A Round Peg, Chapter 8 (Patreon)

CHAPTER 8: OPEN FOR BUSINESS

“And three is your change, have a nice day!” Peg saw off another happy customer. 

The Donut Hole had been reopened for two weeks now. A soft reopen, Peg was too busy renovating the kiosk to plan a proper grand reopening party.

She checked the Donut Hole social media on her phone, this would be the largest business change since the shop was last open a decade ago, but like on clockwork, posting a picture of fresh donuts at 8am brought down a dozen office workers from the various buildings nearby. 

There was another message from Jaye on her phone, congratulating her on another article in a local food blog. She imagined Jaye was masturbating to the picture the photographer took of her squeezed in the kiosk. 

Peg hadn’t talked to Jaye since the day. The day she allowed Jaye to feed her donuts. The day she got stuck in a chair in public. The day Jaye fucked her in The Donut Hole. The day Jaye told her she loved her. The day her nightmares started. It was a lot to unpack all at once. 

It seemed like a wild hallucination compared to the mundane renovating and reopening days that followed. In the few days she’d been with Jaye, everything seemed to revolve around her fat and her fat seemed to be the center of her life. But without Jaye around, Peg’s body once again receded to the background of her mind. The only time she thought about her body, her fatness, was when she was tempted to eat a donut. 

What’s funny, Peg thought, is that if she hadn’t reconnected with Jaye, she’d probably happily be helping herself to donuts every day, all day. She’d done the math, she knew exactly how many she was allowed in a day before she was eating her profits and it was more than she could possibly eat (72, donuts had a high profit margin). 

But getting stuck, twice, being fetishized, now she was stubbornly denying herself donuts. She felt like she’d lost control with Jaye and she wanted it back. And she resented Jaye for tainting a perk of the job she’d been most looking forward to. Smelling fresh donuts all day without eating them was self-flagellation. 

She tried whatever she could do to give herself more room in the kiosk during the renovation. It didn’t amount to much, but at least she was able to work without burning herself on the hot oil. She managed to fit in a tiny espresso machine, her proudest renovation achievement, miles better than Grandma Maureen’s old sludge maker. 

“Can I get two dozen donuts please?” The young woman put her money on the counter, she wasn’t making eye contact with Peg but Peg had recognized her passing by the kiosk before.

“Sure, coming right up!” It was usually construction workers and suits who ordered donuts by the dozens, everyone else usually wanted only a few to go. 

Peg starts dropping dough into the oil, a paddle flips the donuts and a conveyor belt lifts them out where Peg picks them up and dips them in sugar or chocolate or whatever topping people want, “how many glazed did you say?”

There was no answer behind her, she felt something against her butt. 

Peg glanced back but it took a moment to register what she was seeing. The young woman was leaning half into the window and was pulling the cash purse out from below the counter! 

“Hey!” Peg was so shocked she wasn’t reacting fast enough. The young woman slipped back out the window. 

“No!” Peg reached out the window but just missed her, for the briefest moment she thought to jump out the window but her belly caught under the counter and the small window closed in around her fat arms and chest as she leaned out, waving frantically, “thief!”

With a few jerks she tugged herself back inside and pulled open the door, or tried to pull open the door, even post renovation her belly still blocked the way “come on, come on!” She scooted her butt up onto the counter and pulled in her belly, shoving the door past her fat. She turned sideways and squeezed herself out the kiosk door. 

“Thief!” Peg ran a half block in the general direction she last saw the young woman, but there was no sight of her. 

She tried to catch her breath, she was shaking from the terrifying rush of it all. “Shit.”

PEG - I’ve been robbed.

Jaye nearly dropped her phone, she was so excited to see something from Peggy, anything from Peggy. She slipped out of her office into the stairwell and dialed. It didn’t even ring, straight to voice mail. BING

PEG - Can’t talk, police are here.

“Oh no.” Jaye ran back to her desk and grabbed her jacket, she’d message to her boss on the go. 

Jaye ran through the midday lunch crowd. It seemed like an emergency, but really, she just wanted to see Peggy again. The last two weeks had been excruciating. Jaye was convinced it was over, she had gotten too weird, too fast and then said “I love you” no wonder Peggy ghosted her.

She could see the police car, her heart raced.

“You’ll need to take this to the station to file a report so you can submit your insurance claim.” The officer handed Peg a sheet of paper from her clipboard.

“And just beware that some places become repeat targets, do whatever you can to change your patterns, your routines, regularly, so whoever did this doesn’t think she can just do the same thing again next week.” The second officer chimed in. 

“Thank you, I will.” Peg spotted Jaye running down the street. A switch flipped in her from business to emotional.

Jaye jumped into Peggy’s arms. It felt like home. “I got here as fast as I could.”

“Good luck with the reopening, I used to love this place as a kid, we’ll have to patrol this area more often now.”

Peg shook the officers’ hands while still hugging Jaye, “I’ll see you around then, thank you.”

Jaye watched the police car pull away. “You’re going to have to give them free donuts now.”

Peg laughed, “a protection racket.”

“How much was stolen?”

“Almost $500,” Peg was angry, “I even had the thought, like ten minutes before, to move the morning profits from the pouch to the lock box, but I hate trying to bend over or squat in that phone booth, it’s so cramped. That doesn’t matter, I should be doing that every hour no matter what.”

“It’s not your fault.” 

“I know…” Peg felt more calm with Jaye beside her. “Thank you for coming, I missed you.”

Jaye grabbed Peggy in a tight hug, holding back tears, “I missed you!”

“Sorry I didn’t respond to your messages.”

“You were launching a new business, it’s a lot of work.”

“It wasn’t that.” 

Jaye knew that, “I know it was a lot all at once, too much and I’m so sorry. I got carried away, but I can go slow. We can go slow.”

“I like that you get carried away. I got carried away too, things moved so fast and I was having fun but I also felt like I was losing control.”

“I understand.”

“I’ve wanted to talk to you every single day these few weeks.”

“I want to hear all about it!”

Peg looked back at the Donut Hole, “it’s past midday anyway, no point going to the bank for change just to come back in time to close shop.” Peg looked at Jaye, “let me just clean up and close up.”

Jaye loved standing outside the Donut Hole window and watching Peggy work, it felt like the first summer she spent here with Peggy. Watching Peggy do the same work routine she’d must have watched her do a hundred times when they were younger, but now seeing her do it a hundred pounds heavier. She didn’t want to be anywhere else in the world.