This choice: Gloria notices her sister not eating, but instead feeding Ophelia... • Go Back... Before setting down to eat, the Vandergast sisters shared a brief hug. Although Estelle was the older sister and both had similar hair and skin, it was very hard to tell given their disparate weights. Estelle was quite thin, as Nicole had commented about to Gloria about how her appetite did't match that of the fat chefs. In contrast, Gloria was quite doughy, her profile almost hiding her sister's frame from view if it wasn't for Estelle being that much taller.
"How's the web business going?" Gloria asked. Estelle had a small but successful web design studio, which Gloria had taken advantage of when setting up the internet sites for her initial restaurants.
"Really great. I just landed a big commission from a yoga school. They've offered me a significant membership discount on classes, I could get you signed up, sis."
"Hard pass," Gloria said. "Keep talking, I was keeping the main course warm in the oven."
Estelle sighed deeply. "Yeah, of course." Watching her corpulent sister bend over the oven of her penthouse suite, she couldn't help but think about how Gloria seemed to be getting bigger as her sights were on achieving more acclaimed culinary accolades. Growing up together, her little sister had never been 'little' since they were kids. Gloria had been a butterball of puppy fat that continued into her overweight teenage years and her current burgeoning obesity on the sister's respective roads to business success. Having gotten a feel and eyeball for how plump Gloria was getting, Estelle expected it wouldn't be long before her sister would tip the scales a solid one hundred pounds heavier than her.
"Oh my god, sis!" Estelle noticed the quality of food Gloria brought to her dining table. "When you invited me to come over for breakfast, I didn't think you were whipping up a break-feast!"
"Hhmph!" Gloria snorted. "This was mainly for Nicole and myself before you brought along your own guest."
"Like I said, that was more last minute," Estelle explained.
"This looks so good!" said Ophelia, the stranger, who already found herself a seat at the decked out dining table as Nicole Harker put on the finishing touches of plating.
"Glad we've got somebody with a hearty appetite," she chuckled, before pulling herself two chairs. While Gloria fancied chic, oversized modern furnishings to meet the needs of her large lifestyle, Nicole's enormous hips required extra support. Oddly it looked like Ophelia, who was perhaps as large with her weight mainly focused on her stomach, had managed to just fit herself on one dinning room chair.
"Oh no," Estelle recognized the counts of eggs next to the french toast and pancakes artfully covered with powdered sugar and fruit chutney. "This is that 'Eggperors Challenge' thing of yours at the Henhouse, isn't it?"
"Did you expect any less of a breakfast from me?" Gloria replied. It could be said that the Henhouse, an all-day breakfast diner, had been her first successful chain of restaurants going on three locations.
"I thought it'd be a casual breakfast with my sister," Estelle said, being drowned out by the opposing bulks of Nicole and Ophelia tucking into their plates, unable to suppress their appetites any longer. "Without her latest co-conspirator," she added under her breath.
"Tch," Gloria took her silverware to her bacon and eggs. "This meal feeds five, sis, if you'd recall. Seeing as we have three of us who can appreciate a good meal, I think we'll easily round up to completing the meal after we consider your portion." She took larges bits of her rich eggs, crispy bacon, and fluffy pancakes. Gloria loved her sister, although over the past few years she'd been a thorn in her side about her weight ever since Estelle had gone on a health kick. Her 'big' sister kept the skinny genes in the family, a renaissance woman with an analytical mind suited to her web programming, matched with an artistic eye and sporty interests. Each of the Vandergast girls were very creative in different mediums.
All Gloria wanted was to give her sister the best tasting food whenever she played hostess. Estelle could do with putting some meat on her bones anyways, being too skinny in Gloria's opinion. She didn't expect her to go whole hog about it but Gloria wasn't going to sacrifice flavor what with Estelle considered healthy, cluttering her inbox with emails totting the benefits of egg whites and kale smoothies.
As for her friend...Ophelia was a surprise addition, although the type of gal who enjoyed her food as she dug into her five stack of pancakes and several sausages.
"So what is it you do, exactly, Ophelia?" Gloria asked, looking for a different topic of conversation.
Ophelia exhaled like a horse, finding room to breathe around the amount of food in her mouth. "Well, I'm in the programming scene myself. Kind of. More of a blogger really. I'd like to be a food blogger."
"Atta girl!" Nicole chimed in herself, after swallowing some fried egg. "We could always use more PR at the Henhouse Kitchen. And there's the big property Gloria's looking to open next month."
"Do you have many followers?" Gloria asked between chewing.
Ophelia took a bite from an outstretched fork. "*munch* Well, uh, only 50 or so I guess. But I love your food! I've got some of your cookbooks too!"
A big fan, then, although Gloria was looking for more of a 'big name' fan to bring extra acclaim to her restaurants. Conversation subsided a bit as the table continued eating. As expected, the two portly chefs and the mammoth Ophelia were putting away most of the food. Gloria brought up vacation plans she had with Estelle, as the two sisters had been on a cruise last year for the dual celebrations of Estelle landing a big client and the anniversary of Gloria hitting it big in the culinary world. This year's vacation plans were split between a tropical or alpine destination. Critiquing the cruise's food caused Gloria and Nicole to talk shop for a bit, discussing business.
Ophelia, of course, continued to enjoy the food. Although looking to be a big eater, Gloria noticed she was ruddy faced with beads of sweat forming on her brow. And then the boss of the kitchen noticed something she had missed during the previous conversation over breakfast.
Estelle had her fork directed towards Ophelia, with the obese woman taking bites of the offered sausage. The patterned continued with Estelle's last piece of french toast. There was only half a pancake on her sister's plate, making Gloria realize she had been feeding her food to this 'friend' of hers.
"What gives, sis!" Gloria was aghast. Generous wasn't a quality attributed to Gloria so she wasn't about to charge Estelle for a casual meal with family and friends. But it was an insult to her pride and sensibilities to have her own flesh and blood not eat her food.
Estelle, suddenly embarrassed at being caught feeding Ophelia, tried to play it off. "What? You made way too much anyways. You said the three of you would be able to round up to the 'feeds five' amount no matter what I ate."
"But I still expect you to eat!" Gloria exclaimed. "You come to my apartment and don't eat what I offer you?!"
"Geez, sis, cool down," Estelle said, backpedalling. "I had one piece of bacon and a pancake, I'm fine."
"You're aren't experiencing the full breadth of the meal!" Gloria roared. "It's called the Eggperor's Challenge for a reason."
"Ooo," Nicole let out a low whistle, eying Ophelia to see if she shared her sentiment. "Awk-ward, huh?" The oversized 'plus one' looked confused and unsure of the situation.
"Gosh sis, why do you always pull this crap?" Estelle retorted. "I didn't say your food was bad, just that you make too much of it! You don't have to go overboard on breakfast."
"You've been making cracks about my weight since my choice of swimsuit on that cruise!" Gloria fired back. "Yeah I'm fat, I noticed, I just wanted to treat my sister on our day off! No matter what I cook it's the same old story just because you can't appreciate it. And who's this strange woman you invited along anyways, huh?"
All eyes were on Ophelia, who tried to shrink into her bulk under the scrutiny. She looked to Estelle, concerned.
"No offense meant," Gloria said, although her tone was sour as locked eyes with her sister. "Seriously, who is she to you?"
There was a long, pregnant pause before Estelle spoke.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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