Chapter 5 - hot dog

Damon arrived looking a little flustered as he met Jenny and Jake at the movie theatre one evening. Jenny knew, had she been on her own with him, she'd have been able to get it out of him to find out what was wrong, but Damon was always a lot more cagey around Jake, insisting that everything was fine.

Ten minutes later, once Jake had slipped off to the counter, Jenny turned to Damon, who was checking out some movie posters. "Is Fran giving you a hard time?" she tried, peeling off the layers of anger Damon had shrouded himself with.

Damon peered around to see where Jake was before he replied. "You know how she gets..." he huffed. "She had a massive whinge this evening all about this t shirt I'm wearing. I mean, it's a little tight, yeah, but I'm going to be sat in a dark room all evening. Who dresses up for the movies?" he scowled. "Anyway, then she started harping on about how fat I'm getting; saying how embarrassed she is to be seen with me even."

Jenny gasped at that last point. She tried to stay neutral, but sometimes Fran came across as such a bitch. It was hard not to take sides. Damon was completely right. What was the point in getting dressed up for the movies? Jenny was doing exactly the same. Her ass looked ginormous in the jeggings she was wearing and the new fat on her sides was pinching and rolling over the waistband. But who cared? It felt liberating not to.

"Anyway, I just got it in the neck all evening before I came out," he finished. "I'll be alright in a couple of minutes."

Jenny felt bad for him and thought hard about how to cheer him up. "Well, you may have put on a few lbs, but at least you didn't have to explain to two work colleagues today that you're not pregnant!" Jenny complained. She had lost count of the number of times she had received knowing glances from her friends after gaining weight. "I had to say to them - 'no, I'm just fat!' Can you imagine how embarrassing that was?" she stated, exaggerating how mortified she was.

Damon chuckled wickedly, loving it, just like Jenny knew he would.

"And the worst part was, even after I told them, they still didn't believe me!" Jenny rambled on, enjoying Damon's infectious laugh. She couldn't help but laugh along as well. "Stop laughing!" she protested, pretending to take offence. "You're so awful to me! I knew you would get a kick out of that!" she finished as the pair of them cackled in the corner of the movie theatre.

Then, suddenly, the laughter stopped and they were just looking at each other again; that look that had become so familiar.

"I'm so sorry," Jake cut in, surprising them both. "I have to go. The Chinese office wants a conference call and Steve's wife has just gone in to labour."

"Oh wow!" Jenny smiled. She had met Steve's wife once at a company picnic. She was sure that she would make a lovely mom. She could have got all offended about being abandoned by Jake, but what was the point? "Don't worry, we'll be alright here," she smiled.

"Thanks," Jake sighed, passing her the two hotdogs he had just bought, along with a huge box of popcorn. "You guys can share those..." he called back as he started walking away.

Damon waved, then once he was out of view, he turned to Jenny. "Is there mustard on those hotdogs?"

"Yeah. Sorry dude," Jenny grinned smugly, knowing full well that Damon hated mustard. "And it's salted popcorn!" she winked, unleashing another gasp from Damon. "I'll just have to have these all to myself!" she boasted, hugging them tightly.

"Dammit. I'll just have to get three hotdogs for me then..." Damon announced, walking backwards away from Jenny so he could savour her jealous face. "...and the biggest box of popcorn they do here!" he laughed, finally turning around and heading off to the counter. Jenny's two hands were full; there was nothing she could do to stop him outdoing her this time.

Still, she stood there enjoying the tightness of Damon's t shirt as his paunchy gut would quake and ripple with each stride towards the food counter. He really was getting one hell of a chunky ass on him now as well. She wondered, not for the first time, how sexy he would look without any of his clothes on. Then she suddenly hoped that he hadn't been kidding about getting himself three hotdogs.