by Jai Amor
"What did you make?" she asked, her eyes landing on the plate. Her stomach growled. She didn't even know Bryan could cook. He hadn't in the past. It was always Heather. "Mmm. Blueberry pancakes. My über fave."
"I know."
They sat down to eat, and she was still hungry after the first three pancakes and took his. He let her. He wasn't that hungry. "How are you here?" she asked, remembering it was their free day.
"I'ma grown ass man. What do you mean, how sam I here?"
"Well, Mr. Grown Ass Man, your wife is back at home."
"What does that have to do with you?"
She said nothing to that and decided to start eating her pancakes again, taking drinks of orange juice. Her cell rang and it was Lila. “Hello?”
“Where are you, girl?”
“At home.”
“The movie is starting in twenty minutes.”
“Oh, shit. I’m sorry, Lila.”
She could almost see her girl shaking her head. “You owe me, Mela. Next time, you’re paying for my ticket. I can’t believe you would actually stand me up.”
“I love you,” she sang.
“Yeah yeah. Bye.”
The girls hung up. Bryan watched Pamela continue with breakfast. Afterwards, she started cleaning, cursing herself, looking around. “This place is a mess,” she mumbled, picking up a magazine from the floor where she, Lila, and Jada had been the other night, up all night. She picked up a bra and couldn’t tell whether it was Jada’s or Lila’s. They were both A-cups. She just knew it didn’t belong to her. “Does this look like Jada’s to you?”
“How would I know, Pamela? I don’t make it a habit to raid my daughter’s underwear.”
She rolled her eyes and tossed the bra in her hamper. She’d figure out which of them it belonged to soon enough. “You wanna watch the Vampire Diaries?” she asked. He sat on the sofa with her. He was actually getting into the show after Pamela had him catch up on it.
He sat there feeling through her hair. Although she had just done it the night before, she didn’t say anything about him fucking it up. She just let him do it because it felt nice.
Bryan left Pamela around one in the afternoon and headed home. “You sure seem perky,” Heather noticed. He shrugged.
“It’s a beautiful summer day. I’m alive. I have a beautiful wife. Smile. It’s good for you,” Bryan told her. She watched him, not really suspicious, but definitely noticing a change. Albeit, a small one, it was there.
“Hey, after work, make sure you and Pamela show up to Jada’s robotics competition.”
“What kind of father wouldn’t show up to his kid’s robotics competition?” he asked, feeling almost slighted. He had never missed any of kids competitions, plays, talent shows, award ceremonies. Nothing. What would make Heather suddenly feel this need to remind him of something?
“Hey, you’re suddenly young again. I gotta make sure you remember to be a responsible adult.”
Bryan rolled his eyes and went to get a water out of the fridge. “I’m going for a bike ride. Do you want to come?”
“I’m okay. I’ll make you some brownies. Okay?”
“Okay, baby.” Bryan kissed his wife goodbye and headed to the garage for his bike. He really did want Heather to come on his bike rides, but he left her alone about it. He just knew he was in a very good mood.
Work and Play
Pamela woke up and got ready for work. She took special care to straighten her hair and pushed in a lilac headband. She pulled on a pair of suit pants, and they were snugger than they had been the last she tried them on at the store a few weeks back. She tried to button the matching blouse. It was hard. When she finally got it to button, the button popped off.
She blew out a breath, causing her bang to move. This had happened to the last three blouses she’d tried on. So she decided to just go with a nice crop shirt and pulled on her blazer, hoping Bryan didn’t notice the discrepancy in her work clothes.
Her phone rang, and she answered with her Bluetooth as she looked for a pair of shoes. “Hello?”
“Hey, carpool with me to Jae’s competition today,” Lila said without a simple salutation.
“Sorry love, going with her father directly after work.”
Lila growled in frustration. “Okay.”
“Hey, are you missing a bra?” she asked.
“No. Why?”
“Either you or Jae left one.”
“It must be hers.”
“Speaking of bras, I can’t fit any of mine anymore.”
“Why? Karma pay you back and shrink your tits?” Lila asked, snickering.
Pamela rolled her eyes. “No. They grew a fucking cup size. Everything is too damn tight. My buttons keep popping off! I’m going on a diet.”
“Girl, you sound like a white girl now. Curves are good.”
“Yeah. But if I keep eating how I am, it’s gon be a lot more than curvy. I have to watch my figure.”
“Whatever. I gotta go. Mother is downstairs shrieking for me. It must be because of the glass I broke.”
“Good luck with her, Butterfingers.”
“Ha-ha. Fuck you. Bye.”
The girls hung up, and Pamela looked at herself and watched her reflection in her mirror. She saw a little blemish on her chin. “Oh fuck my life!” she complained. “Gaining weight and now I’m breaking out. Great.”
Pamela grabbed her purse and headed for the door. But she stopped in the kitchen to grab a cereal bar, and Bryan walked in. “Let’s go.”
“Wait, I’m hungry.”
Pamela grabbed one cereal bar, and then decided she could go for two, and she followed Bryan outside. He kissed her in the car. “You look nice this morning,” he told her.
“Thank you.”
“Keep the blazer on, and I’ll ignore the shirt.”
Damn, he noticed, she thought, cursing herself. “I’m going to go to my mom’s boutique on break,” she promised. “All of my blouses are too small and my bras too. I’m not wearing one.”
“That will be just our secret,” he said and winked. She giggled a little bit as he merged into traffic on the freeway.
“What do we have today?” he asked. She reached for her PDA, and she read off the day’s goings. Bryan had insisted she stop using that dated planner. The world was technology driven. The irony in him telling her to get with the times was the highlight of her week.
He pulled into the headquarters of their meeting and led her up to the building, his hand on the small of her back, guiding her.
As they were walking to the elevator, Bryan ran into an old college friend of his, Antonio. He looked at his watch. Their meeting wasn’t for another twenty minutes, so he stopped to chat. “This is my assistant, Pamela,” he introduced.
“Pamela, you’re a beautiful woman,” he told her.
“Thank you.” She smiled. “Mr. Valdez, I’ll go get you a coffee,” she said, her voice holding just a hint of seduction as she touched his arm and walked away.
Bryan turned briefly and watched her head into the elevator. He couldn’t help watching her exits and entrances.
“Damn man, how old is she?” Antonio wondered, recognizing in her features Jonta and Carmella’s little girl.
“Eighteen.”
“And how is she assisting you?” he asked, his tone insinuating about their chemistry. Bryan only chuckled, neither confirming nor denying the insinuation. “She’s a hot little thing. Jonta must have his hands full.”
“She’s competent. That’s the part I’m worried about.”
“Come on, man. You do a lot of travelling. Without your wife. You don’t get tempted? I know she’s your best friend’s daughter. Hell, looks enough like him to know. But she’s of age, and she is sexy.”
Bryan shrugged. “I have a good wife.”
“How is Heather?”
“Good. She just took Jada down to the Caribbean for her graduation gift.”
“What did you give her?”
“Her f
ucking lifestyle, man. She’s spoiled enough. She don’t get a gift for doing what she supposed to do.”
“That’s cheap.”
“She got a diploma for her benefit. Not mine.”
Antonio chuckled. “That’s cold, man. Real cold.”
“How is that cold? I bought her a car, paid for her quinceañera, turned around and paid for her to even have a Sweet 16, gave her a new car for her eighteenth birthday, paid to fix her teeth, pay for her hobbies, which are many and varied; and you mean after all of that, I also have to pay for her doing what she’s supposed to do? How many girls get a quinceañera and then a Sweet 16 too?”
“Thank God for all boys.”
Pamela came down and handed Bryan a mug of hot, black coffee with a smile. “Your meeting starts in fifteen minutes,” she informed him.
“Thank you, Pamela.”
She could tell that Antonio was looking at her, but she didn’t pay it any mind. She just turned on her heel and made her way back to the elevator to wait for Bryan. She pulled out her cell and called Carmella. “Hey, cariña. ¿Qué paso?”
“Ma, are you at the boutique?”
“Yes, love. Why?”
“I need a blouse. A size bigger than normally.”
“Why? Did your breasts grow?”
Pamela blew out a breath. This was getting out of hand and she was tired of having to buy new bras.
“Yes.”
“Ay mis Dios, you’re too chesty for me.”
“Well, sorry. Can I come and pick it up in an hour or so?”
“Sure, Pamela.”
“Oh, gracias tan mucho, Ma.”
“You’re welcome."
Pamela hung up and waited for Bryan to come over. When he did, they headed up to their meeting, and then he took her to Carmella’s boutique. He walked in simply to speak to Carmella. “Hey Bryan,” she greeted, coming from behind the counter.
“Hey, Mella.”
Pamela was so used to people saying her and her mother’s full names when they were in the same room because their names shortened sounded the same. Pamela didn’t enjoy being called Pam because it was too common and her mother had thought it was cute when she was a little girl to call her by the same nickname. So it just sort of caught on with everyone else.
“Make sure you let Jada know that Jonta and I will definitely be there. But maybe a few minutes late. Jonta’s been getting bogged down at work the last week. He literally asks me to bring dinner to the office.”
“Must be a big project,” Bryan commented.
“Yeah.”
“Ma, the blouse,” Pamela urged.
“Oh yeah. I’ll have her right back to ya, Bry. Don’t mean to hold you guys up.”
“It’s no hold up. We’re just going to the office. I doubt Mela has very much on her plate today, anyhow.”
Carmella led her daughter to the fitting room and gave her a few different blouses. Pamela went for the biggest. It was snug, but it fit. “Thank you.”
“If those things get any bigger, you’re getting a reduction,” Carmella said, her face straight. “This is ridiculous, Pamela.”
“Are you actually scolding me about my bust like I control it?” Pamela asked, pulling her blazer on. “Besides, I was only a C.”
“Only?” Carmella raised her brows, her lips pursed. “Honey, did you forget, I have designed for you. I know your waistline is less than thirty inches around. A C is big.”
Pamela cupped her heavy breasts and shrugged with a wry smile. “Oh well. These are my best friends.”
“Why? Got a new crush?” her mother teased. Pamela rolled her eyes. “You got a crush on Bryan?”
Pamela tried not to worry as she rolled her eyes again and scoffed at her mother. “He’s older than Daddy. That’s disgusting. I guess he’s cute for an old guy, Ma. Did you like old men?”
Internally, Pamela hoped her mother had. Just because she didn’t want to feel weird for liking a man more than twice her age.
“Hey, when I was your age, I was infatuated with a professor of mine. I couldn’t be paid to look your father’s way for a good while, just because he looked so young. Maturity looks good on a man.”
“Okay. But he’s my godfather.”
“Okay, Mela.”
Carmella surveyed her daughter’s thickening body. “Are you having sex?” she wondered idly. Pamela had been having sex for the last two years. Now her mother chose to ask?
“Why?”
“Because, you’re getting thicker. Your hips,” she said, holding them. “They spread.”
Of course, when Pamela lost her virginity, her hips had spread a bit. But now they were getting really wide now that she was sleeping with Bryan. Maybe it was the amount of sex she was having. Or could it be her body finally fully coming into its womanhood?
“Gosh, Ma. I am so hungry. I must be PMSing. I am eating, like… everything.”
“I have some rice cakes.”
“Those things taste like Styrofoam.”
Carmella chuckled a little bit, still eyeing her daughter’s thickening frame. “Why do you know what Styrofoam taste like, loquita?”
“Between me and you, your cooking is so good, sometimes I eat the plate too.”
Carmella cracked up at her hot mess of a daughter. She was goofy. Sometimes, Carmella forgot her daughter was on the fast track to womanhood. She found it hard to believe sometimes that the sweet little bundle she had once wrapped in pink blankets and decorated in bows and ribbons was grown. Sometimes, she missed having her daughter home. Sometimes. She usually rejoiced in being able to tactlessly make love around the house.
“You’re a mess, child. Get outta here.”
“Thanks for the blouse.”
Pamela gave the other shirts back and left the fitting room. “I’m ready to go, Papi. Bye, Ma. Love you.”
“I love you too.”
The couple left and Pamela felt more comfortable in the new shirt. She made a mental note to go shopping soon. Or to go back to her previous size. Whichever came first.
Bryan went home to change out of his slacks, pulling on a white tee and putting his own blazer on. Pamela gave him a glare. “Really?” she asked, putting a hand on her hip. “You just had me sweating over not wearing a blouse, and you put on jeans and a white tee?”
“I told you I’d ignore it if you kept the blazer on.”
“That’s just assholish. You took me all the way to the boutique, and I could’ve kept on the shirt?”
“Oh it was too tight anyway. Stop trippin’.”
“Trippin’? Who are you?” She threw her hands up and stormed back outside while he chuckled behind her.
He opened the door for her and closed it before going to the driver’s side. “Do you want to go to the lingerie store?” he asked.
“I need to,” she muttered. He liked her filling out, if he was honest.
He took her out to Belleville to a lingerie shop, and she let him pick out the pieces he wanted to see her in, and then she picked up just a few pieces to wear casually.
They got to the office, and Pamela had virtually nothing to do. She turned on her earphones and listened to music, dancing in her seat. “Vamos, Papi,” she said, pulling Bryan up and out of his seat. As loud as she had those things, he could hear every word. She was listening to Te Quiero remix by DJ Flex and Belinda. To Pamela, although Belinda did turn a Spanish song into a Spanglish song, she saved it. Pamela couldn’t listen to Flex’s solo version. He couldn’t sing.
Cuando te tengo cerca, I feel I’m going crazy she sang.
“Alright, Mela. I have to work.”
She pouted, but he just kissed her lips and sat back at his desk. Pamela didn’t even realize that she was slowly starting to let their love and professional lives collide head on, and even if she had, she’d shrug it off.
“Gimme your keys,” she ordered.
He tossed her his keys, and then he decided to know where she was taking his car. “I’m going to the coffee shop
.”
“Okay.”
She left the office and ran into her godmother. She was all soft and squishy. Pamela kept that to herself, but in her head, her godmother was being analyzed. She wasn’t a full figured woman, she just lacked tone.
“Hey, Mami,” she greeted.
“Hey. Bryan in there?”
“Oh yeah. I’m taking his car to the coffee shop. Maybe the carwash. He was my ride, and I’m bored. You want anything ?’
“Oh, no. I won’t be here when you get back. Thank you though, mija.”
“Okay.”
Pamela left, and Heather went into Bryan’s office. He greeted her with a smile, getting up to go and kiss her. She noticed the jeans he was wearing with his blazer. That was something that young men thought was stylish. “Why aren’t you wearing slacks?” she asked, tilting her head.
“Oh, Pamela wasn’t wearing a blouse this morning—”
“What?” she cut him off, a little snap to her voice.
“Because they were all alleged to be too small,” he continued, ignoring her. “So she put on a V-neck. I told her I’d ignore it if she kept on her blazer.”
Heather seemed to calm down. Her mind jumped to the wrong conclusion when he said she didn’t have on a blouse. She scolded herself. A blouse was a type of shirt. He never said she was shirtless.
“So she sweated me—”
“Sweated? Bryan, I think Pamela is rubbing off on you. Working with that child has got you speaking like one.”
“Oh, lighten up, Heather. Maybe you should try acting younger. Smile.” He lifted the corners of her lips, and she rolled her eyes. He just chuckled. “She asked me, is asked okay?” he teased.
Heather rolled her eyes and went to take a seat on the sofa near the window. He leaned on his desk.
“She asked me to take her to Mella’s boutique, so I did. Then I went to change to mock her for making a big deal out of the shirt after I told her it was fine.”
“That makes you an ass. She was trying to be professional. Which, mind you, you don’t look right now.”
“She said the same thing. Both of you need to lighten up. I said the shirt was fine, and she kept worrying about it. Whose problem is that?”