chapter 3

Ellie looked up at the door to see Che. Her neighbour stood there wearing a tight towel, with the body of a god. Toned athletic, and stamped with a black tattoo of a lion across his pecs. His wet hair perfectly tied in a bun and a beard trimmed to look neat but wild at the same time. This was even worse. Why couldn't he have been an old fat guy? At least then she would not have felt so judged. She tried to force a smile.

Che looked down at the sight of his neighbour. So many thoughts went through his confused, dehydrated brain. Don't laugh... Don't stare at her naked butt.. "Hi there." He quickly said to block out his train of thoughts. "You had me worried. I thought something had happened."

Ellie felt the blood rising to her face, she was absolutely mortified and felt herself turning scarlet. "Hi. No. No, I'm fine up here, thanks."

"Um. Are you sure?" He stared at her a little bit too long. "You didn't answer the door."

"Sorry, I just dropped something."

Che put the pizza boxes on top of the coffee table. "Oh. Okay." He backed away from them slowly. "Do you need anything else?"

Ellie shook her head. "Nope. Thanks for dropping my food off."

Che backed towards the door. "Are you sure there is nothing I can help you with?" He noticed from the side that her tummy did look very tightly squished into the table.

"Like what?" Ellie asked.

"Um. I just thought you might need a hand getting out of there."

"Nope. I'm fine here. Nothing to worry about."

Che backed out of the room slowly and shut the door. He bit his lip to stop a giggle. She did not look happy. He could see she needed help tho and couldn't leave her like this. "You know. I had a hamster as a kid." He said through the closed door. "One day He got stuck in his tube, I managed to get him out carefully without breaking anything."

Ellie almost fumed. She was a fat, lazy hamster who got stuck in its tube, was she? But she knew that he wasn't going to let it go. "And how did you get him out?"

"Well, I sprinkled him with talcum powder and pushed him from behind. He just kind of popped out quickly."

This was her life now. This was reality. She had not let herself be touched by a man in years, too busy with work and increasingly self conscious and now she had to seriously consider letting a stranger grab onto her bare arse and shove her out of the coffee table. "And you didn't hurt him?"

"I don't think so. But then he was a hamster, so didn't say anything."

"Okay then. That might help."

"I'll be back soon." He said and slunk out of the house.

Ellie just flopped down further into the floor. "I'm a fat hamster." She said to nobody.