There I was. In a place I barely knew. My hands at my breasts. Yanking at my nipples as if they didn't belong. Doing exactly what I swore I'd never do. Completely out of control. About to come for the umpteenth time in a row.
Maybe I should tell how I got into this predicament. Maybe then it will make some sense. Maybe knowing more about who I am will help fill in the pieces. Hello, my name is Bethany, and I'm kind of chubby.
I've always been chubby. Even as a child. It didn't matter then. My father still loved me. He called me his little princess, and read to me at bedtime. Of course my favorite stories were fairy tales. When I was little, I knew everything about every storybook princess there ever was.
Fast forward to me as a young adult. I still read fairy tales, but not like the ones my father read to me. They still had a fair maiden and a handsome man. It's just that these stories weren't called fairy tales. These stories were called romance novels, and they were mostly about sex.
I guess I was a little bit weird. Maybe a bit of a loner. I've always kept to myself... for the most part anyway. Most of the time I was perfectly happy getting lost in one of my romance books. Vividly dreaming of my prince. Imagining him making sweet, sweet love to me... and of course touching myself. Oh my god did I ever touch myself.
My life wasn't pure make believe. I never went to one of those war re-enactment things. I wasn't that kind of weird. I had a fairly normal life. I didn't read books and play with myself all of the time. I had a regular day job. I worked in the dispatch center at the police department.
This was my dream job. I mean what girl wouldn't love being surrounded by authoritative men in uniform? From the first day on that job, I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted one of those men in uniform to become my real life prince. He would woo me and sweep me off my feet. Then we would get married.
That was exactly what was going to happen. I just knew it. I knew my man would find me. All I had to do was wait. While I waited I read more of my special little novels. I also fantasized a lot, but now my imaginary prince wore a deep blue uniform.
I never hid my desire. I let everyone know what kind of man I wanted. Still it took some time, but I was right. My prince came to me at work one day. A man in blue, just like I had imagined. He asked me out. Then we dated. A few short months later we were married.
Well sort of married. We never even had a honeymoon. I was never carried over the threshold. We barely had sex. It was hardly the union for all time. It was hardly like it was supposed to be. That marriage lasted all of three weeks.
We had planned a honeymoon. We just didn't go. It was to be grand. Just the two of us in a far off place. Days of nothing but making deep passionate love. It was on our honeymoon that I planned give myself fully to him. Sealing our bond. But it never happened.
Just days before we were to embark, I learned some things about my prince in blue. I was told the real reason he had asked me out. He had lost a bet. The loser has to go on a date with the fat girl. What a cruel joke. It just wasn't funny.
But a bet is a bet and whether it was funny or not, at least it brought us together. It was as if it were meant to be. The way I saw it, that bet was just an act of fate.
Why he asked me to marry him, I'll never know. Maybe he thought I was pregnant. Maybe it was part of the bet. You know... one of those double-or-nothing offers the loser takes to keep from paying up.
I was incensed, being asked out on a bet, and married on a lark wasn't what I had in mind. But that isn't exactly what ended my bliss. After I learned of the bet, someone finally filled me in on all the details. I'd probably been better off not knowing. But they just had to go and ruin everything.
I was told that nearly the entire department took part in this bet. They all made a fool of me. The squad had even pooled their money. The night of the bachelor party they used that money to buy a whore. Then those bastards paid her to sleep with my man.
At first I didn't believe it. No prince of mine would ever do that. But there was proof. There were photos. Lots and lots of photos. One particular photo proved my man was no prince. That cheap whore give him a blowjob. How vile! My man would never cheat. My man would never make a woman do that.
Yes, everyone in the department knew. I was the only one in the dark. I suppose I should have guessed something was up. After I was married, I heard plenty of snickering behind my back. It was the same kind of snickering I heard at my wedding.
Even worse than the snickering were the little pig noises. I know the old slang term for a policeman is pig, but I should have known they weren't making fun of themselves. How could I have been so stupid? So gullible? I was humiliated.
So there I sat. The laughing stock of the department. I was the fat girl that someone married as a joke. Then I was tossed aside like common trash. That very day I quit my job. Then I went to the courthouse and got my marriage annulled.
My next job didn't have me surrounded by men in uniform, and that was fine with me. I worked the night shift with a group of women in a computer center. Of course it wasn't all women. There were men around. But these men were computer nerds. Not princes.
I know, I know. The princess and the frog story should have taught me that anyone can be your prince. Maybe even a computer nerd. But these men were more like toads than frogs. Besides I'd had enough of hunting for my prince at work. None of them seemed to be the least bit interested in the chubby girl anyway.
The computer center job was okay, but after four years I'd had enough of working night shift. I absolutely loved the girls I worked with, but nightshift is like a prison. I was completely out of sync with society. I slept while everyone else played. How was my prince supposed to find me when I was locked away on night shift?
Finally someone escaped from our night work prison. It was Nancy. She left our little band of misfits, and took a new job in the city. I followed her and took the very first opening at the same place. It was a lesser job for me, but no more working nights. It was day shift for me from then on.
This new job? Well it was still in a computer center. There were still computer nerds. Lots and lots of computer nerds. The place was huge. I couldn't believe how many people worked there. With so many nerds to choose from, I have to admit I found one or two to be kind of cute.
But this place had something else. Something besides computer nerds. He didn't know it yet, but this place had my prince. His name was Alex, and my friend Nancy introduced me to him my very first day on the job.