January 2nd, 2012
~Author's Note~ This is a work of pure fantasy and fiction. Any names, places or events in the story that relate to real life are purely coincidental. Enjoy the story and please leave your feedback. Thank you! And yes, I know that it is currently only January of 2012. Since this is a fantasy I decided to take it into the future but tell it from a perspective of looking back on things. Enjoy!
I had known Ernesto for a couple of years before all of this began. He and I both worked part time at a local grocery store. He was an overnight stock person, and I was the early morning fuel center attendant. I'd have to go into the main store in the early morning hours in order to clock in for the day, and I would always see him, lifting and pushing heavy boxes, pulling a floor jack with a pallet full of grocery items to be stocked. His red work shirt was about one size too small for his broad shouldered frame, but I loved the way it stretched across his well muscled chest. We didn't know each other well back then. We had only passed by each other, with the occasional hello and a smile. Every now and again a polite, "How are you." However, that was the extent of our relationship in the beginning. This was back in late 2008 to early and mid 2009.
At the start, I had never fantasized about Ernesto. He was quite handsome and his tanned Hispanic skin always looked very inviting. However, at the time I first met him, I wasn't interested in dating anyone. I had just ended an engagement with a horrible little man and I wasn't ready to date again. So I worked, Ernesto worked, and we exchanged pleasantries from time to time. We weren't friends or anything, but we were cordial acquaintances.
Sometime between mid 2009 and mid 2010, I don't recall exactly when, I was working at my second job one evening. My second job was as an order taker at the McDonald's right down the street from the grocery store that Ernesto and I both worked at. Now, I hadn't seen Ernesto in quite awhile because they had been putting me on the evening shifts at the fuel center in the grocery store in order to give me more hours during the week. So I had had no idea whatever became of his charming Hispanic smile, beautifully sculpted chest, and his kind words of greeting. One night though, I got quite the surprise. I came in to work at McDonalds and was washing my hands before clocking in, when who else did I see, but Ernesto himself. He saw me, smiled and said in his deep voice, "Hi Christine." I smiled back, waved to him and went to clock in and start work.
I didn't see him a whole lot over the course of the next several months. We don't always work the same shift and so really only see each other for a little while. Not to mention that he works in the grill area and I'm on front counter dealing with customers. So there wasn't much interaction between us. At least not initially. It was much like it was at the grocery store. I would see him and we would greet one another. Sometimes I'd have to ask him to remake something that either got entered into the computer wrong, or they just happened to not make correctly, but that was it. I always had a friendly smile for him though, as he was a nice guy and very easy on the eyes.
Before I go on, I would like to mention that in September of 2010 I had reached my highest weight ever. I've never been thin, always large, but somewhat curvy. Talking with my parents, we explored our options for getting my weight down. We talked about gastric bypass surgery, joining a gym, or trying some diet program offered on television. After discussing things, also, with my family doctor, I decided to give the diet thing one last go to see if I could finally do it. I didn't want to, but I knew I had to start getting the weight off. I wanted to do it so I'd be more attractive to men, but my main reason for doing it was my health. My blood pressure had skyrocketed over the last several years as I initially put on the weight and it was getting increasingly difficult to work through a four hour shift on my feet at my job at McDonalds because my feet, knees and back would be killing me after about two hours. There was no question about it, my health was in danger, I was borderline diabetic and I couldn't take it anymore. So I joined Weight Watchers in September of 2010.
By November of 2011, I had lost an astounding seventy pounds and was beginning to feel much better. My clothes were loser and I had dropped several inches. My blood pressure came down and I was no longer borderline diabetic. I was exercising somewhat regularly, eating better and really starting to enjoy life. Props for me losing all that weight.
Now back to the story. It was in the latter part of 2011 that things between Ernesto and myself, started to change. I still didn't see him a lot because of having slightly different shifts at McDonalds, but as I had quit working at the grocery store and was now exclusively working at McDonalds, I saw him more often. A few times we would get to talking. I had found out that he had left the grocery store and was working not only at McDonald's part time but also at a local department store. We would chit chat when we had a few free moments and it was always pleasant.
One cold, winter night, I came into work wearing my blue down filled parka and my work uniform. It was an extremely cold night and snow was threatening on the horizon. Bundled up as I was and in my hideous monstrosity of a uniform, I didn't feel too happy and didn't really want to be there. As I was in the break room and hanging up my coat and purse, Ernesto came in and greeted me.
"Hello Christine," he said.
I turned to look at him, and though I was in not the best of moods, I smiled at him and said, "Oh. Hello Ernesto. How are you? Do you think we are going to get snow tonight?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe," he said. "It looks though as if you are ready for it with that coat of yours. It looks really warm," he added as he fingered the fabric of the sleeve that had yet to be taken off of my arm.
I smiled at him and said, "Yeah. It's a pretty warm coat. I'm glad I bought it. Though it did set me back quite a bit. It's real down in there you know."