Gaining for You

What Changed?

"Harrison Fjord."

"That rich kid who inherited his family's empire after his old man died?"

Genesis is slightly taken aback by how straight forward his reply is, "Yeah, him."

"What about him?" Carter's question doesn't come off as rude, it comes off as more surprised; like Harrison Fjord was the last answer he expected when asking her why she had started gaining weight all of a sudden, which was understandable honestly.

"Our families have been friends for a really long time so we've known each other forever and I've always had this crush on Harrison I guess, and so he threw a benefit a little while ago and I decided to tell him finally."

The look on Carter's face tells her that he's still deeply confused but she continues on anyway.

"And he turned me down..."

Carter's face relaxes, "Oh, so you're drowning your sorrows in cake and icecream, like all those women in rom-coms do. Drowning out the emotional damage."

The way he sits back in his chair, crossing his arms, so confident that he's figured it out is cute.

"Not quite. I mean, yes. He did give me a firm no, but then he told me it's only because I'm not his type."

Carter leans forward again, re-engaged in the story.

"And I was like 'So what is your type then Harrison?' and it turns out he likes bigger women."

"Damn. Little ol' trust fund baby. Would never have guessed."

"Same."

He looks away pensively, "So now you're left with a choice. Give up and lose the man of your dreams forever or gain a bunch of weight and hope he likes you back this time."

"I mean, when you say it like that..."

"No, no! I didn't mean it in a bad way. I wish someone liked me enough to alter their entire body for me." Carter only hears it when it comes out of his mouth, "Okay... that didn't really sound better either."

They both laugh.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

They both stop.

Carter chucks the donut box in the garbage can nearest to him and Genesis gets rid of the remaining trash that's on the desk. He quickly rolls his chair backwards before getting up and pushing it the last couple meters to where it was previously. Genesis straightens the items on her desk frantically, trying to make things look neat and orderly.

She wipes of the donut crumbs sticking to her skirt before telling the person on the other side of the door to come in. The door opens and an intern rushes in with a vanilla iced chai tea latte in one hand and a stack of glossy photos in the other. She talks so fast that Genesis has a hard time following what she's saying.

Something about a meeting at 2:30 and that the portfolio photos are a spring/summer collection that she needs to approve. Genesis can't remember this intern's face so she has no idea how they know her drink order but she accepts the latte anyway.

After they've finished spewing out information in her direction Genesis thanks her.

The intern goes to leave and then stops to look at Carter standing off to the side. They look back at Gen. Carter and Genesis look at each other briefly. They try their best not to look so nervous. What does this look like? Them standing in the office with the door closed. Is it that obvious? Not that they did anything to be ashamed of... right? Neither of them can help looking a little bit guilty though.

Finally, the intern speaks.

"Are you having wifi troubles too?"

Genesis almost breathes out a sigh of relief, "Yeah! I haven't been able to get anything done today because the wifi... is so bad... so..."

"I know! Ours has been terrible too!" The hyper intern replies, "I've gotta get going. Hope you solve the issue."

They wave goodbye and swiftly exit the room.

"Oh my gosh." Genesis puts her hands on the desk and hangs her head, chuckling.

Carter laughs too and puts both of his hands on his head, "Wow. Oblivious."

"Completely oblivious." Genesis echos.

They can't stop laughing. It's like they're teenagers that just successfully pulled a prank on their teacher. Carter stumbles between giggles over to the desk where Genesis is.

They finally regain their composure.

Carter puts a hand on her back, "Well we should probably get back to work, otherwise people will get suspicious."

"Yeah you're right. I'll call you if my wifi goes out again." Genesis smiles up at him.

"Please do." Carter can't remember the last time he's smiled this hard before. He moves his hand around to her waist and looks down at her lips. He needs to go, but he so badly wants to stay. They stand there for a second, dragging out the moment for all it's worth.

Genesis wants so badly for him to make a move.

As if reading her mind, Carter puts his other hand on the other side of her waist and turns her to face him; and then he says something that she wasn't expecting.

"Can I be your fake boyfriend until Harrison wants you?"