Chapter 5

She smelled the air. The sweet, greasy aromas from the restaurant lingered like a thick olfactory fog, which caused her tummy to gargle, hungrily.

"Was that your stomach?" asked the man curiously.

"I skipped lunch."

"You shouldn't do that. You'll only end up eating twice as much later."

"Shush, I'm at the drive-through." She picked up her phone and quickly showed the camera the view out the window as she drove up to the microphone.

"Do you know what you're ordering?" Asked the staff member.

She stared at the menu thoughtfully for a moment. "No." As with the morning, the place was still empty but something about the cashier's tone made her feel rushed, like they had better things to do.

"Okay, take your time."

Evie wiggled her finger over her lips as she thought. "What have you got for eighty euros?"

"We don't do catering offers, sorry."

"That's not what I meant."

"Well, the burger meal combo with fries and drinks is seven ninety nine. You could get ten of them."

"That's a lot, isn't it?"

"Yes. It's eighty euros worth of food." The cashier said through the speaker crackle. "Nine ninety nine for the same meal. So eight of them?"

"I guess so. Yes."

"Okay, that will be seventy nine ninety two at the checkout. Your order will be about five minutes."

Evie drove off and the car speaker spoke. "I didn't expect you to spend eighty in here you know."

She whispered. "You didn't say that. Twenty for my time, then the other eighty for food And keep quiet in public."

"I'm on the car speaker aren't I? You can use the volume."

She drove up to the cashier window. "That's your order. Eight of the meal deals?"

She let down the window and reached her arm out to insert the card. She felt a force against her hand, like an animal was trying to push it back in. She fought against it and slid the card in, hit her numbers and quickly returned her hand to the car.

The cashier smiled and looked at her. "Are you going to a fancy dress party?"

Evie opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted.

"No, She's just being..." She threw her hand on the car stereo off button quickly.

"Yes. I am. I just dont drink, so it's always my turn to get it." She laughed awkwardly. “I’m Catwoman, I think.”

The cashier gave an awkward smile and said, "Okay, enjoy your meal."

She drove forward and waited at the collection hatch for a few minutes before hearing the order hatch slide open. She had pulled up as close as possible and picked up four full paper bags as they were handed out. She then took eight paper cups of cola and slid them under the passenger seat to keep them steady.

She left the drive through and turned up the speakers again. "Okay you can talk again."

"Well, I'm a little speechless to be honest, that looks like a lot."

"I'm going to drive back out now. I shouldn't be too long again."

"Take your time, I'm pretty invested in this."

Nearly twenty minutes later, Evie was parking in the garage again, the overpowering smell of food kept stimulating her stomach to rumble. She took the food out of the bags, stacked up the eight burger boxes. With one of the paper carrier bags open, she poured in all eight packs of french fries. She took the phone and repositioned the camera onto the passenger side dashboard.

"That's a lot of food, Carpool. Do you know how many calories that is?" He asked.

Evie picked up a burger box and read. "four hundred and seventy." She did the same with a fries packet. "three hundred and thirty."

"That's for one. Do you need a calculator?"

"It's you who wants to know."

"It's alright, I can do it in my head." He started muttering as he counted. "Six thousand and four hundred. That's a pretty big meal."

She took a deep breath, picked up the first burger and quietly ate, trying to maintain eye contact with the camera. She could sometimes have two or three burgers in one go and still feel hungry later. This time budget was not a concern, nor was the slight feeling of shame that comes with binge eating.

"You can take your seatbelt off now." He said, breaking the silence.

She fumbled at the switch with her left hand until it popped out and slid off her body. She was nearly done with the first burger.

When the first burger was finished, she smiled at the camera and stuck out her tongue to show it was all gone. She grabbed a handful of fries from the bag and stuffed them in her mouth, chewing with her mouth open.

Inside, her heart raced. This was not a quick way to make money, she was having fun. She tried to speak with her mouth full. "I can't believe you're paying me to eat. This is a pretty good deal."

"I think you're enjoying yourself more than me."

With more chips in her mouth. "Oh. Are you not liking this?"

"Well, I feel like I'm being a bad influence. But I really can't stop watching."

She was on the second burger. Her mouth was too full to say anything more than an indecipherable mumble.

"I see." He said.

She held up her finger to shush her viewer and chewed faster so she could talk again. "I've only eaten burgers and fries for the last month." She let out a slight burp. "And a few wraps with salad. I was starting to get sick of them."

"Really? I mean, I like the enthusiasm, but I feel like if that's true, you might want to have a bit of variation. Maybe nutrition."

"Oh, it's complicated." She picked up the next burger and bit into it.

"I won't ask. You're about a quarter of the way now."

"Oh, nowhere near." she picked up the full bag of fries and shook. "Then there's the coke. You don't mind if i don't drink them all, right? I don't want to be awake all night with a caffeine rush, peeing every few minutes.."

"I think I would try and stop you if you tried to drink eight pints of sugar water."

She picked up one cup, inserted the straw and took a long, fizzy drink, taking a gasp for breath after. She pressed on her stomach. "I think I drank that too fast. bubbles are stuck."

"Rub your belly harder, it'll help"

She pressed her stomach a little harder and leaned forwards, pushing out a rapid fire of little burps. "Oh sorry about that." She slumped back in the seat and continued eating the burger.