chapter 10

Intent on getting through her review of the settlement proposal before lunch, Claire tried to ignore the hunger in her stomach, and the sound of her cell phone vibrating on her desk. Glancing at the caller, Claire let out an annoyed sigh and answered her cell phone with a grumpy, “Hello.”

“Hey beautiful, I was just wondering if you wanted me to pick something up for you. We could have lunch together in your office!” Her husband cheerfully echoed into her ear.

“Sorry, Paul, I already have plans with the girls in my office.” Claire lied. She was still cranky with Paul for always making her diet so difficult.

A moment passed silently between husband and wife, but eventually Paul’s disappointed voice echoed over the phone, “I get it. No problem. How’s my Claire-bear doing today?”

“Amazing.” Claire tersely answered, as she reclined in her chair and let out a big breath she’d been holding in. She wasn’t going to give Paul the 30-minute rundown of all her problems today. Time was of the essence. She needed to wrap up this conversation so she could get back to work. Clearing her throat, and subconsciously massaging her big belly with her free hand, Claire quickly muttered, “I’m having a great day, but I have a lot of work to do.”

“That’s great to hear!” Paul answered sounding happy for her, “I can’t wait to see you later! I just got back from the grocery store…”

‘Probably buying more junk to ruin my figure with…’ Claire thought to herself, as her temper reached a boiling point. Cutting her husband off, Claire leaned forward in her chair and put her proverbial foot down, “Great, see you later, another client just walked in, I gotta go!”

“I love…” Paul tried to say before Claire hung up on him.

Feeling warm from her spiking temper, Claire felt another pang of hunger that was just too much to ignore. Looking down at her big belly and grasping it like a misbehaving child, Claire let out a disappointed sigh, “Would you give it a rest? I’m trying to focus!”

*growl*

‘How can I be hungry again after all those donuts??’ Claire thought to herself with dread.

Deciding to take action, but rather than expending the effort to heave herself out of her chair and head outside the door to her office, Claire reached for the red button on her desk and buzzed her intern, “Kimmie! I need you to grab me something healthy to eat before this meeting. Anything healthy will do. I’m starving.”

“Roger that!” Kimmie cheerfully buzzed back.

It was roughly ten minutes of uninterrupted peace before Kimmie returned with two oat bars and an orange juice. It was hardly the filling and healthy snack Claire had hoped for, but she bit her tongue and thanked Kimmie anyway. For the span of about 5 minutes, Claire’s full attention was on enjoying her snack. Lunch couldn’t come soon enough today, she even thought about heading out to pick up some food after her rapidly approaching meeting, instead of waiting for noon.

“Claire.” Janet buzzed in, sounding bored, as usual, “Your 11 o’clock arrived early.”

“I’m ready.” Claire buzzed back.

The faster she got this over with, the faster she could fill her belly with something healthy and proper to keep her full and focused until dinner. Claire’s stomach growled at the thought of dinner, but rather than dwell on it, Claire hastily did her best to clean up the mess from her snack. Even if this appointment was rather low stakes for her, she didn’t want to appear like a slob in front of anyone. Much less, Kimmie’s cousin from Spain.

A moment later, the door to her office opened and Claire’s dark eyes were met with a surprise. Rather than seeing Kimmie’s male cousin… A ravishing bright eye’d woman, at least 50 pounds heavier than Claire, with silky long blonde hair, and three donuts in her plump hands, stood in the doorway.

Where Claire’s frame was an obese pear-shape, this girl’s body shape was an obese hourglass. Far from looking like her usual clientele, this woman was young, maybe a little older than herself, but not too much older. Her clothing was also far from typical. Normally Claire’s clients wore their Sunday best. This larger-than-life looking woman wore a mini black leather jacket over a white tank top, large denim jeans, a stylish black belt, and some lovely looking black heels.

“You’re not Roberto.” Claire mentioned, while her eyes studied the way the woman’s tiny jacket couldn’t contain the sheer size of her bountiful cleavage.

“I’m Chloe, Roberto’s wife.” The overweight woman with an angelic complexion replied in a rather noticeable British accent, “He’s knackered so he stayed home.”

“Oh, of course.” Claire nodded, as she motioned for Chloe to come take a seat at her desk, “I’m Claire. And I understand you probably have some legal questions for me.”

Nodding, Chloe strutted over to Claire’s desk. Perhaps it was Claire’s imagination, but she thought this woman walked over to her like she was walking down a runway. The blonde’s big doughy gut of a belly jiggled with every step, yet it didn’t seem to bother this lady one bit. Claire wished she could have that type of confidence in her walk.

In fact, Claire was about to complement Chloe until the blubbery British lady placed all three donuts she was carrying upon Claire’s desk, right on top of some important papers Claire had been reviewing. Biting her tongue, Claire fought off admonishing her possible new client. It wasn’t her fault. Claire knew she should have cleared off the settlement paperwork off her desk for this meeting. Instead, Claire’s eyes briefly lingered on the donuts themselves. They looked like the ones she’d brought in this morning. It was honestly astounding that Janet and Kimmie had not polished off the whole box.

Plopping down and letting out a sigh of relief, Chloe picked up one of the donuts Claire was eyeing, took a bite, and sighed, “I just want to know what’s going to happen. My husband and I are not U.S. citizens.”

“Yeah, Kimmie told me that.” Claire recovered, while she snapped her brain off of the food in front of her and retreated back into her lawyer persona, “So, generally foreign nationals have most of the same basic constitutional rights as citizens, though there are some exceptions.”

“Meaning?” Chloe hummed, as she took another bite of her donut and looked at Claire like she was speaking a foreign language.

“The rights of a non-citizen are essentially the same as those of a citizen. Article III of the U.S. Constitution grants federal jurisdiction to cases where the parties are residents of different states or where one party is a U.S. citizen and the other party is a citizen of another country. Over the years, the right of a non-citizen to file a lawsuit has been expanded to include lawsuits filed in state courts.” Claire prattled off like the legal bookworm she truly was.

“Was that all off the top of your head?” Chloe mumbled, while she munched more on her donut in a skeptical fashion. Chloe wanted straight answers, not a lesson in American law.

“I mean, I know all this stuff pretty well, but I did review your situation before you got here.” Claire acknowledged, as she sensed that Chloe wasn’t pleased with her previous response.

“So, what’s going to happen?” Chloe asked more insistently.

“Well, the crash put your husband in the hospital for a day, so you’ll need restitution for those medical expenses.” Claire paused, while she reviewed the brief in front of her, but it seemed like she’d left a page on her bookshelf, “It says here, you were unharmed?”

“Yeah, I’ve got some extra padding to protect me.” Chloe proudly joked, as she finished her donut, reached under the hem of her tank top and gave her mighty belly a sizable shake.

Finding Chloe’s antics, amusing, and needing to grab the paper she’d left across the room, Claire summoned her strength and rose to her feet, rubbed her own big belly, and joked, “Haha, me too.”

Finally seeing the full shape of the woman behind the other side of the desk, Chloe’s eyes widened. She’d been so focused on her own worries that she’d failed to recognize what was truly a beautiful woman now standing in front of her. Clearing her throat and speaking sincerely, Chloe spoke the truth, “You look lovely.”

“Oh, thank you! The dress is very beautiful.” Claire shrugged not expecting the complement, while she started heading over to her bookcase.

“No, I mean you look lovely,” Chloe clarified. She of course thought the dress was great, it was one she’d designed last spring, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that, “the dress is nice, but you really make it work.”

“Ohh. Umm. Thank you.” Claire blurted not feeling deserving of such praise, while she grabbed the paper she needed and stood gazing out her office window for a moment. Dwelling on her insecurities, Claire added, “Although if I look beautiful it’s only because the dress really helps.”

“Rubbish! You could be a model!” Chloe burst in a feisty manner.

Unable to believe the chunky British woman was serious, Claire didn’t turn around from the window, instead she pretended to be reading the piece of paper she’d grabbed and meekly replied, “You’re too kind. It’s really just the dress though. I don’t normally look this good.”

“Who’s the designer?” Chloe hummed knowing the answer, while she sized Claire up. Chloe was positive she had this girl beat in the bust and belly department by a large margin; however, it was possible that Claire had a slightly meatier backside than she did. It was definitely wider. Heck, it looked even wider than Kimmie’s fat American butt, which was saying something.

“Umm,” Claire paused, as she tried t