Fat Chances Read Free Page A

truck when I felt his hand on my arm. I turned around to look up at him.
    “What?” I snapped. He gazed at me for a long moment, not saying a word.
    “What the hell is your probl …” Before I could finish my sentence, his warm lips were covering mine. I was so befuddled, so shocked by his action that I accidently dropped my towel and water bottle in a mud puddle.
    A moment later, we both gasped for air when he pulled his lips away from mine. I was speechless for a moment, not knowing what to make of this, my mind a pile of mush. I didn’t know if I should have been pissed or blown away or both. Leaving my towel and water bottle on the ground, I quickly turned and walked away, too confused to react any other way.
    “Annie, wait!” Cory yelled, but I just kept walking toward my truck. I was numb. Or maybe I was in shock. Who the hell knows ? Then I heard his feet splashing in the puddles as he came up quickly behind me. He stopped in front of me just as I was about to pull on the door handle of my truck.
    “Annie, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened back there,” he said sympathetically.
    “Yeah, whatever! You like screwing with girls’ minds, don’t you? You’ve probably kissed every girl in there,” I accused, pointing toward the building.
    “No, you’re wrong. I’m not like that at all. Annie, you’re a beautiful girl and … and … I don’t know what came over me. To be honest, I want to kiss you again … and again,” Cory replied with a sincere look in his eyes.
    I could feel my cheeks burning. “Well that’s not going to happen. You’d better get inside. Your fan club is probably wondering what happened to you,” I snapped. I don’t know why I was being so mean to him. Nothing was making sense to me. I was pissed, yet I felt humiliated and flattered at the same time. Damn!
    “Uh … yeah … you’re probably right,” Cory said, then turned to run toward the building, but then he stopped and ran back, and in one swift move, he wrapped his solid, muscular arms around my waist and bent down to kiss me. I struggled for a moment—a feeble attempt—but then I found myself standing on my toes so I could reach my arms around his neck. DAMN! Why did I have to be so short?   But he bent down lower so I could reach around his neck, and my heart fluttered as we explored each other’s lips with our tongues. Gosh! He was a good kisser.
    Soon, Cory slowly peeled his body away from mine as we both gasped for air. Then he bent down slowly and gently brushed his lips across my cheek once more, then moved to my earlobe, sending shivers up my spine. Then just like that, he turned and walked away. But as I watched him walk away, I realized that I knew nothing about him. How old was he? What was his last name? Where did he live? And I needed to know these things if I was going to open my heart up to him.

Chapter 2
    When I climbed into the truck, my mind was a foggy haze. My lips were still tingling from Cory’s kisses and parts of my skin were still hot where he had touched me. I sat in my seat, staring blankly at a silver Mustang parked in front of me. And like a broken record, my mind played over and over the kisses we shared. Why? Why did he kiss me? Not once, but twice? I shivered, then remembered that I left my jacket in the gym. I sighed in defeat and leaned over and opened the glove compartment, searching for the spare key that Molly and I kept hidden in case of an emergency.
    It took two tries for the truck to turn over. When the engine was warm, I turned on the heat. Finally, after a few minutes, the cab warmed up. I glanced over at the tan building, just as the side door flew open and the women from the Zumba class walked from the building in a steady line. I noticed that many of them were younger, already in great shape. You know the type, the blonde, tanned skinny women who wore tight spandex and tiny tank tops. I was certain that they only came to the classes to show off their perfect