Chapter 4

"Jeez, what happened to you, girl?"

Brigit slowly opened her eyes and happened upon her best friend's sorrowful expression.

"You look as skinny as a rake! When was the last time you ate?"

Brigit turned her head towards the mirror, but found it was no longer there. She noticed her whole apartment had changed. This was the place she had lived for the last two years with Adam - how had she nearly forgotten that! She looked down at her body and noticed her long, skinny legs staring back up at her from the underneath the towel. Her tummy was now flat and trim.

"I can see my feet," she muttered.

"You OK?" asked Romona.

Brigit nodded. "Just had a really weird dream, that's all."

Romona cocked her head. "What have I told you about sleeping in the bath!"

She brushed past Brigit and dropped her handbag on the table. Romona was a Hispanic beauty. She stood at 5'3 with an hourglass figure; D cup breasts the held pert on her chest and a butt that could have made Jennifer Lopez jealous. Brigit was envious of her friend's curvaceous figure, and as she stared at her larger, more rounded features, she heard her own stomach gargle. Romona looked curiously at Brigit. "Honey, are you sure you're OK? You are eating, aren't you?"

Brigit thought about the ice cream cake and her stomach gargled again. She placed a hand over it, as if to muzzle its cries for attention. "I was just snacking before you got it here." Or was she? Her memory was fading again, but some things felt permanently embedded - like the feeling of being a larger woman.

"Well, as long you are OK, I suppose." She produced two pieces of paper from her bag and waved them in the air. "So, guess who's going to the biggest fashion magazine launch party of the year tonight?"

Brigit's eyes went wild with excitement. "You didn't!"

"Yes. I. Did!"

"Romona, have I mentioned lately how you are the best friend anyone has ever had?"

"If you add a bottle of vodka to that, we'll call it thank you enough. "

Brigit ran over to hug her friend and almost lost her towel in the process.

"Whoa, I said nothing about a strip tease! Go get dressed, we are about to hit the town hard, my newly single friend."

Brigit dashed towards her bedroom.

"Hey, are you planning on wearing this?"

Brigit halted by the doorway, her heart skipped a beat as she swung around to see Romona holding the little red dress in her hand.

"I was... but it doesn't quite fit. Damn catalogue orders!" She feigned a small laugh.

Romona gazed at the dress and rubbed the soft fabric in her hands. If Brigit could have described it, her friend looked almost hypnotised by garment.

"Well, you know, I'm a little bigger than you. Would it be OK for me to try it on? It looks gorgeous."

Brigit marched across the room and took the dress from Ramona's hands. It seemed to startle her friend and bring her back from the semi trance she had been in.

"If it's all the same to you, I have to send it back in the morning. I don't want to risk any damage. Besides, honey, you look gorgeous, already."

Romona smiled, "Of course I do, I always look gorgeous," and added a wink for effect.

Club Reach was over spilling with A list models. Paparazzi swarmed the entrance making it a struggle to even reach the doors.

Inside the mood, according to Brigit was one of total snootiness. Having consumed over a bottle and a half of wine before Brigit was even dressed, Romona was less opinionated and after buying them a couple of shots made a beeline for the dance floor. Brigit, still not feeling much of a buzz, or anything else much for that matter, watched from the bar as her friend so ensnared a small following of men, all lusting for her as she danced underneath the glitter ball.

"And who are you?" asked a tall, dark man with large nostrils and an extended hand to Brigit. "I don't think I've noticed your pretty little head in any magazines before. Are you represented?"

Brigit turned towards the man. "I'm not a model."

Flared nostril guy smiled thinly. "Darling, of course you are." He looked her and down and pouted. "Although, perhaps a little plump. A couple of weeks dieting should resolve that."

Brigit was aghast. "Is that the way you talk to your clients? Because if it is, it's not the bar you should be lined up at but the job centre!"

She picked up her bag and stormed towards the restroom."

She waited until a bunch of stick thin models had stopped giggling at the mirror and exited, before she gave herself a moment in front of the mirror. Plump indeed! She looked ill, she was that skinny. It was the exact image she had seen earlier today in the clothes store - only now in her evening dress she looked like a twig in a potato sack. Her stomach grumbled. She hadn't stopped thinking about food all night. Romona had turned down her offer of a take away before they headed out. "Eating is cheating!" she had stated, before polishing off the rest of the wine.

Brigit sighed heavily before returning to the bar.

Romona was still holding court on the dance floor when a man in a suede jacket slid alongside Brigit. He had dark, wavy hair and he smiled. "I think the way you handled that guy before deserves a drink."