Chapter 3 - a present for andrew

Andrew woke Saturday afternoon in a haze. He had been having a good dream about his dinner with Melissa the night before. In the dream, their dinner had gone on forever, with Andrew increasingly growing in size, but Melissa never seemed to notice. She waited on him hand and foot. He woke up in a considerable state of 'excitement' and immediately went to the bathroom to relieve himself. A great way to start the day, he laughed as he walked down the hall of his apartment to the small kitchen. Andrew was not a cook.....too lazy, and never had any instruction. He popped a couple of breakfast sandwiches into the microwave, then paused, and added a third before closing the door. After all, it was 1pm, so this was technically breakfast and lunch combined, right? Whatever.

He flipped on the TV. It felt so good to not have anything to do today. Work had been stressing him out. He was such a perfectionist and always wanted to leave things perfect before he left each night, so sometimes he would stay late of his own volition. The long hours and stress were definitely taking its toll on time, though, he realized as he plopped down on the couch with a little more force than he remembered.

He mentally cringed as he remembered how much he had overdone himself at dinner with his boss. There was that shame again.....fat, disgusting slob. He winced as he lifted up his t-shirt to see that pale, doughy belly spreading sloping out in front of him and over the waistband of his sweatpants. He signed with depression over his body. He had used to be so fit, what had happened? How had he let himself get like this?

Whenever this body shame hit him, Andrew always turned to food, and the beeping of the microwave told him that his breakfast was ready. He hefted himself out of the chair and shambled toward the kitchen, imagining that he could feel his belly wobbling even more. He felt so terrible and ugly! If he didn't do something soon, his body would get out of control and swell up bigger and bigger and then whatever little chance he had with girls would be long gone!!

"Gym time." He told himself in his most stern voice, but the smell of those sausage egg and cheese biscuits was so strong now that he was in the kitchen.

"First breakfast, for energy, then gym." He devoured the salty, fatty sandwiches, not bothering to even hazard a peek at the nutrition facts, or he would have seen that he was consuming his entire day's worth of calories in one sitting.

As he was licking the final sausage grease from his fingers, he was surprised to hear the doorbell ring.

Looking through the peephole, he saw a delivery boy in a red shirt and cap with a clipboard and a large basket. He opened the door.

"Hi, are you Mr Andrew?"

"Um, yes....I wasn't expecting a delivery?"

The boy ignored him. "Sign here please." Andrew did so, and the large box was delivered into his hands, with the urging to 'have a nice day.'

Andrew unpacked the large box on the kitchen table. It was an entire box of baked goods from that bakery where Melissa had gotten him the brownie the other day. Andrew started salivating immediately at the gorgeous fresh treats, then caught himself.

"What's the matter with you??" he yelled out loud. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE GOING ON A DIET, NOT BINGING ON....." he realized he didn't even know what many of these were. There were a couple of the brownies that he recognized, some muffins, doughnuts in assorted flavors, but what caught his eye were the tiny exquisite tartlets and cupcakes he had never seen before. He couldn't wait to see what flavors they were. He eagerly reached toward the box.

"No!" He took a deep breath. What was going on with him? Didn't he want to work out and get fit? Didn't he want to stop being a fat, lazy slob with no friends? Honestly though...as he looked at the enticing box...he realized that he was shivering with delight. He had conditioned himself to see food as his primary pleasure, in the absence of any girls or friends. He wanted to shove every delicious treat into his mouth right then and there. He ached with anticipation, and sighed with regret at what he already knew he was about to do.

"I'll only try a bite of each and save the rest for after my workout' he said, but as soon as he took the first bite of a fruit tart (mmmm, lemon cream!) his self-control shut off completely. He ate and ate and shoved more and more delicate desserts into his mouth until he was literally short of breath, but still there was more to go. His shirt began to creep up over the waistband of his sweat pants as his stuffed gu swelled. Almost 30 minutes had passed before he came to his senses and realized that he had demolished the entire box!!

It was only then that Andrew looked down over the crest of his heaving belly into the crumb-littered box of treats to see the card that had accompanied them.

"Oh no!" He opened the card as fast as his huffing, puffing stuffed body could go, and realized that the treats had been sent from Melissa, but had included specific directions!!

"Hi, Andrew! Great to see you the other night. Hope you're having a great weekend. It turns out that this bakery has decided to hire our company for some marketing promo. Here are some of their new treats, and some of their old standards. I'm assigning you and Jeff to this project. I'll need the two of you to try and make notes on each of these items as listed below:" Here, Melissa had included a list of the contents of the box. Things like 'truffle cheesecake muffin" and "key lime beignet" were listed, along with spaces to make notes about each flavor, texture, and overall presentation. The note continued:

"I'd like the two of you to submit copies of your notes to my desk by Monday morning so we can start talking strategy right away. Even though you two are collaborating on this project, I'd like you to think of it as a competition, to encourage both of you to do your best work. The owner is a personal friend of mine, and I trust you guys not to let me down! Thanks, and happy sampling!"