Chapter 10 - still fierce

Thad responded almost immediately, like he'd been waiting anxiously by the phone all night. He gave me the code for his gate (he changed it every once in a while just in case some crazy fan managed to crack the code, which was good for me since I didn't know the original) and I drove over to his place. It took me about forty minutes to get there, LA traffic is horrible, but I finally made it and was ready to catch me a new hunk. However, it wasn't until I parked in front of his house that I realized I might not be in the best shape to see him.

I looked in the mirror and saw traces of ketchup and mayonnaise around my lips. My makeup was smudged from crying, trails like black rivers streaming from my eyes to my jaw. My hands were covered in grease, a result of shoveling burgers and fries into my face like a hog. Speaking of being like a hog, my stomach looked huge. I could easily pass for a pregnant lady with the food baby I was sporting. In my grief, I had somehow stuffed myself into a new dress size. In a way, my exposed midriff was a benefit, since anything that hung over it would have been stretched tighter than a rubber band tight rope. On the other hand, I was minutes away from meeting up with the hottest guy in Hollywood, so looking like I swallowed Charlie Brown's head was probably not a good look at the moment.

I tried to suck it in, hoping to at least get my button to fasten, but I had no such luck. Sucking in just made me feel sick and lightheaded. No amount of pulling could get the two sides of my shorts to come back together. I had to just hope he wouldn't notice, which was a long shot, but I didn't have any other options. So I cleaned myself up the best I could, wiping off all evidence of my mini-binge with a napkin and putting on sunglasses to cover my puffy eyes and smeared makeup, and made my way out of the car and to his front door.

As I stood there, I looked down to examine myself, glad to see that my new gut didn't stick out passed my boobs. Despite my momentary setback of understandable feeling-eating, I still looked damn good. Sure, my belly was bulging out in a top that left it fully on display, belly button ring forced out over my constricting waistband, but I was still just as gorgeous as I had been this morning. So with my renewed confidence, I rang the bell and tried to strike a sexy pose in the doorway (which I quickly nixed, realizing that it pushed my stomach out even more, not to mention that I felt a weird rumbling down there that I prayed to god wasn't any form of gas).

He came to the door wearing a suit, rose petals scattered across the floor in the candle-lit foyer. He really must've been waiting on that text the whole time. He followed me, or Chloe rather, on Instagram, so he must've known I just got back in town today. The whole setup was really romantic and I almost felt bad knowing that it wasn't actually intended for me, but I also felt flattered in a strange sense at the gesture. The most romantic thing Tony ever did for me was eat me out on my birthday while he watched Ghostbusters 2 on TBS, which admittedly isn't a bad way to spend the night, but still; a little effort is always appreciated.

"Hey there beautiful", Thad said with a smoldering look in his eyes. I instantly felt a bit weak in the knees, but I had to compose myself. We had been dating for over a year after all, or at least that's what he thought. So I played it as cool as possible.

"Hey there baby. I'm soooo sorry I have called. Service in Cabo is absolutely archaic", I said in my best Chloe voice. Thought I may have screwed up by using a big word like archaic, since it was something that far exceeded Chloe's usual vocabulary of emojis and text talk abbreviations, but he didn't seem to notice. I knew I had to be more careful with him to pull off the charade though. Most people only knew Chloe on a superficial level, but he had actually had an intimate relationship with her, so I thought I had to work that much harder to fool him.

"Whew, thank god. I thought you were avoiding my calls", he responded with a sigh of relief.

"Why would you ever think such a thing?", I asked, trying to alleviate his concerns while also prying for some additional information about the two's relationship.

"Well, last time I saw you, you said we should go on a break. Since I didn't hear from you, I thought we might have been officially over. But I'm so glad you're here now! Come with me", he said while grabbing my hand in his before pulling me deeper into his home, the force of which caused a feeling of unease to shoot across my bloated, wobbling belly. "We'll talk about it over dinner. I've some got lobster and champagne with your name on."

Did he just say dinner? Crap. I could feel my stomach stretch just at the mention of more food.