Belly Literary Universe (part 2)

Cozca's Devil's part 2: Recruiting Veera

Kelri collapsed onto her couch, and stared out the sliding glass door into her back patio. She took shallow deep breaths and rubbed her gurgling belly. The presentation for Maia and Valerie took a lot out of her mentally, and her stomach was demanding compensation.

There was more work to do. Kelri took out her phone and stared at the contact entry for Veera Deva - the celebrity that the Secret Advisor pushed Kelri into meeting. As she worked out what she wanted to say, she laid her phone atop her belly and stared at it. Finally she tapped out a text.

"Hey Ms. Deva, can I call you?" They'd texted back and forth a bit since they met. Veera was always curious about Kelri's experiences, and Kelri was honest with her, as the Secret Advisor suggested she be. But ultimately it was only a few times over almost a month. They weren't close.

Veera replied by calling back right away.

"Oh. Hello." Kelri answered, startled.

"Like, if you want to call, just call. Worst case is I just send you to voicemail. Also drop the ' ms'."

Kelri chuckled. "I guess you're right. Sorry. I just figured you'd be busy doing - I don't know - famous stuff."

"Hah. With how much I pay the people around me, I set the schedule. Usually. In theory. Heh. Soo how's your belly? Is that a cool question? I don't even know about what the social cues are in this situation."

"Oh. It's bigger. Always bigger. Ooof and heavy." Kelri said, momentarily lifting at dropping part of her belly on her lap.

"You sound pleased. Good..." Veera groaned. "I actually had a whole bunch of stuff done too, you know... That stomach stretching thing you told me about? I had my genes laundered and re folded," she laughed at her own joke.

"You had your genes changed? Really?"

"Yeah! Like you. SA set it up."

Kelri closed her eyes tight in surprise. "You're really into this fat thing then? Committed to it, I mean."

"Definitely. Totally. I gotta hold back on it for now. SA says it's a part of something bigger. A plan. And I'm cool with that. I have a plan of my own. I really want to make it a huge surprise. So I'm skinny for now. I'm planning on just exploding. But man am I hungry. You know documentaries where starving people eat boots to survive? That's kinda how I feel."

"I actually know how that feels." Kelri laughed reminiscing about her attempts to fight with her massive stomach. "But I think I actually have a piece of that plan. I was hoping you could help."

"Oh?" Veera said. "What do you need?"

Kelri chuckled. "Well, let's say I'm happy you're skinny for the moment."

"Okay, cool. But what do you need?"

Kelri let out a beleaguered sigh. "First off I want to say that this is a job I'm doing for the Secret Advisor."

"Oh," Veera said and paused for a moment. "And you're telling me because I might find it objectionable otherwise."

"Well, to be honest, yes."

"I guess it's good you brought up SA then." Veera said. "What it is that you need?"

"A distraction. An impromptu concert to draw people out of their cubicles into the main lobby of a building."

"Ohhh. Well I have the skills to do that, but all the concert tech is - I have no idea how it works beyond a practical. Like, I couldn't offer that. I can project my voice well enough, but if you really want a distraction, you'll probably need some kind of technology to help."

"I can work with that. I can get other people. But I need you on board before I start looking for sound engineers."

"Yeah... What is this for? You need a distraction. You must be doing something nefarious."

Kelri groaned. "Yeah. I'll summarize. We need to smuggle in a USB drive to a special computer lab. We figure that it will be easier to do if people are distracted by a super star, and in good spirits."

"And what's on this USB drive?"

Kelri grunted again. "A program? I don't know exactly what it does. It's to create some kind of social media app to help out the Secret Advisor."

"Well, I'll ask SA about it. If he confirms it, I'll help out."

"Great. That's great. Let me know."

***