chapter 4

When she woke up, Petra had left and Richard had replaced her. He was Mickey’s business manager. Stacey usually had very little to do with him, but this morning, he was in her room to watch her eat once more. He brought with him a large slice of cake, slathered in buttercream and served with a dollop of fresh cream. He explained in his usual camp manner that this was her pre-lunch snack.
She was not so sure about that! If she ate the cake, she knew she would struggle with her lunch, whatever that was. She tried to avoid sweet things normally. One nibble on a few crumbs of cake was as much as she would have - or a square of chocolate. Even so, she could feel the indulgence adding pounds to her svelte figure. Today, the heaviness from her two breakfasts had gone. She didn’t feel hungry, but she was tempted by the cake. She picked up the plate and the fork. She took the tiniest bit from the tip of the slice and put it in her mouth. It felt like an explosion of sweetness on her tongue! Then she wondered if it really would make any difference if she ate the whole thing. She decided that the calories would not count, if she managed to bring the whole lot back up afterwards. She suddenly gave in to the cake wholeheartedly, taking big mouthfuls and hardly swallowing it. It was gone within seconds! She was ready for more, but then the guilt set in. She shouldn’t have done that! She was going to be as big as a house end! What did she think she was doing? She pushed herself up out of the chair and headed towards the bathroom. She would soon be rid of her guilt. She would eat as much as Mickey wanted her to consume and bring it all back up. That way, they would both be happy!
Richard stopped her on her way to the bathroom. He said he was going to time her. Two minutes was enough time to have a number one. She did not want a number two.
Two minutes was not enough time to be sick and clean up after herself. She decided not to bother and try again later when Richard was not looking.
An hour later, he was still hanging around. Theresa, the cook brought her lunch to the door. Richard took it and handed it to her. It was a large double burger with lots of cheese and fries. Normally, a small burger, with no cheese and no fries would have been enough to satisfy her for dinner. Now she had to squeeze in more than double for lunch! The double carbs of the fries and the bread on the burger had her brain going haywire.then there as the oil on the fries, the fat in the burger and the cheese, the sugar in the relish. It was far too much for her!
She ate it because she had to. She watched Richard for the opportunity to purge herself in the bathroom, but he knew of her tricks. She HAD to remain seated!
In a way, she didn’t mind being bossed around. She hated making decisions, yet it was something she did on a daily basis.
She managed to squeeze the last bit of the burger into her stomach. It sat heavy inside her. Her clothes felt incredibly tight, she was uncomfortable and in pain.
Richard encouraged her to lie down.
She usually frowned upon going to sleep in the middle of the day, but she had eaten more in one morning than she would normally consume in a week! She felt so lethargic that she was soon fast asleep.
She was woken after an hour with a ‘snack’ and some coffee. The coffee was laced with cream and sugar. To eat, she had a selection of biscuits. Usually, if she was offered a biscuit in company, she would take one plain one and make it last, by nibbling on it while her friends dunked theirs in their coffee or simply took big chunks out of them. She usually chose a plain digestive, or a rich tea biscuit, but if she could have had free rein, she would choose anything with a chocolate topping. Milk chocolate hobnobs were her real favourite, but she had only ever had one at a time. Now she was being offered a whole range of biscuits from custard creams to chocolate chip cookies and hobnobs... and she was told she had to eat all of them!
She tried not to think about it, or she would chastise herself and start to feel guilty. Overeating today was not her fault, she was being pushed into it. She finished off her first biscuit and started on the next. These were good! Perhaps this excessive eating was not going to be so bad after all.