Page 11 of Bodybuilders for the BBW

No, shit, not that! I thought.

“Fluffy?” a man in a white coat said, looking out over the waiting room.

“OK, it’s a date,” she said hurriedly. “Gimme your phone.” I unlocked it and handed it over without question. She tapped out her number and then gave it back. “Text me your schedule and we’ll try to work something out. I’ve just started…” The bell on the front door jingled as a man brought his blue heeler inside, the dog straining against the lead. “I’ve gotta go.”

“Right, right.”

I turned and headed for the door, barely able to feel my face. This hadn’t gone as smoothly as I hoped, but… Katie agreed to go out on a date with me. That made up for everything.

“Wait!” I turned around slowly, sure this was the moment when Katie would change her mind, tell me she didn’t think about me that way, but she hustled over to hand me the print out. “You forgot your checklist!”

“Of course.” I grinned then, unable to stop myself. “Lose my bloody head if it wasn’t screwed on. I’ll text you about dinner.”

A little nod and she was sprinting back to the front desk to deal with the blue heeler’s owner.

“Well,someone looks like the cat that got the cream.” Charlie looked up as I entered the break room, ready to grab a coffee before my shift. “You look like all your Christmases just came at once. What gives?”

“Katie…” I ground that out as I sat down heavily, my hands wrapped around the hot mug. “I just saw Katie.”

“And you decided to stop mournfully pining and asked her out?” Knox asked with a crooked grin.

“Yeah.” I nodded and then started grinning like a loo. “Yeah, I think I did.”

“Pay up,” Knox said, nudging Charlie in the ribs.

“Hang on…” Charlie leaned forward to peer at me. “Did you ask her out or not, because there’s money riding on this?”

“We’re going to go to the pet store and then dinner,” I replied, blinking as I realised what that meant.

“Sounds like a date to me,” Knox said as Charlie groaned. “So, how’s it gonna go down?”

Chapter7

Katie

“There she is!” Mum looked up from where she was cooking up a storm in the kitchen with a grin. Her hands were hastily washed and she rushed over, throwing her arms around me. “How are you, darling? It feels like it’s been ages since I’ve seen you.” Her damp hands went to my face as she looked me over closely. “Have you done something with your hair? You look different.”

“Gorgeous is what she is.” Dad walked in toting a pair of barbeque tongs. “Hello, love.”

I pulled away from Mum to give him a hug as well, but my mother was not to be deterred.

“Something’s changed.” Her eyes, the exact same shade of brown as mine, narrowed then. “Have you gotten a new job?” Mum had never reconciled herself to the fact I was working as a receptionist at a vets. I’d gotten great grades in my final year of high school, just not quite great enough. To be a vet, you needed to get 99 out of a 100 and I’d only achieved a measly 95. High enough to get into almost every other university course bar the one I actually wanted to study. “Something better than working at that damn vet.”

“Janey,” Dad growled, shooting her a dark look.

“Nope.” I forced myself to smile. “Still working at the vets, though maybe it's because I started going to the gym with Mandie?” I looked down. “Nope.” I grabbed a handful of my stomach and gave it a jiggle. “Same tummy, same thunder thighs.”

“Don’t talk about yourself like that.” Mum and I were carbon copies of each other, though she was sporting a few more greys in her red hair. “You’re beautiful. Just because things that awful man said?—”

“Jane.” Dad grew serious. “Enough.” His expression softened as he turned to me. “So, how’s work? And those dogs that you love? Did Bronson find someone to take him on?”

I sucked in a breath to reply, but Mum piped up.

“What about your love life? It’s been a few weeks now. Time to get back on that horse. Any contenders hanging around?”

“Well, there’s one.”

We all turned around as Mandie strolled in through the door.

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