Reunion (Plus Size Loving): BBW Erotic Romance Read online

  Reunion: BBW Erotic Romance

  Copyright © 2012, Adriana Hunter

  All Rights Reserved

  Warning: This book is non-transferable. It is for your own personal use only. If this book is sold, distributed, shared or given away, it is considered an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extend of the law.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations and places are solely the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, including events, areas, locations and situations is entirely coincidental.

  Adriana Hunter © 2012 All rights reserved

  Melissa Ryan carefully fingered the gold-lined edge of the creamy white paper as she read through the invitation. The elegant calligraphy cordially invited her to attend a high school reunion in her hometown of Rochester, Long Island.

  She allowed the letter to flutter from her fingers and onto the desk, where it rested atop the stack of bills she’d pulled from the mail. Only ten minutes ago she had stepped outside to twittering birds and a cloudless sky, the sun shining down as if to reflect her carefree heart. She had jumped out of bed that morning with a bounce in her step, for some reason feeling as though today was going to be a good day.

  When she’d spied the invitation, however, she’d promptly forgotten about the plans she’d made for her Saturday off and rushed to her home office to tear it open. The carefree feeling dissolved, to be replaced by a mixture of longing and apprehension. Her high school days were long behind her—it had been nearly ten years since she’d graduated from Rochester High, and she’d seldom looked back. Her experiences hadn’t been necessarily unpleasant—she hadn’t been bullied or disliked by anyone. She was just the right combination of smarts and likeability that she could neither be labeled as a nerd nor one of the popular girls. She’d dated seldom, partly because few of the boys interested her… and mainly because none of them could ever really match up to her one and only crush.

  An image of Scott Parker suddenly rose up in her mind, his long, shaggy hair pulled into a ponytail as he walked down the hallway in his button-down shirt and stonewashed jeans, a blazer draped casually over one shoulder. His hands were shoved in his pockets as he laughed at something one of his football teammates said to him, flashing perfectly white, even teeth. Her heart thudded in her chest, adrenaline rushing through her as if she was still the teenager who’d watched him from around her locker door, rather than a grown woman approaching thirty who hadn’t seen him since the day she’d graduated.

  With a shake of her head, she banished the image from her mind. He’d been out of her league back then, and was probably out of her league now. That more rational part of her was what tore her in two about the invitation—on the one hand she wanted to see him again, even after all these years, but on the other hand she knew it would be pointless.

  Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was nearly time for her coffee date with her best friend, Annie. She grabbed her purse, stuffed her feet into her sandals, and snatched the letter off the desk. If anyone could help her figure out what to do it was Annie.

  ***

  Melissa parallel parked along the curb right in front of The Sunflower, a little café that served organic, healthy food and drinks. Annie was a vegetarian, and serious about healthy eating. Melissa wasn’t as big on it as her, but she had to admit the food and atmosphere were both excellent.

  Annie was waiting for her at one of the little outdoor tables, a red pair of sunshades perched on her pert little nose. Her blonde hair was pulled back from her heart shaped face, and she flashed her pink-tipped French nails in the sunlight as she waved at an approaching Melissa.

  “Mel!” she greeted her, and the two women embraced. “So glad you made it. I’m ravenous and didn’t want to order until you got here.”

  “Oh there’s no need for you to wait for me, silly.” Even as she said the word a waiter appeared at their table as though conjured by magic, and she knew he’d been waiting in the wings for her to arrive.

  “Good afternoon, ladies.” He dispensed menus. “Can I start you off with some drinks?”

  Melissa ordered a mocha latte with whipped cream, while Annie went with a simple almond-banana smoothie. The waiter went off to fetch the drinks while they mulled over the menu choices.

  “So what is it you want to talk to me about?”

  “Huh?”

  Annie smiled. “I can see from the look in your eyes and the tension in your posture that something’s on your mind. Spill.”

  Melissa sighed and forced her shoulders to relax. Annie knew her too well. She pulled the invitation from her purse and slid it across the table.

  Annie removed her sunshades, revealing brilliant green eyes that flicked briefly across the paper. “Wow. A high school reunion? That’s awesome!” She looked up. “Or, at least it should be awesome?”

  Melissa grimaced. “I don’t know if I should go or not.”

  “Why? Won’t there be old friends for you to see?”

  Melissa shrugged. “I haven’t spoken to any of the girls I was friends with in high school since I left. We’ve just drifted apart through the years. You know how it is.”

  “And yet there’s something that’s pushing you to go.” Annie set down her drink. “High school crush?”

  Melissa grinned. “You are such a mind-reader, Annie.”

  She chuckled. “It’s not that hard to figure out. You wouldn’t be so anxious about this whole thing if there wasn’t a guy involved. So, who is he?”

  “Scott Parker. He was a football star, the guy voted most likely to succeed, and a heartthrob in the eyes of nearly every girl in school.” She sighed. “Ahh, it’s no big deal. I doubt he would even remember me.”

  “How did you know him?”

  Melissa laughed. “We were best friends in elementary school. We did EVERYTHING together.” She sobered. “But once we got to high school we drifted apart. He became part of the football team and was part of the whole popular clique.”

  “Ugh, the popular clique,” Annie replied. “Back in my high school days that meant football players and mean girls.”

  “Oh, he wasn’t a jerk or anything like that.” Melissa said, as Annie’s eyebrows lifted in surprise at her sudden defense. “He was rich, smart, and talented, so how could he not be part of the popular club, you know? My family was on the lower end of the middle class scale so I stayed exactly where I was—on the fringes.”

  “The fringes?” Annie replied, her lips curling into a small smile. “Somehow I can’t imagine you as being a fringe kind of girl. You’re always so outgoing.” She reached over and plucked her drink from the table, taking a sip. “So, tell me more about this Scott of yours.”

  “He’s hardly my Scott,” Melissa replied, grinning. “Even after all these years though, I still think about him once in a while. I guess I never really forgot about him. I want to see him again… but I’m worried that I’ll make a fool of myself.”

  Annie touched her hand briefly. “You won’t make a fool of yourself. You’re smart, funny, and one of the nicest women that I have ever known. Not to mention you’re really pretty.” Melissa brushed back a lock of curly hair self-consciously at the compliment.

  “You should go, Mel. It’s a good opportunity to mingle with some old friends. And I’m sure he would love to see you again, especially if you were such good childhood friends.”

  “Maybe.” Melissa stared down at the dregs in the bottom of her latte glass. “I just feel like I’ll be torturing myself. I’m sure he still looks like a God, whereas I’m still the same chubby, p
lain girl as before. He won’t look twice at me. Besides, it’s not like a guy like him will be single. I’m sure he has a wife, or at least a girlfriend. Probably a string of girlfriends.”

  “Seriously? You’re beautiful! If he doesn’t see that, then he’s obviously not worth it. But if you don’t take the chance, you’ll never know if things could be more. Sounds to me like you missed your chance way back then. For all you know, if you don’t go you are losing the only chance you have left.”

  Melissa smiled. “You’re such a ridiculous romantic.”

  “What can I say? I believe in love.”

  “I’m just so nervous about it.”

  “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you let me come with you?”

  “What?”

  Annie tossed the invitation down on the table. “It does say that you can bring a guest. I’ll be your wingman.”

  Melissa managed a helpless grin. “You’d really do that for me?”

  “Of course! What are friends for?” She scanned the bill that the waiter had left on the table, tossed a few dollars down and abruptly stood up. “Okay, let’s go shopping.”

  “Shopping?”

  “Yes! We’ve got to pick out something for you to wear so you can knock his socks off. And maybe all of his other clothes.”

  ****

  Scott Parker was sitting in his skyline office, leaning back in his leather swivel chair as he re-read the invitation. He toyed with the blood red silk tie resting against his chest as he pondered what to do.

  He was a long way from high school, from the days were he was the beloved jock, the football star, the honors student. He’d gone on to get an MBA from Harvard, had interned at one of the largest advertising companies in Manhattan, and then had moved on to open his own advertising agency. He was pretty much neck and neck with the company he had learned the ropes from now—an impressive feat by any standard. His company had a stellar reputation, and his employees loved their work environment. He was a resounding success.

  And yet despite all of this, he was still missing a key element in his life, the one thing that kept him restless and unsatisfied. He was missing a woman in his life.

  It wasn’t that he didn’t have his pick of eligible bachelorettes. He’d dated countless numbers of beautiful, smart, talented women. They’d been very accomplished, both in their professional lives and in the bedroom. And they’d all been very pleased with him and would have been happy to hold onto him forever.

  But none of them had really grabbed hold of his heart. He had been able to give them no more than a perfunctory affection. And as a result, his last girlfriend, Anita, had cheated on him. The discovery had shocked him; hurt him, but not nearly as much as it would have if he had truly been in love with her. He had let her go without a backward glance.

  As he stared at the looping calligraphy on the cream paper, his thoughts drifted back to a happier time, a more carefree time—high school.

  She was standing outside her open locker door with a friend, the two of them giggling over something in a celebrity teen magazine. He could see the Johnny Depp poster she’d pasted on the inside of her locker door, as well as a little mirror she probably used to touch up her make up.

  There shouldn’t have been anything special about her. Though her brown hair gleamed in the sunlight and had a slight curl to it, it was fairly ordinary. She was a bit on the chubby side, with rounded cheeks and a thicker waistline than most of the other girls he hung around—but she also some nice curves. If it were anyone else, he wouldn’t have given them a second thought.

  But this was Melissa. His childhood friend. In many ways she was much more real to her than the popular cliques of girls always flirting with him, always vying to see who would be the next to get on his arm, to make out with him in the back of a crowded movie theater, to be the center of attention at school dances. Melissa had never cared about any of that. She had always been content to be herself.

  She looked up to see him staring at her, and their eyes locked for a moment. Her grey eyes always seemed to have something indefinable in them, something he couldn’t put his finger on, but it called out to him. It amazed him every time that even after all this time he still wanted her.

  But rather than blush and giggle, or give him a smoky, suggestive look as most of the other girls did, she simply gave him a small smile and went back to what she was doing.

  As if they were mere acquaintances, rather than two people who had once known each other as well as the back of their hands. He wasn’t sure when it had happened, but sometime during the tail end of Junior High they had drifted apart. He had become a football star and had been accepted into the clique of the jocks, the popular. Admittedly it was a place he felt right at home in—he wasn’t much for subterfuge or singling people out or anything like that, but he got along well enough with just about everyone, and being at the center of attention very rarely bothered him. It was just all water of a duck’s back to him, as long as he was having fun.

  He considered stopping next to her locker to say hi, then thought better of it. It was obvious to him that she had moved on from that chapter in their lives. It was time for him to do the same.

  With a little sigh, he walked right past her, and melted into the moving crowds.

  The memory faded, and Scott stared off into the distance. He wondered if Melissa’s favorite flavor was still mint-chocolate chip, and if she still considered Johnny Depp a heartthrob, and if she’d ever gotten over her fear of roller coasters. Would she still remember him if she saw him? And if she did, what would she say? Would she welcome him with open arms? Or simply give him a smile and dismiss him as she’d done before?

  “Oh, stop waffling,” he muttered to himself. He knew he wanted to see Melissa again regardless of the reception she gave him. It was simply not possible for him to deny it. Since he’d left high school and had resigned himself to not having her, he had been looking for in the women he dated that spark in her eyes, that indefinable quality that so drew her to him. He had never found it, and was beginning to suspect he never would.

  This would be his chance to see if anything could ever come of his attraction to her. And even if it didn’t, at least he would see her again. That was enough for him.

  He pressed a button on his phone and instructed his secretary to send an RSVP for him.

  ****

  Melissa parked her Nissan Sentra on the street, two blocks from The Fork—a café that had long since stood as a prime hangout for teenagers attending Rochester High. It had been decided by the Committee putting together the reunion that it would be held there, and from what she understood when she had called to RSVP, it had been closed to the public for the night. They were to have it completely to themselves.

  “This is going to be so fun,” Annie said, practically skipping along the sidewalk. Melissa had no idea how she managed it in three inch heels. “I can feel the excitement in the air!”

  Melissa couldn’t help but grin at her enthusiasm. The butterflies in her stomach settled slightly. “I sure hope so.”

  They were met at the front door by one of the Committee members with a clipboard wedged tightly against her chest. Melissa was surprised to find out it was Sarah, one of her old high school friends.

  “Melissa!” she squealed, enveloping her in a hug, clipboard and all. “So glad you could make it! Come on inside. We’ve got some great food.”

  She was given a nametag with her yearbook picture attached to the bottom so that others would be able to recognize her more easily.

  Smiling at the younger version of herself, her hair pinned up in a banana clip, and dark blue eye shadow highlighted by thick black mascara.

  “Wow.” Annie giggle. “You sure had the whole bad girl rock thing going on.” She winked as she watched Melissa pin her nametag onto the breast of her blouse. Melissa had wanted to wear something that would make her stand out, so she’d paired the top with red hoops earrings and matching flats. To soften the look she’d added blac
k leggings. Her hair had been curled into ringlets and framed her face softly. Annie had insisted on doing her makeup, giving her lashes extra length, her cheeks a gentle blush, and making her lips appear even plumper than normal.

  The lights inside the café were dim, just the way she remembered it. Lamps set on small tables scattered between leather couches and chairs added to the illumination provided by the wall sconces, the bar and the stage, so that one could see well enough to know where everything was, but not so clearly everything could be picked out at a distance. A Fleetwood Mac tribute band was onstage, warming up. Already a good number of people were inside, many of whom she recognized without having to look at their name tags.

  “Let’s go and get something to drink,” Annie said, pushing Melissa toward the barstools.

  “They don’t serve alcohol here, you know.”

  “Oh? Then why is the bartender pouring that guy a shot of vodka?”

  Melissa blinked. Sure enough, the bartender was pouring Grey Goose into a shot glass. Looking around, she saw margaritas, mojitos and beers being held aloft as people chattered and drank.

  “I guess they’ve changed things up for the night.”

  “I’m certainly not complaining.” Annie quickly hopped up on one of the stools and ordered a Corona. Melissa joined her and asked for a White Russian. She sipped at the creamy drink as she looked around.

  Various people recognized her—some old friends, some she hardly remembered, and even some from the popular cliques paused to say hello. They asked how she’d been, what she was doing now, and who her friend was.

  Suddenly, they heard a voice above the crowd. “Hey, well look who’s here!”

  Heads swiveled, and the crowd shifted to allow him entry. Melissa’s heart pounded as Scott Parker stepped in, the fading sunlight backlighting his muscular, six-foot two frame. He flashed a smile at the crowd of people that came up to greet him with slaps on the back and offers to buy him drinks.