“Um, it’s a little too colorful for me,” she said, turning back to the rack of black tops. Her usual fare.
She froze. Black may have been Fat Kate’s go-to choice, mostly because clothing manufacturers didn’t offer plus-sized gals much of a choice. But she wasn’t Fat Kate anymore. She was Kaitlyn and she could wear whatever she wanted.
Turning to Tiffany she held out her hand. “Okay, let me try it on.”
Beaming from ear to ear, Tiffany handed Kate the brightly colored top and went back to perusing the racks of clothes. The shop was one of those froufrou girly ones at which Kate had never been able to shop. Mostly because they only went up to size 8, and Kate was decidedly not an 8.
She grinned to herself as she headed for the dressing room, arms loaded with cute clothes to try on. Nope. Kate was not a size 8. She was smaller than that. She practically did a happy dance in the middle of the shop.
Fifteen minutes later her happy dance had just about turned into a temper tantrum. Nothing fit right. It was too small, too big, or too clingy in the wrong places. The color didn’t look right. The cut wasn’t flattering.
“Argggh!” She threw the last item into the pile on the floor. Nothing fit the way she wanted it to. Sure she had a huge selection of cute clothes to choose from, unlike when she’d been Fat Kate, but it was just as hard to find clothes for her new body as it had been for her old. At this rate she’d be wearing pajamas and track suits for the rest of her life.
“It’s your body shape,” Tiffany said, peeking around the curtain. “You know you’ve always had trouble finding stuff to fit you. That dress was cute.” She pointed to a fire-engine red number.
“It’s too tight across the boobs.”
“Oh, well, maybe you could get a size up and have it tailored to fit.”
Kate shook her head. “Great idea, but the dress is already nearly two hundred bucks. Add the tailoring on top of that and I’ll go broke.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll keep looking.” Tiffany gave her usual dazzling smile. “You’ve got a hot date tonight and we will find you an outfit if I have to make it myself.”
“You can’t sew.”
Tiffany waved her hand airily. “Minor detail. Now come on. There are half a dozen more shops left in this mall.”
With a sigh Kate followed her friend out the door. Skinny Kate and Fat Kate had one thing in common; they both hated shopping.
* * *
The minute Kate got home she dumped her bags in the middle of the living room and ran for the computer. Sure enough, Kyle had sent her an e-mail. Finally.
Dear Kaitlyn,
I’m really looking forward to meeting you tonight. See you at Durty Nelly’s at eight.
Kyle
Kate grinned. This time would be different. This time instead of Fat Kate, Kyle would see pretty, Skinny Kate. Nobody would stare at them wondering why a good looking guy like him was out with such a fat cow. Nobody would make nasty comments to her in the bathroom. And Kyle…he’d be nuts about her in no time. After all, they’d already hit it off big time online.
After Branwen had whipped out her magic, one of the first things Kate had checked was her dating profile. Oddly, the old online profile had still been active complete with fat pictures. Branwen must have forgotten to change it. Kate taken it down straight away and opened a new profile complete with new, skinny pictures and more exciting hobbies. Granted, she’d never been skydiving or skinny dipping, but now she was thin, she might actually try those things.
As Fat Kate, she’d been lucky if she’d gotten one wink per week. As Kaitlyn she was inundated with winks, messages, and likes on her pictures. At least two dozen guys had added her to their favorites. But the only guy she’d been interested hadn’t even looked at her profile. So, she’d taken matters in to her own hands and sent Kyle a message.
She had no idea if Kyle even remembered their first date, but she did. And she wanted a second chance with him. Of course, he’d have no idea they were on a second date. Even if he did remember the date with Kate, Kaitlyn’s profile was totally different. He’d never know they were the same person.
It had been easy being herself and acting confident as Kaitlyn. After a few weeks of sending several emails back and forth, and a little nudging on her part, he’d finally asked her out.
She did find it a little weird that he hadn’t needed any nudging to ask her out under the old “Kate” profile. In fact, he’d been the one who’d had to convince her.
She shrugged. Whatever. The fact was, Kyle was going out with her and she was going to show him how hot she was and that she wasn’t Fat Kate anymore. He was bound to fall head-over-heels and Kate would finally have the man of her dreams.
* * *
There was a time in Kate’s life when she’d been if not thin, at least thinner. She’d worked hard to get her size sixteen self down to a size twelve. It hadn’t been easy. She’d been in the gym two hours a day, six days a week. Her calorie intake was no more than 1400 per day.
“You need to eat more,” her personal trainer said over and over.
“If I do, I’ll gain weight. I can’t gain the weight back.”
“It’s not healthy, Kate. There’s no point being thin if you’re not healthy.”
She shrugged it off. “You don’t understand. I have to lose more weight.”
What started as a little something she was doing for herself to get healthier had turned into an obsession. Mostly because of her new boyfriend, Marcus. She’d
