, and the dang office rules.

I mentioned my worries to him after another make-out session. He was beneath me on my bed, so I had a trapped audience. "You know, Steven, I don't know if this is going to work out." He muffled something; his face was pressed into my breasts. I rolled my eyes and pushed his head down onto the bed. "Did you just hear what I said?"

"Yeah, and I replied," he answered with that mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Well, could you translate from snogging to plain English?" I asked him.

"I said maybe you worry too much. It's not like anyone follows me here and watches us through the window."

That killed the mood; that, and I realized I forgot to shut the window shades. I closed the shades to give us more privacy and turned back to him with my arms crossed over my ample chest. "But I'm serious here, Steven. I just don't know how much longer I can go on with this being a secret."

Steven frowned. "You're not worried about your career, are you?"

I rolled my eyes and held out my arms. "Do I look like a power-mad woman intent on world domination?" I asked him.

He shrugged and sheepishly grinned. "Maybe you're in disguise?"

I dropped my arms and glared at him. "I just want to know how long you think we can keep this up without somebody finding out about us."

"Relax, only Mr. Perkins knows," Steven replied.

"Yeah, but he'd trade the secret for a can of tuna," I countered.

Steven sighed and slid off the bed. He wrapped his arms around me and held me close. I resisted his embrace for three whole seconds and then oozed in his arms. "It'll be okay," he soothingly whispered to me. He pet my hair and nearly dropped me when I leaned against him and purred. "I'm sure there's nobody out to ruin our happiness and we'll figure out what we want to do later, all right?"

I nodded; I would have said yes to accepting the Great Pasta as my Lord and Savior so long as he didn't stop petting me. "Now how about we just get some dinner and relax?"