chapter 7

Amanda huffed and she puffed and she tugged and she pulled and FINALLY she managed to get her slacks over her more than slightly fuller hips. She buttoned her blouse, but no matter how much she fussed with it, she couldn't keep it from revealing the slight paunch that had once been her flat, toned belly. She turned to look at herself one last time in the mirror and SMILED.

All her life, Amanda had been the freak of the Frazek family of women. All the other females in her family had hour-glass figures with ample bosoms, wide hips, beautifully rounded bellies and nicely round faces with just a hint of the beginnings of a double chin. Amanda, meanwhile took after her mother's side of the family. Dvorak women were tall and thin with prominent cheek bones and nary an ounce of fat anywhere on their long, lean bodies. And Amanda HATED it. She couldn't stand that her figure could be best described as mannish, straight up-and-down, with no discernible curves anywhere.

And then Max Braverman entered her life. Dear, sweet, kind Max Braverman. He was the man who was responsible for this amazing transformation. He may have had more in common with the Joy of Cooking, but his delicious recipes introduced Amanda to the Joy of EATING. No longer was food just so much fuel, meant to keep the body going for another few hours. Since she started eating in Max's kitchen, each one of her meals had become a hedonistic delight.

Actually, Max wasn't the only one Amanda had to thank. She had heard the rumors that Hilda Pzybylski was more than slightly interested in Max and she couldn't help but notice how intently Max looked at her every time she stepped into the same room with him. While she might have been accused of being slightly oblivious when it came to relationships, Amanda was observant enough to put two and two together and deduce that Hilda might have had something to do with her "mysterious" thickening. It didn't hurt that at least three of the cooks in Max's kitchen TOLD her that Hilda was trying to fatten her up. At any rate, Amanda decided to go along with Hilda's little plan and gobble down each fattening meal placed before her.

Yes, her busy schedule had precluded eating at Max's kitchen on a regular basis, so at first her gain was not very substantial and hardly noticeable. And it was likely to stay that way as long as she stayed in surgery. Now Amanda LOVED being a surgeon, but the fact was that there were several other surgical residents who were much better than she was. So it was an easy decision for her to switch over to pure research, and the fact that the head of cardiac research had been her favorite med school professor made the transition all the easier.

When Amanda made the switch to research, her schedule became much more regular, which meant that she could drop in at Max's kitchens all the time and indulge herself to her heart's content, which she did. She started her post-doctoral research work in September and at that time she weighed 126 pounds, thanks to Hilda's kind ministrations. By the time she went home to visit family at Thanksgiving, she had blossomed up to 154. Certainly not fat and hardly an hour glass figure, but THIS Thanksgiving no one would think Amanda Frazek looked like an adolescent male.

Needless to say, Amanda was looking forward to Christmas. She could hardly wait to see what Hilda was cooking up for her!