chapter 3 part 2

It only took a couple of moments for Evelyn to put together how the scene in front of her came about. Sam had the power to hire cast members, and Stacey wanted to be part of the cast. Evelyn watched Sam make some kind of very animated joke. She watched Stacey fall forward in her chair laughing. She felt her lips purse in a frown. Sam was definitely enjoying the attention.
Pushing herself up from the table Evelyn made her way out of the VR ballroom. She moved as discreetly as her large figure would allow, and ducked into the bathroom. She gripped a handful of napkins from an embellished basket, on the sink counter. She dabbed all over fixing her face. When she was good as new, she forced a smile in the mirror. “No one can see you cry in Virtual reality.” She tried to force a laugh but her voice cracked pathetically. She cupped her face in her hands. Her mind raced. “Why do I do this to myself? It doesn’t matter how hard you work, how much you care, or what you do. There will always be someone prettier who comes along and takes it from you. You can work harder but the prettier girl will always get the job, the recognition, the attention. Why did I think Sam would be any different,” her inner voice scolded. She felt her cupped hands bare down on the fat edges of her chubby face. “I should know better at this point,” she let out a sigh. She pulled her hands away and grabbed another napkin. She quickly patted around until her face was perfect again. Then she slunk back out into the hall.

“I found you!”
Evelyn jumped out of her skin and turned around. Her shoulders slumped in relief. One of her lips quirked to the side in a soft smile.
“Victoria,” she breathed a heavy sigh.
Victoria’s cheeks sprung up with her grin causing her eyes squint.
“That’s Me!” Victoria agreed cheerily.

The little prop tech followed on the larger girl’s heels as she made her way back into the ballroom.
“So I was thinking for the haunted house we could have floating lighting. Maybe little bursts of flame that follow guests around,” Victoria’s mouth kept moving while she walked. Evelyn pulled out our her tablet and started writing down notes. Making her way back to where she was before, she sat back at the table. When Victoria’s voice stopped spewing ideas Evelyn stopped jotting them down.

“That’s all I’ve got,” Victoria finished and began to walk away.
“Wait! Do you want to brainstorm more and have dinner?” Evelyn nudged her head to a motion towards a chair.

“Sure.” Victoria grinned at the prospect of getting out of work and a free dinner.
——-

“You should have seen his face, when he saw that giant slug start moving!” Victoria squealed.
Evelyn laughed, “I can only imagine.”

“He screamed,” Victoria recreated the shill high pitch scream. Evelyn rolled with laughter. She speared the last bite on her plate before pressing it up to her lips. “We had to send an IT tech into the VR maze to get him out.” Victoria finished with a giggle.

Evelyn let out a satisfied hum as she finished the last bite. The gentle hum mingled in the air with Victoria’s fading laughter. Evelyn didn’t notice the lights coming up. It felt good to shut off her brain.

“Oh I couldn’t possibly eat anything else,” Victoria waved a hand as Rory sat down a plate of French toast for both.

“I’ll take it,” Evelyn said pulling the plate towards her.
She sliced her fork into a thick slab of the French toast.

“Oh my god the raspberry reduction is perfect,” Evelyn moaned through a bite.

“Yeah all of it is so good, I can see why you’re always eating so much,” Victoria’s face changed to horror moments after the unfiltered words fell out of her mouth.
Evelyn just laughed good naturedly. As she giggled she felt a small tingle at the back of her spine. An unearthed memory crawling around like an angry fire ant. The thoughts pulling her brain back to a time she knew it would hurt to remember. She felt her throat close up in a knot. She choked on the bite of food in her mouth. Her whole body wanting her to tear up again. The unwelcome memory flooded her mind, dominated her attention and vividly took hold of her mind’s eye.
——-
Sam sat haphazardly on top of a work table, her face tilted down to look at the paper in her hands. With a pencil she sketched something. Her eyes hooded by her thick dark lashes as she gazed down. Evelyn beamed pridefully as she admired Sam’s engrossed loom.

“We shouldn’t be working on this during company time,” Evelyn whispered to Sam. As guilty as she felt a shy smile creeped across her lips as they moved, betraying her best intentions.

Sam sat down the note book. On the page was the map for another VR simulation. The map resembled Candy land with different sweets dominating the landscape of each region. On the top of the page, the words “eat your way through” we’re lightly inscribed. It was a simulation only the two of them had access to.

Sam turned, smiling nonchalantly at Evelyn.
“I think we deserve a little company time.
Our cruise ship is the most popular one of the line. Do you know why that is?” She leaned down into Evelyn’s face.

Evelyn feigned surprise. Her chubby bottom lip quivered as her breathing went haywire. Still quiet she nodded a soft no.

“It’s because we make such a good team.” Fingers curled around Evelyn’s soft belly roll. Sam leaned in closer enjoying the gentle surprised noise Evelyn made. Sam rubbed the soft sensitive tummy skin with her index finger coaxing out another whimper.
“Work isn’t the only place we make a good team,” Sam’s eyes narrowed and the edges of her lips turned up mischievously. She felt the jiggly shifting of mass underneath her as Evelyn shuddered with longing.

A loud beep made both jump. Startled, Sam’s calf knocked some papers causing them to spill off the table.

Sam reached for her phone.
“It’s just Andy.” She groaned, knowing that the poorly timed interruption would be enough of a startle to end the interaction. To her displeasure she felt the bulkier girl shuffle out from under her. Sam’s fingers lingered on Evelyn’s soft round sides.
“He wants me to look at the guest metrics.” Sam pulled up the data on a tablet. Evelyn readjusted her focus. They went through the heart rate and other metrics to gauge guest attraction. When they finished sam could hear Evelyn leaning back into a chair.

“Wait,” Sam’s voice anxiously wavered “There is something I wanted to talk to you about.” The chubbier girl cupped a cheek her hands.

“These are the cast metrics,” Sam’s voice became unsure.
“I’ve seen them before,” Evelyn giggled, too tired to read the urgency Sam’s expression.

“Victoria is attracted to you. You spend a lot of time with her, working on props.” Sam blurted, and Evelyn’s expression turned uncomfortably.

“She does not-“ Evelyn mumbled “Just let me look at it.” She scooped the tablet out of the shorter girl’s hands.

Scrolling through the night’s data Evelyn made a determined face.
“Look here, she’s wearing a chip here, but I don’t have mine on, and there is no attraction.” Evelyn smiled victoriously.

Sam’s face twisted with frustration.
“No! She likes you when you’re thin! When you have the virtual reality chip on.” Sam’s voice became more emotive.

“Maybe it’s just the theme for last night’s dinner show-“ Evelyn tried.

“No, Evelyn, I’ve looked. She likes you when you are thin. It’s consistent attraction, night after night. “ Sam’s voice became more serious.

Evelyn looked back down at the tablet and began scrolling through Victoria’s data.

“She’s just as attracted to me as she is Andy, or Charlie,” Evelyn replied

“Andy is dating Penny, and Charlie doesn’t date.” Sam responded. “Have you not seen how she looks at you during the simulations?”
Evelyn let out a loud sigh.
“She’s not actually attracted to the real me, just an illusion.”

Sam’s footsteps loudly thudded as she pushed herself off the table to stand back on the floor.
“ Evelyn look at this, don’t you like this prop? Evelyn look at this, I designed you singing flowers,” Sam mocked Victoria’s voice as she hovered around Evelyn’s sides. Evelyn rolled her eyes.
“She’s a good employee. She’s designed a lot of nice props,” Evelyn sighed.

Sam paused for a minute reading Evelyn’s exasperated face.

“Just don’t lead her on,”Sam sighed giving up.
Evelyn’s face twisted frustratedly, “I’ve never acted interested.”
——-
Evelyn swallowed the bite of French toast, pushing the food past the lump in her throat. She heard Victoria ask if she was okay but her focus was distracted.
As she’d expected, when she looked over Sam was glowering at her. She cringed thinking about the sound of their loud laughter.
“I’m fine, but I’m going back to my cabin”
Victoria nodded without saying anything.
Evelyn rubbed the bridge of her nose anxiously.
“Thanks for running prop ideas with me.” She muttered before waking away.
——-

“How about one for the road?” Stacey returned to the table where she’d been sitting with Sam. She put down another drink in front of Sam.

“Actually, I gotta go,” Sam muttered as she watched Evelyn walk out of the VR room.

She caught up to her in the hall
“And where do you think you’re going?” Evelyn stopped but didn’t turn around. Sam smirked at the soft, round outline of her body. She didn’t have her VR chip on.
“Please don’t,” Evelyn groaned. Sam stepped closer.
“Aww, is something eating you? Or is it just you eating everything?” Sam chuckled. She pushed up on her tippy toes to tweak the taller girls nose.
Evelyn tensed her face miserably.
“So have you met Stacey?”
“Yes.” Evelyn responded bitterly.
“Something about her bothering you?” Sam sang out triumphantly.
“Don’t hire her.”