This choice: Dr. Laise tempts the resort-goers with addictive foods and endless amenities... • Go Back...Chapter #7Dr. Laise tempts the resort-goers with addictiv... by: Bobo the Hobo   Dr. Laise said that they would have to wait another two weeks for the Quarantine to be lifted—that had been three weeks ago.
One week after the gray period of rare indecisiveness from their usually stern and taciturn resort director, and Kim was beginning to go a little stir crazy. It was all that she could do to keep from pacing around her room—one that felt more and more like an apartment each day—and slowly going out of her mind.
Thank God for Wi-Fi.
Netflix and Hulu had been her main source of comfort throughout all of this besides food. And there had been ample amounts of all three. Never in her life had she been more thankful to have had the luxury of two streaming services. It felt like all she’d done for the past three days, each one rainier and gloomier than all of the sequestered guests felt. Laying out on the bed, stuffing complementary treats into her mouth to dull the slow creep of her quarantine schedule.
She’d been stuck on the vacation getaway of a lifetime for two months now, and things were beginning to get a little monotonous.
Laying out on her bed, belly spreading wide and far onto the meticulously cared-for sheets as she popped bonbon after bonbon into her mouth, Kim couldn’t help but feel a little useless. She’d gone from workaholic to lazy bum in the span of two short months. Through no fault of her own, all she’d been able to do was sit back, eat, and watch TV. Lay out on the beach, indulge in some of the complementary services offered by the resort…
She was beginning to forget what her apartment looked like.
What’s more, she was beginning to forget how she ever missed going to work. At the beginning of all this, she’d missed the structure that her day to day schedule had provided her. Kim liked having something to do all day. It kept her busy, and it made her feel like she was a productive member of society. But ever since she’d come to this resort, all she’d done was eat and eat and eat…
Something told her that, if she ever got off of this island, she’d be much better off. She’d already gone through a wardrobe change since she’d arrived. Luckily the clothes were cheap enough (1 whole E-Coin per designer ensemble) and it was all on the house. She’d yet to use even one of her allotments for currency, even with all of the food that she’d been eating.
And that had been a lot…
Between the buffets and the events and the complementary baskets and the deliveries and the breakfasts and the lunches… Kim had been eating pretty much nonstop since she’d arrived on this island. A not-so-small part of her was worried about what all of this food might mean for her girlish figure, but what else was there to do here? You would have thought that a place this ritzy came with a fitness center…
If she were being completely honest with herself, the most reliable source of exercise that Kim got in a place like this was the walk from her hotel room to the elevator, and from the elevator to the lounge. Something that left her more and more out of breath with every passing day.
Or was that just the overpowering aroma of their daily spread getting to her? It was so hard to tell anymore.
Her toddling pace quickened as the smells coming from down the hall towards the lounge became more prominent. After spending so long in the hotel, eating nothing day in and day out but the richest foods on the menu for next to nothing, she could almost make out the individual smells that made up the larger smorgasbord.
The small crowd of twenty people that made up their group of contest winners came around daily to the lobby. Kim didn’t guess that celebrities and people of Eloi’s usual ilk were one to dine in buffets, but the hall had been set up like one in light of the troubling circumstances. Long tables with multiple members of the wait staff set aside with serving utensils. Each of them was dressed pristinely in white tuxedos with black ties, and stood at perfect attention. The smells that the bountiful spread put out before them… Kim had never felt so hungry in her life as she had standing in this room.
Shifting awkwardly on her fat feet, stomach sloshing lazily from side to side as she hobbled towards the buffet, her looming concern over the strangeness of her predicament slithered into the back of her mind as hunger overcame her more idle concerns about the mainland.
Roast… chicken… lobster…
Kim began to salivate. So much food for just twenty people that had been marooned here under the circumstance, and yet there never seemed to be any waste! Something about being prepared to cook for larger numbers, according to Dr. Laise—they had to cook quite a bit, lest their rotation of stock go bad… or something. Kim hadn’t exactly been paying attention during their first officially comped lunch, a rich and creamy carbonara that had been served by the bowlful.
“Kimmy!” Belinda’s familiar voice took her away from particularly vivid memories, “Over here, I saved you a seat!”
Kim panted as she struggled to veer off-course from the buffet table, towards the friendly face that she recognized almost as readily as the thermidor that she’d been gawking at. With a deep huff, she smiled at the woman who had claimed one of the tens of tables—her best friend on the island and fellow contest winner, Belinda.
A woman who, once upon a time, had eaten like a bird with a figure to match. But after so many weeks away from the world, with little to do but herd from lobby to hotel room, had taken quite a liking to the Eloi diet. Kim could only think greedy thoughts in the face of so many empty plates.
How could she not have waited for me?
I always wait for her…
Extending one chubby finger, signaling for her friend to wait, Kim corrected her course back towards the buffet. It was only fair, since she’d started without her.
Kim shuffled awkwardly between two other contest winners, her stomach pressing against the table as she leaned in towards the spread. Why the Eloi couldn’t have simply repurposed their servers as wait staff so that they wouldn’t have to pile at the tables, Kim couldn’t guess.
Everyone always stood so close, and there was never any room…
It seemed like there was less and less legroom between them with every passing day. In a hotel of this size, it should have been much harder to make Kim feel like she was rubbing elbows with her fellow contest winners. But after weeks of rich foods, little exercise, and constant feedings, Kim wasn’t the only one experiencing a little weight gain.
Her first plate piled high, Kim trudged off, back towards Belinda and her graveyard of silverware. Her plate pressed tight against her stomach; Kim gripped the sides as her soft knuckles turned white. Despite waking up at ten to a hearty brunch Kim suddenly felt so hungry. She knew it now to be odd, as she remembered very clearly splaying out in bed, eating her eggs, ham, and toast. But staring down her delicious lunch, breathing in the enticing aroma of the Eloi’s generous spread, it was so hard to control herself…
As she pulled the chair out from underneath the table, lowering her bulk across from her feasting friend, Kim decided that she would begin her diet in earnest tomorrow. Or next week.
If they hadn’t gotten off of the island by next week, the little voice inside her head said, she would start her diet.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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