Just a Snack (Iris and Sam Part 3) (Patreon)

 It was difficult not to seem wildly overeager as she got out of her car in the parking lot of of a donut place she’d driven past a dozen times but never actually been inside of. She looked around, but saw no sign of Sam. She hoped she was at the right place. Google maps had told her there was another place called Eclairs on the other side of town.

There was a sound of a car door opening. She turned toward it and realized there was a behemoth of a pickup truck on the other side of the parking lot, so large she honestly hasn’t noticed it. It was shiny, new, and incredible clean. He waved at her and tucked his phone into his pocket before climbing down. It was hard to tell at this distance, but she had a feeling the truck’s tires were almost as tall as her hips. 

They walked towards each other, smiling a bit awkwardly in greeting. “So, is this the best donut shop in town?”

“Probably the best in the state, honestly. Prices aren’t bad, either.”

Iris wondered absently how much of his soft belly had been gained in the search for this place. Quite a few, she figured, since she’d driven past 6 different donut shops just on her way here. The tip of her tongue darted out and swiped her bottom lip as she tried to keep her composure. 

They walked in, and Iris marveled at the amount of choices. This place’s specialty was definitely donuts, but they seemed to have a few fancier pastries as well, including some of their namesake eclairs, some looking ripe with cream, others plump with custard. It felt like a wonderland. Everything smelled glorious. Iris could practically feel her hips widening and thighs thickening just staring at various goodies. She walked up and down along the glass cases, struggling to decide which pastry to try. It took Sam’s hand on her shoulder as she bent to look down at some thrillingly syrupy-looking apple fritters to get her to come back to earth.

“I picked out all the best ones. I’m not sure what you have a taste for, but I made a few good guesses.” In his hands was an enormous pink box, of a size generally reserved for large cakes from Costco. “Let’s go sit.”

He guided her to one of the few tables in the bakery. They sat across from each other. He pulled napkins out of the dispenser on the edge of the table and handed her one and set the other in front of himself. There wasn’t much room on the table with the huge pink box of donuts in the center of it. He opened it and they both looked inside. It was packed. There had to be three dozen donuts inside. Sam examined them for a moment, then used a napkin to pull out a glazed donut, setting it down gently on the napkin in front of Iris. “Figured we should both start with a classic. Every donut place can be judged by their glazed donuts.”

Iris nodded, lifting her donut to her lips as he picked out a particularly sticky-looking glazed donut for himself and bit into it. He gave a little moan of pleasure. Iris tried not to shift in her seat. She took her time with her donut. After a slow first bite, he seemed to get through his in a matter of seconds. He pulled out a second - an old fashioned donut with chocolate frosting. By the time she finished her glazed, he was scoping out a third and grabbed a cruller. She fished a cake donut with sprinkles out.

They chatted as they munched. They talked about how they’d come to the city. Iris had moved a few years ago for work. Sam had grown up in the cities- his grandparents had come in the sixties, and his parents had never seen any reason to leave. He pulled out his phone and showed her a few photos. His father was tall, thin, seemingly always laughing. His mother was softer, and looked much more reserved. He had three siblings (two brothers, one older than him, one younger, and a younger sister). Iris noted that most of his siblings were thin, or on the smaller side of average. The whole family seemed very close. It was nice to know.

After he finished showing her some photos of the last trip his family had taken to Japan to visit relatives, he asked her about her own family. There wasn’t much to tell. By this point, half the box of donuts was gone. She’d only had three. And he was listening to her raptly, hoovering up donuts as she talked. “I have one sister, Annie. She and my parents are back in Massachusetts.”

He swallowed a mouthful of an enormous apple fritter. “Oh, Massachusetts? Like, Boston area, or - ?” 

“Closer to the Berkshires, actually.”

He nodded knowingly, then cracked a smile. “I know nothing about the East Coast, so I actually have no clue where that is.”

She laughed. “It’s okay. I thought San Francisco and L.A. were a couple hours away from each other before I moved out here. I mean, you look at maps of the country and you see how big California is, but you don’t realize how big it is until you decide to play tourist and drive up the coast.”

They went back and forth, sharing backgrounds and jobs. “I’m an English professor at the university.”
“Really? What’s your specialty?”

She blushed a little, but maintained her composure. “I have a lot of interests, but I’ve published mostly on modern American lit. Specifically, like, the representations of food and bodies and how they’ve changed, especially over the last century?” Uptalk creeped into her voice at the end.

“Of course,” he said. “Considering.”

Feeling flirty after watching him take one of the last dozen donuts, she asked suggestively, “Considering what?”

“You’re not the first girl I’ve run into who has a thing for this.” He gave his belly a small jiggle.

“So you noticed.” She struggled a bit to keep her composure as she watched his belly settle heavily in his lap. 

“You’re terrible at hiding it.” He took a gleeful bite of a pink-frosted donut. “Your first day at the gym... it was pretty clear.” He cleared his throat. “And, uh… the actual first day. At the restaurant.”

Iris’ hands clapped over her mouth and she turned beet red. “Oh my god. Oh my god I’m so embarrassed.”

“Don’t be. It was cute.” He grabbed one of the last six donuts. “I like having an audience.” 

Iris had to take a few moments to do some discrete deep breathing, but after he’d gone through another three donuts, she was satisfied with the idea that he wasn’t completely repulsed by her and actually liked her company. 

A few minutes later, he finished up the donuts and sat back for a minute. His hand traced the crest of his belly. While he did look very full after finishing enough donuts to sedate a small office, it was clear to Iris that he hadn’t even gotten close to his capacity yet. Iris glanced at her phone and saw that it was only 8:45. Her toes curled at the thought of how many more meals were left in the day.

Sam pushed back from the table. “Ready?” Iris nodded and they stood. They both got into his truck and chatted about the quality of the donuts, and Sam recommended a half dozen varieties for her to try that she hadn’t gotten a chance to that morning. 

Somehow, the conversation turned to favorite movies. They discovered that they both loved documentaries. Iris was a sucker for historical documentaries. Sam was really deeply interested in more socially-focused documentaries. “I actually decided to become a lawyer because of documentaries. There was so much injustice in the world. I mean, less than 75 years ago I would’ve been getting shoved into an internment camp along with the rest of my family. We didn’t have enough people advocating for us then. I wanna try and be a voice for people who might not otherwise be heard.”

They talked about cases he’d worked on as they drove. He was deeply knowledgeable, throwing out vocabulary that Iris didn’t even recognize from TV shows. WIth each bit of legalese, though, he took the time to explain it a bit further in layman’s terms, usually with such ease that Iris was reminded that he probably had to do a lot of explaining like this for his clients and, sometimes, their translators. 

After around thirty minutes of driving around, he pulled into the parking lot of a diner called Corinna’s. It looked properly diner-y, and just busy enough for that time of the morning. From the outside, it looked bright and clean. “So… is this second breakfast?”

Sam laughed. Iris bit her lip. He looked absolutely adorable, and the laugh brought out his double chin. “Second breakfast? Those donuts were just a morning snack. This is just gonna be breakfast.” Iris’ toes curled in her shoes, thinking about the fact that he considered that enormous box of donuts no more than a snack. Of course, she knew some of it was bravado - she’d seen how full he was when he finished his last donut - but after what she’d seen at the restaurant and the fact that everyone seemed to know him and what he wanted as soon as he walked into any place that sold food… Iris wasn’t sure she’d make it through the entire day without spontaneously combusting.