Grabbing my gardenia shower gel, I popped it open and frowned. The smell was so strong, it actually seemed to burn my nostrils. Quickly closing the lid, I inhaled deeply of the moist air around me to soothe the irritated lining of my nose.
“That’s strange; I’ve always loved that scent,” I shrugged and reached for the unscented bar of Dove that I usually reserved to wash my face. It would have to do.
The morning ritual that I generally loved dampened somewhat by the loss of my favorite shower gel, I quickly finished my shower and climbed out.
Disappointingly, I experienced similar problems with both my lotion and perfume. The scents of both, once so enjoyable, seemed suddenly too strong and alien.
I sighed as I wiped the moisture from the mirror to do my makeup. Another shock awaited me as I looked into my own eyes. A long, thick black hair grew straight out from the end of my nose.
“Gross!” I was horrified.
I made a quick search of the medicine cabinet for some tweezers, then plucked the offending hair out. “Owwwwwwwwwwww! Son of a biscuit eater!” I yelled, hopping around the bathroom as I rubbed the end of my nose where the hair had been.
Grumbling to myself, I went to my room to dress; it would be a miracle if my size twenty-fours still buttoned over my stomach after my nighttime McDonald’s raid and my morning egg fest.
Oddly enough, when I went to button my pants, they were actually very loose and almost too droopy in the rear to wear. I didn’t have time to search for a smaller pair of pants. All of my smaller clothes had been relegated to a trunk at the top of the closet so I wouldn’t see them and sink into a desolate sea of despondency and despair.
A large knee-length sweater seemed to be the key and wouldn’t look too strange on a brisk October day.
Once dressed, deciding to forgo the makeup altogether, I just pulled my hair into a long ponytail and headed out the door with my purse. “Be good, Dizzy,” I called to her where she sat on the back of the couch woefully watching my departure.
The day just seemed to be getting stranger and stranger. Hopefully things would improve once I got to work.
* * *
The hopes that my day would improve at work were quickly dashed. Simone Davies, my least favorite coworker, was in my face almost immediately.
“Did you finish the Peterson presentation? John is waiting on it,” Simone said haughtily as she dogged my heels all the way into my office.
“I finished it on Friday.” I barely glanced at her as I sat down at my desk and began thumbing through my messages. One of the messages was marked urgent from someone named Tera Beker. The name wasn’t familiar at all and the area that usually explained what the message was regarding just said personal. I decided it must be a bill collector, not that I remembered owing anyone money.
Simone plunked one extremely bony hip down on my desk. “But darling, that was returned to your box for revisions.”
I glanced pointedly from the bony hip placed artfully on the edge of my desk to Simone’s equally bony face; all things considered she kind of reminded me of a praying mantis, always just waiting for the chance to bite off your head.
“Then I can assure you, the presentation isn’t ready,” Rising, I walked around her to the box outside my office. I pulled out the folder holding the Peterson presentation to see what revisions were requested.
“I told John that you weren’t ready for such a large account,” Simone said, adopting a world-weary expression as she sauntered out of my office past where I stood examining the file.
A low growl rose from the back of my throat before I could stop it; my hand flew to my mouth as if to hold the menacing sound back.
Simone froze and turned to look back at me with an arch of her pencil-thin brow. “Did you just growl at me?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I have some indigestion. Pardon me.” I hurried past her back into my office and quickly shut the door.
“Perhaps you should watch your diet; it certainly couldn’t hurt your waistline.”
I heard the catty remark from the other side of the door and barely managed to silence the snarl that rose to my lips.
“What is wrong with me?” I asked the room at large. Last night I bit my dog and howled and today I was growling at people. My world was rapidly becoming stranger than fiction.
At least it was some consolation that I hadn’t bitten Simone; somehow I felt sure there would be some ramifications for biting a coworker from the Human Resources office. Although if anyone I knew deserved to be bitten it was Simone.
My revisions to the Peterson presentation were completed in record time and I took them to my boss John’s office. John Drake was a very handsome guy in a frat boy sort of way, a fact of which he was very much aware.
“Xandie, have a seat,” he invited, taking the file from me to give it a quick glance through. “This looks great; I knew I picked the right girl for this project.”
I smiled with pleasure. “Thanks.”
“Alexandria Pace, you have quite a future with this company,” John said as he walked from behind his desk to perch on the edge of it in front of where I sat. He studied me closely. “There’s something different about you today, I can’t quite put my finger on it.”
I blinked as I thought of my stodgy outfit and total lack of makeup; the only other difference I could think of was that I wasn’t wearing my regular perfume or lotion. Did I stink?
“You’re a beautiful woman, Xandie, I was thinking maybe we could discuss your future over lunch.”
My jaw almost dropped to the floor; my gorgeous and urbane boss, who generally didn’t even notice I was a girl, was coming on to me!
“I… I’m sorry, I have a previous lunch engagement.” Getting noticed by the playboy CEO of the company had not boded well for any of the women I worked with who dated him previously. All of them had ended up looking for another job once he was done with them.
He leaned forward, way too far into my personal space bubble for my peace of mind and ran one long finger down my cheek. My eyes widened in surprise.
“You know, Xandie, I don’t know how I missed those gorgeous big green eyes of yours.”
I stood, backing around the chair and away from John as quickly as I could. “Um, I really need to go.”
John was quick on his feet; the distance between us was closed almost immediately and he wrapped his arms around me and jerked me against him. “I’ve really never been into more curvy women but somehow you’re different.”
What an idiot! Did he really think calling me fat was going to make me his for the taking?
“John, I’m trying to be polite and say no thank you, but you seem to be missing the signals.” There, that was a very nice way to gently let someone down.
“The only signals I’m getting from you, baby, are red hot. Do I need to remind you that I’m your boss?” he asked as he leaned in and kissed my neck.
This time I didn’t even attempt to stop the growl that rumbled up from the back of my throat. I accompanied it with a less than gentle shove.
Apparently I was a lot stronger than I realized because John flew backwards away from me, knocked over the chair, and then slid across his desk before hitting the floor.
My surprise only gave me momentary pause though; I glared across to where he was trying to get up on his knees while holding the edge of the desk for balance with a look of stunned disbelief on his face.
“Consider that my resignation,” I said as I walked out of his office.
Dang, this had been a good job, and I sure wasn’t going to be getting a reference after throwing my boss across the room. But it was the principle of things. Oh, well, at least I had a good nest egg in savings.
“John!” I heard Simone exclaim from behind me; they deserved each other. A shark and a praying mantis; hopefully she would bite his head off shortly after mating.
It only took a few minutes to gather everything of importance from my office and I was on my way out.
&nb
sp; “Xandie! Tera Beker is on the phone for you again,” Madge, the secretary, tried to stop me on the way out the door.
“I’m afraid I don’t work here anymore, so Ms. Beker is someone else’s problem.”
As far as a parting shot goes it wasn’t great, but after the strange day, it was all I had left.
Chapter Three
Finding yourself without a job at ten o’clock on a Monday really opens up the possibilities for the rest of the week. Of course the only thing I wanted to do at that moment was get something to eat.
I knew there was no way whatever I had in my cabinets was going to be able to keep up with my newfound appetite, so a trip to the grocery store was in order.
I pulled through the drive-through at McDonald’s on the way to the store for a little snack. The idea of going straight to the store without eating something first to dampen the overwhelming feeling of hunger seemed like a bad idea.
Visions of me taking the deli hostage and eating all the luncheon meats filled my head. I even knew I’d start with the roast beef and then work my way through the poultry selections. I shook my head to clear it of thoughts of giant hunks of meat; it was really way too easy to see this particular vision coming true.
At McDonald’s I fortified myself with three sausage egg McMuffins, two bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits, and some pancakes. All of which was gone by the time I pulled into my parking spot at the grocery store. Hunger temporarily abated, I was ready to shop for food without incident.
At least I hoped so.
The store itself seemed like a whole new world to me, filled with a smorgasbord of smells and sounds. The smells were so rich I could almost taste them and my mouth began to salivate.
I reminded myself very firmly that I’d just polished off enough food to satisfy a linebacker and narrowed my shoulders with resolve to get what I needed and get out of the way of temptation as quickly as possible.
Thirty minutes later, my basket was filled with everything imaginable from steaks and hamburger to most of the lunchmeat in the deli case with a smidge of cheese thrown in, three dozen eggs, three loaves of bread, and an Italian crème cake. I was on my way to the checkout line feeling a little smug over my extreme self-control when the sample lady stepped in front of me.
Crap!
I’d been doing so well; she just had to shove a tray of pizza rolls in front of me!
Unfortunately I knocked her down in my haste to grab the tray. I came back to myself when all of the little pizza rolls were gone.
The blue-haired little lady sat on the floor staring up at me in shock and horror; I blushed, embarrassed by my behavior.
I gently set the clear plastic tray back on the sample table and leaned down to give her a hand up. “I’m so sorry, I’ve been dieting and I just…”
The lady pulled her arm from my grasp and looked at my overflowing basket and me with stern disapproval. “Maybe you should try an appetite suppressant or have a friend do your shopping for you.”
“Maybe,” I smiled lamely, relieved when she sniffed and turned her back on me to get another box of pizza rolls.
I must have made a little noise when the scent of the freshly opened box reached me because she suddenly turned and eyed me suspiciously.
Blushing, I made my way quickly away from her, got to the checkout line, and happily made it out to my car without any further issues. So far, it had been a red-letter day.
* * *
The doorman of my building graciously helped me to my apartment with all of my groceries.
He smiled warmly. “You must be having a party.”
“A party?” I asked blankly.
“All of these provisions and I’m sure a lady such as yourself never lacks for company,” he said with a smarmy smile and a definite leer.
What was going on? I looked the same to me but all of a sudden, you would have thought I was the playmate of the year.
“I do have a few friends coming by later in the week and I thought it would be better to be prepared.”
The doorman smiled again. “I’d be happy to carry these all the way in for you. Maybe I could stay for a while.”
“Thanks, I’ve got it,” I sang out, grabbing everything together in one hand that I could and helping everything else through the door with my foot. No way was this guy getting in. Maybe the doorman, Mort, and John all used the same dealer and had gotten a bad batch of drugs. Oooh, maybe it was Ecstasy, I’d heard that could make you very sexually inappropriate.
He stood there trying to think of a way to prolong the conversation, seemingly oblivious to the way Dizzy stood suspiciously growling at his ankles. She looked like she was seriously considering taking a bite when I sharply called her back and closed the door on him. Sheesh, truth was definitely stranger than fiction!
The quiet of the apartment was welcome after a morning filled with chaos. After putting away the food, I made myself a plate of deli meat and plopped down on the couch with Dizzy.
Dizzy cocked her head and appeared to listen earnestly as I told her about my disaster-filled day. When I finished my tale of woe, she jumped up, resting her front paws on my left shoulder and licked my face. Smiling, I kissed her nose and gave her a few pieces of the roast beef I’d set aside for her.
Lunch complete, we snuggled down on the couch with a blanket and watched an old movie on the Hallmark channel; it wasn’t long until we were both fast asleep.
* * *
Waking and stretching luxuriously, it occurred to me that maybe I should make it a habit to nap in the afternoon. It certainly refreshed me and brightened my outlook on things.
Of course my mood slanted a little downhill when I stood up and my pants immediately fell down around my ankles.
Frowning, I pulled them back up, expecting to find that they’d come undone, but to my amazement they now appeared to be at least three sizes too big.
Gathering the excess waistband in my hand, I tromped to my bedroom. No doubt about it, the time had come to retrieve the smaller sized clothing from the top of my closet.
I gave up trying to hold my pants up and let them fall at my feet while I pulled down the trunk. Funny, it seemed a lot heavier when I put it up there; I’d almost called the doorman to do it for me. Now it didn’t seem to weigh much at all, which was a good thing because I wouldn’t call that doorman back for anything.
Setting the trunk on the foot of my bed, I opened it and begin digging through various sizes of pants and tops.
First I tried the size twenty-two jeans and found them still too big to be worn publicly. I ended up with a loose-fitting pair of size twenty capri pants and a matching top. Hard as it was to believe, I’d lost almost three sizes overnight!
My momentary elation was quickly doused with thoughts of bacteria and disease. Did I have a tapeworm? Hyperthyroid to the hundredth degree? A pituitary problem? Or could it be some horribly aggressive form of cancer that wasted your body tissue completely in the span of a few days? I’d end up dead with saggy skin!
But as I studied my form in the mirror I realized that things on my body were lifting and tightening as never before; in fact some of the things that were lifting hadn’t been this high up since I was twelve. I’ve always been a little chubby.
Then I studied the muscles of my calves where the pants ended and my leg took over. The muscles were well-defined and rock solid. Nothing on me has ever been rock solid; I’d always possessed quite a bit of jiggle with my wiggle.
This was all so strange and to top it off I had to pluck another wiry black hair from the top of my cleavage. This was way too much for me to be able to effectively process it all.
So I called Epenie.
She listened quietly as I explained the events of the last twenty-four hours since being dropped at my door.
“Hmmm…” was her only response.
“Well?” I asked impatiently.
“Well, what?”
“What do you think is happening? I’m really starting to freak out
.”
“Don’t freak out. Stay calm. I’m going to do some research and I’ll get back to you. Umm, Xandie?”
“Yes?”
“Stay home; don’t go out until we figure out what’s going on, okay? Especially don’t go back to the grocery store,” she cautioned me seriously.
“I think I have enough food to last me a few hours,” was my sarcastic response.
Epenie was already wrapped up in her research; she was a research assistant for a college professor so a new topic was always enthralling for her and often made her oblivious to all else. “Okay, talk to you later.”
I sighed as I looked over at Dizabell. “I guess we just have to wait and see, girl.”
With a shrug I headed for the kitchen; might as well have a snack while we waited.
Chapter Four
Lifetime must have been having a Dying-from-a-Dreaded-Disease-Movie marathon, because I spent the next several hours watching one brave heroine after another bite it from some kind of awful disease, all of which I was sure I might have.
When my phone rang, I grabbed it like a lifeline. “Epenie?”
“No. Is this Alexandria Pace?” a soft female voice queried.
“Speaking. Who is this?”
“Hello, Alexandria. I’ve been trying to reach you since early this morning. My name is Tera Beker and it really is quite urgent that I meet with you so we can have a chat.”
“What are you selling?”
“I’m not…”
“Whatever it is, I’m not buying. I joined the ranks of the unemployed this morning so I am not buying anything from anyone at the moment.”
“Well…”
“I have no desire to get involved in one of those ridiculous pyramid schemes either; been there, done that a couple of times.”
“Alexandria…”
“If you are collecting money, I can assure you whoever you represent has already been paid. Unless of course this is for that gym membership I was conned into buying in the late eighties. In that case I wouldn’t pay up if I had a million dollars. It’s the principle of the thing, you understand.”
The Alpha's Reluctant Mate Page 2
