Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
But though we had done a lot of kissing and what my aunt would have called “heavy petting” on his enormous sofa, Tark still wouldn’t do anything below the belt. And because of my inexperience, I was too shy to push him or to ask for more.
It still seemed hard to believe that someone who looked like him could want someone who looked like me. I think I was afraid that everything was going to end—that he would suddenly decide he wasn’t interested anymore, which was why I was holding back from him.
These thoughts and feelings that I’d been harboring came to a head on the day when I came to his house after an especially bad time at the office. My awful boss was the cause of it, of course.
I’d been sitting in the break room eating lunch with two other executive assistants—Katrina and Jeremy. Both of them were nice enough but they weren’t really friends, just acquaintances. Still, it was pleasant to have someone to eat with and talk about school, since they were under the same kind of contract I was with Bentley Pharmaceuticals. All of us were just trying to get through school without drowning in debt.
I was listening to Katrina tell us about a new show she was watching about aliens who came to Earth searching for brides when Mr. Price walked into the break room.
I froze immediately with my sandwich halfway to my mouth. It wasn’t huge or disgusting—just a plain turkey on wheat and I had carrot sticks on the side. But I’d made the mistake of bringing a cupcake for dessert and it was sitting right on my plate, in front of me.
My boss walked over and got something from the break room refrigerator and I breathed a tiny sigh of relief. Maybe he was just here to get creamer for his coffee and he would leave the three of us alone.
But of course, Mr. Price couldn’t do that.
He came over to our table and looked pointedly at the food on my plate, his pale eyes narrowing when he saw the cupcake.
“Well, Miss Ward, it looks like you’re not even trying to lose weight,” he remarked, frowning disapprovingly. “You know, we’re developing a new weight loss drug here at Bentley—maybe I should put you in for the clinical trials. You’re getting bigger by the day.”
The old, familiar shame washed over me and I wanted to sink through the floor and die. Katrina and Jeremy just sat there. Both of them were an “acceptable” weight, so Mr. Price hadn’t picked on them. I felt them staring at me with pity and probably with disgust, I thought miserably.
Why had I brought the cupcake to lunch? Why couldn’t I just have a nice, normal lunch break with acquaintances without being made to feel like some kind of freak?
The minute my boss left the break room, I started gathering my things. I wasn’t even halfway done with lunch but my appetite was completely gone.
“Hey, Harmony…” Katrina said tentatively. “He really shouldn’t have said that. He—”
“I have to go,” I mumbled, not looking at her. It seemed like if I didn’t get out of there right now I was going to burst!
I threw the cupcake and the rest of my lunch in the trash and headed right for the ladies room. Forget waiting until quitting time, I needed to get away to Hidden Hollow right now. And thanks to the time charm, I could have at least four hours there before I had to come back and finish this miserable day.
I stepped into one of the empty stalls—the one on the end—and quickly drew the magic door. I felt a burst of relief when it opened, revealing Main Street with its cozy, quirky shops and friendly Creatures and people.
But once I stepped through, I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. I didn’t have a lesson planned with Madam Healer today and besides, I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to learn anything new, so going to see her was out. Well, what else?
I looked around, up and down the street. Lately I’d been stopping by the local bakery—a place called The Lost Lamb, and getting myself a cupcake or a donut when I came to visit. The woman who owned it was named Celia and she was really nice. Her assistant, Sarah, was sweet too and she was married or “mated” as they called it here, to a half-Orc named Rath. I also liked the owner of the local diner, whose name was Goldie. She was quick with a joke and her coffee was the best I’d ever tasted.
But I had no interest in visiting either the diner or the bakery today. The thought of food only reminded me of how fat I was, even though I had actually lost some weight since I’d started dating Tark. (I guess eating vegetarian really is good for you.)