Chapter 2 - part 1 cont

Our first stop of the trip was a modest one. We found a small diner an hour or so east of Santa Fe and I don't think any of us expected too much. I ordered an omelet while Bren went with french toast and both Marcy and Jill opted for pancakes.

I think all our jaws dropped when the food came out. It may not have been fancy fare, but they sure didn't skimp on portions! They must have used at least half a dozen eggs to construct the monstrosity they set before me. I even got a separate plate with hash browns and toast.

Bren's french toast looked like they fried up half a loaf before sprinkling powdered sugar on it and drowning it in syrup. Jill and Marcy could barely see over their stacks of pancakes, there had to be at least five or six in each stack.

"To great friends and lots of good food!" Marcy cheered, holding up her glass of OJ.

"To eating until we can't move!" Jill joined in.

"To popping buttons and splitting seams!" Bren cried.

"To stuffing our faces and clogging our arteries!" I finished, laughing with everyone else at the absurdity of it all.

We liked to joke about it, but we all knew three weeks really couldn't have that much effect.

Forty-five minutes later we had all given up without being able to clean our plates. We did make an impressive dent, however, none of us had more than a few scraps left. Laughingly groaning about how full we were, we slid out from the booth and got back in the car. The heavy meal definitely made us a bit drowsy, though, and I was struggling to keep my eyes open as we drove on.

When we were about an hour outside of Oklahoma City and feeling a bit less bloated from breakfast, we stopped at a local burger joint for lunch. Four big, greasy burgers with four large servings of fries and four milkshakes later, the four of us piled back into the car for the last leg of our trip.

I was beginning to regret opting for jeans over sweats as the waistband felt uncomfortably tight after our greasy, salty lunch. I told myself I'd have some time to walk around before dinner and hopefully work a bit of it off.

The hotel waiting for us in downtown Oklahoma City was pretty nice, but of course we were hoping to spend most of our time out and about. After getting unpacked, Jill suggested going for a stroll which I thought was a wonderful idea.

"Ooh, look, frozen yogurt!" Bren pointed as we were walking away from the hotel.

Of course we couldn't pass that up. It was one of the places where you served yourself and picked out all your own toppings, which inevitably leads to getting way more than you planned. It all went down quite easy as we were walking around the city.

Later that evening, our feet a little sore from all the walking and our stomachs still a bit full, we all got ready for our first "real" meal out to kick off our trip. We had gotten reservations at a very nice restaurant, one of our few splurges.

After we were seated at the restaurant, we perused the menus over a bottle of wine.

"I may have a salad," I mused out loud before being hit in the face with a rolled up napkin.

"Salad?! Salad?!" Jill scolded. "What kind of trip do you think we're on? There will be no salads eaten here. You can have as much rabbit food as you want when we get home, but until we do you will be ordering off the big girl menu!"

"Fine, I'll get a real meal," I laughed as I passed her napkin back over to her.

"Good," she said. "Now what should we do about an appetizer?"

It turns out that lobster ravioli, bruschetta, and caprese salad go down well with a bottle of wine. Then it was time for the main course. I went with a roast pork loin, which came with scalloped potatoes and brussel sprouts. Another bottle of wine accompanied our meals, which in turn led to us thinking that dessert would be a great idea, even after we all somehow cleaned our plates.

After dessert (and a third bottle of wine), we sat in a comfortable silence for a while. Fully replete, we sank back into our chairs with glazed eyes and smiles on our lips. The wine was doing a fantastic job of disguising exactly how much I had just eaten, but I knew I was at capacity. Finally, we settled the check and began the process of transitioning to a vertical state.

Giggling and weaving a little, we made it out of the restaurant with no major faux pas. However, as soon as we got out to the sidewalk, Bren unleashed a belch that seemed to echo down the street.

"Mmm, much better," she commented.

"Oof, I'm so full," Marcy groaned. "How far to the hotel?"

"About three *hic* blocks," Jill told her.

"I don't think I can make it," Marcy said, "I'm carrying a massive food baby here."

She pulled up her shirt to display a very rounded midsection. We all patted and poked it and teased her as we walked back, each of us aware of our "pregnancies". Back in the hotel I flopped onto one of the beds and wrestled open the button on my jeans.

"Ah, that's good," I sighed.

"C'mon, show us what you got," Jill teased, pointing her phone at me.

I pulled up my shirt and tried to push out my stomach, but it was already as distended as it could be. She took a couple pictures while I showed off my bump, and then we all took turns posing and taking photos. We pulled our shirts up and arched our backs and played up the whole ridiculous thing while laughing and poking each other.

Later that evening as I laid in bed I went through my phone and looked at some of the pictures. I chose one to send to Laura, it was a side picture of me standing up with one hand on my lower back and one resting on top of my bare, swollen belly.

"Obv i'm eating well, wish you were here xoxo" I wrote.

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The next morning I still wasn't that hungry, but we all went out to eat breakfast just the same. Too full afterward to do much walking, we decided to spend an hour or so hanging out by the pool while we digested.

By the time we finally felt like we could start moving around again, it was nearly lunch time so of course we walked straight to a restaurant which boasted huge burritos and the best margaritas this side of the Rio Grande.

Stuffed and tipsy, the four of us staggered out of the restaurant almost two hours later, giggling and bumping into each other as we made our way back to the hotel for a "siesta". As I drifted off to sleep, I imagined that I could feel Laura's hands gently massaging my overfull stomach as she teased me for my gluttony.

"Wakey wakey," a voice broke into my pleasant dreams, a hand shaking my shoulder to rouse me from slumber.

"Wh't time is't," I mumbled as I stretched, one hand resting on my rounded tummy.

"The best time!" Jill exclaimed, looking ridiculously fresh and perky. "It's dinner time!"

"Alright, alright," I yawned as I rose. "Just let me go freshen up a bit."

Jill slapped my ass as I walked to the bathroom, absently rubbing my stomach and wondering if I could possibly find room for another meal.

The answer, it turns out, was yes. There was supposed to be an excellent seafood restaurant that had really good prices. The place itself looked quite underwhelming, just a dingy place with a bunch of picnic tables inside. The laminated menus didn't have any pictures and the descriptions of the dishes were very simple.

I opted for the sampler platter which contained haddock, shrimp, scallops, and hush puppies. As soon as our food came out my treacherous stomach began to growl, insisting for some absurd reason that it had not been fed enough that day.

Of course I shared it with others, but I also sampled Bren's lobster, Jill's chowder and salmon, and Marcy's calamari.

"I don't think I can do it," I groaned, staring at the last hush puppy.

"Don't stop now," Marcy cheered me on. "You can do it!"

"You can do it!" Jill and Bren echoed.

"Do it! Do it! Do it!"

Silently apologizing to my overtaxed waistband that was struggling to contain my very distended middle, I popped it in my mouth. After swallowing, I waited a moment to see if I would actually burst, but thankfully I somehow stayed in one piece.

"She did it!" Jill cried, grabbing my right arm and holding it in the air.

I just closed my eyes and breathed through my mouth for a few minutes until I felt a bit better. Fortunately we had driven to this restaurant, so I didn't have to endure a long walk back.

I could tell I wasn't the only one who had overindulged though. Around nine o'clock that evening Jill half-heartedly suggested going out for drinks, but at the point we were all in our sweats and feeling too puffy and bloated to get all dolled up. That didn't stop us, however, from visiting the frozen yogurt stand again an hour later.

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