Bellflower Part 29 (Patreon)

In this installment, Rachel tries to coexist with Trudy in an empty office when suddenly a phone call & an impromptu meeting give her a lot to think about.

Sorry. After the holiday, I had a much more hectic week than I expected & part of that meant not having steady internet. I would've tried to give a heads up, but I had a lot of ground I wanted to cover in this chapter so figured it was better to work. So I did. 

Thanks for 29 chapters thus far. We'll check in with a few characters we haven't in a bit come 30. Hope to have that for you soon. In the mean time, I have to get back to some other art stuff now that I'm home & able to work so let me do that! Enjoy! 

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29

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Trudy munched on a danish. In a way that was louder than munching on a danish ever should’ve been. 

The already mostly empty office felt all the more empty without the boss there. But it also seemed to magnify every single, minute, little annoying thing her sole officemate did. And even though Rachel had came in about forty five minutes late, had only been there for an hour & a half but was already so ready to leave. Still? As much as she knew about Trudy, & knowing how Trudy was? Sweet, but a bit obtuse to what was going on, though never intentionally trying to be annoying? Rachel struggled to do her best to be as patient as humanly possible. 

Recently, while a bit too shy to just come out & ask herself, Rachel had started to notice certain folks, around the offices & in emails, referring to Trudy as they/them. In the nonbinary sense. While a bit unsure why she was left out of the loop, she assumed Trudy had their reasons, & respected those reasons. Still, she was cool either way. She also imagined that things in their life were maybe a little difficult already, having to come out & explain something like that to people, gauging who you were comfortable telling, etc. She reckoned that they might already get enough guff from others as it was. So perhaps it might be kind of shitty to have the coworker you were just starting to warm up to yell at you for eating a danish way, way too fuckin’ loudly. Even if you were.

“Can you believe… mmmhmm…” Trudy smacked & moaned “The other departments… brought in so many goodies… mmmmmm… that they’d be nice enough… to offer us… the extras?”

“I mean, it’s SOOO nice.” Rachel belabored, rolling her eyes out of Trudy’s view as she said it. Even the extra patience she had allotted them was starting to wear thin, as she sarcastically added “Gotta love gettin’ that spill-over.” She was worried it might’ve sounded a bit rude, but wondered if Trudy would even pick up on that. 

At the same time, she desperately tried to focus on finishing up the paragraph she was on. Today’s assignment was a small bit of copy for a program at some fundraiser Hailington was to be involved with later on in the Fall. It shouldn’t have been too strenuous but given the vibe? No boss, Rachel coming in late? Trudy being… a little too Trudy. It just seemed somehow insurmountable today.

“Aren’t you going to have some…?” Trudy tried to ask after a few moments. Rachel winced. Not only was the temptation already sort of killing her, this stop & go conversation was partly what was destroying her concentration.

“Trying to watch my figure.” She rasped. Because it was succinct, terse, & true.

“Hmmm. I gave up on that. Long ago!” Trudy laughed. A bit too hardily for the caliber of joke it was. And maybe even a bit unintentionally morbid considering that was probably the reason their department head had been missing days here & there lately. But it was true. Trudy was certainly no slouch in the gaining department. As the incessant, equally-annoying creaks of their chair could attest to. Their hipster-y denim seemed to get pulled tighter & tighter each day. And now, it seemed to strain to provide coverage, the buttons & rivets were starting to stink into divots of bulging flab these days.

Rachel’s expression tightened into one of a struggling forced appreciation of Trudy’s “joke” & turned to nod, but in a way that was supposed to signify “shut up already.” At least to anyone else that might’ve been able to pick up on social cues. She turned back & typed another sentence fragment before. “Oh well. More for me! Hooray!” Trudy emoted in a way that was comparatively wild for them.

“Look.” Rachel said starkly. She turned back to face her coworker. “I don’t want to be rude, but like… I really need to focus here.” she gestured down at the screen. 

“Oh goodness!” Was not the type of reaction Rachel was expecting. Trudy took it very seriously. “Say no more!” With the danish off to the side for a second, Trudy brought fingers to their lips & did the key-turn motion. As if it were to signify they were going to shut up, even though that was more universally accepted as the gesture of secret-keeping. Either way, Rachel gave a strained, but appreciative nod, hoping Trudy could follow-through on it all the same. But before Rachel could turn back to her laptop, Trudy’s mouth opened wide. Luckily it was just to take another bite of danish & not speak. At the same time, it was loud, breathy bite. Rachel took a deep breath, mouthing the last bit she wrote to herself to get back in its mindset. She had just about formulated the next word when suddenly the phone at her desk rang, making her jump.

The crazy thing was, she’d been on the job for about a month now, & it had never made so much as a peep, let alone ring as it did right now. It was so out of place, it was off-putting. It was at this point, an almost old-timey commercial chirp of a ring that seemed so obsolete in the world of cellphones. It sounded almost ghostly. Even Trudy, mouth full of baked good, cheeks puffed, & lips puckered, made a shocked expression with the rest of their face, when Rachel shot a glance over.

“Should I even…?” Rachel winced.

“Mine’s… mine’s never rung!” Trudy muttered over danish. “Answer it!” With almost horror film level anxiety, Rachel hovered her hand over it before slowly picking up. She brought it to her

“Huh-hello…?” She asked timidly.

“Rach?” A confident voice asked on the other end. It only took a millisecond to realize it was Deidre. Rachel relaxed somewhat. It had been a little bit since they had last spoke.

“Oh. Hey there!” Rachel said, in a friendly tone. One that was way more perky than she was feeling. The perkiness was not reciprocated though. It seemed as if Deidre was all business.

“How busy are you right now? Can you come to my office? We… we need to talk.” It sounded serious. Not as severe as the time she reamed out Veronica, but she was being awfully direct & to the point. Come to her office? Why? Any ease that had come to Rachel hearing her friend on the other end was suddenly gone, as her anxiety ratcheted back up. Was she... in trouble? “It shouldn’t take too long.” Deidre added, filling the gap caused by Rachel’s panic. She mustered a response.

“Um… yeah. Give me like… half a minute.”

“Great.” She said plainly. Then, it sounded as though she had bit into something, as suddenly her mouth was full. “See you shortly. Mmm.” Rachel slowly lowered the phone.

“Wh-who was…?” Trudy was quick, but a bit too timid to ask.

“Deidre. In HR.” Rachel explained. Trudy’s eyes widened. “She wanted me to come… speak with her.”

“But sh-she’s… the department head.” Trudy quivered. “Did you do something wrong?”

“What…?” Rachel shook her head, even though that worry had already come to her. She tried running things back in her head. Was there something she did that could even possibly be problematic? Some weird faux pas for the corporate world? “N-no! I… I don’t know what she wants. But I don’t… think it’s like that…”

“Oh.” Trudy grit their teeth. “I… I hope.”

The overcast day had made their empty office, with its bad fluorescents even drearier. Things almost felt more saturated & slightly upbeat just walking out into the corridor. As she made her way down the hall to the other department, past their colorful mural, it felt almost a bit like she was being summoned to the principal’s office. A sense of foreboding, almost. The whole time, she racked her brain. She was meeting all her deadlines. She got along with everyone alright. Even Trudy, who took patience. Okay well maybe not Veronica. Or maybe Holly at times. But she barely saw them in her day to day. Wait!

Was this Penny? Was Penny pulling strings & finding new ways to fuck with her?! A subtle little sneer appeared, as the side of her upper lip twitched upward. Just like it had made her attempts at apartment hunting seem almost completely futile? Now it was trying to fuck with her work too? Well the joke was on it. Sure, her job paid out the butt & was a complete cakewalk, but that stupid robot must not have realized how much she hated working for a place like Hailington. Try to get her fired? Big deal! At the moment, in the short time she’d been there, she had already amassed more money in her bank account than at any other point in her adult life. And given her days of penny-pinching & belt-tightening prior, she could feasibly make it stretch for a bit if she needed to. And she wouldn’t have working at an evil multinational conglomerate on her conscious any more. Hell! For once, it seemed like Penny was almost doing her a favor!

By the time she got to the door to HR, Rachel could’ve kicked it open, taken her termination on the chin, & marched out with her head held high. But, like an adult, she settled on just opening it instead. The office inside went about their usual business as she started picking out the familiar faces. Holly, who looked a bit surprised to see her. Then Cami, who gave a short little wave from behind her desk. Her arm seemed to jiggle with the motion. More than she had ever noticed it doing so before. But Rachel tried to ignore that, only smirking & waving back. Then Veronica, looking even puffier, noticed her. She started sneering before immediately looking away. But also notably, was the empty spot next to Holly’s. Courtney’s desk. Still no sign of her, huh?

“What are you doing here?” Holly whispered as Rachel got within earshot. Rachel didn’t really break pace towards Deidre’s glass enclosure, but gave a shrug.

“I dunno. Deidre wanted to talk to me.”

“Tck!” Her sister clicked her tongue. “What did you do?” Holly asked in an accusatory manner. It also seemed like one false move, & the buttons on Holly's top would shoot off wildly & probably take out someone's eye. She couldn't have been that comfortable in something so tight. No wonder she said she needed to go shopping!

“Nothing.” Rachel scoffed back, with a sing-songy whine, doing her best not to set Holly off & tear buttons asunder. “God!” She didn’t know whether she should take Holly’s vote of no-confidence in her as more of a sign she was in hot water, or rather, if it was just Holly taking guesses in bad faith. She looked over to the glass office, where Deidre put down her phone. As she looked up, they locked eyes. Deidre gave a short smirk & beckoned her in with a wave. “See you on the other side.” Rachel sighed.

“You wanted to talk…?” Rachel tried to put on that same nihilistic confidence she had coming down the hall. But now, in person, with Deidre as a friend, it was hard to muster up the same level of bravado. It was still there, but wavering a little. Maybe it was just kind of the mature, matronly quality Deidre always seemed to have, but if she was in trouble? Rachel almost felt guilty that maybe she had let her friend down.

“Yeah, come in, shut the door, have a seat.” The building’s head of HR rattled off, almost as if she did it often & it was second nature to her at this point. Rachel had realized it had been at least a week & a half since they last saw each other. And Deidre’s face was a bit rounder. She was stuffed into a dark reddish blazer, with a light pinkish floral blouse underneath. A few of the buttons strained over her bust it seemed, at least when she moved in certain ways. Like to grab a cruller off a napkin on her desk. She eyed it with a smile before taking a big bite. “Oh, you want some donuts?” Deidre panicked, with her mouth already full, worrying she was being rude. “I know we sent over some danishes to you guys but…”

“I”m… good.” Rachel waved. Wincing. It was hard getting used to constantly being tempted but always needing the willpower to say no. Relieved she had fulfilled her part of the social obligation to at least ask, Deidre heartily took another bite. 

As she watched her enjoy it, Rachel thought back to how Deidre & Holly, both tall, but with drastically different body types used to be roughly the same size. And while Holly had definitely gone on to surpass Deidre in some ways, it wasn’t like Deidre hadn’t steadily continued to grow either. 

After all, she was least a good forty to fifty pounds heavier, in just the relatively short time since when Rachel first met her. It was hard to say for sure. And the weirdest part for Rachel? It definitely would’ve been alarming in isolation if it anywhere else in the world. Even in America. Someone putting on that much weight? In such a short period of time? But not in Oakmont. Hell, by Bellflower standards, it almost seemed paltry. Average even. Maybe even just a bit slow.

“You know,” Deidre chewed, finally remembering past the cruller that there was business to attend to. “I realized I probably sounded super-stressed. I should’ve given you like a heads up, just so you didn’t worry or anything.”

“Me, worry?” Rachel asked, almost a bit smuggly, some of that punky attitude starting to seep back in around the edges.

“Yeah! Don’t worry. You’re not in trouble or anything.” Deidre laughed off with a wave. Rachel, who had worked herself up into thinking this maybe being it, had the wind completely taken out of her sails at this point. She was almost caught off guard.

“Oh.” She said with a soft, simple coo. “So then… what?”

“Well… It’s a little tough to talk about.” Deidre said, leaning in. Her eyes darted as if she wanted to make sure no one was listening in. When she seemed sure she was in the clear, she straightened up & continued. “From what I understand, as expected,” She smirked, looking into a folder already open on her desk. “You’re, like, absolutely killing it over there.”

“It… is what it is.” Rachel still didn’t know how to take a compliment. And if she was only being called in here to have praise heaped on her, for her? That might be more uncomfortable than getting fired, frankly.

“I know, I know.” Deidre rolled her eyes. “The stuff you gotta write about, it’s boring. Pedestrian…”

“I mean it’s… fine.” Rachel didn’t want to give the wrong impression. But she had a hard time tracking where this was going. Deidre, like a wall, sat with her lips pursed for a moment, not helping by being difficult to read. “If you want the truth,” Rachel volunteered, worrying it might be a bit too much. “It’s the sort of thing I could do with my eyes closed. I...”

“That!” Deidre pointed with a plump finger. “That’s great! That’s exactly what I was hoping to hear!” She warmed into a smile across her round cheeks. It stayed on her face as she planted her elbows firmly on her desk & rested her head in her palms. Letting out a deep sigh, she slowly continued. “So. Dawn…?” She trailed, almost in a bit of a prying manner.

“What… about… her?” Rachel squinted, trying to parse things out. Still caught a bit off guard by all this, she didn’t entirely know this was going. Was it Dawn who was in trouble? If so, Rachel felt a bit stuck in the middle & suddenly began trying to figure out where her loyalties lied in all this. On the one hand? Deidre was a friend, big-time cheerleader for her, & was very instrumental in getting her this gig in the first place. But she was also management. Of an overarching, & ultimately kind of sinister company. On the other hand, while also management, Dawn was a fairly chill boss. Probably the best she’d ever worked with. Then again, if Rachel somehow ratted her out or something, she’d probably never hear the end of it. Her day to day would get… annoying. Ech. She despised workplace politics.

“It might be a bit… premature to get into the ins & outs of everything here, but oh well....” Deidre seemed to mutter to herself, holding her cruller up inches from her lips. She then locked eyes with Rachel & asked very directly. “She’s been working from home lately?”

“I mean here & there.” Rachel offered, not wanting to rat out on her boss. “Just two days last week. And today. All sort of like, non-consecuti…”

“Like Courtney?” Deidre asked plainly, looking as though she was holding in her emotions. Whenever she folded her lips in on themselves, it made her cheeks push the slightest bit wider now. Rachel caught Deidre’s drift. The reason for the missing days. She was asking if it was seemingly a matter of Dawn’s increasing weight. Rachel gave something of a shrug that leaned towards the affirmative. And Deidre caught Rachel’s drift. Not wanting to snitch, but affirming her already held suspicions. Deidre sighed & leaned in. “Look, I don’t know if Holly even knows this just yet. But effective today? Courtney’s put in her two weeks.”

“What?!” Rachel jumped a little. It wasn’t news she was expecting. Well, in a way, she suspected something like it was a possibility, but she didn’t expect to hear about it in that moment.

“Mmhmm.” Deidre muttered slowly, seemingly a little hurt by news herself. “Whatever work I sent her way got done, & I tried giving as much leeway as I could possibly give her, believe me!” She tried to assure Rachel, but it seemed like deep down, she was trying to assure herself even more. “But because of… things, today? She called me, we talked, & she’s told me she’s looking to “move back home for a bit.” Deidre took a sip of her coffee, seemingly to wash down the last of her cruller. It had so much cream in it, it might as well have been milk it was so light. As she lowered the mug, she put on a kind of an exaggeratingly coy expression. “And it sucks because Courtney’s a friend, you know? But like… around here? The office? It’s the same as Nadya in your department a few weeks back. And frankly, it’s the same as a lot of other people around here all the time! If I’m being honest? It’s the very same thing I’m sort of anticipating Dawn doing in the very near future.” She vocalized Rachel’s own concerns but the shock of the news of Courtney hadn’t faded. She didn’t even want to think about how Holly would take the news.

“Their… weight…?” Rachel very tentatively asked out loud. Deidre’s eyes darted back & forth again, checking almost to see if the coast was clear. Then she gave an almost identical ‘affirmative shrug’ as Rachel’s earlier. “Something’s…peculiar.” Her eyes darted to down to her coffee before taking another long slurpy sip. As she did, Rachel tried not to stare at the sides of Deidre’s own belly pressing into both of the arms of her chair. Ech, all that cream. As much as she liked Deidre, & as much as Deidre had gone to bat for her? There was still always some part of Rachel that seemed to try keeping her at arm’s length. For one, trust didn’t come easy for her. But beyond her position, & where she worked. And beyond being Holly’s friend. Something about how mature & put together she was both made Rachel admire, but also vaguely wary of her. As if it were some elaborate act. But now? Seeing her worrying about people’s weight, while looking all the wider herself? It was starting to become clear that maybe she was just as caught up in this as everyone else. “Mmm. I don’t know what it is with this place.” She seemed to refer to Hailington.

“Are you… sure it’s this place?” Rachel fished. In her mind, the source of all this was the Bellflower. But with how little she & the others were working off of? She still wasn’t quite ready to rule out Hailington either. Maybe Deidre could provide some new nugget of insight from higher up in the corporate world. Some new puzzle piece she could offer up to Fran on the others.

“Yeah! Of course!” Deidre seemed to scoff, almost at Rachel rather than with. “I don’t work at some other office where people stop showing up after...” She didn’t follow through with the thought, but her shoulders & hands bucked a little, as if to gesture blowing up. Rachel shifted forward in her seat. She started to suspect that maybe? Deidre wasn’t privy to some secret corporate information. 

“But I mean… I guess what I’m trying to ask… is it… just here?” Rachel pressed, albeit a bit timidly. At first, Deidre didn’t know how to respond. It took a moment, but suddenly the corners of her mouth folded upwards into her puffy cheeks.

“Is this that conspiracy theory stuff Holly talks about?” Deidre smirked. Rachel suppressed her kneejerk reaction to get aggravated. But she was a little insulted. Luckily, she just let Deidre continue. “Because like… honestly…? I think I’m actually starting to get it.”

“Really…?” Rachel asked, almost a bit surprised.

“Really.” Deidre nodded with just a bit of extra emphasis. “But!” She raised a hand to stop her. “Before we start pinning strings to corkboard here? The one thing I did want to discuss with you here, semi-officially...”

“Okay…” Rachel had gotten so close. Someone finally actually seemed to recognized there was something wrong! She was this close! She was just about to suggest she speak with Fran & her friends. Being waylaid to talk about official office stuff? It was frustrating to say the least.

“It’s probably pretty cynical, but if Dawn’s starting to show signs of chronic ‘working from home?’ Like Nadya? Like Courtney?” Deidre did air quotes around working from home, & stalled on Courtney’s name with a bit of sad, labored sigh. “Well. That’s only going to leave our building’s copywriting department down to just you & Trudy.” At this point, left alone with her sole coworker, Rachel had already had this thought, but strangely, hearing it from Deidre’s perspective? She saw it in a completely different context she hadn’t thought about before. “And now, don’t get me wrong. They’ve been here longer & I mean, Trudy’s really sweet but… department head…?”

“Um…” Rachel followed where this was going. And she felt a million things at once.

“And I know how you are with… well… the company as a whole. And how you just saw this as sort of a short term thing to get on your feet. By the way, feels like we haven’t talked in ages, how’s the apartment hunt going?”

“Uh… bad…” Rachel feebly answered. The room was spinning. Wait, was this sort of talk even above board?

“Oh.” Lilted Deidre. “Sorry to hear.” She slurped the last of her coffee. “Well I just wanted to make sure you were aware of this… sort of stuff. Mmmm.” The cup hit her desk loudly. “And who knows! Maybe Dawn will be fine!” She grit her teeth as an aside. “Maybe she’ll drop a few El-Be’s & be here for a bit still…” she unclenched. “... So maybe this is all pre-emptive & wildly unprofessional for me to be thinking about. But honestly, after the morning I had? It got me thinking, okay? And I’d much rather have some sort of contingency plan in place. You know? Just in case! A plan B that would allow for some kind of a smooth transition. And while I’m a small part of decision-making process, it’s not entirely in my hands. So there’s no promises or guarantees here. But well… it’s hard to see it going any other way. Let’s just say, it’s something you should definitely be thinking about. Sooner rather than later. So maybe, give a bit of consideration, yeah?” Feeling steamrolled, Rachel was speechless.

“I… uh…” she muttered.

“I know, I know.” Deidre giggled with a light sigh. It seemed like something she needed. “It’s a lot to think about.”

“So like… head! Of the department?” She managed.

“Regionally, like Dawn. Yep.” Deidre nodded. “And a bevy of added perks & obviously a pay bump of course.”

“Are you sure we should even be having this conversation?” Rachel seemed leery. “I mean… right now?! I mean, Dawn’s just missed a few days here & the...! ”

“You know what? You’re right. We probably shouldn’t be talking like this.” Deidre accepted, & seemed to slowly be dipping back into professional mode. “But after talking to Courtney? I don’t know, I... “ She muttered, trailing off. It took half a second to center herself. “So let’s just think of it as… just… thinking out loud, okay? Maybe this isn’t even a semi-official conversation after all. But still! It is something I wanted you to... be made very aware of, basically. Okay?”

“Sure.” Rachel mustered with a shrug. “Um… thanks…?”
“Of course.” Deidre smiled a soft, slightly pensive smile.

“But hey, um… maybe getting back to those strings being pinned on corkboard…?” Rachel broached tenuously.

“Um, yeah.” Deidre seemed skittish. After starting to realize this impulsive little impromptu meeting was maybe something of an overstep, & presumably still shaken by the news of Courtney, she seemed to tread lightly, but seemed like she still had more she wanted to talk about. “In a way? That sort of brings me to the other, unofficial bit of business I was hoping to talk to you about. And you specifically.” Her eyes darted up over Rachel’s shoulder. Rachel could gauge by the direction what it was that was on her mind.

“Holly?” She prodded, without turning to look, wincing the slightest bit.

“Holly.” Deidre sighed plainly. “Now, it’s… none of my business, bu…”

“Yeah. She’s really been pigging out.” Rachel sighed worriedly. “A lot lately. And it’s... showing. Kind of hard to miss honestly.” She said it sort of disparagingly, but only because of the frustration she felt in trying to prevent it from happening. But no. Holly would tell her she was being “too much of a nag” about that sort of thing.

“I mean…!” Deidre stuttered abruptly, trying not to laugh at Rachel’s bluntness. “I was going to put it a lot nicer than that. But...well… yeah. I’ve been a little… worried about her lately. She’s really such a sweet girl. And a good friend. She’s helping you out. And she’s really solid at this stuff,” Deidre gestured toward the office itself. “But… you know… watching her eat so much? Constantly? Sometimes, seemingly mindlessly?! In light of Courtney…?”

“It’s something I’ve tried to bring up. Believe me.” Rachel said plainly, looking off to the side, before bringing it into a bit of an eye roll. “Multiple times. I mean, after all, she’s my sister, & I love her to death & she’s really… she’s done a lot for me. But I just can’t seem to get her to... stop.”

“I’m sure you tried. But a lot of times? I’m not even sure she even realizes she’s consciously doing it!” Deidre sighed. “And I mean, for a while, she seemed to indulge a little. Like the rest of us. But lately…? It just seems like more & more… She’s just…” She exhaled sharply. “I hate to say this, but at times, it’s almost like she’s eating worse than even Courtney did! At her worst! And well… I just don’t want to lose another friend. Or member of my staff, if I have to be “official” about it.” She punctuated. “I’m… worried for her. If this keeps up…”

“Me… me too.” Rachel offered in a somewhat helpless sigh, letting silence fall for a second. “I-I… try…” She stumbled, but paused again to sigh. “Holly always thinks I’m just like… intentionally trying to set her off. If I ever mention her eating. Or her weight. She thinks I’m relishing in the fact that the roles are reversed. From when we were kids? And you know what? I’ll admit, sure! Maybe I was a jerk & did at first. But now?! It’s… it’s getting to be...” Deidre listened intently as Rachel leaned back & shook her head. “Oh, & I have to say, as someone coming meeting everyone for the first time? She thought I was intentionally being rude to ask about Courtney. Like if I ever tried to ask about… what was going on with her…”

“What?!” Deidre scoffed. “Courtney loves you! Said so herself on a couple occasions!”

“She wa…” Rachel didn’t know what was even the best tense to use, & corrected on the fly. “... Is really great! I mean that!” She insisted. “Funny! Always super sweet, & seemed genuinely happy & excited to see me whenever we’d run into each other. And I don’t even like me, so if she did? She’s… practically a saint. So honestly? It’s kind of a bummer to find out that I’m not really going to have much of a chance to get to know her better.” Rachel stopped for a second, trying to get a grasp of her emotions. “But to hear this news about her? And to hear more of your concerns about Hol? As great as Courtney w… is? The last thing I want is for… that to happen to Holly.” She stopped to shake her head. “I’m… I’m sorry if that’s rude.”

“It’s not! You’re fine!” Deidre tried to insist. “I’m with you on this!” Both exhaled slowly as the room got quiet again. “So what are we going to do about it?” She continued. “Hell! What can we do?” Rachel’s eyes darted back & forth sharply, like she was doing calculations in her head. She looked up.

“Since we’re putting it all out on the table here though, permission to speak freely?” Deidre’s already stressed expression tightened slightly but waved her hands in front of herself. The motion made her chair creak a little. “And I’m definitely not trying to offend here…” Rachel braced. “But me? You? Everybody I’ve met over at the Bellflower?” She specifically called out. “I think we’ve all got to watch out. For ourselves. For each other.” She tried to gauge Deidre’s expression. She seemed to agree more than take offense. But Rachel tried to reinforce she wasn’t trying to single any one person out. “I mean me personally? Look at this!” She clasped her hand around the soft bulge in her middle & gave it a jiggle. “This wasn’t there when I got here.” Deidre’s head tilted to the side sympathetically.

“I-I… know what you mean.” She sighed. As she exhaled again, some of her confidence seemed to leak out with, causing her to sink in her chair a little. “I feel like I’m sort of the same way. Fat!” She snapped. “And getting fatter! As a matter of fact, I honestly feel kind of bad talking about Courtney or Holly when I know… I can sort of be the same way sometimes myself.” She begrudgingly acknowledged, leaning back in her executive chair a little. Once again it creaked under her weight. “Donuts almost every morning? “Business lunches” on the company’s dime? Making a pig of myself at every Ladies’ Night?!” She rolled her head against the back before spinning a few degrees to look in Rachel’s direction again. “D-do… do you really think there might be something up? Seriously? With all of us?!”

“Why,” Rachel tried her best to not outwardly smile. “Are you actually starting to think there might be something to all that?” Deidre stared on eagerly. “Because I know some ladies you should maybe talk to if so…”