chapter 1

For Claire, the past school year had been a rough one. She had struggled with Calculus and Physics, both prerequisites for her ideal civil engineering major, and now she wasn't even sure that her final grades would be good enough to get into any graduate school that appealed to her. To make matters worse, her boyfriend of three years had unceremoniously dumped her for her best friend after Claire had spent most of her life savings helping his irresponsible ass pay his bills since he lost his job eight months ago. Now she was flat broke.

Her boyfriend had lost a lot of weight since starting college, which had become a huge turn-off for her. Even though she wasn't even really that attracted to him anymore, the betrayal of him cheating on her still stung. She didn't even have her best friend to commiserate with because she was too busy being a man-stealing ho.

All of this was just a little bit too much for Claire to handle, so she decided to take the summer off. Maybe she would get a job and try to pull herself out of the rut that she was currently stuck in. She was a pretty girl, she told herself, with emerald green eyes and long black hair. She possessed milky white skin and an ample figure that was curvy in all the right places. There were plenty more fish in the sea who would be thrilled to be with a girl like her.

This small ego boost led her to apply at the Big Red Barn, an American-style buffet chain in the area that had the outside done up to resemble an actual barn house. She had worked as a waitress in high school at Chili's and made excellent tips thanks to her customer service skills. Having that experience and a winning smile landed her a position at the Big Red Barn easily.

On her first night at work, a Thursday evening, she was placed with a more experienced girl named Allison who would serve as her trainer during the one week probationary period. The job was fairly simple: keep the tables clean of empty plates and keep the glasses full of sugary sodas and tea. The buffet was a seemingly endless bounty of calorie-laden delicacies; a veritable cornucopia of gluttony and excess.

Occasionally, she was asked to bring out large trays of food to replace an empty one on the buffet line. Thursday night was all-you-can-eat ribs night and the place was fairly busy, so she made more than a couple of trips to refill the rib station. Claire fell into the old routine of waitressing right away and spent the evening plodding through work in a haze of smiles and empty serving ware.

Around eight that evening with only one more hour to go before closing time, things were winding down and the place was clearing out. That is when she saw them come into the restaurant for the first time. They didn't just come in; the two men she saw emerge from the door in the front of the Big Red Barn made an ENTRANCE with a capital "E".

The first man was taller and was preceded by a giant bouncing apron of a belly. He was maybe 6'3 or 6'4 in height and pushing 400 pounds, if not more, with the bulk of his weight centered around his large torso and round, swelling gut. His brown hair was shaved down close to his scalp. He had piercing blue-green eyes and an inviting smile framed by a mustache and goatee.

Was he actually smiling at her? She suddenly realized that she was staring. She smiled back nervously and tried to divert her eyes to the floor, but when she caught a full glimpse of his friend behind him she inadvertently when right back to outright gawking.

The second guy was shorter, but not by much. He was maybe six foot even and he had about a good thirty pounds on his friend. While his paunch was substantial, he was very bottom heavy with a positively massive ass that shook and jiggled with each step. His thighs were heavy tree trunks that rippled with thick layers of fat. He had brown hair like his friend, albeit a bit longer, and big brown puppy eyes that reminded her of the basset hound her family had when she was growing up.

She stood mesmerized by the sheer enormity of his butt until she realized that they were walking straight towards her. Luckily, it didn't appear as if they had noticed her rapturous stupor induced by the sight of the two extremely hot fat guys. As they took a seat in her section, she pinched herself on the arm forcefully to make sure that she wasn't dreaming and ambled over towards them.

"Welcome to the Big Red Barn," she managed to squeak out. "Have you dined with us before?" This much sexiness was making her very nervous.

"Oh, we know the drill," said one eagerly.

"And we came hungry," said the other guy, "So if you don't mind..." he trailed off as they made to get up from their seats.

"Can I get you something to drink?"

"Sweet iced tea," said the Apple, settling briefly back into his seat.

"Make that two," said the Pear. "And you should probably go ahead and bring us two apiece."

"Good call," said the Apple, patting his belly. Claire shivered with excitement at the sight of it wobbling beneath his hand. "We're going to need a lot of tea to wash down all the ribs we're going to eat."

"I'm right on that, boys," she stated with a smile and turned on her heel toward the soda fountain. She had no idea what the two men's names were, so she had unofficially dubbed the big hunk with the enormous tummy the Apple and the cute one with the over-sized rear the Pear. The monikers seemed fitting.

Allison rushed over towards her. Her section was dead. It was getting late and there weren't very many customers left in the restaurant.

"Need any help?" Allison asked.

"No, I'm good," Claire replied. "Do you know who those two guys are, though?"

She gestured towards the table where she had left her new, rotund customers. She was only mildly shocked to see them both returning with two plates piled with ridiculously high stacks of ribs and two other plates covered with heaps of mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese and other Southern-style fare that the Big Red Barn was famous for. Their table was drowning in calories and carbs which they both began digging into posthaste. She pinched herself again one more time to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

"Oh, them. I don't know their names. They're here every Thursday night though. Those two sure can put it away. I should go make sure that they didn't deplete the rib supply."

"Am I working next Thursday?" Claire asked.

"No."

"Are you?"

"I think so. I'd have to check the schedule to be..."

"Can we switch shifts?" Claire blurted out.

A puzzled look crossed Allison's face. "I'm sure you'll make it past the first week, so that shouldn't be a problem, but why?"

"I'll explain later. I need to get these drinks over to that table," she said as she realized the two big men were plowing through the ribs without their requested beverages. She put all four of the large plastic glasses full of sweet tea on the serving tray and added a pitcher of it for good measure. She didn't want them to go thirsty with those mountains of ribs to demolish. She balanced the tray in front of her on the way back to their table.

"How are the ribs?" she asked as she placed the drinks and the pitcher down in front of them.

"Delicious," said the Pear as he stripped a rib of its tender meat, leaving a healthy smear of barbeque sauce in the general vicinity of his mouth. The Apple nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Look, she brought us some extra tea," said the Pear.

"She thinks ahead," replied the Apple.

"I like that."

"Me too."

"Thanks I guess," she said, smiling awkwardly. "Let me know if there is anything else I can do for you and I'll be back to check on you in a minute." She turned to retreat, her heart pounding deafeningly in her ears, when she was stopped by the Apple.

"Miss..."

"Yes," she asked, spinning back around to face them. The Apple was staring her down pensively with those gorgeous blue-green eyes, looking rather amused for some reason.

"Was it just my imagination, or were you staring at us when we strolled in here earlier?" questioned the Apple as he took a half rack of ribs from his plate and began to make it swiftly disappear.

She was taken aback, harrowed by the fact that she hadn't played off her ogling of them as well as she had initially thought. What should she do? Play stupid? No, then they might think she was staring at them in revulsion when she had been feeling the exact polar opposite when she first laid eyes on their magnificent, fat bodies. Maybe she should just be bold and flirt with them. What harm could it do? Could she actually find the mental fortitude to go through with such a rash plan of action?

"I'm sorry," she stammered out. "I'm new..."

"Bullshit," said the Pear, laughingly. "We saw you. You couldn't take your eyes off of us. It's not a big deal. We're used to being somewhat of a...spectacle."

"That's one way to put it," the Apple uttered through a fit of hysterics.

They were both laughing at her. She could feel her face blush bright red with embarrassment.

"No, it wasn't anything like that, I just..."

"We're just messing with you, Claire" said the Apple.

"How did you know my name?"

Both men pointed to her name tag.

"Oh, right." She smacked her hand to her forehead in disbelief that she had forgotten her name was plastered across her chest. "Well, let me know if you need anything."