chapter 2

He briefly considered turning around and leaving. He had nothing against bigger women, hell, he'd spent a few wonderful nights with some soft, volumptous women.

But what he didn't care for was being lied to. This was clearly not the woman from the dating profile, this woman looked like she ate that woman.

But what the hell, he came all this way. He might as well have a drink.

He made his way over and sat down.

"Hello..." He said curtly, motioning the waitress over for a drink.

Crystal could tell by his demeanor something was wrong.

She let the stripped chicken bone clatter to her plate as she repositioned, placing her soft, double chin in her hands and smiling weakly.

"I'm sorry... I'm not what you expected am I." She said. "To tell the truth, I'm not vain at all... I don't take many pictures and didn't have any more recent ones to use on that profile."

The waitress sat down another round of drinks for the table.

"To be honest... I don't mind your... Ampleness." He said, trying to find the words before taking a drink. "What I don't appreciate however, is your lack of honesty. If you fib about that, what else are you gonna lie about?"

He punctuated that sentence with a few noisy, exaggerated quafs as he sucked the foam from the glass.

"Honestly... This was your idea... So you tell me, why shouldn't I walk out of here right now?"

Crystal sat, staring at the man... Shaking in rage as tears whelled up in her eyes.

"Because I'm your daughter you asshole! Do you know how many social media sites I had to search on to find you? You don't keep a Facebook... You think I'm proud of tracking you down by catfishing my own father!"

Cole spat out the foam on the table with a loud "ppppsssshhhh!"

"What?!? That's impossible! I always used protection, hell, I've only gone in bare once and..."

Crystal held up a hand in the universal gesture for stop.

"Inside my mother that one spring break in Cabo... And I'd thank you not to bring that up. You know, for an engineer you think you'd be smart enough to know that drunkenly pulling out is far from effective birth control."

Cole sat there in silence. Unsure what to say.

"This... Probably isn't a good place to talk." He said. "Let's... Pay the tab and go. Should we go back to your place? Is it around here?"

She looked at him wearily. "I'm between jobs at the moment."

She pulled up her phone and brought the dating app back up. "Took the last of my savings to buy a bus ticket. I was gonna stay wherever I could catfish some poor sap into bedding a pig." Tears began to flow more readily down her plump, pudgy cheeks.

"Alright... My place then, follow me."