Jodie

Chapter 1

“I can’t believe this.” Jodie whispers to herself. She’s standing in the dressing room of Old Navy. A store that has become more and more difficult for her to shop at over the last year. And not for a lack of cute clothing; there’s plenty of that. The size options though? Not so much.
Puzzled at how tight the t-shirt she has attempted to try on, is, she looks herself up and down in the mirror. “I thought this place was supposed to make plus sized clothing. What is this!?” She huffs under her breath, while defeatedly slumping into the seat next to her. A loud creak lets out before Jodie even places the entirety of her rear end on it.
This store was her final option. But she needed to find the perfect outfit. Her life depended on it.



Jodie’s love life, that is.
Recently, Jodie met the man of her dreams. The Romeo to her Juliet. The Prince Charming to her Cinderella. His name was Todd. An ordinary name, for an extraordinary guy.
She couldn’t believe her luck three months ago when she first met him at the grocery store, aside 5. It was a typical Friday night for Jodie. As usual, she was taking way too long to decide what snacks to get for her movie night.
Movie night is Jodie’s favorite night of the week. She treats herself to as many delicious, unhealthy items as she pleases. Nothing is out of the question. Though the truth is, this sort of binge eating occurs most nights for Jodie. It just feels more exciting on movie night for some reason. And on this particular movie night, Jodie found herself a real unexpected treat.
Todd was tall. That was the first thing she noticed about him. Well, second, actually. The first thing she noticed was that he was blocking her access to her favorite double chocolate chip cookies. As she patiently waited for him to move, she couldn’t help but admire his impeccable sense of style. It was also impossible to not notice how extremely toned his biceps were. They looked as if they were about to rip right through the sleeves of his Polo shirt. Jodie’s always had a thing for muscular arms. His were by far the nicest ones she’d ever seen. At this point, she had begun to grow increasingly curious as to what this mystery man looked like from the front.
“Excuse me, I’m sorry” Jodie said, in a voice much more high pitched than she intended it to sound.
“Oh, no, I’m sorry” Todd shook his head and exclaimed. “I can’t decide between sugar or snickerdoodle.”
“I’d go for sugar” Jodie replied.
Todd placed the pack of snickerdoodle cookies back on the shelf and flashed her a big smile, “sugar it is”!
“You can never go wrong with sugar cookies” Jodie said, “even the bad ones are still pretty good”. “Not.. not that the ones you chose are bad.. just, saying..”
She quickly looked away, trying to hide the embarrassment of how awkward she still gets around a cute guy, despite being in her thirties now.
“Well, thank you for your input…..”
“Jodie” she said. “Nice to meet you.…”
"Todd” he introduced himself, as he extended his hand out to shake hers. “Nice to meet you, Jodie.”
Jodie couldn’t remember the last time she introduced herself to a stranger like that irl. Let alone a man as handsome as Todd. It felt nice though. It felt, right.