Vaping was everywhere nowadays.
Brad took it up as, hopefully, a means of losing some of the pounds he had put on after he quit smoking fifteen years ago.
When he quit, he was a semi-respectable 190 pounds at 5'8". He smoked like a chimney but he was otherwise in relatively good health.
What a change after he quit! Within six months he was no longer able to fit into any of his clothes. He went from a 34" waist to a 40" waist in no time and was afraid to step onto a scale for fear of the number he would see. When he did finally step onto an industrial scale at work years later, he saw the number 260 and sighed heavily to himself.
"Is this scale working right?" he asked the shipping supervisor a few feet away.
"Yeah," the man replied. "It was calibrated a week or so ago."
Brad sighed once more and walked dejectedly back to his office where he tried to forget about what he'd seen.
No such luck.
That number, 260, weighed heavily on his mind for years.
No amount of work at the gym or dieting seemed to have any effect. His waistline stubbornly remained in the 40 to 42 inch range and he despaired of ever getting rid of all this excess fat.
It was while sitting and drinking with friends one night that the subject of vaping came up. His friend Stan was a life-long smoker and his doctors had ordered him to at least cut down on his 25 cigarette a day habit. So he took up vaping.
The rest of the evening was spent talking about the gadgets, the vapor oil and the various flavors available. A few days later, Brad walked into a vaper shop and left with the necessary kit to begin his vaping.
The immediate results were striking. In the space of about four weeks, Brad had reduced his food intake by about one quarter. A couple of months after that, he noticed that his clothes, usually so ill-fitting and tight, began to hang off of his frame. He even invested in a new belt that held his pants up better. His shirts and slacks seemed to look baggy on him but he wasn't in the mood to overhaul his wardrobe just yet.
Six months after he began vaping, he felt much better and noticed that his oppressive beer belly [even though he hadn't drunk beer in six years] was finally going down in size.
Despite the ribbing and disapproving looks and comments he sometimes got from the non-smokers at his workplace, he continued to use his vaper while explaining to them the benefits he enjoyed from it. They usually gave him a dubious look and walked away without comment after that.
One particular office mate that occasionally spoke to him was Anna, a striking Chinese woman responsible for accounting and issuing pay.
Anna was probably in her forties, although Brad had never asked her. She actually looked much younger and Brad couldn't help but ogle her whenever she walked by. She was short, like most Asian women, but her figure was very curvy. Her bust was not overly large, but she did seem to jiggle a little bit with every step she took. This was probably due to the very high heels she almost always wore. The mini-skirts and tiny dresses she often had on accentuated her looks but Brad had to accept that any carnal relations they might share would have to remain in the realm of fantasy. By all accounts and from her frequent references to her husband and daughter, she was obviously happily married. Still, Brad often found himself fantasizing over lifting that tiny skirt of hers.
He was in fact daydreaming about that very scenario one morning in the factory. He was puffing on his vaper when Anna unexpectedly came through the door to his right. She turned quickly to go around him and walked square into a cloud of vapor he had just exhaled.
She paused briefly and gave him a slightly disapproving look, although she quickly grinned and waved her finger at him.
"That is so bad for you!" she said and then continued on her way.
"Sorry about that," he said.
"Don't worry, it smells kind of nice," she replied. "But it's still bad for you!"
She laughed as she said it and Brad shrugged and kept on puffing.
One day several weeks later Brad came down with a nasty virus. It robbed him of all of his energy and he found it difficult just to get out of bed. He sent an email to his boss to let him know he would not be in today.
He spent that day puffing on his vaper and watching mindless TV shows.
He berated himself for not going into work because he was feeling relatively fine.
He was now mixing his own blend of glycerin and flavor extracts to make his vapor oil and he stood up quickly at one point to go refill his dropper bottle. That's when he realized why he hadn't gone into work. The wave of weakness and dizziness overcame him and he almost fell down.
The next day he felt equally bad and once more sent an email to say he would not be in.
The potency of the virus stunned him. By the time he was finally able to move around his apartment without getting weak, he felt changed somehow, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
The next day he went into the office even though he still didn't feel a hundred percent. He spent most of his day at his desk and minimized his trips to the factory where he was expected to keep an eye on the output from production.
Close to the end of the day he decided to make a trip to the back. Just before he came to the double doors leading to the factory, he took a long haul from his vaper and exhaled. The doors opened just then and Anna walked into the thick cloud coming out of his mouth.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" he said as he waved at the vapor hovering in the air around the both of them.
She blinked a couple of times and smiled good-naturedly in his direction.
"That is so bad for you!" she joked.
She cleared her throat once and then blinked again as she steadied herself against the doorframe.
"What is in that thing?" she said as she appeared to become a little woozy.
"I'm so sorry Anna, are you okay?" Brad said, suddenly concerned.
She waved his concern away with a brush of her hand and smiled once more.
"I'll be okay," she said. "I think I just need to sit down."
Brad was a little confused. Most people who were caught in the vapor cloud usually said nothing and certainly showed no signs of dizziness. Some even commented they were surprised at how good the vapor smelled.
