Nothing Tastes As Good (Cupcake Goddess) (2 page)

“Uh, yeah, we’re on a date.”

The redhead stared at her for a minute than burst out laughing. “You?” she sputtered. “He’s on a date with a fat cow like you? I don’t think so. Probably just thinks you’re an easy lay.”

Kate’s cheeks burned with shame. Her stomach churned so bad she wanted to puke. The redhead was right. What was Kyle, gorgeous Kyle, doing on a date with someone like her?

Still, after the guys out front, she’d had enough. Kate whirled on the woman and snapped, “Maybe he just has taste. After all, what would he do with a stick insect like you? Snap you in half?” And with that she stormed out the door, head held high.

Okay, it had been a nasty, mean thing to say and Kate was a little ashamed of it, but really. A person could only take so much.

She wanted to just leave, to vanish into the night. She did not want to face Kyle. But her mama had raised her better than that, so she headed to the table. Ignoring Kyle’s welcoming smile, she blurted out, “Thanks for the drink, but I’m not feeling well. I need to go.”

A look of concern crossed Kyle’s face. Disappointed he wasn’t going to get laid, no doubt. “I’m so sorry, Kate. Did something happen? Was it the drink?”

“I’m fine. See ya around.” And with that she turned on her heel and began working her way back through the crowd toward the door.

“Kate! Kate!”

Shit, he was coming after her.

“Kate, wait. Let me at least walk you to your car.”

But it was too late. Kate pushed her way out the door of Durty Nelly’s and disappeared into the dark.

* * *

“Branwen, this is my friend, Kate.” Tiffany waved Branwen to a seat at the table. It was too hot to sit outside, but somehow Tiffany had managed to talk the waiter into seating them right next to the window overlooking the river. “Kate, this is my new neighbor, Branwen. You’re going to like her. She’s a hoot.”

“Hello, Kate. It’s lovely to finally meet you. Tiffany has told me so much about her best friend I feel as if I know you.” Branwen eyed Kate as they shook hands. Tiffany was right. The girl was pretty. Beautiful, even. Her porcelain skin was flawless, her perfect bone structure framed by glossy waves of mink dark hair. And her eyes, lordy, her gray cat-eyes would have given Zeus the hard on from hell.

“You, too, Branwen.” The smile Kate gave as she returned Branwen’s handshake transformed her face from beautiful to downright stunning. Like stop-your-heart-in-your-chest kind of stunning. How on earth was this girl still single?

Branwen surreptitiously eyed Kate’s figure as she and Tiffany chatted over their menus. Okay, so she was an average size for an American woman. About a sixteen, give or take, and packed into an hourglass figure that would have made Marilyn Monroe weep with envy. What was wrong with this society that a perfectly healthy, gorgeous woman was convinced she was fat and disgusting? Seriously, if Branwen still had the power, she’d have done something about that. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the power to fix a whole country anymore.

Kate was giving a run down on her dating disaster with some guy named Kyle. It sounded truly horrific, but Branwen wondered just how accurate Kate’s description of events was. And Kyle seemed like a gentleman, from the sound of things.

“Kyle…Kyle. Do you know his last name?”

Kate frowned. “O’Conner. Why? Do you know him?”

“Not personally,” Branwen said with a little shrug. It was the truth, as far as it went. She may be practically powerless, but she was still a goddess. She had access to a whole lot of information, including information on Kate’s date.

Kate sighed. “It would be so much easier if I were thin. I just need to lose a few pounds. That’s all.”

As Tiffany commiserated with her friend, Branwen smiled to herself. So she didn’t have much power anymore. Not the power to change the world. But she did have the power to change one person.

* * *

Kate woke up feeling like someone had stuffed her mouth full of cotton and then used her head as a kettle drum. Tiffany’s version of sympathy meant copious amounts of tasty alcoholic beverages. Not being much of a drinker usually, Kate was suffering the ill effects of way too much sympathy.

She staggered her way to the kitchen and managed to dig up a couple of asprin which she downed along with an entire glass of water. Two painkillers probably weren’t going to cut it, but it would have to do.

She staggered back down the hall to the bathroom and her morning ablutions. She was washing her hands when it finally sunk in that something wasn’t quite right.

Kate squinted at the mirror. Mirror Kate squinted back. Except Mirror Kate wasn’t the same person Kate had expected to see.

She stared at her reflection, mouth hanging open. Gone were the rolls of fat and excess curves, the saggy boobs and the triple chins. Gone was Fat Kate.

Mirror Kate had actual cheekbones! And a jaw line. Under her pajamas her boobs looked small and perky. The pajama bottoms were nearly falling off her narrow hips.

Kate carefully lifted her pajama top and gasped in shocked delight. Her tummy was flat. And not just a little flat, but practically six-pack-flat. The kind of flat women dreamed of having.

She shoved back her sleeves and marveled over her perfectly toned arms. Not an ounce of extra fat or wibbly wobbly skin. No more bingo wings.

“Oh, sweet lord, what on earth?”

Kate ran for her bedroom, stripping off her pajamas that were now way too big. In front of the full length mirror she stopped and stared at her slender, perfectly toned body. “What the hell?”

She poked and prodded herself. This had to be a dream, right? She couldn’t have possibly turned into a size two overnight. Could she?

Kate gave herself a good hard pinch. Ouch. Yep, this was definitely real.

Yanking on a robe she ran to her computer and quickly pulled up Facebook. She expected to find Fat Kate staring back at her. Instead she found picture after picture of Skinny Kate. Skinny Kate with her arms wrapped around Tifanny, the two of them obviously drunk out of their minds. Skinny Kate in a bikini on the beach. Skinny Kate in a slinky dress and sparkly high heels. Skinny Kate looking, well, skinny. There was no sign of Fat Kate anywhere.

“How do you like it?”

Kate whirled around, heart in her throat. Sitting on her sofa, munching on what looked like a red velvet cupcake, was that friend of Tiffany’s. Briana. No, Branwen.

“How the hell did you get in my house?” Kate demanded, edging her way toward the nearest lamp. As a weapon it was marginal, but it would have to do.

Branwen waved the question away as though it was of no consequence. “That’s not important. The important question is; how do you like your new body? Is it everything you hoped it would be?”

Kate glanced down at her body swamped now by her terry cloth bathrobe. A bathrobe that used to fit. Heck, it had been on the small side. “What happened?”

Branwen smiled. “I gave you what you wished for.”

“What do you mean?”

Branwen sighed and rolled her eyes. “Humans. You can be so thick sometimes. And I’m talking about the British kind of thick. You wanted to be thin, and now you are. Thanks to me.”

“You did this?” Kate glanced down at herself again, still somewhat in shock. “How?”

“I’m a goddess. Duh.” Branwen took a huge bite of cupcake. A glob of frosting clung to her lower lip. She licked it off impatiently.

“Branwen. Welsh goddess of love and beauty.” Kate stared at her unwanted visitor. “Oh my god. You’re real?”

“Of course I’m real. Don’t be an idiot.” Branwen took another bite of cupcake before heaving her rather substantial backside off the couch. “Now, enjoy. I’ve got a pedicure.”

“Wait.” Kate jumped in front of the door. She couldn’t let Branwen leave with so many questions still unanswered. “How am I going to explain this,” she waved a hand down her body, “to everyone? Nobody loses this much weight overnight.”

“True.” Branwen popped the last bite of cupcake in her mouth and then proceeded to lick frosting and crumbs off her fingers. “But they won’t remember who you were. They will only remember who you are. Every picture of you, even your driver’s license, reflects your new body. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, Kate Llewellyn has always been a size two.”

“But my clothes don’t fit.”

“Well, I can’t do everything for you.” Branwen yanked open Kate’s front door. “I can change perceptions. I can change photographs. You’ll have to deal with the clothes. One more thing. There is one person who remembers the real Kate Llewellyn. When you find him, you damn well better pay attention. Cheerio.” Branwen gave a little wave as she sauntered across the porch and down the front walk.

Kate stared after the departing goddess, her mouth hanging open and her mind awhirl. As she carefully shut the door, a little smile curved her lips. At last, she was skinny. Now everything would be perfect.

* * *

“Oh my god, Kaitlyn, this is so cute!” Tiffany yanked a turquoise top off one of the racks and waved it around.

Apparently, Skinny Kate went by “Kaitlyn,” a name Kate hadn’t used since Kindergarten. Over the past few weeks she’d been trying to get used to her new self. It was odd that she was the only one who remembered being big. Everyone else acted as though she’d always been thin. So far, none of her friends treated her any differently.

“Um, it’s a little too colorful for me,” she said, turning back to the rack of black tops. Her usual fare.

She froze. Black may have been Fat Kate’s go-to choice, mostly because clothing manufacturers didn’t offer plus-sized gals much of a choice. But she wasn’t Fat Kate anymore. She was Kaitlyn and she could wear whatever she wanted.

Turning to Tiffany she held out her hand. “Okay, let me try it on.”

Beaming from ear to ear, Tiffany handed Kate the brightly colored top and went back to perusing the racks of clothes. The shop was one of those froufrou girly ones at which Kate had never been able to shop. Mostly because they only went up to size 8, and Kate was decidedly not an 8.

She grinned to herself as she headed for the dressing room, arms loaded with cute clothes to try on. Nope. Kate was not a size 8. She was smaller than that. She practically did a happy dance in the middle of the shop.

Fifteen minutes later her happy dance had just about turned into a temper tantrum. Nothing fit right. It was too small, too big, or too clingy in the wrong places. The color didn’t look right. The cut wasn’t flattering.

“Argggh!” She threw the last item into the pile on the floor. Nothing fit the way she wanted it to. Sure she had a huge selection of cute clothes to choose from, unlike when she’d been Fat Kate, but it was just as hard to find clothes for her new body as it had been for her old. At this rate she’d be wearing pajamas and track suits for the rest of her life.

“It’s your body shape,” Tiffany said, peeking around the curtain. “You know you’ve always had trouble finding stuff to fit you. That dress was cute.” She pointed to a fire-engine red number.

“It’s too tight across the boobs.”

“Oh, well, maybe you could get a size up and have it tailored to fit.”

Kate shook her head. “Great idea, but the dress is already nearly two hundred bucks. Add the tailoring on top of that and I’ll go broke.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll keep looking.” Tiffany gave her usual dazzling smile. “You’ve got a hot date tonight and we will find you an outfit if I have to make it myself.”

“You can’t sew.”

Tiffany waved her hand airily. “Minor detail. Now come on. There are half a dozen more shops left in this mall.”

With a sigh Kate followed her friend out the door. Skinny Kate and Fat Kate had one thing in common; they both hated shopping.

* * *

The minute Kate got home she dumped her bags in the middle of the living room and ran for the computer. Sure enough, Kyle had sent her an e-mail. Finally.

Dear Kaitlyn,

I’m really looking forward to meeting you tonight. See you at Durty Nelly’s at eight.

Kyle

Kate grinned. This time would be different. This time instead of Fat Kate, Kyle would see pretty, Skinny Kate. Nobody would stare at them wondering why a good looking guy like him was out with such a fat cow. Nobody would make nasty comments to her in the bathroom. And Kyle…he’d be nuts about her in no time. After all, they’d already hit it off big time online.

After Branwen had whipped out her magic, one of the first things Kate had checked was her dating profile. Oddly, the old online profile had still been active complete with fat pictures. Branwen must have forgotten to change it. Kate taken it down straight away and opened a new profile complete with new, skinny pictures and more exciting hobbies. Granted, she’d never been skydiving or skinny dipping, but now she was thin, she might actually try those things.

As Fat Kate, she’d been lucky if she’d gotten one wink per week. As Kaitlyn she was inundated with winks, messages, and likes on her pictures. At least two dozen guys had added her to their favorites. But the only guy she’d been interested hadn’t even looked at her profile. So, she’d taken matters in to her own hands and sent Kyle a message.

She had no idea if Kyle even remembered their first date, but she did. And she wanted a second chance with him. Of course, he’d have no idea they were on a second date. Even if he did remember the date with Kate, Kaitlyn’s profile was totally different. He’d never know they were the same person.

It had been easy being herself and acting confident as Kaitlyn. After a few weeks of sending several emails back and forth, and a little nudging on her part, he’d finally asked her out.

She did find it a little weird that he hadn’t needed any nudging to ask her out under the old “Kate” profile. In fact, he’d been the one who’d had to convince her.

She shrugged. Whatever. The fact was, Kyle was going out with her and she was going to show him how hot she was and that she wasn’t Fat Kate anymore. He was bound to fall head-over-heels and Kate would finally have the man of her dreams.

* * *

There was a time in Kate’s life when she’d been if not thin, at least thinner. She’d worked hard to get her size sixteen self down to a size twelve. It hadn’t been easy. She’d been in the gym two hours a day, six days a week. Her calorie intake was no more than 1400 per day.