Chapter 3 - ch 1 contd the trap is set

"Thought you might like these," she said in a honey-sweet lilting voice. "I see you've got quite an appetite."

I didn't know what to say in response, and besides, my mouth was full of pizza. I felt like a fat raccoon caught in a trap. I quickly scarfed down the last few bites, swallowing pieces of crust whole. Then I just stood there with what I am sure was a stupid look on my face. I couldn't take my eyes off her, and I didn't know how to respond to her forwardness.

Maybe because of those long shapely legs, she looked taller across the food court, but I could see she was about my height, 5 foot 9 inches or so. She winked her root-beer-brown right eye at me, then said, "I accidentally made too many, and you seem like you've got a nice place to put them, heehee." She was openly staring at my belly poking out beneath my shirt, the soft bare flesh of it so pale and round.

"Well, uh, I-I-I h-h-ha-have put on a little weight," I stammered and stuttered in reply, blushing at her comment as she continued staring intensely, almost obsessively, at my exposed bloated middle. I quickly pulled my shirt down to cover my gut but felt it rise up on the sides, exposing my love handles. I looked up to see her left eye wink at me from beneath her baker's cap. This eye was not brown like her other -- it looks like a piece of peppermint, a swirl of shiny red and white.

I tried to say something else, but just stood there with my mouth open. I thought about those eyes, such beautiful different colors, both shiny like pieces of candy. I looked down to avoid their gaze. Why was I so shy around her but also all women? I felt a blush heating up my cheeks.

"Well, aren't you the cute one!" She leaned toward me, grabbed my chin and lifted my head up and looked deep in my eyes. She opened the pastry box, gently picked up a boston cream and stuck it into my gaping mouth.

"Hello, husky boy, let me feed you," she added, a mischievous turn of her lips as these words passed through them.

"Uhm, uh, wh-wh-what do you mean, cute? Me, c-c-c-cute? And h-h-husky?" I sputtered shyly and softly with my mouth full, but before I could say anything else, she stuffed the rest of the boston cream into my mouth, and I felt the chocolate melting on my tongue and the taste of the cream exploding in my taste buds, the pastry so light and fluffy, I felt as if I could eat dozens of them.

"Y-y-y-yes, you!" she exclaimed with excitement, mocking my stutters.

"No one's ever said I was cute," I muttered looking down, then shyly glancing back up at her. I blinked my hazel eyes at her, then gazed down at some candy she was holding in her hand. I rubbed my belly self-consciously, tried sucking it in a little. I regretted that I had not yet gotten a large size uniform shirt, this medium obviously too small to hold all my chub in.

"Awwww, come on, a cute chubby boy like you? You must be fighting those college girls off with a stick." She held the candy out toward my face, obviously hoping I would lean over and eat it out of her hand.

"Uhm, I've never had girls all that interested in me," I say, still blushing. "And I'm not in college any more, and how did you know I was?"

She just smiled and shrugged, moving her hand closer to my face. I didn't know what to do about the candy she was offering so close to my mouth. I decided to change the subject. "And what about you? Don't you have a boyfriend or something? You're so lovely, surely you have some guy."

"No, not really. I'm boy-crazy, but I have been waiting for the right one to come along. Maybe it's you." She paused, closed her lips and gazed at me for effect before speaking again. "If you like my goodies, that is." She moved her hand closer to me. The candy looking so delicious and inviting.

"What have you got there? Anything good?" I said, pointing at her handful of candy.

"Oh this? Just some Christmas candy I made special for you after I saw you looking at me earlier. Thought you might like a little dessert after that big pizza meal." She leaned toward my ear and whispered into it, "But I have much more of this at my place."

I felt emboldened by this a little. So unlike me to say what I said next, but I had been so sad and lonely just a few moments earlier. "Well, can I go there? It's Christmas Eve, and I'm all alone."

She nodded her head and said, "Here, college boy," pushing the handful of candy between my lips. I felt chocolate melting in my mouth, and I suddenly start to feel sleepy.

"Wh-what is happening to me?" I mumbled, drifting out of consciousness.

In a kind of deep sleep but with limited awareness, I smelled aromas of sweetness, chocolate, sugar, cinnamon, pastries, of ham cooking, and turkey and sage-laced stuffing, and sweet potatoes with marshmallows melting on top, and pies baking. I dreamed of eating, eating, eating, the pleasures of food making me smile in my sleep.

Or so she told me later.