chapter 2

Ashleigh had always been kind of an optimist. She thought that if you worked hard and did your best that you'd be rewarded in the end. And for most of her life things worked out that way. She was slim and trim because she worked hard at it. She made it through college successfully because she studied a lot and devoted herself to her work. She became one of the youngest CPA's in her accounting firm because she put her social life on hold to study for the qualifying exams. She was in line for a promotion and that cute guy in the firm's corporate tax division was starting to notice she was alive. Things couldn't be better!

Yes, things couldn't have been much better. Unfortunately, Ashleigh was about to find out that just because you worked hard and tried your best, it didn't always mean that things would come out perfectly in the end.

It was Thursday afternoon. Ashleigh was looking forward to the weekend so she could catch up on some much needed sleep. She was putting the finishing touches on a client's audit when Mr. Kent, her boss, sent her an e-mail. She didn't think much of it. It didn't look terribly important, it just said that Mr. Kent wanted to see her before the end of the business day. At about four that afternoon Ashleigh finished the audit and sauntered over to Mr. Kent's office.

He told her to sit down and that he had some news for her. Naturally enough, Ashleigh expected he was going to tell her she had gotten that promotion she was looking forward to. As it turns out, that wasn't quite the news Mr. Kent had. It seems the firm had merged with the largest accounting firm in the city. Naturally enough there were some changes that had to be made. Ashleigh worked in the municipal accounting division, doing audits for city government. Well, as it turned out, municipal auditing was the biggest department with the firm's new partner. So, while he hated to do it, Mr. Kent had to let Ashleigh go.

Oh, the firm offered her a very GENEROUS severance package and they said they'd keep her on the company's health insurance for the next two years. It was all very nice, but somehow Ashleigh couldn't get that feeling that she was a loser out of the pit of her stomach.

At any rate, she packed up her stuff and went home, her mind in a total fog. She had skipped lunch in order to complete her audit so she was totally starved. She absentmindedly ordered a family size pizza and a two liter bottle of soda. It arrived thirty minutes later and Ashleigh dug in.

Ordinarily she would have stopped eating after two slices and put the rest away for later. But today she was in need of comfort and what better comfort food than pizza?

What Ashleigh soon discovered that comfort food was not only comforting, but fattening as well!