runningsoft
***
Chapter 13b: Secrets Told in the Staff Lounge
“Dang, and you invented this product?” said Natasha who couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “You could make mega millions with this in the No-Wa-Kah world, you know.”
Kristen shrugged, “Well, it’s not been perfected, and I’ve only experimented with it on myself. I only felt comfortable sharing it with you because of how well I made this most recent batch.”
Natasha nodded, thinking. “Well, you have always been as thin as a rail, why did you need to take these pills at all? I mean, look at you.” Natasha waived a hand across the table at her thin friend.
Kristen looked down and then up, blushing, “Well, I’ve had a slowing down of my metabolism, you could say.”
Then she blurted out in a fast whisper, her hands jutting out to the center of table, “You remember that photo at home on the mantle with me and my other teachers? Well, I sort of…let go that summer and just enjoyed myself. Perhaps…perhaps a little too much.”
Natasha leaned in, putting her hand on Kristen’s outstretched ones. “Oh, Krissy. I had no idea.”
“Yeah, well, I gained a ton of weight and…it didn’t seem to bother me. But when I began to outgrow my clothing, I couldn’t afford to keep up that pace; I mean, you know what clothing costs these days. And well, being a potions professor, I did what I do best and invented, tweaked and…” her eyes dropped down to the little tin box that sat between them.
Natasha felt her heart warm. Kristen had been so honest and forthcoming, and it explained so much she had seen and experienced so far on this trip. She felt much closer than she had in months, maybe years to her friend. She leaned closer into the table and slightly whispered, “well then, I have a confession to make from this morning…”
She’d revised her story about having her breakfast later than she’d originally told Kristen, as well as about taking the two pills shortly before Kristen had come back home to take them to lunch.
“Ah, so that’s why you wanted to take the long way to dine; you wanted to burn off a few calories.” She said with a wink.
Natasha’s cheeks flushed pink with mild embarrassment, and she nodded.
Reaching a hand across the table again, Kristen said, “I promise not to let you get fat this trip. Now, how about we get you a proper second helping of lunch, hmm?”
“Scout’s honor?” said Natasha with mock-seriousness.
“Cross my heart, hope to die. Snap my wand and watch me cry.” Kristen recited, hand over heart, serious but with a smirk on her face that made them both chuckle.
Natasha sat thoughtful for a second. She had been on the leaner side for most of her life. True, she’d been a bit chubby during her teenage years and again there was that little spell during college. But as she had gotten older and mentally matured, she mastered the art of self-control, not eating your feelings and she finally found a type of exercise that she could stick with, running.
And Kristen had been so open and honest with her own truth. True, neither of them was getting any younger and Natasha had seen the changes that age brings in some of her friends back home. Thinning hair, greying and the effects of wrinkles and gravity. Why did she need to feel conflicted about what she was eating or not eating? Wasn’t the point of a vacation to take the road less travelled and live a little? Besides, it’s not like she would be eating this way all the time and who better to share meals with other than Kristen? The two of them shared many a secret before, so why stop being authentic now?
“Coming? You looked like you spaced out for a second there,” said Kristen.
“Sorry, little daydreaming there,” she said with a smile.
“Have you made your decision yet?” asked Kristen.
“You promise not to let me get fat this trip?” asked Natasha. She was feeling vulnerable now, putting her trust in Kristen to help her enjoy this trip but in manageable terms.
Kristen nodded wordlessly and Natasha trusted her implicitly.
Natasha put her hands together and rubbed them softly. “I was eyeballing that barbeque station. I’m a sucker for grilled meats.”
Both women made to get up, each taking their plate and putting them in the Food Waste section of the staff lounge. Natasha was glad to be able to abandon her technique of spreading her salad around her plate to disguise how much she’d not eaten. Her belly gurgled again as if acknowledging that a proper lunch was owed.
Natasha smoothed her cardigan down her front, noting a mild bulge that the material could no longer hide. Similarly, she observed that Kristen’s sweater vest was pooching forward several inches, hanging low over her trousers. Each observed the other and grinned inwardly.
Leading the way this time, Natasha grabbed a fresh plate from the side table and approached the main dining table. There were no other hungry staff patrons in line, and she spotted the clock on the wall. It looked like the lunch hour was ending, though she’d remembered Kristen saying she had a free period after lunch.
“This place stays open after lunch. It doubles as our staff lounge and the buffet tables get transfigured back into study desks.”
“Ah, that makes sense.” Said Natasha.
“Bien venue, welcome back. Ready to try something else? Or perhaps more of the same?” offered Chef Gustav warmly.
“I’d like a little of everything from the Barbeque Station if I could, please.” Said Natasha with a little flush in her cheeks again. ‘Am I really going to do this? To give in and…indulge?’ she thought.
True, she wasn’t really hungry, but the temptation of trying to eat to fill her belly and have it deflated again was new and…intriguing. It would be kind of fun to be a little gluttonous. Even for only a meal or two. Also, she’d worked out hard nearly all her life and as most recently as this morning. Did she have to be so serous with her food choices all the time? Wasn’t she allowed to cut loose once and a while? And besides, she was going to return to her normal eating ways after this trip was over. And then there was those little blue square pills. She’d have to ask Kristen for a supply to take back with her…
“Absolutely,” said the Chef, “right zis way.” He took her plate and added to it, as requested by Natasha: barbequed pork ribs, stacked three high, chicken in the pot, a thick slice of meatloaf, a side of beef stew in a bowl, a leg of fried chicken that looked like double the size of a normal chicken’s thigh and a mountain of mashed potatoes. She decided to skip the vegetables as there was no room left on the plate.
“Anything else, mademoiselle?” he said, looking at the overladen plate.
“No, I think this will do me for a while, thank you.” She said happily as she reached forward to take her plate and bowl of beef stew.
Kristen handed him her plate and said, “I’d like to try the Italian Station this time, please.”
“Certainly,” the Chef said as he walked over to the tray. “What would you like?”
“Let’s have one of those baked personal pizzas, basil and tomato. And, um…I’ll take a few links of the chicken sausage with the peppers. Let’s not be shy with those. Oh, and several meatballs, two slices of garlic bread and some of that buttered garlic dipping sauce on the side?”
“Oui, coming right up.” He said cheerfully and he prepared her plate.
“Bon appetite.” He said cordially as they turned and slightly grinning to each other made to sit back down at the table.
“Why don’t you sit next to me, the place is clearing out anyway.” Offered Kristen, as they made to reseat themselves. The place was indeed clearing out as a bell tolled on the wall, signaling 1:00pm.
Chairs scraped and feet took the weight of their owners as the room thinned out. Natasha looked at the buffet table. The Chef, who had now taken off his apron and hat had raised his wand and incanted a spell so that the buffet table and its laden trays vanished and were replaced with large desks and table lamps, chairs zooming from nowhere to tuck themselves in and around.
She looked at the now-vacant dining tables, the tablecloths were pulled out as if by a skilled magician and when they turned themselves over and replaced themselves on the tabletops, the contents on the table vanished and they too looked like study tables.
“Oh, that magic…” intoned Natasha as this time, she sat down next to Kristen and began to dig into her second helping and third major meal of the day.
She kept her eye on the little tin box, knowing it was her lifeline as she continued to put food into her body. She started with the ribs and quickly finished the pile. The sauce was amazing and not all sticking to her fingers which had been a mild worry of hers. Almost immediately, her body filled out. That familiar pressure behind her navel was back and she thumbed the catch of her designer jeans, relieving the pressure and allowing the zip to offer her more room. She also undid the bottom two buttons of her cardigan for similar relief.
Natasha observed Kristen do something similar. She’d raised her sweater vest and untucked the tails of her dress shirt and reached in to dig open the fastener of her trousers. With an “Oof,” Natasha watched as Kristen pushed apart the flaps. A gentle roll of pale skin was revealed, and Kristen gave herself a little pat. “That’s better, isn’t it?”
Natasha looked up and her eyes followed from Kristen’s exposed belly to her face. Kristen was smiling, her face searching.
Natasha felt her cheeks initially flush with embarrassment, having been caught watching what she felt was an intimate moment. But Kristen’s eyes held kindness, an understanding. Almost as if to say, ‘don’t you want to look? I don’t mind if you do…’
Kristen echoed the words Natasha was hearing in her head. “Hey, it’s okay. You can look. I’m looking at you, too.” Kristen reached a delicate hand under the table towards Natasha who did not protest. She felt the outstretched fingers reach for her cardigan and find the parted fabric. Kristen continued, eyes flicking between where her hand was and Natasha’s face. The signs said to keep going.
Kristen put her hand on Natasha’s belly, and she could feel the heat coming off the softer flesh meld with the heat coming off her palm. Scooting her chair, a little closer, she looked around, but nobody was in their vicinity to interrupt or interject.
Kristen began making circular motions and Natasha closed her eyes and a small moan escaped her lips. She bit her lip and her head lowered. She was enjoying this.
“Mhm…maybe we can save that for…later?” breathed Natasha, who opened her eyes. Kristen nodded and slowly removed her hand, but not before giving Natasha a reassuring pat.
++++++
“Dang, and you invented this product?” said Natasha who couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “You could make mega millions with this in the No-Wa-Kah world, you know.”
Kristen shrugged, “Well, it’s not been perfected, and I’ve only experimented with it on myself. I only felt comfortable sharing it with you because of how well I made this most recent batch.”
Natasha nodded, thinking. “Well, you have always been as thin as a rail, why did you need to take these pills at all? I mean, look at you.” Natasha waived a hand across the table at her thin friend.
Kristen looked down and then up, blushing, “Well, I’ve had a slowing down of my metabolism, you could say.”
Then she blurted out in a fast whisper, her hands jutting out to the center of table, “You remember that photo at home on the mantle with me and my other teachers? Well, I sort of…let go that summer and just enjoyed myself. Perhaps…perhaps a little too much.”
Natasha leaned in, putting her hand on Kristen’s outstretched ones. “Oh, Krissy. I had no idea.”
“Yeah, well, I gained a ton of weight and…it didn’t seem to bother me. But when I began to outgrow my clothing, I couldn’t afford to keep up that pace; I mean, you know what clothing costs these days. And well, being a potions professor, I did what I do best and invented, tweaked and…” her eyes dropped down to the little tin box that sat between them.
Natasha felt her heart warm. Kristen had been so honest and forthcoming, and it explained so much she had seen and experienced so far on this trip. She felt much closer than she had in months, maybe years to her friend. She leaned closer into the table and slightly whispered, “well then, I have a confession to make from this morning…”
She’d revised her story about having her breakfast later than she’d originally told Kristen, as well as about taking the two pills shortly before Kristen had come back home to take them to lunch.
“Ah, so that’s why you wanted to take the long way to dine; you wanted to burn off a few calories.” She said with a wink.
Natasha’s cheeks flushed pink with mild embarrassment, and she nodded.
Reaching a hand across the table again, Kristen said, “I promise not to let you get fat this trip. Now, how about we get you a proper second helping of lunch, hmm?”
“Scout’s honor?” said Natasha with mock-seriousness.
“Cross my heart, hope to die. Snap my wand and watch me cry.” Kristen recited, hand over heart, serious but with a smirk on her face that made them both chuckle.
Natasha sat thoughtful for a second. She had been on the leaner side for most of her life. True, she’d been a bit chubby during her teenage years and again there was that little spell during college. But as she had gotten older and mentally matured, she mastered the art of self-control, not eating your feelings and she finally found a type of exercise that she could stick with, running.
And Kristen had been so open and honest with her own truth. True, neither of them was getting any younger and Natasha had seen the changes that age brings in some of her friends back home. Thinning hair, greying and the effects of wrinkles and gravity. Why did she need to feel conflicted about what she was eating or not eating? Wasn’t the point of a vacation to take the road less travelled and live a little? Besides, it’s not like she would be eating this way all the time and who better to share meals with other than Kristen? The two of them shared many a secret before, so why stop being authentic now?
“Coming? You looked like you spaced out for a second there,” said Kristen.
“Sorry, little daydreaming there,” she said with a smile.
“Have you made your decision yet?” asked Kristen.
“You promise not to let me get fat this trip?” asked Natasha. She was feeling vulnerable now, putting her trust in Kristen to help her enjoy this trip but in manageable terms.
Kristen nodded wordlessly and Natasha trusted her implicitly.
Natasha put her hands together and rubbed them softly. “I was eyeballing that barbeque station. I’m a sucker for grilled meats.”
Both women made to get up, each taking their plate and putting them in the Food Waste section of the staff lounge. Natasha was glad to be able to abandon her technique of spreading her salad around her plate to disguise how much she’d not eaten. Her belly gurgled again as if acknowledging that a proper lunch was owed.
Natasha smoothed her cardigan down her front, noting a mild bulge that the material could no longer hide. Similarly, she observed that Kristen’s sweater vest was pooching forward several inches, hanging low over her trousers. Each observed the other and grinned inwardly.
Leading the way this time, Natasha grabbed a fresh plate from the side table and approached the main dining table. There were no other hungry staff patrons in line, and she spotted the clock on the wall. It looked like the lunch hour was ending, though she’d remembered Kristen saying she had a free period after lunch.
“This place stays open after lunch. It doubles as our staff lounge and the buffet tables get transfigured back into study desks.”
“Ah, that makes sense.” Said Natasha.
“Bien venue, welcome back. Ready to try something else? Or perhaps more of the same?” offered Chef Gustav warmly.
“I’d like a little of everything from the Barbeque Station if I could, please.” Said Natasha with a little flush in her cheeks again. ‘Am I really going to do this? To give in and…indulge?’ she thought.
True, she wasn’t really hungry, but the temptation of trying to eat to fill her belly and have it deflated again was new and…intriguing. It would be kind of fun to be a little gluttonous. Even for only a meal or two. Also, she’d worked out hard nearly all her life and as most recently as this morning. Did she have to be so serous with her food choices all the time? Wasn’t she allowed to cut loose once and a while? And besides, she was going to return to her normal eating ways after this trip was over. And then there was those little blue square pills. She’d have to ask Kristen for a supply to take back with her…
“Absolutely,” said the Chef, “right zis way.” He took her plate and added to it, as requested by Natasha: barbequed pork ribs, stacked three high, chicken in the pot, a thick slice of meatloaf, a side of beef stew in a bowl, a leg of fried chicken that looked like double the size of a normal chicken’s thigh and a mountain of mashed potatoes. She decided to skip the vegetables as there was no room left on the plate.
“Anything else, mademoiselle?” he said, looking at the overladen plate.
“No, I think this will do me for a while, thank you.” She said happily as she reached forward to take her plate and bowl of beef stew.
Kristen handed him her plate and said, “I’d like to try the Italian Station this time, please.”
“Certainly,” the Chef said as he walked over to the tray. “What would you like?”
“Let’s have one of those baked personal pizzas, basil and tomato. And, um…I’ll take a few links of the chicken sausage with the peppers. Let’s not be shy with those. Oh, and several meatballs, two slices of garlic bread and some of that buttered garlic dipping sauce on the side?”
“Oui, coming right up.” He said cheerfully and he prepared her plate.
“Bon appetite.” He said cordially as they turned and slightly grinning to each other made to sit back down at the table.
“Why don’t you sit next to me, the place is clearing out anyway.” Offered Kristen, as they made to reseat themselves. The place was indeed clearing out as a bell tolled on the wall, signaling 1:00pm.
Chairs scraped and feet took the weight of their owners as the room thinned out. Natasha looked at the buffet table. The Chef, who had now taken off his apron and hat had raised his wand and incanted a spell so that the buffet table and its laden trays vanished and were replaced with large desks and table lamps, chairs zooming from nowhere to tuck themselves in and around.
She looked at the now-vacant dining tables, the tablecloths were pulled out as if by a skilled magician and when they turned themselves over and replaced themselves on the tabletops, the contents on the table vanished and they too looked like study tables.
“Oh, that magic…” intoned Natasha as this time, she sat down next to Kristen and began to dig into her second helping and third major meal of the day.
She kept her eye on the little tin box, knowing it was her lifeline as she continued to put food into her body. She started with the ribs and quickly finished the pile. The sauce was amazing and not all sticking to her fingers which had been a mild worry of hers. Almost immediately, her body filled out. That familiar pressure behind her navel was back and she thumbed the catch of her designer jeans, relieving the pressure and allowing the zip to offer her more room. She also undid the bottom two buttons of her cardigan for similar relief.
Natasha observed Kristen do something similar. She’d raised her sweater vest and untucked the tails of her dress shirt and reached in to dig open the fastener of her trousers. With an “Oof,” Natasha watched as Kristen pushed apart the flaps. A gentle roll of pale skin was revealed, and Kristen gave herself a little pat. “That’s better, isn’t it?”
Natasha looked up and her eyes followed from Kristen’s exposed belly to her face. Kristen was smiling, her face searching.
Natasha felt her cheeks initially flush with embarrassment, having been caught watching what she felt was an intimate moment. But Kristen’s eyes held kindness, an understanding. Almost as if to say, ‘don’t you want to look? I don’t mind if you do…’
Kristen echoed the words Natasha was hearing in her head. “Hey, it’s okay. You can look. I’m looking at you, too.” Kristen reached a delicate hand under the table towards Natasha who did not protest. She felt the outstretched fingers reach for her cardigan and find the parted fabric. Kristen continued, eyes flicking between where her hand was and Natasha’s face. The signs said to keep going.
Kristen put her hand on Natasha’s belly, and she could feel the heat coming off the softer flesh meld with the heat coming off her palm. Scooting her chair, a little closer, she looked around, but nobody was in their vicinity to interrupt or interject.
Kristen began making circular motions and Natasha closed her eyes and a small moan escaped her lips. She bit her lip and her head lowered. She was enjoying this.
“Mhm…maybe we can save that for…later?” breathed Natasha, who opened her eyes. Kristen nodded and slowly removed her hand, but not before giving Natasha a reassuring pat.
++++++